;'ti -. 't'( '^fi i- LIBRARY UN IV " TY OF C,,L.F..i.NlA SAN DIEGO 77Ud,/f:L/. REPRESSED EMOTIONS BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR Religion and Medicine (co-author) Abnormal Psychologt The Meaning of Dreams What is Psychoanalysis? The Hysteria of Lady Macbbtm: REPRESSED EMOTIONS BY ISADOR H'.' CORIAT, M.D. Author of "What is Psychoanalysis?" '•Abuoriual Psychology," etc. NKW YORK BRENTANO'S PUI3LISHKUS Copyright, 1920, by BRENTANO'S AH rightg reserved TO MY WIFE CONTENTS CHAPTER rAQZ Introduction . 1 '^ The Meaning of Repressed Emotion . 7 II Repressed Emotions in Primitive Soci- ety 58 III Repressed Emotions in Literature . . 88 WV The Sublimation of Repressed Emo- tions 138 V The Development of Psychoanalysis . 16 1 VI The Depth of the Unconscious . .184 VII A Fairy Tale from the Unconscious . 194 REPRESSED EMOTIONS INTRODUCTION Psychology in both its academic and practical aspects is now at the parting of the ways and the immediate future will deter- mine whether it shall remain unproductive or become an instrument of practical impor- tance in the guidance of human interests. As Harvey, by training, a physician, dis- covered the circulation of the blood and so made modern physiologj^ possible, so Freud, also trained as a physician has devised new avenues of approach to the understanding of the hmnan mind through the conceptions of psychoanalysis. There is a strange but perfectly natural analog}' between the utterances of a seven- teenth century scientist and that of a twenti- eth in the consciousness that each has per- ceived the inner meaning of his great dis- covery. Harvey states for instance, — "But what remains to be said upon the quantity [1] REPRESSED EMOTIONS and source of the blood which thus passes, is of so novel and unheard-of character, that I not only fear injury to myself from the envy of the few, but I tremble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies, so much doth want and custom, that become as an- other nature, and doctrine once sown and that hath struck deep root, and respect for antiquity influence all men. Still the die is cast, and my trust is in my love of truth, and the candor that inheres in cultivated minds." Three centuries later Freud was led to make a similar statement, with a scientific candor which showed his profundity of mind and his sincerity of purpose. "In my continued occupation with the problems considered therein, for the study of which my practice as a psychotherapeutist affords me much op- portunity, I found nothing that would com- pel me to change or improve my ideas. I can therefore peacefully wait until the read- er's comprehension has risen to my level, or [2] INTRODUCTION until an intelligent critic has pointed out to me the basic faults in my conception." Psychoanalysis has shown that what is termed "abnormal" is merely an exaggera- tion of certain traits as they manifest them- selves in everyday life, for instance, the for- getting of familiar words has the same mech- anism as the repressions in the neuroses. The psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious is unique, since it demonstrates that all the facts of consciousness cannot be gathered by mere experimental introspection in the lab- oratory and that the so-called free associa- tions, on which experimental psychology has laid so much stress, are not free at all, but are definitely motivated by either antecedent experiences or unconscious mechanisms. It is this theory of psychical determinism which explains not only the psychologj" of every- day life, l)ut also dreams and neurotic mani- festations. Various mental concepts such as detcrniinism, the displacement of the emo- [3] REPRESSED EMOTIONS tions, the dj^namic pature of the mental pro- cesses, repression, the wish as the kej^ to con- scious and unconscious thinking, the various levels of the unconscious, are thus clearly ex- plained for the first time through psycho- analytic investigation. Neurotic symptoms, defects of the memory, shps of the tongue, are not accidental trends but have a definite psychological meaning and purpose — but this meaning and purpose can be disclosed only through the teclinical devices of psycho- analysis. The human mind is ever on the alert to protect itself through repression into the un- conscious from painful memories and anx- ieties, but sometimes this repression over- steps itself and leads to all sorts of neurotic disturbances, through what is technically termed, "a flight into disease." Psycho- analysis is the method of probing into these unconscious psychological settings. All psychoanalysis leads to the realm of the un- [4] INTRODUCTION conscious, that strange mental world, bar- baric, primitive, the repository of repressed emotions, of a sort of elemental Titan, which at times pushes the censorship aside and al- lows these infantile emotions to invade con- sciousness. There they are perceived like a foreign body and manifest themselves in anx- ieties, fears, depression, and compulsive thinking. On the contrary, in the uncon- scious are also precipitated those mental traits which aid in the formation of charac- ter and in the development of social con- sciousness, both of which are so important for adjustment to the realities and struggles of everyday life. It is the task of the psy- choanalysis to investigate the origin of these hidden repressions through the technical methods which have been devised in the de- velopment of the science. Whenever the principles of psychoanaly- sis have been applied, particularly in the unique concept of unconscious thinking, [5] REPRESSED EMOTIONS either to therapeutics or to cultural or social problems, the various utilizations fit accu- rately. Psychoanalysis has also shown that human motives cannot be explained by or- dinary superficial reactions, but behind these reactions lie repressions and resistances of which the individual is unaware and which guide his thinking like an unknown force. The unconscious, emotional settings of all minds are ahke, they differ only in their con- scious rationahzations and methods of in- tellectual approach. The reader must bear in mind that the subject matter of