Psycho-Analysis and the War NeurosesFreud, Sigmund
History
Psycho-Analysis and the War Neuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis; War neuroses
All the experiences here communicated speak unanimously in the
sense that the war neuroses are not to be understood without taking
the sexuality into consideration. This view receives a valuable
confirmation by means of the mental disturbances observed in the war,
which—like mental troubles in general—very often more easily manifest
the latent content of their ideas than the neuroses. The mental
disturbances which have broken out in the field, as other observers
have confirmed, are associated only in a trifling part with the
formation of delusions. However, if there is a delusion then it has
even a manifest sexual content. In the cases I have seen the delusions
are partly of jealousy, partly of homosexual persecution by comrades.
I might mention the paranoid illness of a soldier which broke out when
he, after long service in the field, went home on furlough and turned
out to be impotent with his wife. A very transparent symbolism and
other signs pointed with certainty to the significance of homosexual
components as the fundamental cause of the delusion. Another man had
the delusion of being, during sleep, infected with syphilis in the
hospital by his comrades, the origin of the delusion was here also the
result of imperfectly repressed homosexuality.
In this connection I should like to mention another remarkable case. In
1915 when I was acting at a surgical station a man was treated there
for a gunshot wound of the penis. The operation, which was carried out
by a well known surgeon, was quite successful. Two years later the same
patient came to my psychiatric station. The man who was previously
unaffected psychically now showed a paranoid mental disturbance. On
questioning him it appeared that in consequence of the wound there
existed entire genital anaesthesia. Also here the psychosis appeared to
stand in close connection with the cessation of genital manliness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account