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08 Part 1 - The Theory of Psychoanalysis - Carl Jung · Logic Library

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Chapter eight, Part one, the etiology of the neurosees. With this conception
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of Freud's we have to return to the question of the etology of the neuroses.
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We have seen that the psychoanalytic theory began with a traumatic event in childhood,
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which was only later on found to be a fantasy, at least in
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many cases. In consequence, the theory became modified and tried to find in
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the development of abnormal fantasy the main etiological significance. The investigation of the unconscious,
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made by the collaboration of many workers, carried on over a space of
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ten years, provided an extensive empirical material which demonstrated that the incest complex was
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the beginning of the morbid fantasies. But it was no longer thought that the
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incest complex was a special complex of neurotic people. It was demonstrated to be
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a constituent of a normal infantile psyche two. We cannot tell by its mere
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existence if this complex will give rise to a neurosis or not to become pathogenic.
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It must give rise to a conflict. That is, the complex,
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which in itself is harmless, has to become dynamic and thus give rise to
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a conflict. Herewith we come to a new and important question. The whole
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etiological problem is altered if the infantile root complex is only a general form which
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is not pathogenic in itself, and requires, as we saw in our previous
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exposition, to be subsequently set in action. Under these circumstances, we dig
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in vain among the reminiscences of earliest childhood, as they give us only the
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general forms of the later conflicts, but not the conflict itself. I believe
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the best thing I can do is to describe the further development of the theory
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by demonstrating the case of that young lady whose story you have heard in part
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in one of the former lectures. You will probably remember that the shying of
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the horses, by means of the anamnastic explanation, brought back the reminiscence of
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a comparable scene in childhood. We here discussed the trauma theory. We found
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that we had to look for the real pathological element in the exaggerated fantasy,
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which took its origin in a certain retardation of the psychic sexual development. We
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have now to apply our theoretical standpoint to the origin of this particular type of
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illness, so that we may understand how, just at that moment, this
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event of her childhood, which seemed to be of such potency, could come
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to constellation. The simplest way to come to an understanding of this important event
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would be by making an exact inquiry into the circumstances of the moment. The
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first thing I did was to question the patient about the society in which he
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had been at that time, and as to what was the farewell gathering to
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which she had been just before. She had been at a farewell supper given
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in honor of her best friend, who was going to a foreign health resort
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for a nervous illness. We hear that this friend is happily married and is
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the mother of one child. We have some right to doubt this assertion of
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her happiness. If she were really happily married, she probably would not be
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nervous and would not need a cure. When I put my question differently,
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I learned that my patient had been brought back into the host's house as soon
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as she was overtaken by her friends, as this house was the nearest place
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to bring her to in safety in her exhausted condition. She received his hospitality
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as the patient came to this part of her history, she suddenly broke off,
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was embarrassed, fidgeted, and tried to turn to another subject. Evidently,
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we had now come upon some disagreeable reminiscences which suddenly presented themselves. After
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the patient had overcome obstinate resistances, it was admitted that something very remarkable had
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happened that night the host made her a passionate declaration of love, thus giving
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rise to a situation that might well be considered difficult and painful, considering the
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absence of the hostess. Ostensibly, this declaration came like a flash of lightning
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from a clear sky. A small dose of criticism applied to this assertion will
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teach us that these things never drop from the clouds, but have always their
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previous history. It was the work of the following weeks to dig out,
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piecemeal a whole long love story. I can thus roughly describe the picture I
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got at finally, As a child, the patient was thoroughly boyish, loved
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only turbulent games for boys, laughed at her own sex, and flung aside
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all fum then ways and occupations. After puberty, the time when the sex
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question should have come nearer to her, she began to shun all society she
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hated and despised, as it were everything which could remind her even remotely of
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the biological destination of mankind, and lived in a world of fantasies which had
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nothing in common with the rude reality. So she escaped up to her twenty
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fourth year, all the little adventures, hopes, and expectations which ordinarily move
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a woman of this age. In this respect, women are very often remarkably
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insincere towards themselves and towards the physician. But she became acquainted with two men
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who were destined to destroy the thorny hedge which had grown all around her.
