Spiritualism and the New Psychology: An Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Spiritualism and the New Psychology: An Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge
John Stuart Mill · en
My present opinion is that the theory of repression offers the only
explanation of many cases of hysteria. This applies particularly to
those cases where the symptoms represent a permanent state of
embarrassment or fear, such as stammers and tremors, and to the
unreasonable fears and impulses, the phobias and obsessions, of the
war-strained soldier. As an example I will quote a case of a soldier who
had an impulse to attack any single companion, which was cured by
bringing into consciousness the repressed memory of a gruesome
hand-to-hand fight in which he killed his opponent. The repression was
so complete that after its first revival under hypnosis it was
'forgotten' again and again at subsequent interviews in the waking
state. This example illustrates Freud's 'tendency to displace affects.'
The repressed complex contained within itself the impulse to fight;
this 'affect' reached consciousness and an object had to be found for
it, the object being the single companion of the patient.
As regards those hysterias in which the secondary function is
conspicuous, I incline to the 'Will to Power' theory, and add to it the
'repression of the consciousness of deceit.' To illustrate this, let us
trace the growth of a case of hysteria. Imagine a girl who is
'misunderstood', who has her round of daily tasks and feels that she was
meant for higher things, that she ought to be loved and obeyed instead
of being subject to the will of others. To no one can she tell her
thoughts and troubles, sympathy is denied her, and she sees no hope of
satisfying her desires or changing her position in the world.
Or imagine another type, the pampered girl who has never had to face a
trouble or unpleasant task and has come to regard her own wishes as the
supreme law, until at last the time comes when some desire, some wish
that she cannot or will not face and conquer, remains ungratified. She
feels the need to express her feelings, to obtain that sympathy that she
thinks she deserves.
In either case there comes the hysterical manifestation, and here I will
quote from Jung[16]:--