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08 Part 2 - The Theory of Psychoanalysis - Carl Jung · Logic Library

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Chapter eight, Part two, The etiological significance of failure of adaptation. Probably
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this man knows very well that it would have been physically possible to overcome the
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difficulty, that he was only morally incapable of doing so. He rejects this
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idea on account of his painful nature. He is so conceded that he cannot
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admit to himself his cowardice. He brags of his courage and prefers to declare
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things impossible rather than his own courage inadequate. But through this behavior he comes
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into opposition with his own self. On the one hand, he has a
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right view of the situation. On the other, he hides this knowledge from
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himself behind the illusion of his infallible courage. He represses the proper view and
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forcibly tries to impress his subjective, elusive opinion upon reality. The result of
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this contradiction is that the libida is divided, and that the two parts are
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directed against one another. He opposes his wish to climb a mountain by his
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artificial, self created opinion that his assent is impossible. He does not turn
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to the real impossibility, but to an artificial one, to a self given
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limitation Thus he is in disharmony with himself, and from this moment has an
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internal conflict. Now insight into his cowardice will get the upper hand. Now
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obstinacy and pride. In either case, the libido is engaged in a useless
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civil war. Thus the man becomes incapable of any enterprise. He will never
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realize his wish to climb a mountain, and he goes perfectly astray as to
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his moral qualities. He is therefore less capable of performing his work. He
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is not fully adapted. He can be compared to a neurotic patient. The
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libida, which withdrew from before this difficulty, has neither led to honest self
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criticism nor to a desperate struggle to overcome the obstacle. It has only been
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used to maintain his cheap pretense that the ascent was really impossible, even heroic
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courage could have availed nothing. Such a reaction is called an infanti reaction.
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It is very characteristic of children and of naive minds, not to find the
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fault in their own shortcomings, but in external circumstances, and to impute to
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these their own subjective judgment. This man solves his problem in an infantile way.
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That is, he replaces the suitable mode of adaptation of our former case
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by a mode of adaptation belonging to the infantile mind. This is regression is
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libida withdraws from an obstacle which cannot be surmounted, and replaces a real action
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by an infantile illusion. These cases are very commonly met with in practice among
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neurotics. I will remind you here of those well known cases in which young
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girls become hysterical with curious suddenness just when they are called upon to decide about
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their engagements. As an instance, I should like to describe to you the
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case of two sisters separated only by one year in age. They were similar
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in capacities and characters, their education the same, They grew up in the
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same surroundings, and under the influence of their parents. Both were healthy.
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Neither the one nor the other showed any nervous symptoms. An attentive observer might
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have discovered that the elder daughter was the more beloved by the parents. This
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affection depended on a certain sensitiveness which this daughter showed. She asked for more
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affection than the younger one. Was also somewhat precocious and more serious. Besides,
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she showed some charming childish strait, just those things which, through their
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slightly capricious and unbalanced character, maker personality especially charming. No wonder that that
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father and mother had a great joy in their elder daughter. As both sisters
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became of marriageable age almost at the same time, they became intimately acquainted with
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two young men, and the possibility of their marriages soon approached. As is
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generally the case, certain difficulties existed. Both girls were young and had very
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little experience of the world. Both men were relatively young too, and in
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positions which might have been better They were only at the beginning of a career.
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But nevertheless, both were capable young men. Both girls lived in a
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social atmosphere which gave them the right to certain social expectations. It was a
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situation which a certain doubt as to the suitability of either marriage was permissible.
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Moreover, both girls were insufficiently acquainted with their prospective husbands, and were therefore
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not quite sure of their love. There were many hesitations and doubts here.
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It was noticed that the elder girl always showed greater waverings in her decisions.
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From these hesitations, some painful moments arose between the girls and the young men,
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who naturally longed for more certainty. At such moments, the older sister
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was much more excited than the younger one. Several times she went weeping to
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her mother complaining of her own hesitation. The younger one was somewhat more decided
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and put an end to the unsettled situation by accepting her suitor. She thus
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got over her difficulty, and the further events ran smoothly. As soon as
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the admirer of the elder sister became aware that the younger one had put matters
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on our short footing, he rushed to his lady and begged in a somewhat
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passionate way for her acceptance. His passion irritated and frightened her a little.
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Although she was really inclined to follow her sister's example. She answered in a
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somewhat haughty and offhand way. He replied with sharp reproaches, causing her to
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get still more excited. The end was a scene with tears, and he
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went away in an angry mood. At home, he told the story to
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his mother, who expressed the opinion that this girl was really unsuitable for him,
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and that it would be perhaps better to choose someone else. The girl,
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for her part, doubted very much if she really loved this man.