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Mister A was the husband of her best friend at the time. Mister B
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was the bachelor friend of this family. Both were to her taste. It
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seemed to her pretty soon that mister B was much more sympathetic to her,
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and from this resulted a more intimate relationship between herself and him, and the
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possibility of an engagement was discussed. Through her relations with mister B and through
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her friend. She met mister A frequently in an inexplicable way. His presence
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very often excited her and made her nervous. Just at this time, our
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friend went to a big party. All her friends were there. She became
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lost in thought and played as in a dream, with her ring, which
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suddenly slipped from her hand and rolled under the table. Both men tried to
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find it, and mister B managed to get it. With an expressive smile,
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he put the ring back on her finger and said, you know what
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this means. At that moment, a strange and irresistible feeling came over her.
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She tore the ring from her finger and threw it out of the open
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window. Evidently, a painful moment ensued in She soon left the company feeling
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deeply depressed. A short time later, she found herself for her half the
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days accidentally in the same health resort where mister A and his wife were staying.
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Missus A now became more and more nervous, and, as she fell
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ill, had to stay frequently at home. The patient often went out with
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mister A alone. One day they were out in that small boat. She
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was boisterously merry and suddenly fell overboard. Mister A saved her with great difficulty
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and lifted her, half unconscious into the boat. He then kissed her with
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this romantic event, the bonds were woven fast. To defend herself, our
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patient tried energetically to get herself engaged to mister B and to imagine that she
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loved him. Of course, this queer play did not escape the sharp eye
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a feminine jealousy. Missus A, her friend, felt the secret, was
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worried by it, and her nervousness grew proportionately. It became more and more
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necessary for her to go to a foreign health resort. The farewell party was
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a dangerous opportunity. The patient knew that her friend and rival was going off
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the same evening, so mister A would be alone. Certainly, she did
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not see this opportunity clearly, as women have the notable capacity to think purely
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emotionally and not intellectually. For this reason, it seems to them as if
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they never thought of about certain matters at all. But as a matter of
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fact, she had a queer feeling all the evening. She felt extremely nervous,
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and when missus A had been accompanied to the station and had gone,
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the hysterical attack occurred. On her way back. I asked her of what
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she had been thinking or what she felt at the actual moment when the trotting
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horses came along. Her answer was she had only a frightful feeling, the
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feeling that something dreadful was very near to her, which she could not escape.
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As you know, the consequence was that the exhausted patient was brought back
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into the house of the host, mister A. A simple human mind would
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understand the situation without difficulty, and an initiated person would say, well,
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that is clear enough. She only intended to return by one way or another
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to mister A's house. But the psychologist would have reproached this layment for his
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incorrect way of expressing himself, and would tell him that the patient was not
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conscious of the motives of her behavior, and that it was therefore not permissible
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to speak of the patient's intention to return to mister AA's house. There are,
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of course, learned psychologists who are capable of furnishing many theoretical reasons for
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disputing the meaning of this behavior. They base their reasons on the dogma of
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the identity of consciousness and psyche. The psychology inaugurated by Freud recognized long ago
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that it is impossible to estimate psychological actions as to their final meaning by conscious
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motives but that the objective standard of their psychological results has to be applied for
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their right evaluation. Nowadays they cannot be contested any longer that there are unconscious
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tendencies to which have a great influence on our modes of reaction, and on
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the effects to which these in turn give rise. What happened to mister A's
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house bears out this observation. Our patient made a sentimental scene, and mister
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A was induced to answer it with a declaration of love. Looked at in
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the light of this last event, the whole previous history seems to be very
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ingeniously directed towards just this end, but throughout the conscience of the patient struggled
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consciously against it. Our theoretical prophet from this story is the clear perception that
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an unconscious purpose or tendency has brought on to the stage the scene of the
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fright from the horses, utilizing thus very possibly that infantile reminiscence where the shying
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horses galloped towards the catastrophe. We're viewing the whole material. The scene with
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the horses, the starting point of the illness, seems now to be the
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keystone of a planned edifice. The fright and the apparent traumatic effect of the
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event in childhood are only brought on the stage in the peculiar way characteristic of
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hysteria. But what is thus put on the stage has become almost a reality.
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We know from hundreds of experiences that certain hysterical pains are only put on
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the stage in order to reap certain advantages from the sufferer's surroundings. The patients
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not only believe that they suffer, but their suffer are, from a psychological
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standpoint, as real as those do to organic causes. Nevertheless, they are
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but stage effects the regression of libido. This utilization of reminiscences to put on
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the stage any illness or an apparent etiology is called a regression of the libido.
