Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneurosesFreud, Sigmund
Science
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Freud, Sigmund
Hysteria; Neuroses; Psychoanalysis
From all these the thought of defense resulted as if simultaneously.
Indeed, it is generally admitted by all psychologists that the
assumption of a new idea (assumption in the sense of belief, judgment of
reality), depends on the mode and drift of the ideas already united in
the ego. For the process of the censor, to which the newly formed ideas
are subjected, special technical names have been created. An idea
entered into the ego of the patient which proved to be unbearable and
evoked a power of repulsion on the part of the ego, the purpose of which
was a defense against this unbearable idea. This defense actually
succeeded, and the idea concerned was crowded out of consciousness and
out of the memory, so that its psychic trace could not apparently be
found. Yet this trace must have existed. When I made the effort to
direct the attention to it, I perceived as a resistance the same force
which showed itself as repulsion in the genesis of the symptom. If I
could now make it probable that the idea became pathogenic in
consequence of the exclusion and repression, the chain would seem
complete. In many epicrises of our histories, and in a small work
concerning the defense neuropsychoses (1894), I have attempted to
indicate the psychological hypotheses with the help of which this
connection also—the fact of conversion—can be made clear.
Hence, a psychic force, the repugnance of the ego, has originally
crowded the pathogenic idea from the association, and now opposes its
return into the memory. The not knowing of the hysterics was really
a—more or less conscious—not willing to know, and the task of the
therapeutist was to overpower this resistance of association by psychic
labor. Such accomplishment is, above all, brought about by “urging,”
that is, by applying a psychic force in order to direct the attention of
the patient on the desired traces of ideas. It does not, however, stop
here, but as I will show, it assumes new forms in the course of the
analysis, and calls to aid more psychic forces.
I shall, above all, still linger at “the urging.” One cannot go very far
with such simple assurances as, “You do know it, just say it,” or “It
will soon come to your mind.” After a few sentences the thread breaks,
even in the patient who is in a state of concentration. We must not,
however, forget that we deal everywhere here with a quantitative
comparison, with the struggle between motives of diverse force and
intensity. The urging of the strange and inexperienced physician does
not suffice for the “association resistance” in a grave hysteria. One
must resort to more forceful means.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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