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04 - The Theory of Psychoanalysis - Carl Jung · Logic Library

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Chapter four, the etological significance of the infantile sexuality. Now that we have
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decided what is to be understood is infantile sexuality, we can follow up the
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discussion of the theory of the neuroses, which we began in the first lecture
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and then dropped. We followed the theory of the neuroses up to the point
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where we ran against Freud's statement that the tendency which brings a traumatic event to
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a pathological activity is a sexual one. From our foregoing considerations, we understand
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what is meant by a sexual tendency. It is a standing still, a
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retardation in that process whereby the labido frees itself from the manifestations of the pre
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sexual stage. First of all, we must regard this disturbance as a fixation.
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The libido in its transition from the function of nutrition to the sexual function
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link unduly at certain stages. A disharmony is created, since provisional and as
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it were, worn out activities persist at a period when they should have been
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overcome. This formula is applicable to all those infantile characteristics so prevalent among neurotic
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people that no attentive observer can have overlooked them. In dementia precox, it
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is so obtrusive that a symptom complex hebrephrenia derives its name therefrom. The matter
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is not ended, however, by saying that the libido lingers in the preliminary
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stages. For while the libido thus lingers, time does not stand still,
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and the development of the individual is always proceeding apace. The physical maturation increases
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the contrast and the disharmony between the persistent infantile manifestations and the demands of the
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later age with its changed condition of life. In this way, the foundation
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has laid for the dissociation of the personality and thereby to that conflict which is
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the real basis of the neuroses. The more the libido is in arrears in
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practice, the more intense will be the conflict. The traumatic our pathogenic moment
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is the one which serves best to make this conflict manifest. As Freud showed
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in his earlier works, one can easily imagine a neurosis arising in this way.
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This conception fitted in rather well with the views of jene who ascribe neurosis
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to a certain defect. From this point, of view, the neurosis could
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be regarded as a product of retardation in the development of affectivity, and I
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can easily imagine that this conception must seem self evident to everyone who is inclined
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to derive the neuroses more or less directly from heredity or genital degeneration. The
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infantile sexual etiology criticized. Unfortunately, the reality is much more complicated. Let
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me facilitate an insight into these complications by an example of a case of hysteria.
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It will, I hope, enable me to demonstrate the characteristic complication so
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important for the theory of neurosis. You will probably remember the case of the
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young lady with hysteria, whom I mentioned at the beginning of my lectures.
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We noticed the remarkable fact that this patient was unaffected by situations which one might
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have expected to make a profound impression, and yet showed an unexpected extreme pathological
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reaction to a quite everyday event. We took this occasion to express our doubt
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as to the etiological significance of the shock and to investigate the so called predisposition
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which rendered the trauma effective. The result of that investigation led us to what
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has just been mentioned that it is by no means improbable that the origin of
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the neurosis is due to a retardation of the affective development. You will now
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ask me what is to be understood by the retardation of the affectivity of this
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hysteric The patient lives in a world of fantasy which can only be regarded as
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infantile. It is unnecessary to give a description of these fantasies, for you,
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as neurologists or psychiatrists, have the opportunity daily to listen to the childish
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prejudices, illusions, and emotional pretensions to which neurotic people give way. The
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disinclination to phase stern reality is the distinguishing trait of these fantasies, some lack
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of earnestness, some trifling which sometimes hides real difficulties in a lighthearted manner,
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at others exaggerates trifles into great troubles. We recognize at once that inadequate psychic
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attitude towards reality, which characterizes the child is wavering opinions and its deficient orientation
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in matters of the external world. With such an infantile mental disposition, all
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kinds of desires fantasies and illusions can grow luxuriantly, and this we have to
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regard as the critical causation. Through such fantasies, people slip into an unreal
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attitude, pre eminently ill adapted to the world, which is bound some day
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to lead to a catastrophe. When we trace back the infantile fantasy of the
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patient to her earliest childhood, we find it is true many distinct outstanding scenes
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which might well serve to provide fresh fruit for this or that variation in fantasy,
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but it would be vain to search for the so called traumatic motive.