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The libida goes back to reminiscences and makes them actual, so that an
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apparent etiology is produced. In this case, by the old theory, the
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fright from the horses would seem to be based on a former shock. The
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resemblance between the two scenes is unmistakable, and in both cases the patient's right
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is absolutely real. At any rate, we have no reason to doubt her
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assertions in this respect, as they are in full harmony with all other experiences.
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The nervous asthma, the hysterical anxiety, the psychogenic depressions and exaltations,
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the pains, the convulsions. They are all very real, and that physician
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who has themselves suffered from a psychogenetic symptom knows that it feels absolutely real.
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Regressively relived reminiscences, even if they were but fantasies, are as real as
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remembrances of events that have once been real. As the term regression of libida
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shows, we understand by this retrograde mode of application of the libida, a
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retreat of the libida to former stages. In our example, we are able
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to recognize clearly the way the process of regression is carried on. At that
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farewell party, which proved a good opportunity to be alone with the host,
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the patient shrank from the idea of turning this opportunity to her advantage, and
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yet was overpowered by her desires which she had never consciously realized up to that
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moment. The libida was not used consciously for that definite purpose, nor was
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this purpose ever acknowledged. The libida had to carry it out through the unconscious
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and through the pretext of the fright caused by an apparently terrible danger. Her
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feeling, yet when the horses approached illustrates our formula most clearly. She felt
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as if something inevitable had now to happen. The process of regression is beautifully
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demonstrated in an illustration already used by Freud. The libido can be compared with
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a stream which is dammed up as soon as its course meets any impediment whence
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arises an inundation. If this stream has previously, in its upper reaches excavated
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other channels, then these channels will be filled up again by reason of the
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damming below. To a certain extent, they would appear to be real river
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beds, filled with water as before, but at the same time they only
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have a temporary existence. It is not that the stream has permanently chosen the
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old channels, but only for as long as the impediment endures in the main
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stream. The affluents do not always carry water because they were from the first
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as it were, not independent streams, but only former stages of development of
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the main river or passing possibility to which an inundation has given the opportunity for
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fresh existence. This illustration can directly be transferred to the development of the application
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of the libido. The definite direction the main river is not yet found during
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the childish development of sexuality. The libida goes instead into all possible bypaths,
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and only gradually does the definite form developed. But the more the stream follows
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out its main channel, the more the affluence will dry up and lose their
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importance, leaving only traces of former activity. Similarly, the importance of the
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childish precursors of sexuality disappears completely as a rule, only leaving behind certain traces
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if in later life and impediment arises so that the damning of the libida reanimates
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the old bypaths. The condition thus excited is properly a new one and something
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abnormal. The former condition of the child is normal usage of the libido,
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whilst the return of the libido towards the childish past is something abnormal. Therefore,
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in my opinion, it is an erroneous terminology to call the infantile sexual
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manifestations perversions, for it is not permissible to give normal manifestations pathological terms.
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This erroneous usage seems to be responsible for the confusion of the scientific public.
