Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
The third group of symptoms found in compulsion neurosis, the symptoms
of the secondary defense, cannot exist as such in paranoia, for no
defense asserts itself against the returning symptoms which really find
credence. As a substitute for this we find in paranoia another source of
symptom formation; the delusions (symptoms of return) reaching
consciousness through the compromise demand a great deal of the thinking
work of the ego until they can be unconditionally accepted. As they
themselves are not to be influenced the ego must adapt itself to them,
and hence the combining delusional formation, the delusion of
interpretation which results in the transformation of the ego,
corresponds here to the symptoms of secondary defense of compulsion
neurosis. In this respect my case was imperfect as it did not at that
time show any attempt at interpretation, this only appeared later. I do
not doubt, however that if psychoanalysis were also applied to that
stage of paranoia, another important result would be established. It
would probably be found that even the so called weakness of memory in
paranoiacs is purposeful, that is, it depends on the repression and
serves its purpose. Subsequently even those nonpathogenic memories which
stand in opposition to the transformation of the ego become repressed
and replaced; this the symptoms of return imperatively demand.
CHAPTER VIII.
ON PSYCHOTHERAPY.[53]
_Gentlemen_:
It is almost eight years since, at the request of your deceased
chairman, Prof. v. Reder, I had the pleasure of speaking in your midst
on the subject of hysteria. Shortly before (1895) I had published the
“Studien über Hysterie” together with Dr. J. Breuer, and on the basis of
a new knowledge for which we are thankful to this investigator, I have
attempted to introduce a new way of treating the neurosis. Fortunately,
I can say that the endeavors of our “Studies” have met with success, and
that the ideas which they advocate concerning the effects of psychic
traumas through the restraint of affects and the conception of the
hysterical symptom as a result of a displacement of excitement from the
psychic to the physical—ideas for which we have created the terms
“ab-reaction” and “conversion”—are today generally known and understood.
At least in German-speaking countries there are no descriptions of
hysteria which do not to a certain extent take cognizance of them, and
no colleague who does not at least partially follow this theory. And yet
as long as they were new these theories and these terms must have
sounded strange enough!
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