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It suddenly seemed to her impossible to follow him to an unknown destiny and to
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be obliged to leave her beloved parents. From that moment, she was depressed.
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She showed unmistakable signs of the greatest jealousy towards her sister, but would
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neither see nor admit that she was jealous. The former affectionate relations with her
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parents changed. Also. Instead of her earlier childlike affection, she betrayed a
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lamentable state of mind, which increased sometimes to pronounced irritability. Weeks of depression
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ensued. Whilst the young sister celebrated her wedding, the elder went to a
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distant health resort for a nervous intestinal trouble. I shall not continue the history
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of the disease. It ended in an ordinary hysteria. In analyzing this case,
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great resistance to the sexual problem was found. The resistance depended on many
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perverse fantasies, the existence of which would not be admitted by the patient.
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The question whence arose such perverse fantasies so unexpected, and a young girl brought
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us to the discovery that once, as a child eight years old, she
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had found herself suddenly confronted in the street an exhibitionists. She was rooted to
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the spot by fright, and even much later, ugly images persecuted her in
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her dreams. Her younger sister was with her at the time. The night
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after the patient told me this, she dreamed of a man in a gray
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suit who seemed about to do in front of her what the exhibitionists had done.
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She awoke with a cry of terror. The first association to the gray
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suit was a suit of her father's, which he had been wearing on excursion
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which she made with him when she was about six years old. This dream
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connects the father, without any doubt, with the exhibitionists. This must be
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done for some reason. Did something happen with the father which could possibly call
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forth this association. This problem met with great resistance from the patient, but
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she could not get rid of it, and the next sitting she reproduced some
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early reminiscences when she had noticed her father undressing himself again. She came one
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day excited and terribly shaken, and told me that she had had an abominable
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vision, absolutely distinct. In bed at night, she felt herself again a
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child of two or three years old, and she saw her father standing by
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her bed in an obscene attitude. The story was gasped out, piece by
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piece, obviously with the greatest internal struggle. This was followed by violent reproaches
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of how dreadful it is that a father should ever behave to his child in
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such a terrible manner. Nothing is less probable than that the father really did
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this. It is only a fantasy, probably first constructed in the course of
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the analysis, from that same need of discovering a cause, which once induced
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the physician to form the theory that hysteria was only caused by such impressions.
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This case seemed to me suitable to demonstrate the meaning of the theory of regression,
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and to show at the same time the source of the theoretical mistake.
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So far we saw that both sisters were originally only slightly different. From the
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moment of the engagement, their ways were totally separated. They seemed now to
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have quite different characters. The one, vigorous in health and enjoying life,
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was a good and courageous woman, willing to undertake the natural demands of life.
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The other was sad, ill tempered, full of bitterness and malice,
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disinclined to make any effort towards a reasonable life, egotistical quibbling, and a
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nuisance to all about her. This striking difference was only brought out when the
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one sister happily passed through the difficulties of her engagement, whilst the other did
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not. For both, it hung, to a certain extent, only on
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a hair whether the affair would be broken off or not. The younger one,
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somewhat calmer, was therefore more deliberate and able to find the right word
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at the right moment. The older one was more spoiled and more sensitive,
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consequently, more influenced by her emotions, and could not find the right word,
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nor had she the courage to sacrifice her pride to put things straight.
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Afterwards, this little circumstance had a very important effect. Originally, the conditions
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were much the same for both sisters. The greatest sensitiveness of the elder produced
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the difference. The question now is whence arose this sensitiveness with its unfortunate results.
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The analysis demonstrated the existence of an extraordinarily developed sexuality of infantile fantastic character
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in addition, and incestuous fantasy towards the father. We have a quick and
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easy solution of the problem of this sensitiveness. If we admit that these fantasies
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had a lively and therefore effective existence. We might thus readily understand why this
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girl was so sensitive. She was shut up in her own fantasies and strongly
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attached to her father. Under these circumstances, it would have been really a
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wonder had she been willing to love and marry another. The more we pursue
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our need for our causation and pursue the development of these fantasies back to their
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beginning, the greater growth the difficulties of the analysis, that is to say,
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the resistances as we call them. At the end, we should find
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that impressive scene, that obscene act whose improbability has already been established. This
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scene is exactly the character of a subsequent fantastic formation. Therefore, we have
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to conceive these difficulties, which we call resistances, at least in this part
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of the analysis, as an opposition of a patient against the formation of such
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fantasies, and not as a resistance against the constance admittance of a painful remembrance.