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Whence something abnormal might have sprung such an abnormal activity, let us say,
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as day dreaming itself. There are certainly to be found traumatic scenes, although
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not in earliest childhood. The few scenes of earliest childhood which were remembered seem
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not to be traumatic, being rather accidental events which pass by without leaving any
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effect on her fantasy. Worth mentioning. The earliest fantasies arose out of all
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sorts of vague and only partly understood impressions received from her parents. Many peculiar
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feelings centered around her father, vacillating between anxiety, horror, aversion, disgust,
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love, and enthusiasm. The case was like so many other cases of
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hysteria, where no traumatic etiology can be found, but which grows from the
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roots of a peculiar and premature activity of fantasy, which maintains permanently the character
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of infantilism. You will object it. In this case, the scene with
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the shying horses represents the trauma. It is clearly the model of that night
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scene which happened nineteen years later, where the patient was incapable of avoiding the
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trotting horses that she wanted to plunge into the river. As an analogy in
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the model scene where the horses and carriage fell into the river. Since the
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latter traumatic moment, she suffered from hysterical fits. As I tried to show
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you, we do not find any trace of this apparent etiology developed in the
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course of her fantasy life. It seems as if the danger of losing her
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life that first time when the horses shied passed without leaving any emotional trace.
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None of the events that occurred in the following years showed any trace of that
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fright. In parenthesis, let me add that perhaps it never happened at all,
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it may have even been a mere fantasy, for I have only the
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assertions of the patient. All of a sudden, some eighteen years later,
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this event becomes of importance and is so to say, reproduced and carried out
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in all its details. This assumption is extremely unlikely and becomes still more inconceivable
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if we also bear in mind that the story of the shining horses may not
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even be true. Be that as it may, it is and remains almost
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unthinkable that an affect should remain buried for years and then suddenly explode. In
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other cases there is exactly the same state of affairs. I know, for
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instance, of a case in which the shock of an earthquake long recovered from,
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suddenly came back as a lively fear of earthquakes. Although this reminiscence could
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not be explained by the external circumstances the traumatic theory of false way, it
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is a very suspicious circumstance that these patients frequently show a pronounced tendency to account
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for their illnesses by some long past event, in geniously withdrawing the attention of
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the physician from the present moment towards some false track in the past. This
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false track was the first one pursued by the psychoanalytic theory. To this false
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hypothesis we owe an insight into the understanding of the neurotic symptoms never before reached,
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an insight we should not have gained if the investigation had not chosen this
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path really guided thither, however, by the misleading tendencies of the patient.
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I think that only a man who regards world happenings as a chain of more
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or less for to its iss contingencies, and therefore believes that the guiding hand
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of the reason endowed pedagogue is permanently wanted, can ever imagine that this path
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upon which the patient leads the physician has been a wrong one from which one
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ought to have warned men off with a signboard. Besides the deeper insight into
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psychological determination, we owe to the so called error the discovery of questions of
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immeasurable importance regarding the basis of psychic processes. It is for us to rejoice
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and be thankful that Freud had the courage to let himself be guided along this
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path. Not thus is the progress of science hindered, but rather through blind
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adherence to a provisional formulation, through the typical conservatism of authority, the vanity
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of learned men, their fear of making mistakes. This lack of the martyr's
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courage is far more injurious to the credit and greatness of scientific knowledge than an
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honest error retarded of the emotional development. But let us return to our own
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case. The following question arises. If the old trauma is not of itsy
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illogical significance, then the cause of the manifest neurosis is probably to be found
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in the retardation of the emotional development. We must therefore disregard the patient's assertion
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that her hysterical crisis date from the fright from their shying horses, although this
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right was in fact the beginning of her evident illness. This event only seems
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to be important, although it is not so in reality. This same formula
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is valid for all the so called shocks. They only seem to be important
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because they are the starting point of the external expression of an abnormal condition.
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As explained in detail, this abnormal condition is an anachronistic continuation of an infantile
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stage of lebie development. These patients still retain forms of the libido which they
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ought to have renounced long ago. It is impossible to give a list,
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as it were, of these forms, for they are of an extraordinary variety.
