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Title: Psycho-analysis: The key to human behavior
Little Blue Book No. 190
Author: William J. Fielding
Editor: E. Haldeman-Julius
Release date: September 22, 2026 [eBook #79631]
Language: English
Original publication: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1921
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79631
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PSYCHO-ANALYSIS: THE KEY TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR ***
LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 190
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
Psycho-Analysis: The Key
to Human Behavior
William J. Fielding
HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1921,
William J. Fielding
Copyright, 1921,
Haldeman-Julius Company
(Revised 1924)
Copyright, 1924,
Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS: THE KEY TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR
INTRODUCTION
Psycho-analysis has a two-fold value which places it in the front
ranks of the modern constructive sciences. First, it offers untold
possibilities, which are only beginning to be realized, as a
therapeutic or curative agency for many baffling diseases. The ailments
to which it affords cure or relief are not only of the mind, for it has
been found that a great number of physical disorders, which heretofore
have been considered purely of an organic or functional character,
are merely physical reflexes of a neurosis. Relieve the mind of these
all-pervading neurotic troubles, and serious physical disturbances are
frequently removed.
The mental disorders alone that respond to proper psycho-analytic
treatment range all the way from trifling hysterical cases (which,
however, tend to become more severe as the individual weakens under the
increasing influence of the neurosis) to “dementia praecox,” a severe
form of insanity, which the old school psychiatrists have considered
hopeless.
Of course, insanity that is due to disintegration of the brain
structure, as sometimes happens in the tertiary (third) stage of
syphilis, etc., is incurable. Only the charlatan makes all-embracing
claims. And psycho-analysis is not magic or alchemy, but a rational
science based on very definite natural laws.
The second, and in a way the greater, function of psycho-analysis is
as a cultural study for the self-improvement and development of the
individual. I emphasize its possible greater usefulness in this respect
because, after all, only a very small percentage of the population is
insane, and while the victims of neurotic disturbances make up a more
important element of society, numerically, than is generally imagined,
there is still the great mass of people who may be classed as “normal.”
Psycho-analysis has revolutionized our former conception of human
behavior. It has re-interpreted, and thrown a vastly different light on
the passions, loves, hates, fears and other primitive emotions of man.
It has revealed in a startling way many of the heretofore inexplicable
motives and actions of individuals. The deeper, underlying significance
of seemingly inconsequential actions is often disclosed to the analytic
observer at its true value--so far removed from surface indications.
To the student of human problems, whether social, economic, industrial,
psychical, physical, educational, or what not, psycho-analysis is
of incalculable worth. It leads the way to fundamental causes that
hitherto have shielded themselves behind an impenetrable screen, and
whose existence we have only guessed at in the misleading light of
superficial appearances.
There is scarcely any field of human endeavor to which this science
cannot be made an invaluable aid. It is the key to an unexplored region
whose portals we have just entered. It is the new Lamp of Aladdin,
whose light will guide us on the way to a better understanding and
re-evaluation of human possibilities.
In the following pages, I shall endeavor to give the psycho-analytic
interpretation of some of the most common and interesting revelations
that the science offers.
People realize in an indefinite way that they “take to” certain
individuals--that they tend to love or esteem persons of a certain
type, and to dislike and sometimes even hate another type, without
themselves knowing the reason why.
Most of us are cognizant of the fact that there are unfortunate people,
homosexuals or perverts, that society has very ignorantly gone out of
its way to persecute and penalize because it has not understood the
cause of their affliction. Their failure to experience sexual desire
in the normal, prescribed manner has been considered a deliberately
cultivated or inherently vicious trait, instead of a pathological
condition. When the cause of an abnormality remains unknown, there is
invariably an irrational reaction to it.
There was a time when insanity was considered a state of being
“possessed by devils,” and the victim was flogged and otherwise
punished for his indiscretion in harboring the damned. Conventional
society has modified its views, and now takes it for granted that there
are two kinds of people in the world--the sane and insane--that the
latter class is hopeless and must be confined to the asylums until
released by death. Psycho-analysis shatters this romantic theory.
It has been an enigma to the student of human behavior why the great
masses of people remain so long in self-satisfied contentment often
under the most oppressive conditions. It has likewise been a puzzle
why a certain few individuals--almost an infinitesimal minority--have
always resisted authority and oppression, regardless of personal
sacrifices. The pioneers in the radical and feminist movements, etc.,
illustrate this type. The martyrs of history who have died for various
causes and ideals are the best known examples of this phenomenon.
Dreams have been the subject of controversy, speculation and unlimited
commentary throughout the ages. The real meaning and profound
importance of dreams were never realized until Freud’s discoveries
demonstrated their vast significance, and intimate relation to our
life, awake as well as asleep.
Our forgetfulness, or absent-mindedness, particularly when it involves
a subject or details with which we are quite familiar, is very
embarrassing at times. Yet, that there is an unconscious “motive” in
forgetting these things that we know so well, or that causes us to
suffer from slips of the tongue, and to read words that are not there
in sentences, is now established.
Everybody enjoys wit and gets satisfaction out of a joke, particularly
when it is on the other fellow. The significance of this psychic
manifestation is deeper and more involved than our matter-of-fact
acceptance of it has permitted us to comprehend.
The atrocities of war, committed by people who are believed to have
been uplifted by the influence of twenty centuries of Christianity, and
many more centuries of cultural civilization, are astounding to the
casual observer. The ease with which a group of people, individually
peaceful and law-abiding, is transformed into a destructive, even
murderous mob, is seemingly incomprehensible. Still, there are very
plausible reasons for these phenomena, which an understanding of the
new psychology enables us to perceive.
And by understanding all of these and other important factors, which a
knowledge of psycho-analysis offers, we are better able to check and
overcome our individual and social shortcomings, and to re-direct our
course along constructive lines.
I. THE THEORY OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
Before taking up the various questions about which psycho-analysis
offers so much food for thought, acting as a stepping-stone to goals
formerly unattainable, it is desirable briefly to outline the theory
of our subject. This will enable the elementary student better to
understand the new and sometimes unique terminology that has been
evolved with the progress of the science, and to follow more closely
the logical course of the analytic procedure.
While this treatise will not be based solely on the orthodox Freudian
viewpoint--which would weaken rather than strengthen it--it is
necessary to emphasize the original contributions of Freud. For without
the findings of this great pathfinder, the science of psycho-analysis
might have lain dormant in the background of a slowly evolving
psychology for another century or more.
However, the theories of Jung, Adler and other analytic pioneers will
be duly considered, and the vital contributions of all correlated and
reduced to a workable, harmonious whole.
It was along about 1890 that Prof. Sigmund Freud of Vienna, a pupil of
Breuer and Charcot, made public his theories, developed from psychic
discoveries in the realm of the neuroses.
_The Unconscious._--The seat of operations of psycho-analysis is the
unconscious mind. This is the field upon which it works, and the more
we know of the unconscious mind the more we are awed by its vastness.
To the uninitiated, this may seem paradoxical, basing a highly
intricate science on the unconscious mind--which possibly suggests a
condition of mental passiveness, inaction or an unknowing quantity. But
the Unconscious is the _unknown_ rather than the unknowing.
In reality, there is no such thing as an unknowing part of the mind,
because the mind is essentially that part of the personality that is
knowing. In contradistinction to this fact, the definition of mind
generally accepted before the time of analytic psychology had made mind
co-extensive with consciousness.
But the psycho-analysts have demonstrated not only that thinking takes
place, but that it goes on all the time, whether we are awake or asleep.
The importance and vastness of the Unconscious as a psychic content
may be realized when we use the simile of Dr. G. Stanley Hall, who
compares the mind to an iceberg floating with one-eighth visible above
the water and seven-eighths below--the one-eighth above representing
the Conscious and the seven-eighths below the Unconscious. The
influence and controlling power of the unconscious desires over our
thoughts and actions are in this relative proportion. Thus, the saying,
“he does not know his own mind,” is literally true of all of us.
In the past, people who suffered from disturbances of this unknown
psychic region--and they are among the most common of all human
ailments--were without prospect of relief, unless some happy and
haphazard circumstance should intervene and unwittingly favor them.
Because of the unfathomed depths from which these disorders emanated,
they were beyond the range of our understanding, and consequently not
subject to effective treatment.
These psychic disturbances, which are capable of indelibly affecting
and warping the personality, and causing wounds and conflicts that are
painful to the mind and torturous to the soul, also react in definite
physical ailments and symptoms of the most varied character.
Psycho-analysis brings to the sufferer from psychic hurts and soul
wounds his first opportunity for scientific diagnosis and curative
treatment, and renders to him a similar service that surgery does to
the physical body. That it should always be successful is no more to be
expected than the invariable success of surgery; in fact, less so, as
the analytic treatment requires much more of the individual.
The relation of the unconscious mind to the conscious mind is that the
former is the psychic reservoir which receives all the accumulations of
experiences and impressions of the personality that pass through, often
without notice, the conscious mind.
The Unconscious is that region of the mind where are deposited, and
have been since birth, every sight, or sound that we have perceived,
and every feeling that we have had; in fact, everything that has
happened to us, however trivial.
The first five years of our lives, for instance, are the most fertile
in receiving impressions and gaining new experiences. It is by far the
most impressionable period of life. The new and wonderful things that
we have constantly observed and the sensations, joys and primitive
hates felt, are beyond calculation. And yet, in the lapse of time,
we forget practically all but a few outstanding incidents that we
had experienced during that period. They are lost to the conscious
mind--but not to the Unconscious.
