Doubtless, it seems wiser to simply submit to the complications which
life presents, rather than to fight them. Not each and every one of the
neurotics we treat may be worth the exertions of an analysis, but there
are surely enough worthwhile individuals among them. It must be our goal
to decrease the number of persons who are forced to face the
exasperations of civilized life with a soul insufficiently prepared. To
this end, we must collect experience upon experience, and come to fully
grasp many problems. Every analysis is bound to prove instructive,
yielding new knowledge, aside from the personal benefit it may confer
upon an individual patient.
“Supposing that the ‘I’ of a patient developed such tendencies which
would make him wish to retain the sickness of which he complains, would
not these tendencies be justified, on the basis of certain reasons and
motives? It is impossible for me to understand why somebody should want
to be sick. What satisfaction could he derive from that?”
Just remember the war neurotics who were exempt from duty, because they
were considered sick. In everyday life, sickness may be successfully
employed as a screen, behind which to hide professional insufficiencies,
or—in the circle of family life—as a means to induce relatives to make
sacrifices, demonstrations of affection, or to foist one’s will upon
them, generally. All this is quite obvious and comes under the term
“sickness profit” (analogous to war profit). It is remarkable, however,
that the neurotic, or rather his “I,” proves unable to grasp the
connection of such motives with their logical consequences.
The influence of such tendencies to gain “sickness profit” is combated,
by forcing the “I” to become aware of them. But there are still other,
more obscure motives, for holding on to sickness, which cannot be
disposed so easily. As a matter of fact, these reasons cannot be
understood, without venturing once more into the sphere of psychological
theories.
“Oh, go right ahead! A little theory, more or less—what does it matter?”
When I explained to you the relations between the “I” and the “It,” I
withheld from you an important part of the soul apparatus. You see,
within the “I” itself, there persists a particular faction which we call
the “Super-Ego.”
This “Super-Ego” enjoys a privileged position between the “I” and the
“It.” It belongs to the “I,” sharing with it its intricate psychological
make-up. On the other hand, it entertains very close relations with the
“It.” The “Super-Ego” is in reality the record of first impressions as
conceived by the “It”; it is the heir of the dissolved Œdipus Complex.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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