Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses — John Shaqi
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
My memory helped me out of this embarrassment. I, myself, saw Bernheim
adduce proof that the recollections of somnambulism are only manifestly
forgotten in the waking state and can be readily reproduced by slight
urging accompanied by hand pressure which is supposed to mark another
conscious state. He, for instance, imparted to a somnambulist the
negative hallucination that he was no more present, and then attempted
to make himself noticeable to her by the most manifold and regardless
attacks, but was unsuccessful. After the patient was awakened he asked
her what he did to her during the time that she thought he was not
there. She replied very much astonished, that she knew nothing, but he
did not give in, insisting that she would recall everything; and placed
his hand on her forehead so that she should recall things, and behold,
she finally related all that she did not apparently perceive in the
somnambulic state and about which she ostensibly knew nothing in the
waking state.
This astonishing and instructive experiment was my model. I decided to
proceed on the supposition that my patients knew everything that was of
any pathogenic significance, and that all that was necessary was to
force them to impart it. When I reached a point where to the question
“Since when have you this symptom?” or, “Where does it come from?” I
receive the answer, “I really don’t know this,” I proceeded as follows:
I placed my hand on the patient’s forehead or took her head between my
hands and said, “Under the pressure of my hand it will come into your
mind. In the moment that I stop the pressure you will see something
before you, or something will pass through your mind which you must
note. It is that which we are seeking. Well, what have you seen or what
came into your mind?”
On applying this method for the first time (it was not in the case of
Miss Lucy R.) I was surprised to find just what I wanted, and I may say
that it has since hardly ever failed me, it always showed me the way to
proceed in my investigations and enabled me to conclude all such
analyses without somnambulism. Gradually I became so bold that when a
patient would answer, “I see nothing,” or “Nothing came into my mind,” I
insisted that it was impossible. They probably had the right thought but
did not believe it and repudiated it. I would repeat the procedure as
often as they wished, and every time they saw the same thing. Indeed, I
was always right; the patients had not as yet learned to let their
criticism rest. They repudiated the emerging recollection or fancy
because they considered it as a useless intruding disturbance, but after
they imparted it, it was always shown that it was the right one.
Occasionally after forcing a communication by pressing the head three or
four times I got such answer as, “Yes, I was aware of it the first time,
but did not wish to say it,” or, “I hoped that it would not be this.”
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