As Dr. E. Hitschmann (_Freud’s Theory of the Neuroses_) has expressed
it:
And still we know that our memory can be fully reviewed and
reproduced at no time of life; on the other hand, psycho-analysis has
shown that the very impressions which we have forgotten leave behind
the deepest traces in our mental life and have become determining for
our whole later development.
The unconscious mental processes are divided into two classes, those
that are “forgotten” on account of their lack of interest, and those
that are “repressed” on account of their painful, or even shocking
nature.
The psychic processes of the first group contain all as yet unsettled
thoughts, or those not yet brought to a conclusion, and while really
“unconscious,” they may often readily be brought into the conscious
mind.
Those of the second class, however, are in the highest degree
unconscious, or, as it has been stated, they are “unavailable for
consciousness.” This characteristic led Freud to divide the Unconscious
into the “Fore-conscious” and the “Absolutely Unconscious.”
The term “unavailable for consciousness,” however, is only a relative
one, as it is the function of psycho-analysis to bring to consciousness
the processes that are normally unavailable for consciousness.
Some of the natural freaks of the Fore-conscious are readily observed
in our own mental operations. How often we “forget” proper names,
dates and general facts that are quite familiar to us! In the Freudian
sense, they simply slip into the upper stratum of the Unconscious, to
be released again when some association of ideas in that region brings
them to the conscious mind, or as we have so often noticed in our own
experiences, when they return to memory spontaneously as it appears.
_The Complexes._--The storm centers around which so many psychic
disturbances fasten themselves, with frequent serious physical
reactions in the form of chronic disorders and pathological symptoms,
are the _complexes_.
A complex is an outstanding idea that dominates in the realm of the
Unconscious, and around which is grouped a phalanx of primitive,
repressed emotions. It may consist of painful memories that have
been banished into the Unconscious. Such complexes invariably assert
themselves in dreams, and form the underlying mechanism of a neurosis.
Some of these, like hysteria and obsessions (“Psycho-neurosis”) are
traced back by Freud to erotic experiences in childhood, hence to the
influence of unconscious or repressed idea-complexes.
Neurasthenia and anxiety-neuroses (“true neuroses”) are referred to the
present abnormal condition of the sexual functions of the individual.
Hysteria is more psychic, and neurasthenia is more toxic--but both have
a sexual basis.
The most devasting of the complexes is the Oedipus-complex. This has
its origin in earliest childhood and consists of an over-attachment
of the son to the mother, which in its true form is accompanied by a
feeling of jealousy toward the father, whose claim upon the mother’s
affections is resented by the young would-be rival.
These tendencies are often noticed by parents, to whom this display
of infantile jealousy is amusing. Of course, they are unaware of the
possibilities of future consequences of a dire nature that are bound up
in the situation if it is not normally outgrown with the approach of
puberty, rather than repressed.
Considering our modern customs which sanction much coddling of the
child by its mother, there is a trace of the Oedipus-complex in all
children, but in normal cases, as they develop into adolescence, there
is a breaking away from these childhood attachments.
Other children, however, never put aside these childish or infantile
feelings and attachments, but carry them throughout life repressed
in the Unconscious. These persons become neurotic, as the repressed
complex furnishes an underlying basis for psycho-neuroses and many
abnormal sexual inversions.
It is always the Oedipus-complex, or a characteristic trace of it,
which in adult life gives rise to dreams of death of one of the parents
usually the opposite parent to that of the infantile attachment.
Freud calls this archaic desire in the soul of the male child the
Oedipus-complex in recognition of its analogy to the tragedy of King
Oedipus of Sophocles, who was led by his fate to kill his father,
Laius, and win his mother, Jocasta, for a wife.
The importance of the Oedipus-complex warrants a brief review of the
early Greek myth, from which Freud has taken the name as a symbolic
term. Laius, son of Labdacus, King of Thebes, was warned by Apollo’s
oracle at Delphi that he would die at the hands of his son. When the
child, Oedipus, was born, the father, to protect himself against the
prophetic fate, fastened the ankles of the infant and gave him to a
faithful herdsman to be exposed on Mount Cithaeron.
The herdsman, ignorant of the oracle, took pity on the child and gave
him to a shepherd of Polybus, King of Corinth, and that ruler, who was
childless, brought him up as his own son.
Oedipus never doubted his Corinthian nativity until the taunt of a
drunken companion aroused his suspicions, and he fled from the man and
woman he had looked to as his actual father and mother. In a narrow
highway he met an old man, Laius, disputed his right of way, and killed
him. Continuing his journey he reached Thebes, which was harassed by
the Sphinx. Oedipus answered the riddle of the Sphinx and thus slew
the monster. Thebes rewarded him by offering him the hand of the
widowed queen, Jocasta, his mother, whom he married, not knowing the
relationship.
Later a terrible pestilence visited the city, and the oracle which was
consulted declared that the murderer of Laius must be expelled to bring
relief. Oedipus, beginning the search in good faith, discovered the
truth, and put out his eyes. Jocasta, the mother wife, hanged herself.
The over-attachment of the daughter to the father, which involves
a more or less latent jealousy toward the mother, is termed the
Electra-complex, from the myth of Electra of Euripides, who took
revenge on her mother for the murder of the husband because she was
in this way deprived of her father. It will be noted that the Electra
complex is for women quite analogous to the Oedipus complex in men--so
much so in fact that the latter term is often used interchangeably for
both situations, it being understood that the sex of the parent is the
opposite to that of the child.
In the theory of psycho-analysis, the dream is the true language and
most natural medium of expression of the Unconscious, although it
should be emphasized that it is not the only means of expression. It is
also the chief means by which the Unconscious may be penetrated. Freud
calls it the royal road to the unconscious.
Among other characteristic manifestations of the Unconscious
are phantasying--or day-dreaming, as it is commonly called;
absent-mindedness, which causes us to forget names, dates and facts
with which we are really thoroughly conversant; mistakes in speech and
writing, and reading words that are not there into sentences.
Wit and laughter are also manifestations of the unconscious mind, and
are recognized by Freud as the medium through which the Unconscious
obtains the greatest amount of pleasure within the shortest space of
time. The psychological structure of a joke, in fact, greatly resembles
the psychological structure of a dream.
As our civilization is based upon the suppression of instincts--which
is, or should be, compensated for by the advantages of cultural and
intellectual development--we find countless numbers of people who have
been unable to successfully transform their accumulations of bound-up
energy from self-centered to social ends.
_The Libido._--The energy or prime mover of human action which Freud
calls the _Libido_, is termed by Henri Bergson the _élan vital_, and
by Dr. Carl Jung, the _horme_. Other names have been proposed, one of
the best English equivalents, suggested by Putnam, being the _Craving_.
It is the Craving for Life, for Love, for Action.
When the _libido_ (to adhere to the terminology of Freud) is not
adequately transformed into channels that are serviceable to society or
_sublimated_, as this process of socialization is called, the result
is a derangement of the nervous system and the psychic structure--a
neurosis in one of its several forms of variations.
The anxiety-neurosis may be the result of sexual repression, or of
some sudden confronting with the facts of sex (a strong argument for
some general common-sense instruction of what the continuance of life
implies), or of impotent husbands, frigid wives, or of diminishing
potency associated with increasing lust, and so on.
The _libido_, or life force, must have an outlet, or play havoc with
the psychic structure, and as the rules of modern society necessarily
forbid as an outlet the natural, crude expressions of sensuousness
which served the purpose of primitive peoples in so many of their
activities, the energy turns within, so to speak, and works on the ego.
As Dr. Hitschmann remarks, a dammed-up _libido_ hunts out a weak
place and breaks through, expressing itself in neurotic “substitute
gratification.”
Primitive man, like the child, is much interested in the sensations
he produces with his own body; he is auto-erotic. He squanders
enormous amounts of vitality in specific sensuality, wasted energy
that results in no benefit to the group. One of the essential objects
of civilization is to convert this dissipated personal power from the
sensual to activities that are useful to the herd.
But by turning wasted energy from the sensual to social uses, we do
not mean to imply that the sex-life of normal adulthood should or can
be ignored. This, as we shall see, frequently leads to unfortunate, or
even disastrous consequences.
As Freud says, “the struggle against sensuality consumes all of a young
man’s available energy at the precise moment when he needs it to win
for himself a place in the social organization.”
And, again, in alluding to the irrational, ascetic tendency of
over-sublimation, he warns:
Experience teaches us that there is for the majority of men, a limit
beyond which their constitution cannot comply any more with the
“cultural” demands. Those who are trying to be better than their
constitution permits them to be succumb to a neurosis; _they would
have been better off if it had been possible for them to be worse._
_Sexuality._--Interpreted in the strictly Freudian sense, nearly
all of our instincts, emotions and actions are motivated primarily
by an unconscious sexual urge. It should be emphasized that Freud
used the word “sexual” in a very broad sense; much broader than the
conventionally educated are capable of comprehending until after
diligent and painstaking study of psycho-analytic literature, they
finally perceive the meaning of this term at its true value.
In a word, _sexuality_ is not the equivalent of _sensuality_, but
_denotes_ the fundamental instinct which is the very root of the
emotional life, called the _libido_.
It thus refers to the yearning for love, for marriage, for children,
for the affection of a parent, etc.--all of a most commendable type,
which have as their unconscious biological aim the perpetuation of the
race.
The child’s sexuality is at first auto-erotic (a term which the
analysts have taken from Havelock Ellis), or turned on itself; then it
transfers or fixes itself to those nearest him, usually the mother or
some member of the family, or the nurse; and finally, in the normal
course of development, as adult life is approached, it transfers it to
a person outside the family group--constituting what is termed falling
in love.
