Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
If, after a thorough adjustment, one could show to a third party the
pathogenic material in its present recognized, complicated and
multidimensional organization, he would justly propound the question,
“How could such a camel go through the needle’s eye?” Indeed, one does
not speak unjustly of a “narrowing of consciousness.” The term gains in
sense and freshness for the physician who accomplishes such an analysis.
Only one single reminiscence can enter into the ego consciousness; the
patient occupied in working his way through this one sees nothing of
that which follows, and forgets everything that has already wedged its
way through. If the conquest of this one pathogenic reminiscence strikes
against impediments, as for example, if the patient does not yield the
resistance against it, but wishes to repress or distort it, the strait
is, so to speak, blocked; the work comes to a standstill, it cannot
advance, and the one reminiscence in the breach confronts the patient
until he takes it up into the breadth of his ego. The whole spacially
extended mass of the pathogenic material is thus drawn through a narrow
fissure and reaches consciousness as if disjointed into fragments or
strips, and it is the task of the psychotherapist to recompose it into
the conjectured organization. He who desires still more comparisons may
think here of a Chinese puzzle.
If one is about to begin an analysis in which one may expect such an
organization of the pathogenic material, the following results of
experience may be useful: _It is perfectly hopeless to attempt to make
any direct headway towards the nucleus of the pathogenic organization._
Even if it could be guessed the patient would still not know what to
start with the explanation given to him, nor would it change him
psychically.
There is nothing left to do but follow up the periphery of the
pathogenic psychic formation. One begins by allowing the patient to
relate and recall what he knows, during which one can already direct his
attention, and through the application of the pressure procedure slight
resistances may be overcome. Whenever a new way is opened through
pressure it can be expected that the patient will continue it for some
distance without any new resistance.
After having worked for a while in such manner a coöperating activity is
usually manifested in the patient. A number of reminiscences now occur
to him without any need of questioning or setting him a task. A way has
thus been opened into an inner strata, within which the patient now
spontaneously disposes of the material of equal resistance. It is well
to allow him to reproduce for a while without being influenced; of
course, he is unable to reveal important connections, but he may be
allowed to clear things within the same stratum. The things which he
thus reproduces often seem disconnected, but they give up the material
which is later revived by the recognized connections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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