It is perhaps necessary here briefly to refer to the teaching of
Sigmund Freud of Vienna, because his views have attracted a great deal
of attention in this country and have become familiar to a great part
of the reading public. Freud believes that the origin of many abnormal
mental states and of the disturbances of conduct which are dependent
upon them is to be traced back to forgotten experiences, the
recollection of which has faded from the conscious mind, but which are
still capable of exerting an indirect influence. He regards the
process of forgetting, not as merely a passive fading of mental
impressions, but as an active process of repression, by which the
experience, and especially the unpleasant experience, is thrust and
kept out of consciousness. There thus arises a mental conflict between
the forces of repression and the forces which tend to obtrude the
recollection into consciousness, and at times the energy engendered in
this conflict escapes from the censorship of the repressing forces and
finds vent in the production of abnormal mental states or disorders of
conduct. Thus to take a simple example, a business man who has had a
trying day at the office, on returning home in the evening may succeed
in thrusting out of his consciousness the thought of his
disappointments and worries, yet the disturbance in his mind may show
itself in quarrels with his wife or complaints of the quality of the
cooking at dinner.
Freud has called attention to the part which the suppressed and
long-forgotten experiences of early childhood play in the production
of neuroses of all sorts at a later date, and he has laid especial
emphasis on sexual experiences as peculiarly fruitful causes of such
disturbances. Those who have embraced Freud's teaching have gone even
farther than he in this direction, and by psycho-analysis--that is to
say, by attempting in intimate conversation to arouse the dormant
memory and lay bare the buried complex, the suppression of which has
produced the conflict in the mind of the sufferer--will seldom fail to
discover the influence of sexual forces and sexual attractions which,
while capable of causing disorders of mind and of conduct, show
themselves only obscurely and indirectly, as, for example, in dreams
or in symbolic form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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