Freud emphasizes the point that the infant enjoys in the taking of
nourishment a sexual pleasure which it frequently seeks to obtain
throughout childhood by sucking, with rhythmic movements, independent
of the taking of food.
This sometimes grows to a fixed childish fault that continues
even up into later years. Often there is associated with the
“pleasure-sucking,” a rubbing of certain sensitive parts of the body,
the breast, the external genitals, etc. In this way many children
proceed automatically from sucking to masturbation.
Jung, in _The Psychology of the Unconscious_, remarks:
Sucking still belongs to the function of nutrition, but passes beyond
it, however, in that it is no longer the function of nutrition, but
rhythmic activity, with pleasure and satisfaction as a goal, without
the taking of nourishment.... In the period of the displaced rhythmic
activity, the hands appear still more clearly as an auxiliary organ;
the gaining of pleasure leaves the mouth zone and turns to the other
regions.... As a rule, other openings of the body become objects of
the libido interest; then the skin and special portions of that.
The activity expressed in these parts, which can appear as rubbing,
boring, picking, and so on, follows a certain rhythm and serves to
produce pleasure. After longer or shorter tarryings of the libido
at these stations, it passes onward until it reaches the sexual
(genital) zone, and there, for the first time, can be occasion for
the beginning of onanistic attempts.
The theory of sucking as a sexual pleasure is strengthened by the fact
that the mouth and lips are known as erogenous (love creating) zones, a
significance they retain through normal life in the kiss.
It is also a natural tendency of the infant, as well as the young
child, to take a keen satisfaction in the sight of its nude body, and
in feeling and playing with many or almost all of the surface parts.
This manifestation is perfectly understandable when it is taken
into consideration that the erogenous zones are very diversified in
childhood; including, besides the more sensitive places, practically
the whole surface of the body. As the child approaches puberty, the
erogenous zones normally tend to concentrate to the regions of the
reproductive organs. The inclination of the child to glory in its
nakedness (termed Narcissism) is nothing to be ashamed of, nor is the
existence of an unconscious sexual motive a matter to be horrified over.
The child should not be scolded for this propensity, as such treatment
leaves an indelible impression on the infant mind, and tends to set
up repressions in the unconscious that may lead to future mental
conflicts. Undue erotic concentration may be prevented by directing
the mind of the child to various constructive activities suitable
to its age and development. This is the beginning of the process of
sublimation.
In regard to sexuality in childhood, Wilfrid Lay (_Man’s Unconscious
Conflict_), states:
The repugnance against seeing anything of the quality or intensity of
adult sexual feeling attributed to children under five years of age
is so strong in most people that they have accused the Freudians of
reading sex into everything. The reply to this accusation is that it
is true that all excitement is primarily sexual, but the word sexual
is to be understood in a very broad sense, and that, viewed from the
purely scientific standpoint, and freed from all ideas of prurience
or prudery, there is no reproach in regarding what is admitted as the
prime mover in human life and activity as an essential characteristic
of all ages of human life, even of infancy.
When looking at it in a rational light, free from prudish notions,
there is nothing about this predominant sexual urge to feel ashamed of
or to apologize for. It has as its basis the one great object of race
preservation, which, biologically speaking, is ALL IMPORTANT.
But as we have evolved beyond the need of using practically all our
instincts and activities toward the reproductive end, it follows that
while the immediate and concrete urge of sex life must normally
find expression and gratification, the numerous _secondary_ impulses
that now have only a vestigial sexual significance, should express
themselves in some other than sensuous ways. These are the qualities of
the libido that can be sublimated, and diverted from erotic to socially
useful fields of activity.
It should not be assumed that because these natural instincts have no
longer a specific sexual function to perform that they are not even now
sensually employed. Indeed, unless weaned into constructive channels by
the process of sublimation, their constant tendency is to seek erotic
satisfaction.
Proof of this can be found on every hand, not only in the records
of serious crimes and petty misdemeanors, but in all sorts of human
impulses that are so common in every-day life, and have such varied
ways of manifesting themselves, that their very universality causes us
to take them for granted as a matter of course, without reflecting on
their real significance.
A very apt elucidation of this principle is given by Dr. William A.
White (_Principles of Mental Hygiene_):
The way in which this bound-up energy is freed is by the process
known as sublimation. Of course, the possible illustrations are
almost infinite, for they include every activity of man. For
example, according to this theory, the curiosity which makes a man
a scientist--let us say microscopist--is traceable to that early
curiosity in looking--peeping, which has its object in seeing
forbidden sexual objects or acts. The immediate sexual element in the
curiosity is sublimated into a socially useful purpose to which the
original pleasure is still attached, and for which it furnishes the
drive. We know, too, the “Peeping Toms,” who still show this same
form of pleasure-seeking, but have been unable to advance their way
of obtaining pleasure to a socially accepted means.
Despite the formidable obstacles that stand in the way of a more normal
sex life for the great masses of people, Freud sounds the hopeful note
of all those who have worked toward an increased control of life,
maintaining that degeneration and nervousness are not in any way
inevitable results of cultural progress, but excrescences that are to
be avoided.
II. DREAMS--THEIR PROFOUND SIGNIFICANCE
Interest in dreams has been manifested in all ages and by all races of
people. Dreams have profoundly influenced the lives of individuals and
the destinies of nations. There have been numerous books written on the
subject and countless theories, ideas and superstitions formulated with
reference to dream phenomena.
But notwithstanding this vast field that has been so long open for
exploration, study and research, it is only within comparatively recent
years--beginning with the epochal disclosures of Freud--that any real
substantial progress has been made in getting at a true understanding
of the nature of dreams and their processes.
The reason for this is the same as may be given for the slow progress
in all friends of scientific research. While dreams in the past
have been generally associated with the fantastic, the unreal,
the supernormal, when, indeed, not the supernatural, they are now
nevertheless connected with a definite science, and consequently great
strides have been made in recent years in understanding them.
The dream is always the fulfillment of a wish or craving of the
Unconscious. On the surface, this may seem like a rash statement, if
not an utter impossibility, as we have all experienced dreams that
were the very antithesis of our conscious desires and repugnant to
our feelings. But this involves a dual consideration; first, that the
dream represents a wish fulfillment of the _Unconscious_--the crude,
primitive, chaotic element of our personality, and is most frequently
influenced by long-forgotten infantile impressions and repressions;
secondly, that it is always highly symbolic, and does not express
itself in the language of the conscious mind.
To these essential points may be added the fact that the dream is
seldom remembered as it was actually dreamed. The version that is
remembered is termed the manifest content, and the wish concealed in
the underlying thoughts which produced the dream is known as the latent
content. The concealing of this latent content, as well as the lapse of
memory which accompanies it, is the result of a psychic resistance or
an attempt of the “endo-psychic” censor to prevent the true motive from
revealing itself.
Hence we have the symbolic dreams, which actually have to be translated
to enable us to arrive at their real meaning. This is the function of
psycho-analysis. The basic foundation of dreams lies in the wishes
of childhood which being unattainable were stored away in the
Unconscious. The long-forgotten wishes have normally disappeared into
the unconscious mind because of psycho-sexual development and social
inhibitions.
The manifest content of the dream is produced by four chief processes
which are called _condensation_, _displacement_, _dramatization_ and
_secondary elaboration_.
Briefly, these four terms may be described as follows: _Condensation_,
as the name implies, is the constant tendency of the dream, as
remembered, to be a very condensed version of the subject-matter that
arose from the depths of our unconscious mind. This also includes the
fusing together of dream-thoughts often resulting in a fantastic,
ludicrous effect.
_Displacement_, like condensation, acts as a potent distorting
mechanism. It signifies the process by which psychic importance is
transferred to a given element in the manifest content from quite
different unrelated elements in the latent content. This causes us to
place undue stress on comparatively unimportant details in the dream,
and to overlook as trivial other things that are really of basic
importance in the latent content of the dream.
_Dramatization_, refers to the symbolic properties of dream phenomena.
All dreams are more or less symbolized--most of them highly so.
The primary visual nature of dreams readily lends itself to this
characteristic which has been called “regard for presentability.”
_Secondary elaboration_ is that situation in which our consciousness
contributes to this extent: When experiencing an unpleasant dream,
the thought sometimes occurs to us, “This is only a dream; why worry?”
Nevertheless, despite this prompting of our Conscious, we still
continue dreaming--harassed on one side by the unpleasant factor of the
dream, and reassured on the other that it is not real.
The savage in the child, the archaic in man, still survives in us,
but is confined to that part called the Unconscious. It has not been
replaced or supplanted, but in most persons has been more or less
slightly veneered by the processes of civilization.
One of the characteristics of dreams is their apparent absurdity or
triviality. However, psycho-analysis has proven that there are no
absurd or trivial dreams. Every dream reflects a definite desire, wish,
or fear on the part of the person’s unconscious mind, which has an
untold influence over his thoughts and actions, notwithstanding his
conscious ideals when expressed in language.
Coriat (_What Is Psycho-Analysis?_) sums up the significance of dreams
and other manifestations of the Unconscious, and their value as
interpreting agencies, when he says:
Psycho-analysis presupposes that there is no mental effect without
its cause and consequently nervous symptoms are not chance and
haphazard products, but are related to definite mental processes
which are repressed in the patient’s Unconscious. This relation of
mental cause and effect is called _determinism_. By means of the
study of dreams and symptomatic actions and sometimes by use of
association tests, psycho-analysis traces out each symptom in the
patient’s life history. Sometimes these symptoms are found to be
deeply buried in the earliest years of childhood.