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The most common, which is scarcely ever absent, is the excessive activity
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of fantasies, characterized by an unconcerned exaggeration of subjective wishes. This exaggerated activity
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is always a sign of want of proper employment of the libido. The libido
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sticks fast to its use in fantasies instead of being employed in a more rigorous
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adaptation to the real conditions of life introversion. This state is called the state
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of introversion. The libido is used for the psychical inner world instead of being
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applied to the external world. A regular attendant symptom of this retardation in the
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emotional development is the soul called parent complex. If the libido is not used
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entirely for the adaptation to reality, it is always more or less introverted.
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The material content of the psychic world is composed of reminiscences, giving it a
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vividness of activity which in reality long since ceased to pertain. There too.
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The consequence is that these patients still live more or less in a world which
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in truth belongs to the past. They fight with difficulties which once played a
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part in their life, but which ought to have been obliterated long ago.
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They still grieve over matters, or rather, they are still concerned with matters
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which should have long ago lost their importance for them. They divert themselves or
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distress themselves with images which were once normally of importance for them, but are
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of no significance at their later age. The complex of the parents those influences
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most important during childhood. The personalities of the parents play the most potent part.
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Even if the parents have long been dead and might and should have lost
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all real importance since the life conditions of the patients are perhaps totally changed.
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Yet these parents are still somehow present and as important as if they were still
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alive. Love and admiration, resistance, repugnance, hate and revolt still cling
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to their figures, transfigured by affection and very often bearing little resemblance to the
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past reality. It was this fact which forced me to talk no longer of
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father and mother directly, but to employ instead the term image imago of mother
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or of father. For these fantasies no longer deal with the real father and
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the real mother, but with the subjective and very often completely altered creations of
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the imagination, which prolong an existence only in the patient's mind. The complex
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of the parents' images, that is to say, the sum of ideas connected
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with the parents, provides an important field of employment for the introverted libido.
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I must mention in passing that the complex has in itself but a shadowy existence
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in so far as it is not invested with libido. Following the usage that
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we arrived at in the Diagnostica associtione studim, the word complex is used for
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a system of ideas already invested with and actuated by libido. This system exists
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as a mere possibility, ready for application if not invested with libido, either
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temporarily or permanently. The nucleus complex. At the time when the psychoanalytic theory
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was still under the dominance of the trauma conception and in conformity, without viewing
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inclined to look for the cause epicians of the neurosis in the past, the
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parent complex seemed to us to be the so called root complex. To employ
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Freud's term or nucleus complex Kerne complex. The part which the parents played seemed
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to be so highly determining that we were inclined to attribute to them all later
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complications in the life of the patient. Some years ago I discussed this view
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in my article dia Bedutung des vaters fer das schikl des Eizennell the Importance of
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the Father for the fate of the individual. Here also we were guided by
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the patient's tendency to revert to the past in accordance with the direction of his
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introverted libido. Now indeed, it was no longer the external accidental event which
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caused the pathogenic effect, but a psychological effect which seemed to arise out of
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the individual's difficulties in adapting himself to the conditions of his familiar surroundings. It
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was especially the disharmony between the parents on the one hand, and between the
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child and the parents on the other, which seem favorable for creating currents in
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the child little compatible with his individual course of life. In the article just
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alluded to, I have described some instances taken from a wealth of material,
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which show these characteristics very distinctly. The influence of the parents does not come
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to an end alas with their neurotic descendants, blame of the family circumstances or
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their false education as the basis of their illness. But it extends even to
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certain actual events in the life and actions of the patient where such a determining
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influence could not have been expected. The lively imitativeness which we find in savages
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as well as in children, can produce in certain rather sensitive children a peculiar
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inner and unconscious identification with the parents. That is to say, such a
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similar mental attitude that effects in real life are sometimes produced which even in detail,
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resemble the personal experiences of the parents. For the empirical material here,
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I must refer you to the literature. I should like to remind you that
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one of my pupils, doctor Emma, first produced valuable experimental proofs for the
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solution of this problem, to which I refer to my lecture at Clark University.