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You will ask, with astonishment, to what aim the patient contrives such
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a fantasy. You will even be inclined to suggest that the physician forced the
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patient to invent it, otherwise she would probably never have produced such an absurd
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idea. I do not venture to doubt that there have been cases in which,
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by dint of the decisions a desire to find a cause, especially under
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the influence of the shock theory, the patient has been brought to contrive such
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fantasies. But the physician would never have come to this theory had he not
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followed the patient's line of thought, thus taking part in this retrograve movement of
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the libida, which we call regression. The physician consequently only carried right through
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to its consequence what the patient was afraid to carry out, namely, a
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regression of falling back to the libido to its former desires. The analysis and
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following the libido regression does not always follow the exact way marked by its historical
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development, but very often rather a later fantasy which only partly depends on former
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realities. In our case, only some of the circumstances are real, and
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it is but much later that they get their great importance, namely, at
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the moment when the libida regresses. Wherever the libido takes hold of a reminiscence,
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we may expect that this reminiscence will be elaborated and altered, has everything
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that is touched by the libido revised, takes on dramatic form and becomes systematized.
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We have to admit that in our case almost the greater part of these
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fantasies became significant subsequently, after the libido had made a regression, after it
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had taken hold of everything that could be suitable, and had made out of
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all this a fantasy. Then that fantasy, keeping pace with the retrograde movement
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of the libido, came back at last to the father and put upon him
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all the infantile sexual desires. Even so, it was thought in ancient times
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that the golden age of paradise lay in the past. In the case before
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us, we know that all the fantasies brought out by analysis did become subsequently
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of importance. From this standpoint only we are not able to explain the beginning
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of the neurosis. We should constantly move in a circle. The critical moment
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for this neurosis was that in which the girl and man were inclined to love
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one another, but in which an opportune sensitiveness on the part of the patient
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caused the opportunity to slip. By the conception of sensitive, we might say,
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and that psychoanalytical conception inclines in this direction, that this critical sensitiveness arises
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from some peculiar psychological personal history which determined this end. We know that such
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sensitiveness in a psychogenic neurosis is always a symptom of the discord within the subject
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self, a symptom of a struggle between two divergent tendencies. Both tendencies have
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their own previous psychological story. In this case, we are able to show
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that this special resistance, the content of that critical sensitiveness, is, as
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a matter of fact, connected in that patient's previous history with certain infantile sexual
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manifestations and also with that so called traumatic event, all things which are capable
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of casting a shadow on sexuality. This would be so far plausible if the
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cyst of the patient had not lived more or less the same light without experiencing
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all these consequences I mean, she did not develop on neurosis. So we
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have to agree that the patient experienced these things in a special way, perhaps
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more intensely than the younger one. Perhaps also, the events of her earlier
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childhood were to her of a disproportionate importance. But if it had been the
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case to such a marked extent, something of it would surely have been noticed
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earlier in later youth. The earlier events of childhood were as much forgotten by
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the patient as by her sister. Another supposition is therefore possible. This critical
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sensitiveness is not the consequence of the special previous past history, but springs from
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something that had existed all along. A careful observer of small children can notice,
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even in early infancy any unusual sensitiveness. I once analyzed a hysterical patient,
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too, showed me a letter written by her mother when this patient was
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two and a half years old. Her mother wrote about her and her sister.
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The elder was always good tempered, in enterprising, but the other was
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always in difficulties with both people and things. The first one became in later
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life hysterical, the other one catatonic. These far reaching differences, which go
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back into early childhood cannot depend on the more or less accidental events of life,
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but have to be considered as being innate differences. From this point of
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view, we cannot any longer pretend that her special previous psychological history cause this
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sensitiveness. At that critical moment, it would be more correct to say this
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innate sensitiveness is manifested most distinctly in uncommon situations. This surplus of sensitiveness is
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found very often as an enrichment of a personality, contributing even more to the
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charm of the character than to its detriment. But in difficult and uncommon situations
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the advantage very often turns into a disadvantage, as the inopportunely excited emotion renders
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calm considerations impossible. Nothing could be more incorrect than to consider this sensitiveness as
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ao ipso, a morbid constituent of a character. If it really were so,
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we should have to regard at least one third of humanity as pathological.
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Only if the consequences of this sense of stiveness are destructed to the individual,
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have we a right to consider this quality as abnormal primary sensitiveness and regression.
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We come to this difficulty when we crudely oppose the two conceptions as to the
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significance of the previous psychological history, as we have done here. In reality,
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the two are not mutually exclusive. A certain innate sensitiveness leads to a
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special psychological history, to special reactions to infantile events, which are not without
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their own influence on the development of the childish conception of life. Events bound
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up with powerful impressions can never pass without leaving some traces unsensitive people. Some
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of these often remain effective throughout life, and such events can exert in apparently
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determining influence on the whole mental development. Dirty and disillusional experiences in the domain
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of sexuality are especially apt to frighten a sensitive person for years and years.