Without going extensively into the ramifications of dream phenomena, it
might be well to refer to certain typical dreams, which are the common
lot of practically every individual. These are also notable because
they usually have their origin in infantile impressions or sexual
motives, although the dream may be so thoroughly couched in symbolic
expressions that no actual sexual idea is apparent.
There is the dream of injury to, or death of, a parent or relative
near and dear to us. To suggest that we wish them harm is unthinkable.
This common type of dream has its basis in a temporary childish anger,
directed against the person in question, and which was accompanied by
the ill-wish that for ethical reasons was repressed.
It should be added that a child has a different conception of death
than an adult has. To the former it merely denotes an interruption of
the disturbing presence of a person, or of his being out of the way for
the time being. A dream of this kind invariably has its root, if not in
a true nuclear complex, then in an Oedipus tendency which survives in
the Unconscious.
Some trace of this can be found in every individual, and in it Freud
sees a definite incest wish toward the mother which lacks only
the attribute of consciousness. Moral reactions subject this wish
to repression through the functioning of the “incest barrier,” a
hypothesis that is compared to the “incest taboo” found among primitive
and inferior peoples.
One of the most common dreams is the so-called embarrassment dream of
nakedness. Freud has been led to consider this nakedness dream as an
exhibitionist quality revived in the Unconscious, and traces it back to
the universal tendency of children to disrobe, which affords them great
enjoyment and pleasure.
There is another type of dream that is not uncommon, and in a
pronounced form is called the anxiety dream or nightmare. Perhaps
the characteristics peculiar to this can best be described by Dr.
Hitschmann (_Freud’s Theory of the Neuroses_):
The dream picture accompanied by anxiety represents the patient
(usually female) oppressed by a great and dangerous beast which
threatens to throw itself on the dreamer; characteristically, it is
often a stallion or bull, thus, animals which have ever stood as
symbols of the potent strength of animal masculinity. It is easy
to see in these animal figures the symbolized givers of sexual
gratification forbidden by conscious thinking. A still plainer symbol
aiming at this end appears in dreams of burglars who, armed with
revolvers, daggers or similar instruments, press on upon the dreaming
lady. The starting up from sleep because of such anxiety-dreams, one
finds frequently in widows and ungratified women as a characteristic
kind of disturbance of sleep.
It has been remarked that the field of sexual symbolism is an
astonishingly rich and varied one, and that a great number are
definitely recognized as belonging to this category. Dr. Ernest Jones,
the Canadian analyst, maintains that “there are probably more symbols
of the male genital organ than all other symbols put together.” Thus
the dreamer who dreams of a snake, a dagger, a fish, or a bird, in no
way consciously regards these objects as a phallic symbol, and is
usually most unwilling, until the logic of the dream analysis forces
him, to accept this conclusion.
The symbolic expression of dream language bears remarkable likeness to
the symbolism of ancient mythology. This signifies to the student of
psycho-analysis that the Unconscious not only gets many of its deepest
impressions from early infancy, but that it has also inherited race
impressions that have been passed down through countless generations,
and that cause us to live over again in our dreams the ineffaceable
experiences of prehistoric ancestors.
One of the most typical of this class is the falling dream, an heritage
of the ape-man who lived in the trees. It is notable in these falling
dreams that we always catch ourselves, land safely or wake up in
the excitement which indicates that our progenitor who originally
experienced the shock that caused this indelible mental impression
that has become a biological fixture, also caught himself or fell to
comparative safety, else the impression could not have been carried
down.
The Unconscious dwells in a realm of phantasy, shuns the reality,
constructs its indomitable and superhuman heroes (Gods), and deals
summarily and mercilessly with its enemies. All the themes of mythology
and folk-lore have these common characteristics. Authorities have
attributed the origin of myths and fables to dream conceptions and
other manifestations of the Unconscious among primitive peoples.
Thus, Dr. Karl Abraham (_Dreams and Myths_) says: “The myth is a
fragment of the infantile soul life of the people, and the dream is the
myth of the individual.” Freud has stated this conclusion from his vast
experience in dream interpretations:
The investigation of this folk-psychologic formation, myths, etc., is
by no means finished at present. To take an example of this, however,
it is probable that the myths correspond to the distorted residue of
wish phantasies of whole nations, the secularized dreams of young
humanity.
Even earlier philosophers have sensed this great truth, as we observe
from Nietzsche (_Human All Too Human_):
In our sleep and in our dreams we pass through the whole thought
of early humanity. I mean, in the same way that man reasons in his
dreams, he reasoned when in the waking state many thousands of years.
The first _causa_ which occurred to his mind in reference to anything
that needed explanation, satisfied him, and passed for truth. In
the dream this atavistic relic of humanity manifests its existence
within us, for it is the foundation upon which the higher rational
faculty developed, and which is still developing in every individual.
The dream carries us back into earlier states of human culture, and
affords us a means of understanding them better....
The symbol as an expression of our unconscious desires is not by any
means confined to dreams. We do many things in our waking hours of a
symbolical nature, which satisfy our Unconscious without consciously
understanding their real significance. For instance, we throw rice
and old shoes at newlyweds without comprehending the true meaning of
the act. Consciously, we are following an old established custom; but
unconsciously we are doing something more important. We are giving
expression in a symbolical way to a wish that is quite appropriate for
the occasion, and which our standard of ethics would not permit us to
express in a more direct way.
During all ages and in folklore of all races, shoes have been a symbol
of the female genitals, and rice (or wheat or other common cereal) the
symbol of the male fructifying seed. Hence, we unconsciously indicate
the sexual character of the new relationship with the normal outcome
of fruitfulness or prolificacy, which the conventions of modern
civilization would not permit us to openly allude to in a direct manner.
_Everyone Dreams._--Many people taking exception to the Freudian
contention regarding dreams, assert that they rarely, if ever, dream.
There are very good scientific grounds for believing, not only that
everyone does dream, but that we dream continuously during our period
of sleep.
However, in the process of waking up in the normal manner, as we slowly
gain consciousness, the “censor” that figuratively stands at the gate
of our Unconscious subtly draws the veil over what has been transpiring
and we open our eyes with a feeling that our mind during the night has
been free from all thought or effort. Our conscious mind, of course,
has; our unconscious mind has not.
It has been proven by experimenting with persons who claimed they
“never dreamed,” that they do dream, and with a little practice they
can soon learn to remember their dreams. One of the best ways of
testing the accuracy of the “dreamless” sleeper is to wake him up
suddenly in the middle of the night or at a time he is unaccustomed to
be awakened. Invariably, it will be found, if immediately questioned,
that he has either a more or less distinct recollection of dreaming.
This is true if the sudden waking-up process occurs once in the
night--or twenty times. If a multiple of times, then it may be found
that the sleeper has experienced a different dream each time before
awakening. This gives strength to the theory that we are constantly
dreaming of something; the themes of the dream often rapidly changing
from one thing to another, sometimes blending into each other in an
incoherent mass--or constantly changing picture without apparent sense
or reason.
The fact, too, that dreams are highly symbolized, as before stated,
further emphasizes this impression. When analyzed, it is usually
found that the most important features or characters in the dream, as
remembered, are of little relative importance. On the other hand, some
minor detail or insignificant factor proves upon investigation to be of
prime importance.
Another deceiving feature of dream phenomena, which makes us believe
that we do not dream, is that immediately upon waking we are slightly
conscious of some disturbing feeling or annoying mental trend, but with
a slight effort pass it off. Instead of attributing it to a dream,
we offer ourselves the excuse that it was a noise we may have heard
outside the room or that we had just dismissed from mind an unpleasant
episode of the day before--just what, we cannot (or do not care to)
recall.
By this half conscious, semi-deliberate action, we bow to the will
of the censor and “forget” the dream. The very fact of the universal
“forgetting” of dreams confirms the existence of an agency which, for
the want of a better term, is called the censor.
If we had exercised sufficient determination or will power to pick
up the thread as it passed the outskirts of our consciousness, we
could have resurrected perhaps a little of what had preceded. And by
practice, it would gradually become possible to get more or less of a
logical mental picture of what had been transpiring in our Unconscious.
It is important to remember that the first waking impression of a dream
is the only reliable or trustworthy recollection we are able to get of
it. If a person, immediately upon waking, jots down the import of the
dream as he remembers it, and then later in the day recurs to the dream
of the night before, he will find not only that he has forgotten a good
part of it, but quite likely that he will even give a different version
of it. This is another evidence of the efficiency of the censor in
covering up the evidence of unconscious psychic activity.
The victims of anxiety-dreams (nightmares), however, experience no
doubt about their having dreams. In fact, until the cause of the
neurosis is removed, they suffer much from disturbances that result
from this manifestation of the Unconscious. The paradoxical feature
of these dreams is that they are a form of gratification--offering a
substitute means of gratification of the Unconscious for the lack or
denial of a normal form of obtaining pleasure or satisfaction.
In this connection, it may be said that relief is frequently obtained
from these anxiety-dreams or nightmares if the subject is made aware
of their true import. By understanding their symbolical meaning, the
shock is removed, even if the dreams continue in a milder form. It
often happens that when the person becomes conversant with the symbolic
significance of these dreams, the symbolism no longer recurs and dreams
of a sexual nature to the ungratified take place in an undisguised
form. Consequently, if the subject is enlightened and encouraged, there
is little distress felt, and the shock of the after-anxiety is largely
removed.
Freud maintains that the primary function of the dream is to protect
sleep by giving pleasurable activities to the unconscious psychic
processes that otherwise would tend to interfere with sleep. This
is appreciated when we consider that the unconscious processes are
perpetually in action, only prevented from entering consciousness by
the influence of the censorship. In sleep, therefore, this censorship
is lifted, allowing the unconscious wishes to take the field, and
express themselves with abandon, making up for the repressions to which
they are subjected during waking hours.