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The terms employed in neurotic psychology have been misapplied here under the assumption that the
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abnormal bypaths of the libido discovered in neurotic people are the same phenomena as are
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to be found in children. The infantile amnesia criticized the so called amnesia of
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childhood, which plays an important part in the three contributions, is a similar
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illegitimate retrograde application from pathology. Amnesia is a pathological condition consisting in the repression
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of certain contents of their conscious This condition cannot possibly be the same as the
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antigrade amnesia of children, which consists in an incapacity for intentional reproduction, a
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condition we find also among savages. This incapacity for reproduction dates from birth and
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can be understood on obvious anatomical and biological grounds. It would be a strange
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hypothesis where we willing to regard this totally different quality of early infant consciousness as
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one to be attributed to repression in analogy with the condition in neurosis. The
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amnesia of neurosis is punched out, as it were, from the continuity of
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memory, but the remembrances of earlier childhood exist in separate islands in the continuity
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of the non memory. This condition is the opposite in every sense of the
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condition of neurosis, so that the expression amnesia generally used for this condition is
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incorrect. The amnesia of childhood is a conclusion a post diorioi from the psychology
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of neurosistis, as is the polymorphic perverse disposition of the child. The latent
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sexual period criticized this era in the theoretical conception is shown clearly in the so
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called latent sexual period of childhood. Freud has remarked that the early infant so
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called sexual manifestations, which are now called the phenomena of the pre sexual stage,
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vanished after a while and only reappear much later everything that Freud has termed
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the suckling's masturbation. That is to say, although sexual like actions of which
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we spoke before are said to return later as real onianism, such a process
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of development would be biologically unique. In conformity with this theory, one would
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have to say, for instance, then when a plant forms a bud from
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which a blossom begins to unfold, the blossom is taken back again before it
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is fully developed, and is again hidden within the bud to reappear it later
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on in the same form. This impossible supposition is a consequence of the assertion
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that the early infantile activities of the pre sexual stage are sexual phenomena, and
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that those manifestations which resemble masturbation are genuinely acts of masturbation. In this way,
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Freud had to assert that there is a disappearance of sexuality, or as
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he calls it, a latent sexual period. What he calls a disappearance of
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sexuality is nothing but the real beginning of sexuality. Everything preceding was but the
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fourth stage, to which no real sexual character can be imputed. In this
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way, the impossible phenomenon of the latent period is very simply explained. This
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theory of the latent sexual period is a striking instance of the incorrectness of the
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conception of the early infantile sexuality. But there has been no error of observation
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on the contrary to the hypothesis of the latent sexual period proves how exactly Freud
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noticed the apparent recommencement of sexuality. The error lies in the conception. As
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we saw before, The first mistake consists in a somewhat old fashioned conception of
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the multiplicity of instincts. If we accept the idea of two or more instincts
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existing side by side, we must naturally conclude that if one instinct has not
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yet become manifest, it is present in noose. In accordance with the theory
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of preformation in the physical sphere, we should perhaps have to say that when
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a piece of iron passes from the condition of heat to the condition of light,
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the light was already existent in noose latent in the heat. Such assumptions
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are arbitrary projections of human ideas into transcendental regions, contravening the prescription of the
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theory of cognition. We have thus no right to speak about sexual instinct existing
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in noose, as we then give an arbitrary explanation of phenomena which can be
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explained otherwise and in a more adequate manner. We can speak of the manifestations
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of a nutrition instinct, of the manifestation of a sexual instinct, but we
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have only the right to do so when the function has quite clearly reached the
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surface. We only speak of light when the iron is visibly luminous, but
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not when the iron is merely hot. Freud as an observer sees clearly that
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the sexuality of neurotic people is not entirely comparable with infantile sexuality. For there
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is a great difference, for instance, between the uncleanliness of a child of
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two years old and the uncleanness of a catatonic patient of forty. The former
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is a psychological and normal phenomenon. The latter is extraordinarily pathological. Freud inserted
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a short passage in his three Contributions saying that the infantile form of neurotic sexuality
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is either holy or at any rate partly due to a regression. That is,
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even in those cases where we might say these are still the same bipaths,
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we find that the function of the bipaths is still increased by regression.
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Freud thus recognizes that the infantile sexuality of neurotic pace people is, for the
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greater part a regressive phenomenon. That this must be so is also shown through
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the further inside obtained from the investigations of recent years, that the observations concerning
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the psychology of the childhood of neurotic people hold equally good for normal people.
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At any rate. We can say that the history of the development of infantile
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sexuality in persons with neurosis differs by hair's breadth from that of normal beings who
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have escaped the attention of the expert appraiser. Striking differences are exceptional. Further
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remarks on the etiology of neurosis. The more we penetrate into the heart of
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infantile development, the more we receive the impression that as little can be found
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there of etiological significance, as in the infantile shock, Even with the acutest
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ferreting into history, we shall never discover why people living on German soil had
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just such a fate, and why the gauls. Another that we get away
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in analytical investigations from the epoch of the manifest neurosis, the less can we
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expect to find the real motive of the neurosis, since the dynamic disproportions grow
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fainter and fainter the further we go back into the past. In constructing our
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theory so as to deduce the neurosis from causes in the distant past, we
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are first and foremost obeying the impulse of our patients to withdraw themselves as far
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as possible from the critical present. The pathogenic conflict exists only in the present
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moment. It is just as if a nation wanted to regard its miserable political
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conditions at the actual moment as due to the past, as if the Germany
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of the nineteenth century had attributed its political dismemberment and incapacity to its suppression by
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the Romans, instead of having sought the actual sources of her difficulties in the
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present. Only in the actual present are of the effective causes, and only
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here are the possibilities of removing them the etiological significance of the actual present.