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Under these conditions, the mere thought of sexuality raises the greatest resistances. As
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the creation of the shock theory proved, we are too much inclined, in
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consequence of our knowledge of such cases, to attribute the emotional development of a
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person more or less to accidents. The earlier chack theory went too far in
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this respect. We must never forget that the world is, in the first
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place a subjective phenomenon. The impressions we receive from these happenings are also our
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own doing. It is not the case that the impressions are forced on us
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unconditionally, but our disposition gives the value to the impressions. A man with
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stored up libido will, as a rule, have quite different impressions, much
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more vivid impressions than one who organizes his libido into a rich activity. Such
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a sensitive person will have a more profound impression from certain events which might harmlessly
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pass over a less sensitive subject. Therefore, in conjunction with the accidental impression,
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we have to consider it seriously. The subjective conditions are former considerations,
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and the observation of the concrete case especially show us that the important subjective condition
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is the regression. It is shown by experience in practice that the effect of
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regression is so enormous, so important, and so impressive, that we might
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perhaps be inclined to attribute the effect of accidents or events to the mechanism of
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regression only without any doubt. There are cases in which everything is dramatized,
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where even the traumatic events are artifacts of the imagination, in which the few
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real events are subsequently entirely distorted through fantastic elaboration. We can simply say that
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there is not a single case of neurosis in which the emotional value of the
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preceding event is not considerably aggravated through the regression of libido, and even where
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great parts of the infantile development seem to be of extraordinary importance, they only
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gain this through regression. As is always the case, truth is found in
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the middle. The previous history is certainly determining historic value, which is reinforced
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by the regression. Sometimes the traumatic significance of the previous history comes more into
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the foreground, sometimes only the regressive meaning. These observations have naturally to be
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applied to the infantile sexual events to Obviously, there are cases in which brutal
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sexual accidents justify the shadow thrown on sexuality and explain thoroughly the later resistance of
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the individual towards sexuality. Dreadful impressions other than sexual can also sometimes leave behind
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a permanent feeling of insecurity, which may determine the individual in a hesitating attitude
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towards reality. Where real events of undoubted traumatic potentiality are wanting, as is
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generally the case with neurosis, they're the mechanism of regression prevails. Of course,
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You could object that we have no criterion for the potential effect of the
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trauma or shock, as this is a highly relative conception. It is not
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quite so. We have in the standard of the average normal cerient for the
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potential effect of a shock. Whatever is capable of making a strong and persistent
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impression upon a normal person must be considered as having a determining influence. Foreign
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neurotics also, but we may not straightway attribute any importance, even in neurosis
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to impressions which in a normal case would disappear and be forgotten. In most
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of the cases where any event has an unexpected traumatic influence, we shall find
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in all probability a regression, that is to say, a secondary fantastic dramatization.
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The earlier in childhood and impression center of arisen, the more suspicious is
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its reality. Animals and primitive people have not that readiness in reproducing memories from
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a single impression, which we find among civilized people. Very young children have
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by no means that impression nobility, which we find in older children. A
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certain higher development of that mental faculties is a necessary condition for impressionability. Therefore,
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we may agree that the earlier a patient places some signals an event in
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his childhood, the more likely it would be a fantastic and regressive one.
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Important depressions are only to be expected from later youth. At any rate,
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we have generally to attribute to the events of earliest childhood, that is,
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from the fifth year backwards, but a regressive importance. Sometimes the regression does
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play an overwhelming part in later years, but even then one must now describe
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too little importance to accidental experiences. It is well known that in the later
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course about neurosis, the accidental events and their regression together form a vicious circle.
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The withdrawal from the experiences of life leads to regression, and the regression
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aggravates the resistances towards life. In the conception of regression, psychoanalysis has made
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one of the most important discoveries which have been made in this sphere. Not
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only has the earlier exposition of the genesis of neurosis been already subverted or at
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least widely modified, but at the same time the actual conflict has received its
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proper valuation. The signific against the actual conflict in the case I have described
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so that we could understand the centermatological dramatization as soon as it could be conceived
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as an expression of the actual conflict. Here, the psychoanalytic theory agrees with
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the results of the association experiments of which I spoke in my lectures at Clark
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University. The association experiment with a neurotic person gives us a series of references
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to certain conflicts of the actual life, which we call complexes. These complexes
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contained those problems and difficulties which have brought the patient into opposition with himself.