The dreams of children, in particular, afford easy access to the
workings of the Unconscious, because with young people, being less
sophisticated, and laboring under fewer social inhibitions, the dreams
are not so distorted by an excess of symbolization as is the case with
the adult. Nevertheless, there are still countless inhibitions to which
children are subjected, as we know from the constant admonitions:
“Johnny, don’t do this; Johnny, don’t do that,” etc. Dreams are the
removal of sleep-disturbing psychic stimuli by way of hallucinated
satisfaction.
_Day-Dreams._--Day-dreams, or phantasying, like their prototype of
our sleep, are also wish-fulfillments. They represent a tendency on
the part of the primitive side of our personality to retreat or get
away from reality; to realize and enjoy for a few brief moments the
unattainable.
We have all “built castles in the air.” Some of us have soared to
untold heights--if only to come down with a crash! Wishes are as common
to the beggar as to the king--perhaps more so, as the former has more
to wish for that would enhance his condition of life.
Unlike the dreams of our sleep, day-dreams are usually accompanied
by some effort; we tend to guide them, although this tendency in
many instances may be more apparent than real, as there is also the
influence of our Unconscious leading us on, whereas we may believe we
are directing it.
Day-dreams have both good and bad influences. If we develop the power
to co-operate with the unconscious psychic forces and to “exploit”
them through occasional use of the day-dream, we are on the way to
accomplishing some worth while work in life.
As a result of reveries or day-dreams, combined with some directed
thinking, the poet and the artist create their immortal works; and
the inventor gives to the world his epoch-making mechanical devices;
the scientist discovers natural laws of the universe and utilizes
the knowledge so gained for human progress; the ambitious student is
inspired and spurred on to reach some goal of constructive effort. Such
dreams have resulted in imperishable works of art and literature, and
great scientific and mechanical achievements, etc.
The evil side of day-dreaming is in letting the dreams run completely
away with us, which in the nature of themselves they tend to do,
instead of harnessing them to an object, or conquering them for a
purpose. Day-dreamers of this type are represented by the loafer of all
types and degrees. All lazy, indolent people work incessantly at this
unproductive occupation.
The immature youth, until he is taught by example and precept, or
forced by circumstances, is inclined to dream when not occupied with
play or work. Naturally the work is usually of a light, diverting
nature, and as play is an expression of the unconscious wishes, we see
how the Unconscious dominates the child almost completely. In most
cases it is merely a question of environmental conditions whether he
will dream himself down into a loafer, or up into communion with the
gods and become a creator of something worth while.
In other words, day-dreaming in moderation is desirable under proper
conditions. Its abuse is the abomination.
The chronic day-dreamer who becomes a victim of his fault is usually
a person who avoids social intercourse. He finds his pleasures in
dreaming, and he prefers to be alone so that his dreams may not be
disturbed. Thus, he becomes anti-social. He flees from reality whenever
the occasion presents itself--and he is always willing to make such
occasions--and finds refuge in the unreal world of his dreams. As a
result, no matter how shiftless or lazy, no matter how low he has
fallen in the social scale, his dreams enable him to realize his goal
of superiority.
In his dreams he is again in the fairy-land of his childhood longings.
The most absurd desires come true, and the dreamer is invariably the
favored fairy prince. This is true, whether the motif of his dreams is
clothed in the scenery of the early fairy tales--most often they are
not--or in the pictorial effects of contemporary life. In any event, he
is regressing to the infantile level.
III. THE UNCONSCIOUS BASIS OF WIT
There are few people so devoid of an innate sense of humor that they
do not respond to wit, although often they may manage to successfully
conceal the outward appearances of the response. Sometimes, in fact,
the reaction to the stimuli of wit may not be conscious at all.
There is reason to believe, however, that every person who approaches
what may be called a normal mental plane experiences an unconscious,
if not a conscious response, to wit, humor, the comic, the naive,
caricature, etc. And in those of abnormal psychic tendencies who may
not react to these stimuli, it will be found that they accomplish the
same result by other means--that is, their unconscious mind is relaxed
by other forms of expression or diversion.
The manifestations of the various neuroses in themselves constitute
an unconscious means of relief--although of the most unnatural and
irrational form. They act as a substitute means of gratification.
In behalf of wit, it may be said that, within bounds, it is the
most social type of unconscious gratification. Most other forms
are egotistical, such as day-dreaming, phantasying, dreaming in
sleep, etc., involving only the single individual. They are purely
self-centered means of satisfying the unconscious mind.
Wit, however, has a decided social value, unless of course, it is
carried to unwarranted extremes. And it is primarily among those whose
Unconscious exercises a predominating influence over their actions who
are apt to indulge in wit that tends to be destructive or extremely
unpleasant.
In the first place, wit usually requires a second or third person, and
may involve a large audience, as in the case with professional story
tellers, vaudeville performers, and certain other forms of organized
amusement. Of course, there are plenty of instances where we smile
to ourselves at jokes that come to mind, or upon reflecting on a
witticism that we had once heard. But this, in reality, is an example
of day-dreaming into which we lapse momentarily, perhaps in the midst
of conscious mental effort.
Thus the social value of wit is in making life pleasant and
agreeable--sometimes even when it would be quite unbearable. It is
frequently invoked under very trying or even tragic circumstances. We
have all heard of instances when a grim joke has been passed by some
one in a perilous position.
It invariably relieves the tension in a crisis or at a serious
climax. Notwithstanding our realization of the desperateness or even
hopelessness of the situation, the unconscious relief or satisfaction
which we experience in a joke under these circumstances often lifts
us out of an agonizing suspense. If only temporary, the relief is
nevertheless real and may be a valuable psychic bracer to sustain us in
a time of need.
Even in the presence of death or of some inescapable fate impending,
this tendency is quite universal. Soldiers before battle, and in
the thick of the fight, are known to relieve the suspense by some
expression of wit, however grim. And it is an established fact
in psychiatry that soldiers who are capable of so relaxing their
unconscious tension are less susceptible to shell-shock.
Shell-shock, indeed, is a form of neurosis produced by the abnormal
environment, in which the victim is unable to get relief of the psychic
tension over a more or less prolonged period. As a consequence,
he develops shell-shock, which is a neurosis or type of insanity
that may be almost any degree of intensity, as a substitute form of
gratification of the self-preservation urge. Furthermore, it is usually
successful to this extent: The attack makes the victim useless for
military service, and sometimes any other kind, so he is sent to a
hospital or other institution. But even if not at once removed he no
longer suffers from the agonizing suspense of bombardment. By a very
abnormal process he has been relieved.
Another example of relieving the tension in the midst of death is the
old custom of the Irish wake. This ancient folk tradition of the Irish
race makes full allowance for the psychic needs of the occasion by
permitting light story telling and other expressions of a diverting
nature. The practices of this function unconsciously recognize a basic
requirement of the psyche.
Wit, in substance, is a form of mental relaxation because invariably it
is illogical. And as logic is a development of the conscious mind, the
interruption of concentration, or the deviation from logical reasoning,
affords momentary relaxation.
Among those of so primitive a mentality that the faculty of logic is
at low stage of development or practically non-existent, then what we
consider wit would not to them have the same significance.
For instance, children two or three years of age are prone to make very
“funny” remarks. The expressions sound humorous to us because of their
absolutely illogical construction. But to the child, they are not funny
or humorous, because the infantile mind lacks the perception to realize
that the utterance is illogical. This is the case of an unintentional
misuse of words, resulting in a ludicrous effect.
The child or person of primitive, undeveloped mind laughs at what he
believes to be a joke when he is placed in a position of apparent
superiority. When I get down on the floor on all fours, and my
three-year-old youngster grabs my coat-tails or rides on my back and
bids me assume the lowly function of the quadruped, he is conscious
of a feeling of superiority--as we are in driving a horse. The infant
becomes a very superior person in his mind, and this to him is the real
kind of a joke.
Wit is a diverting short-cut from the stiffness and sober
conventionality so constantly demanded in civilized life. The whole
evolution of civilization has been the history of repressing primitive
instincts. With this constant repression and inhibition there develops
in our unconscious personality a tension of greater or lesser degree.
The ever present tendency of the Unconscious is to relieve this
tension. And anything that contributes to this form of relaxation is a
mental tonic. Of course, an excess of tonic, like an excess of any good
thing, is useless.
Besides wit, petty mischief offers a favorite outlet to the youth and
adolescent. It is the unconscious prompting and striving for some
vogue, indefinite goal of satisfaction which makes gang-companionship,
with all its evil potentialities, so alluring to the boy entering upon
the age of puberty.
A working knowledge of adolescent psychology has taught us that a
substitute form of gratification for the destructive tendencies of
the gang can be obtained by the youth in athletic activities, country
hikes, woodcraft, etc. These diversions offer a healthy outlet for the
pent-up psychic steam that accumulates so rapidly during this critical
period of the boy’s life when he is undergoing profound physical and
psychological changes.
Wit, humor and fun are strikingly in evidence during the adolescent
period. It is conceded for instance that the leading college comic
papers, conducted entirely by youths, many quite inexperienced, contain
better examples of real, spontaneous wit and humor than the national
comic publications, which have a nation-wide field of professional
“humorists” to draw from.