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A greater part of the psychoanalytics school is under the spell of the conception that
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the conflicts of childhood are condigtio sine qua known for the neuroses. It is
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not only the theorist who studies the psychology of childhood from scientific interest, but
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the practical man also who believes that he has to turn the history of infancy
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inside out to find there the dynamic source of the actual neurosis. It were
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a fruitless enterprise if done under this presumption. In the meantime, the most
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important factor escapes the analyst, namely the conflict and the claims of the present
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time. In the case before us, we should not understand any of the
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motives which produce the hysterical attacks if we look for them in earliest childhood.
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It is the form alone which those reminiscences determined to a large extent, but
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the dynamic originates from that present time. The insight into the actual meaning of
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these motives is real understanding. We can now understand why that moment was pathogenic,
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as well as why it shows those particular symbols. Through the conception of
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regression, the theory is freed from the narrow formula of the importance of the
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events in childhood, and the actual conflict thus gets that significance which from an
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empirical standpoint belongs to it implicitly. Freud himself introduced the conception of regression in
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his three contributions, acknowledging rightly that our observations do not permit us to seek
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the cause of neurosis exclusively in the past. If it is true, then
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that reminiscent matter becomes active again as a rule by regression. We have to
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consider the following question. Have perhaps the apparent defective results of reminiscences to be
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referred in general to irregression of the libido. As I said before, Ford
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suggested in his three Contributions that the infantilism of neurotic sexuality was for the greater
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part due to the regression of the libido. This statement deserves greater prominence than
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it they are received. Ford did give it this prominence in his later works
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to a somewhat greater extent. The recognition of the regression of the labda very
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largely reduces the etiological significance of the events of childhood. It has already seemed
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to us rather astonishing that the oedipus or the electrocomplex should have a determining value
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in regard to the onset of a neurosis. Since these complexes exist in everyone,
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they exist even with those persons who have never known their own father and
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mother but have been educated by their step parents. I've analyzed cases of this
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kind and found that the incest complex was as well developed as in other patients.
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It seems to us that this is good proof that the incesse complex is
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much more purely regressive production of fantasies than a reality. From this standpoint,
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the events in childhood are only significant for the neuro seas insofar as they are
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revived later through a aggression of the libido. That this must be true to
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a great extent is also shown by the fact that the infantile sexual shock never
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causes hysteria, nor does the incest complex, which is common to everyone.
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The neurosis only begins as soon as the incest complex becomes actuated by regression.
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So we come to the question why does the libido make a regression? To
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answer it, we must study carefully under what circumstances regression arises. In treating
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this problem with my patients, I generally give the following example. While a
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mountain climber is attempting the ascent of a certain peak, he HAPs to meet
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with an insurmountable obstacle, let us say some precipitous rocky wall which cannot be
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surmounted. After having vainly sought for another path, he will have to return
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and regretfully abandon the climbing of that peak. He will say to himself,
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it is not in my power to surmount this difficulty, so I will climb
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another easier mountain. In this case, be find there is a normal utilization
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of the libido. The man returns when he finds an insurmountable difficulty and uses
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his libido, which could not attain its original aim, for the ascent of
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another mountain. Now, let us imagine that this rocky wall was not really
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unclimbable, so far as his physique was concerned, but that from mere nervousness
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he withdrew from this somewhat difficult enterprise. In this case, there are two
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possibilities. One, the man will be annoyed by his own cowardice and will
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wish to prove himself less timid on another occasion, or perhaps will even admit
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that, with his timidity, he ought never to undertake such a difficult assent.
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At any rate, he will acknowledge that he has not sufficient moral capacity
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for these difficulties. He therefore uses that libido, which did not attain its
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original aim, for a useful self criticism and for sketching a plan by which
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he may be able, with due regard to his moral capacity, to realize
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his wish to climb to the possibility is that the man does not realize his
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own cowardice and declares off hand that this mountain is physically unattainable, although he
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is quite able to see that with sufficient courage the obstacle could have been overcome,
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but he prefers to deceive himself. Thus the psychological situation, which is
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of importance for our problem, is created. End of Chapter eight, Part one,