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Generally, we find a love conflict of an obvious character. From the standpoint
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of the association experiment, neurosis seems to be something quite different from what it
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appeared from the standpoint of the earlier psychoanalytic theory. Considered from the standpoint of
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the latter theory, neurosis seemed to be a growth which had its roots in
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earliest childhood and overgrew the normal structure. Considered from the standpoint of the association
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e scat experiment, neurosis seems to be a reaction from an actual conflict,
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which is naturally found also among normal people. But among them the conflict is
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solved without too great difficulty. The neurotic remains in the grip of his conflict,
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and his neurosis seems more or less to be the consequence of this stagnation.
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So we may say that the results of the association experiments tell in favor
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of the theory of regression. With the former historical conception of neurosis, we
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thought we understood clearly why a neurotic person with his powerful parent complex had such
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great difficulty in adapting himself to life. Now that we know that normal persons
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have the same complex and in principle have to pass through just the same psychological
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development as a neurotic, we can no longer explain neurosis as a certain development
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of fantasy systems. The really illuminating way to put the problem as a prospective
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one. We do not ask any longer if the patient has a father or
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a mother complex, or unconscious incess fantasies which worry him. Today we know
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that everyone has such things. To believe that only neurotics had these complexes was
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in error. We ask, now, what is the task which the patient
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does not wish to fulfill? From which necessary difficulties of life does the patient
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try to withdraw himself? When people try always to adapt themselves to the conditions
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of life, the libido is employed rightly inadequately. When this is not the
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case, the libido is stored up and produces regressive symptoms. The inadequate adaptation,
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that is to say, the abnormal indecision of neurotics in face of difficulties,
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is easily accounted for by their strong subjection to their fantasies, in consequence
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of which reality seems to them wholly or partly more unreal, valueless, and
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uninteresting than to normal people. These heightened fantasies are the results of innumerable regressions.
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The ultimate and deepest root is the innate sensitiveness, which causes difficulties even
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to the infant at the mother's breast, in the form of unnecessary irritation and
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resistances. Call it sensitiveness or whatever however you like. This unknown element of
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predisposition is in every case of neurosis. The etiological significance of fantasy criticized.
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The apparent etiological development of neurosis discovered by psychoanalysis is in reality only the work
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of causally connected fantasies which the patient has created from that libido which at times
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he did not employ in the biological adaptation. Thus, these apparently etiological fantasies
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seem to be forms of compensation, disguises for an unfulfilled adaptation to reality.
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The vicious circle previously mentioned between the withdrawing in the face of difficulties and the
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regression into the world of fantasies is naturally well suited to give the illusion of
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an apparent, striking causal relationship, so that both the patient and the physician
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believe in it. In such a development, accidental experiences are only extenuating circumstances.
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I feel I must make allowance for those critics who, on reading the
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history of psychoanalytic patients, get the impression of fantastic elaboration. Only they make
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the mistake of attributing the fantastic artifacts and far thatched arbitrary symbolism to the suggestion
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and to the awful fantasy of the physician, instead of to the unequal fertility
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of fantasy on the part of the patient of a truth. There is a
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good deal of artificial elaboration in the fantasies of a psychoanalytic case. There are
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generally significant signs of the patient's active imagination. The critics are not so wrong
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when they say that their neurotic patients have no such fantasies. I've no doubt
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that patients are unconscious of the greater part of their own fantasies. A fantasy
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only really exists in the unconscious when it has some notable effect upon the conscious,
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for example, in the form of a dream. Otherwise we may say
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with a clear conscience that it is not real. Everyone who overlooks the frequently
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nearly imperceptible effects of unconscious fantasies upon the conscious or renounces their fundamental and technically
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in contestable analysis of dreams, can easily overlook the fantasies of his patients altogether.
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We are therefore inclined to smile when we hear this repeated objection, but
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we must admit that there is some truth in it. The regressive tendency of
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the patient is strengthened by the attention bestowed on it and directed to the unconscious,
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that is to say, to the fantasies he discovers and forms during analysis.
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We might even perhaps go so far as to say that during that time
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of analysis this fantasy production has greatly increased, as that patient is strengthened in
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his regressive tendency. By the interest taken by the physician, and originates even
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more fantasies than he did before. Hence, our critics have repeatedly stated that
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a conscientious therapy of the neurosis should go in exactly the opposite direction to that
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taken by psychoanalysis. In other words, it has been the chief endeavor of
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therapy hitherto to extricate the patient from his unhealthy fantasies and bring him back again
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to real life. In the Chapter eight, Part two,