When a semi-civilized being or a person of very low mental status sees
calamity befall another, he may sense a huge joke. It is a joke, not
because the accident or misfortune is illogical, but because it raises
him to a position of greater comparative importance. It amounts to
saying: “You are down and I am up.” The victim is now inferior. This is
immensely pleasing to the unconscious which does not discriminate as to
how the measure of superiority is attained. This quality is typical, in
some pronounced degree, among neurotics, as it is to a lesser extent
among more normal persons. We have all seen examples of the busy-body
type of person who goes around his or her circle of acquaintances,
bringing the latest news of misfortune that has befallen some one.
Notwithstanding the conscious lamentations that are forced upon us, the
eagerness with which the oracle unfolds his story of somebody’s trouble
carries a connotation of pleasure which the student of psycho-analysis
readily perceives. A very primitive Unconscious is being gratified.
The characteristic of wit is its brevity; its quick action; its
spontaneity. “A flash of wit” in its true sense is as well phrased as
“a flash of lightning.” Attempted wit, that results in long, studied
dissertations, no matter how carefully gotten up, is rarely, if ever,
wit. While it may sometimes involve humorous situations, there is
seldom present the characteristic of wit.
The psychology of wit takes into account the intellectual standard of
both speakers and the listeners. Subtle jokes that are appreciated by
persons of keen mind go over the heads of those with less perception.
This tendency is often observed in vaudeville audiences, which are
apt to comprise people of all types and degrees of intellectual
development. A particularly subtle joke is uttered by the performer,
and here and there is an individual in the audience who will “get it.”
A few seconds later quite a large number will begin to snicker and
finally the balance of the audience will start to laugh--for the most
part because they have caught the spirit of the occasion, even if they
have missed the point made by the comedian.
The mother-in-law motive in jokes, which is so universally invoked,
is given a deeply vital significance by Freud in his book, “Totem and
Taboo.”
Among men and women who have had few cultural advantages, wit becomes
less and less subtle and descends to a lower and lower intellectual
scale. Persons under the influence of alcohol, that is, where the
conscious inhibitions are partially lifted, may consider any lewd
remark as quite humorous.
Sex and ego, as in dreams, form the underlying themes for most jokes.
So either of these tendencies may easily veer into the questionable
under the stimuli of their basic sources, especially when the conscious
repressions are relaxed by convivial associations or the influence of
Bacchus.
Some examples of wit are so outstanding in their excellence that they
remain classics for a long time--not for current usage in lieu of the
spontaneous variety, but for better illustrating the characteristics of
a prominent person. These are usually the jokes of faulty logic. Those
associated with the name of Lincoln are almost legion. One attributed
to Wendell Phillips was good enough to stand the test of time, as we
occasionally hear it referred to at this late day.
When asked by a minister why he did not go right into the heart of the
South to save the Negroes from slavery, the abolitionist, in turn,
asked the clergyman why in his search for souls he did not go straight
to hell. The comparison between the South and Hell can hardly stand the
test of logic.
My old school master was a ready wit and a man of unusual intellectual
attainments, although some of his personal habits were rather slovenly,
making him quite a picturesque character of more than local prominence.
One of his petty vices was chewing tobacco, in which he indulged
himself out of school and in. One day the local Methodist preacher,
a close personal friend, chided him for indulging in so unbecoming
a habit, saying, “even a hog wouldn’t chew tobacco.” Instantly the
school master asked him if he wouldn’t chew tobacco. The negative reply
brought the retort, “then you are a hog.” The idea of putting the
dignified parson in the same category as the hog because they had one
evident dislike in common was ludicrous because illogical.
There is the Hungarian folk tale which tells of a blacksmith in a
village who had committed a crime punishable by death; the Burgomaster,
however, decreed that not the smith, but a tailor, must be hanged, as
there were two tailors in the village, but only one blacksmith, and the
crime had to be expiated. This displacement of guilt from one person
to another is contrary to all laws of conscious logic, but not to the
psychic operations of the Unconscious. So consciously, this ridiculous
idea amuses us.
The natural sequel of wit or a joke is to laugh. We have all
experienced the almost unbearable situation wherein our sense of humor
had been touched very strongly, but the proprieties of the occasion
made it imperative that we should not give way visibly or audibly to
our feelings.
As a consequence, we have had the painful sensation of being choked
up with something that should come out or express itself. Thus, we
are under a nerve-racking tension, quite ready to “explode.” Laughter
is the physical demonstration which accompanies the response to the
stimuli of wit, jokes, humor, etc. It is the means of a free and quick
discharge of psychic energy.
Besides the common (or uncommon) variety of good-natured wit, there
is also the well-known brand of wit which causes pain or chagrin
to the person at whom the shaft of witticism is aimed. The cynic,
or perpetrator of this kind of joke, thus exhibits a strong sadist
tendency, which is present in all of us, but in widely varying degrees.
He causes pain to another--and gets pleasure or satisfaction out of it.
On the other hand, those who good-naturedly laugh or pass off a joke of
this kind, are demonstrating a well defined masochistic tendency, which
also is inherent in everyone.
Certain jokes, especially the so-called “practical jokes” are
frequently of an intensely irritating or even destructive character.
The unconscious mind is fundamentally primitive and uncultured, and
takes a positive delight in causing pain and misfortune to others. It
craves excitement. And it is only our hundreds of thousands of years of
human progress, with the consequent development of the social instincts
and the sublimation of the primitive forces in our individual lives,
which overcomes to a large degree the destructive tendencies of the
Unconscious.
IV. REPRESSIONS AND THE NEUROSES
We have observed that the psyche is the scene of a constant and often
intense conflict between the more primitive and the more social human
impulses. It is in the course of this physical conflict and to serve
its ends, that the repressions are manifested.
In considering the relations of cause and effect in the psychic realm,
we must bear one great fact in mind, a fact that should be quite
self-evident, but which, because of our lack of knowledge of the
Unconscious, has not been realized, namely: Nothing is accidental in
the psychic region. There is no “chance” in the psychic world any more
than in the physical. Every effect has a definite cause; every cause
produces a definite effect.
What seem to be accidental, unexpected happenings are not so in
reality. We observe only some of the unconscious manifestations without
realizing that they are logical reactions of some positive force. Thus,
they appear as something detached and causeless, and we give them no
further consideration.
The human psychic apparatus produces a ceaseless flow of impulses
or discharge of energy whose aim is the fulfillment of two great
principles, upon which all life is grounded--that is, the pleasure
principle, and the reality principle.
_The Pleasure Principle._--The pleasure principle represents the
primary original form of mental activity, and is characteristic of
the earliest stages of human development, both in the individual and
the race. Therefore, it is found in its typical expression in the
mental life of the infant, and to a less extent in the savage. Its main
attribute is a never-ceasing demand for immediate gratification of
various desires that give pleasure to the Unconscious, regardless of
cost or consequences. Thus, it may be said to be egocentric, selfish,
personal, anti-social.
The infant illustrates in a very observable manner the existence of the
pleasure principle as the basic motive for all its actions. Nothing but
its own desires concern him, and he demands with unqualified insistence
their fulfillment in the shape of food, warmth, petty attentions, and
any object that may come to his notice.
But while the infant offers the most perfect example of the pleasure
principle in operation, because it works through him with no disguise,
it can be noted more or less prominently among all people. No
individual is free from this trait. It is of course good that this is
so, or life would be more dull and drab than it is at its worst.
A normal, well rounded personality is one in which all the basic
characteristics are present in the proper degree, one balancing the
other, thus preserving a desirable equilibrium, and fitting one to face
and grapple with the realities of life. This is what constitutes a
healthy, adaptable human being.
But, as we so well know, not every one is in this favored category.
Leaving aside those who are the victims of so outrageously pernicious
an environment that any approach to normal life is impossible, there
are still millions and millions of people in all walks of life who fall
short, some seriously so, of this standard.
These unadapted people, some fitting like the proverbial square peg
in a round hole, are suffering from exaggerated neurotic tendencies.
They range from the mildly hysterical or temperamentally unsettled to
the definitely insane. And notwithstanding the bleak picture which the
more extreme cases make, and which are unfortunate enough even when
moderately advanced, they are expressions of the pleasure principle
that has followed afar some line of least resistance.
People who maintain their grip on the vitals of reality avoid the
alluring pitfalls to which undue surrender to the pleasure principle
leads. Where the temptation is strong, there are often elaborate
precautions taken to escape the dreaded fate. This is true, even
when the exact situation is not consciously realized and when the
precautions are the result of intuitive rather than logical effort.
Primitive man offers an excellent example of this fact. He has erected
an intricate set of taboos to avert the consequences of his fierce,
self-seeking impulses. He realizes vaguely there are inexplicable inner
forces pulling him this way and that. He does not know what these
emotions and passions are, nor why or whence they come, but senses the
danger in their dominance.
The so-called “civilized” man differs in degree rather than kind from
his primitive brother. He disguises and distorts, unconsciously for the
most part, and often with surprising ingenuity, that same principle
which governs so largely his behavior.
We have only to study our own dreams, phantasies and often unreasonable
emotions of jealousy, vanity, etc., and our tendency not to face
reality, or our disinclination to recognize the constant pressure and
frequent dominance of the pleasure principle within us.
Thousands of years of civilization with the accompanying development
of cultural, ethical, religious and social factors and influences have
done much to modify and adapt the power of this pleasure principle, but
no amount of civilization can eliminate or crush this dynamic force.
As a matter of fact, the objection is that our civilization is becoming
so constantly ramified, and with such increasing swiftness, by
scientific achievements, mechanical inventions and natural discoveries,
etc., that we can hardly adapt our primitive, slow-evolving
characteristics to the more rapidly changing environment. And this
condition is intensified because, as a social unit, we have preferred
to avoid any serious discussion or study of psychic phenomena so as
better to cope with the problems that confront us.