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In applying association experiments to whole families, doctor first established the great resemblance
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of reaction type among all the members of one family. These experiments show that
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there very often exists an unconscious parallelism of association between parents and children, to
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be explained as an intense imitation or identification. The results of these investigations show
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far reaching psychological tendencies in parallel directions, which readily explained at times the astonishing
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conformity in their destinies. Our destinies are, as a rule, the result
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of our psychological tendencies. These facts allow us to understand why not only the
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patient, but even the theory which has been built on such investigations, expresses
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the view that the neurosis is the result of the characteristic influence of the parents
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upon their children. This view, moreover, is supported by the experiences which
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lie at the basis of pedagogy, namely the assumption of the plasticity of the
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child's mind, which is freely compared with soft wax. We know that the
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first impressions of childhood accompany us throughout life, and that certain educational influences may
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restrain people undisturbed all their lives within certain limits. It is no miracle,
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indeed, it is rather a frequent experience that under these circumstances, a conflict
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has to break out between the personality which is formed by the educational and other
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influences of the infantile milieu, and that one which can be described as the
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real individual line of life. With this conflict, all people must meet who
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are called upon to live an independent and productive life. Owing to the enormous
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influence of childhood on the later development of character, you can perfectly understand why
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we are inclined to ascribe the cause of neurosis directly to the influences of the
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infantile environment. I have to confess that I have known cases in which any
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other explanation seem to be less reasonable. There are indeed parents whose own contradictory
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neurotic behavior causes them to treat their children in such an unreasonable way that the
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latter's deterioration and illness would seem to be unavoidable. Hence, it is almost
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a rule among nerve specialists to remove neurotic children whenever possible, from the dangerous
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family atmosphere, to send them among more healthy influences, where, without any
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medical treatment, they thrive much better than at home. There are many neurotic
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patients who work clearly neurotic as children, and who have never been free from
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illness. For such cases, the conception which has been sketched holds generally good.
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This knowledge, which seems to be provisionally definitive, has been extended by
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the studies of Freud in the psychoanalytics school, the relations between the patients and
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their parents have been studied in detail. Inasmuch as these relations were regarded as
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of eteleological significance infantile mental attitude, it was soon noticed that such patients lived
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still partly or wholly in their childhood world, although quite unconscious themselves of this
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sect. It is a difficult task for psychoanalysis so exactly to investigate the psychological
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mode of adaptation of the patients as to be capable of putting its finger on
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the infantile misunderstanding. We find among neurotics many who have been spoiled as children.
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These cases give the best and clearest example of the infantilism of their psychological
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mode of adaptation. They start out in life expecting the same friendly reception,
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tenderness, and easy success obtained with no trouble to which they have been accustomed
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by their parents in their youth. Even very intelligent patients are not capable of
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seeing at once that they owe the complications of their life and their neurosis to
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the trail of their infantile emotional attitude. The small world of the child,
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the familiar surroundings. These form the model of the big world. The more
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intensely the family has stamped the child, the more will it be inclined as
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an adult instinctively to see again in the great world its former small world.
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Of course, this must not be taken as a conscious intellectual process. On
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the contrary, the patient feels and sees the difference between now and then,
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and tries to adapt himself as well as he can. Perhaps he will even
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believe himself perfectly adapted, for he grasps the situation in intellectually, but that
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does not prevent the emotional from being far behind the intellectual standpoint unconscious fantasy.
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It is unnecessary to trouble you with instances of this phenomenon. It is an
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everyday experience that our emotions are never at the level of our reasoning. Is
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exactly the same with such a patient, only with greater intensity. He may
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perhaps believe that, save for his neurosis, he is a normal person and
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hence adapted to the conditions of life. He does not suspect that he has
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not relinquished certain childish pretensions that he still carries with him in the background,
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expectations and illusions which he has never rendered conscious to himself. He cultivates all
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sorts of favorite fantasies, which seldom become conscious, or at any rate not
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very often, so that he himself does not know that he has them.
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They very often exist only as emotional expectations, hopes, prejudices, etc.
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We call these fantasies unconscious fantasy. Sometimes they dip into the peripheral consciousness as
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quite fugitive thoughts, which disappear again a moment later, so that the patient
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is unable to say whether he had such fantasies or not. It is only
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during the psychoanalytic treatment that most patients learn to observe and retain these fleeting thoughts.
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Although most of the fantasies once at least have been conscious in the form
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of fleeting thoughts, and only afterwards became unconscious, we have no right to
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call them on that account conscious, as they are practically most of the time
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unconscious. It is therefore right to designate them unconscious fantasies. Of course,
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there are also infantile fantasies, which are perfectly conscious and which can be reproduced
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at any time. In the chapter four