Association of ideas; Memory; Paragrammatism; Psychoanalysis; Psychology, Pathological; Repression (Psychology)
But to what unconscious thought should this chance action, which was
made possible through forgetfulness, give expression? The visitor in
this case had a very definite relation to my patient and myself. It was
she who at one time had recommended me as physician to the suffering
girl, and if I am not mistaken my patient considered herself indebted
for this advice. Should this halved hundred-dollar note perhaps
represent a fee for her mediation? That still remained enigmatic.
But other material was added to this beginning. Several days before a
woman mediator of a different sort had inquired of a relative whether
the gracious young lady wished to make the acquaintance of a certain
gentleman, and that morning, some hours before the woman’s visit, the
wooing letter of the suitor arrived, giving occasion for much mirth.
When therefore the visitor opened the conversation with inquiries
regarding the health of my patient, the latter could well have thought:
“You certainly found me the right doctor, but if you could assist me
in obtaining the right husband (and a child) I should be still more
grateful.”
Both mediators became fused into one in this repressed thought, and
she handed the visitor the fee which her fantasy was ready to give the
other. This resolution became perfectly convincing when I add that I
had told her of such chance or symptomatic actions only the previous
evening. She then took advantage of the next occasion to produce an
analogous action.
We can undertake a grouping of these extremely frequent chance and
symptomatic actions according to their occurrence as habitual, regular
under certain circumstances, and as isolated ones. The first group
(such as playing with the watch-chain, fingering one’s beard, and
so on), which can almost serve as a characteristic of the person
concerned, is related to the numerous tic movements, and certainly
deserves to be dealt with in connection with the latter. In the second
group I place the playing with one’s cane, the scribbling with one’s
pencil, the jingling of coins in one’s pocket, kneading dough and other
plastic materials, all sorts of handling of one’s clothing, and many
other actions of the same order.
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