_The Reality Principle._--The reality principle, to all intents and
purposes, is the antithesis of the pleasure principle. They are both
present in all of us all the time. The condition which makes us either
“normal” human beings or neurotic misfits in society, is largely
governed by the proper balance on the one hand, or on the other, the
lack of relative proportion of these two principles in our psychic
make-up.
Directly as they manifest themselves in our Unconscious, or indirectly,
as in disguised forms in the Conscious, these two principles are ever
exerting their respective influences--operating, or co-operating with
each other, or coming into conflict.
Freud has described the reality principle as having for its function
the adaptation of the organism to the exigencies of reality--that is of
the world animate and inanimate, which lies outside and around every
individual.
It is evident that if the individual were not capable of acting upon
the reality principle to a very large degree throughout life, he would
as a consequence be unable to exist.
He must realize the uncompromising force of sea, air, gravity, fire,
wild animals, in order to maintain life. He must recognize the claims,
needs and superior force of his fellow men, even in the most primitive
society or community.
Thus, by the very act of living, even without definite instruction to
that end, we are gathering consciously and unconsciously a working
knowledge of the reality principle. It is exemplified in the old adage
of “learning by experience” rather than by hearsay or being told.
Sometimes, as we all know, this is a very painful way of learning,
although its effectiveness is unquestioned. The child who touches a hot
stove is learning by a very drastic method to adapt himself to reality.
The writer once saw a bright, eight-year-old youngster attempt to walk
quickly over the water as the row-boat he was in neared the shore.
Although it was only the equivalent of four or five short steps, the
youth got a rather sudden and aqueous awakening to a certain phase of
the reality principle. This was obviously a perfect illustration of the
unconscious in action, as consciously he knew that it is impossible to
walk on the water, but he was seized with an inexplicable “impulse.”
The development of the reality principle is through the channels of
reason. Those who are of the most logical, rational turn of mind best
exemplify the reality principle.
This principle is expressed in directed thinking, in contrast to the
phantasying and intuitive expressions of the pleasure principle.
People who have a high degree of intuition may be said to be under the
influence of their Unconscious to a greater extent than those who are
not so intuitive in their decisions and actions. In many respects,
this is a valuable asset, when co-ordinated with a discriminating
Conscious, which acts as a regulator in preventing undue extremes in
manifestations of the Unconscious.
It is the inevitable conflict between these two great principles in
our psychic make-up which is the cause of repressions. And repressions
which become so severe that they cause serious disharmony in our
Unconscious result in a neurosis.
In considering the curative value of psycho-analysis, it is well to
remember that conflicts are present in all of us. This is assured by
the fact that we are all endowed, more or less, with primitive passions
and certain instinctive desires, and these tend inevitably to conflict
with the social and ethical standards to which we consciously subscribe.
Therefore, there are neurotic strains and tendencies in every
individual, which the most rational of us demonstrate at times in
little temperamental outbursts, in streaks of unreasonableness, and
even physical indispositions that are the positive reactions of a
neurosis, incipient or chronic.
When we realize that a neurosis, slight or severe, and many of the
incipient forms of insanity, reflect a lack of harmony in the psychic
mechanism, instead of being some mysterious, far-fetched visitation of
fate, we begin to see the possibilities of remedying the situation.
This is especially so when we consider that every “normal” person
experiences the same tendencies in a light form, which contribute to
the function of a neurosis and insanity.
_Physical Effects of Neuroses._--To thoroughly appreciate the
widespread effects of neurotic tendencies, it is only necessary to
scan the list of physical ailments and symptoms that may be due to
unconscious ideas that unduly influence our conduct.
Dr. William A. White in his _Principles of Mental Hygiene_ states:
The number and duration of physical and apparently physical
disorders which may originate at the psychological level is endless.
It includes many forms of asthma, sore throat, difficult nasal
breathing, stammering, headache, neurasthenia, backache, tender
spine, “weak heart,” faint attacks, exophthalmic goitre (Graves or
Basedow’s disease), aphonia, spasmodic sneezing, hiccough, rapid
respiration, hay fever, gastro-intestinal disturbances (constipation,
diarrhea, indigestion, colitis, ulcer of stomach), ptosis of kidney,
diabetes, disturbances of urination, polyuria, incontinence,
precipitancy, menstrual disorders, auto-intoxication (from long
digestive disturbances), nutritional disorders of skin, teeth and
hair, etc.
It should be emphasized, however, that while any of these disturbances
may be of psycho-genic origin, no reputable psycho-analyst would claim
they are always due to this basic cause.
After soberly considering this formidable agglomeration of
possibilities from repressions in the Unconscious--the very existence
of which the overwhelming majority of people are in ignorance--we
should see the necessity for some rational understanding of, and
insight into, our psychic processes--particularly the unconscious ones.
The modification of the elemental urges and wishes and their adaptation
to the realities of environment is a long, difficult and painful
process. Beginning with the infant life, thoroughly bound up in its
egocentric activities, and progressing through childhood which is
dominated by primitive emotions, we finally reach adulthood in years,
but still influenced profoundly by primitive impulses and modes of
thought.
In fact a large percentage of people never grow up psychologically and
emotionally, but remain at an infantile, or at the most, an adolescent
level in these respects.
_Low Mental Average Among Adults._--It is interesting to observe in
this connection very significant statistics gathered by the Surgeon
General of the American Army during the World War, of men drafted
in 1918.[A] Elaborate tests were made attempting to “size up” the
brain power of the soldiers, irrespective of education. For instance,
children under the age of five seldom can learn to tell time on a
clock, but practically all normal children can learn to do so before
they are over the age of six. There are other analogous problems or
tests which children five or six can do, but which they cannot do if
they are younger.
[A] Army Mental Tests (Surgeon General) Washington, D. C., Nov. 22,
1919.
As an example, it is found that the normal child of five can name the
four primary colors, even if never taught them. On the other hand, some
grown people are so deficient in mental power that, although they can
dress themselves and do many kinds of every-day work, they can never
learn to tell time by the clock or do the other five-year-old tests.
Such people are said to have a “mental age” of under five--that is,
they have the potential brain power of a child under five.
Similar tests have been devised for other ages. For example, the
normal child of eleven can detect absurdities in sentences; can define
three out of five abstract words, “pity, revenge, charity, justice,
envy”; can repeat backward five digits given orally; can interpret
fables, etc.
The Surgeon General divided the mental age of many thousands of drafted
men according to their occupation. He thought the “average” would be
misleading, so instead of finding the average, he omitted from each
occupation one-quarter of the men having the lowest mental age, or
brain power, and also the quarter having the highest brain power. The
men who remained were the middle half.
Now, after dividing these men into some seventy-four occupational
groups, they were classified into seven grades of brain power, instead
of using the literal term “mental age.” The result was as follows:
A _Very Superior Intelligence._ This grade was ordinarily reached by
only four or five per cent of a draft quota. It was composed of men
of marked intellectuality, with the ability to make a superior record
in college or university.
B _Superior Intelligence._ Less exceptional than that represented by
“A,” and was obtained by eight to ten per cent of the draft. Men of
this grade are capable of making an average record in college.
C+ _High Average Intelligence._ This group included about fifteen
to eighteen per cent of the draft. Can not do so well as “B,” but
contained some men with capacity for leadership and power to command.
C _Average Intelligence._ Included about twenty-five per cent of
the drafted men. These men are rarely capable of graduating from a
high school. They are of a grade that is said to make “excellent
privates” in the army. Their “mental age” may be put at about
fourteen.
C- _Low Average Intelligence._ These men made up about twenty per
cent of the draft, and were considered satisfactory in work of a
routine nature. They are distinctly of lower intelligence than the
“C” group, but their mental age is probably not below twelve.
D _Inferior Intelligence._ Included about fifteen per cent of the
draft. They are slow in learning, and rarely suited for tasks which
require special skill, resourcefulness, or sustained alertness. It
is unsafe to expect these, or those of grades “D--” and “E” to read
intelligently or understand written directions.
D- and E. _Very Inferior Intelligence._ The majority of these men are
below the “mental age” of ten--some were discovered with a mental age
as low as two or three, and were being passed upon for sending to
France in 1918.
When such a representative body of men as the American Army drafted
under the Selective Service law shows an “average intelligence”
comprising about twenty-five per cent that are rarely capable of
graduating from high school; twenty per cent that have a mental age of
about twelve; fifteen per cent of an even lower mental age, incapable
of reading intelligently or understanding written directions; and two
other classes that are still inferior with mental ages ranging from
below ten years to as low as two or three, then we can get at least
some approximate idea of the infantile state of mind of a large section
of the general population.
_Kinds of Neuroses._--According to the theory of Freud, the neuroses
are divided into the true neuroses and psycho-neuroses.
The true neuroses are neurasthenia and anxiety-neurosis. The causes
of these diseases, Freud maintains, is the disturbance of the sexual
processes which determine the formation and utilization of the sexual
libido.
As he summarizes it:
We can hardly avoid perceiving these processes as being, in their
last analysis, chemical in their nature, so that we recognize in
the true neurosis the somatic effect of disturbances in the sexual
metabolism, while in the psycho-neurosis we recognize besides the
psychic effects of the same disturbances. The resemblance of the
neuroses to the manifestations of intoxication and abstinence,
following certain alkaloids, and to Basedow’s and Addison’s diseases
obtrudes itself clinically without any further ado, and just as these
two diseases should no longer be described as nervous diseases, so
will the genuine neurosis soon have to be removed from this class,
despite their nomenclature.
Neurasthenia, in Freud’s opinion, is due to exaggerated sexual
self-gratification which weakens the individual’s will-power by
making the goal too easily obtainable, affords inadequate relief,
diminishes potency and by ignoring too many psychological sources of
excitement, may cause physical injury. The neurasthenic turns away
from society, from reality, and, if a man, from women, for he cannot
tolerate feminine imperfection. Thus, he becomes anti-social and
betrays the result of his vain strife against passion in many ways,
lack of will-power, doubts about the possibility of achievements and
self-reproaches.
Among the symptoms of anxiety neurosis are general irritability,
exaggerated visual and auditive sensations which are frequently the
cause of sleeplessness, anxious expectations of accidents, death,
insanity, accompanied in some cases by a disturbance of one or more
bodily functions, respiration, circulation, glandular functions, etc.
One of the most characteristic symptoms of anxiety neurosis is a form
of dizziness which never leads to complete loss of equilibrium.
The symptoms of anxiety neurosis are considered by Freud as substitutes
for the specific action which should follow sexual excitement and
which is accompanied by acceleration of the respiration, palpitation,
sweating and congestion.
It is popularly supposed that anxiety neurosis is the result of
overwork. Freud says, however, that the physician who informs a busy
man that he has overworked himself, or an active woman that her
household duties have been too burdensome, should tell his patients
they are sick, not because they have sought to discharge duties which
for a civilized brain are comparatively easy, but because they have
neglected, if not stifled, their sexual life while attending to their
duties.
Men who resort to ungratifying forms of sexual activity and women left
unsatisfied by the impotence or _ejaculatio praecox_ of their husbands,
are often found to be suffering from anxiety neurosis.
Characteristic of the emotional obsessions of psycho-neurosis,
sometimes referred to as psychasthenia, are various phobias or fears,
agoraphobia, fear of open spaces; claustrophobia, fear of closed
spaces; astrapaphobia, fear of thunder and lightning; aerophobia, fear
of being in high places; morbid desires for drink or drugs; volitional
obsessions; kleptomania, impulse to steal; pyromania, impulse to
set fire to things; arithmomania, impulse to count everything;
onomatomania, impulse to repeat one word, and so on.
To afford a more scientific classification, these symptoms of
psychasthenia have been divided up by psycho-analysts into hysteria,
anxiety hysteria and compulsion neurosis.
Hysteria, Freud states, is due to an emotional conflict between the
usual urge and the sexual repression, and its symptoms have the value
of a compromise between both psychic streams.
Anxiety hysteria is frequently associated with hysteria proper. In
this case the anxiety arises not only from physical sources, but from
a part of the ungratified desire which embraces a number of complexes.
As the normal mind reacts to danger through anxiety, we might propose
the analogy that in this case the mind is defending itself against
internal danger. The psycho mechanism is the same as in hysteria
except that it does not lead to conversion into physical symptoms.
Anxiety hysteria invariably tends to develop a phobia. The most common
of hysterical phobias is agoraphobia, which prevents the patient from
walking comfortably across an empty space, although he can do so when
accompanied by certain persons. Another anxiety hysterical disturbance
is erythrophobia, or fear of red, which has as its motivating basis
self-reproach or shame of some sort, the feeling of being slighted or
of anger.
Hysteria is more peculiar to the female sex, obsessional neurosis to
the male sex.
The obsession neurosis is featured by constant ambivalence, or the
experiencing of opposite feelings at the same time, such as love and
hatred for the same person, although of course, one of these emotions
may predominate in the Conscious and the other in the Unconscious.
In compulsion neurosis, the thought of the possibility of death to
others is often present. In every conflict, the subject awaits the
death of someone important or dear to him, a rival or one of the
love objects between whom his inclination wavers. His obsession is
anchored upon a superstitious belief in the potency of his evil wishes.
Superstitions of all kinds, in fact, occupy a prominent place in the
compulsion neurosis.
The difference between neuroses and psychoses has been made very clear
by Adler, who says:
Longing for an unattainable ideal is at the bottom of both. Defeat
or fear of defeat causes the weaker individual to seek a substitute
for his real goal. At this point begins the process of psychic
transformation designated as a neurosis. In the neurosis, the
pursuit of the fictitious goal does not lead to an open conflict
with reality, the neurotic simply considering reality as a very
disturbing element, as he does in neurasthenia, hypochondria,
anxiety, compulsion neurosis and hysteria. In the psychoses, the
guiding masculine fiction appears disguised in pictures and symbols
of infantile origin. The patient no longer acts as though he wished
to be masculine, to be above, but as though he had already attained
those ends.
In substance, the neurotic is grieved by not being all-powerful. The
psychotic is all powerful, and attempts to force his environment to
share his belief.
_Curative Value of Psycho-Analysis._--From the foregoing array of
psychic disturbances and physical complications, it should readily
be perceived that medicine--the importance of which in its place is
fully recognized by analysts--can be of little or no service. This
explains why people of neurotic disposition are frequently found who
are under-going medical treatment either constantly or intermittently
for years without relieving the trouble, when, in fact, it doesn’t grow
more pronounced.
To those who have regressed definitely into severe neuroses, or
worse, have sunk into a pathological condition of incipient or
chronic insanity, even of a non-violent type, there is little hope of
self-relief.
If the expert services of a competent psycho-analyst practitioner are
not available, a change for the better is hardly likely, unless nature
in her great resourcefulness overcomes the tremendous odds and brings
a favorable turn or, as is more probable, some distressing causative
factors are unwittingly or with design alleviated.
We should, therefore, emphasize everything that would tend to promote
the latter. Among the great outstanding causes of neuroses is an
irrational sexual life. Very many of these cases can be afforded
relief, especially among married persons when well mated, by obtaining
rational knowledge of marriage psychology and of the emotional and
spiritual significance of the sex act, thus giving new meaning to the
marriage relations and changing the whole outlook on life, resulting
in improved mental and physical health.[B]
[B] The writer has discussed this phase of the question at length in
several divisions of his _Sanity in Sex_, notably in the chapters “Sex
Enlightenment and Conjugal Happiness,” “Sex Ignorance--A Cause of
Marital Discord and Divorce,” and “Birth Control--the New Morality.”
Notwithstanding the economic barriers so frequently in the way of a
rational sex life in marriage, the advantages of realizing this goal
are so great that it behooves every individual and couple who expect to
continue living and have anything to live for, to avail themselves of
the knowledge that is accessible.
This will bring with it a new and healthier attitude in facing
the problems of life. It will also banish the false notions of an
irrational, soul-crucifying prudery and prurience, and enable the
father and mother to be better parents and the companions of their
children.
The young people, in turn will profit by this superior training and
the improved insight into vital matters which it will bring them, and
consequently the new generation will be healthier, more adaptable and
freer from baneful neurotic afflictions.
As we have intimated, every individual has neurotic tendencies, which
assert themselves at times in minor ways, but the normal individual
(adult) has adapted himself to the exigencies of reality. Thus, he is
not constantly swept and tossed about by these inner forces, like a
rudderless craft on the surging sea, as is the case of the victim of
malevolent repressions.
Insanity (except when due to disintegration of the brain structure,
such as may result from syphilitic lesion, alcoholic deterioration,
tumor or other malignant growth, etc.) is essentially an extreme
neurotic state. It has all the symptoms in a more or less exaggerated
form of the various neuroses.
This impresses us with the fact that there is not a hard and fast
dividing line between the sane and the insane. Even the sanest
people sometimes have fits of rage that have all the features of
insanity while they last. People with pretty good practical minds
occasionally do some very irrational or foolish things when seized by
an unaccountable impulse--even to the extent of committing murder, or
suicide.
All of these exhibitions are regressions from reality. Some people,
it may be said, have a predisposing temperament which makes their
struggles with reality harder than for others. It is these individuals
that childhood repressions or complexes affect the most profoundly. But
psycho-analysis offers relief to them--in fact the only possibility for
relief as has been proven many times.
The regressions from reality are toward childhood and the infantile
state. Neurotics invest themselves with the prerogatives of children.
And it is not without reason (an irrational one, however.) To the
child, many things are obtainable, and by very simple means, that the
adult cannot command. The child cries for food, or pleads for something
it desires, and it is brought to him. Without consciously realizing
it, this easy process appeals irresistibly to the neurotic type of
mind. So he regresses; maybe he develops some disability or sickness,
purely as a result of his psychic condition, and he finds he is waited
on and cared for much as he was when a child. Any number of similes
could be cited to illustrate the parallel.
The insane regress even further to the infantile plane. The more
hopelessly insane the person is, the more infantile he becomes in his
actions. Cases are not uncommon where the victim is so far removed
from all interest in life that he lies down, utterly disregarding his
environment and all the bodily functions, often assuming the prenatal
position of the fetus.
Suicide may be said to be a supreme manifestation of the neurotic
symptoms. By this final act, the neurotic successfully and
irretrievably flees from reality and returns to the embracing arms of
Mother Earth where the problems of life will beset him no more. If he
has religious scruples or superstitions, the prospect of being damned
in another world is no more forbidding than the hellishness of reality
in this. If he is unencumbered by theological dogma, he enters the
endless cycle of oblivion, whose incomparable attraction is an eternity
of inertia, silence, peace.
NOTE: _Unconscious Love Elements in Psycho-Analysis_, by William
J. Fielding (Little Blue Book No. 1353), is the conclusion of his
discussion of psycho-analysis. All readers of the present book should
obtain this supplementary volume.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Obvious typographical errors corrected. However, inconsistencies in
hyphenation have been left unchanged.
Page 40: author’s choice of word “vogue” in “striving for some
vogue” retained.
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