this volume deals more with repressed feelings than with groups of ideas technically known as complexes. Parts of Chapter II, and of Chapters IV and V, have been taken with certain modifi- cations and additions from my papers in the Psychoanalytic Review and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. ISADOR H. CORIAT. Boston, March 1920. [6] CHAPTER I THE MEANING OF REPRESSED EMOTIONS Emotional repression is the defense of conscious thinking from mental processes which are painful. This provides not only a method of mental protection, but if it fails, it may lead to severe neurotic dis- turbances. In the process of repression there is a continual conflict between the primitive emotions as they exist in the un- conscious and the more highly evolved hu- man impulses in consciousness. The me- chanism of repression lies at the root of Freud's entire conception of the human mind and psychoanalysis cannot be under- stood unless the theory of repression is clearly comprehended. Repression accom- panies the individual at every stage of men- [7] REPRESSED EMOTIONS tal development, from the primitive psyche of the child to the highly complex integra- tions of the adult mind. In the com-se of development of the in- dividual, certain powerful components of the mental life, particularly referring to the sexual impulse, may undergo a repression. Before this repression became a social factor it was first an individual phenomenon of great importance. HTrom the earliest dawn of history, certain emotions were pushed aside and psychological barriers erected to prevent them entering into the field of con- sciousness. Repression is not suspension of the forbidden ideas or emotions. These ideas or emotions, although thrust into the unconscious, are as specifically active, as full of energy, as though clearly recognized in conscious thinking. These unconscious forces are of great importance in the de- velopment of the race or the individual. For the former they may lead to all sorts of [8] THE MEANING mental epidemics which from time to time sweep over society, for the latter, they may act as forms of defense from painful ideas or as sjTnptom creators of a future neurosis. This concept of emotional repression is very important for psychoanalysis. It leads not only to an understanding of the various types of neuroses, and those tricks of mind which produce the forgetting of familiar words, but at the same time its social im- portance is such, that civilized society would rapidly become a chaos if it were not for the action of individual repression in protecting the human personality and in erecting cer- tain social barriers. Even among prmiitive tribes there exist certain religious and moral prohibitions, which are really forms of in- dividual and social repression. The savage, although he appears more at ease than civ- ilized man and may experience no sense of shame in his nakedness, is yet enmeshed by certain tribal prohibitions termed taboos, [9] REPRESSED EMOTIONS which are the oldest unwritten code of human laws. Psychoanalysis has demonstrated, not only in everyday life, but in the behavior of subjects undergoing psychoanalytic treat- ment of the neuroses, that all forgetting, with the exception of forgetting produced by actual organic disease of the brain, is due to repression. The entire subject of forget- ting and its motivation by emotional repres- sion, can be best understood by giving the details of a simple case in which this mechan- ism was a predominating factor. A young woman complained of difficulty in remembering or recalling words with which she was completely familiar. An examina- tion showed no signs of organic disease of the brain and further enquirj^ into the diffi- culty disclosed the fact that there was no ac- tual deterioration of memory, but that the forgotten words related to specific anxieties and situations in the patient's life. Neither [10] THE MEANING did the forgetting of the word depend on in- attention, because the more concentrated and intense her attention for a given fact, the less able was she to reproduce the word. In ad- dition the forgetting referred only to fa- mihar words. Sometimes the incorrect word would enter her mind and remain there in spite of efforts to dislodge it. An analy- sis of the forgetting of these familiar words demonstrated that it was motivated by an unconscious emotional factor, the factor of repression. Examples are the following: — There was a complete inability to recall the phrase "latent powers" but free associa- tions ^ showed that this forgetfulness of the phrase was closely linked up with pain- ful and therefore repressed memories of her brother's former alcoliolic habits when she 1 Freud attributes to psychical events a rigorous deter- minum, — that is, even so-called free associations to a given word arc directly related in a causative manner to the inifinl word. Of course this connection is not always realized by the subject, as it is so often unconscious. [11] REPRESSED EMOTIONS feared that the alcohol might ruin him men- tally and thus he would fail to utilize what was best in him (his latent powers). On another occasion she could not recall the word "accommodator" (referring to domestic servants) . An analysis of the for- getting process involved, here disclosed the fact that because of some financial reverses, she really did not want an accommodator for reasons of economy. It was her anxiety over this latter which blocked the word and prevented it from reaching consciousness. A number of other instances of forgetting were analyzed and as the cause for the for- getting of each word was disclosed, this word was no longer forgotten and could be recalled at any time. The inability to recall familiar words finally disappeared. In this case it could be shown that the forgetting of famil- iar words was due to emotional factors and not to any actual deterioration of memory. This emotional factor was repression, which [12] THE MEANING sidetracked and blocked the word and pre- vented it from entering consciousness, al- though the word was fully conserved in the unconscious. It was not the conservation of the word that was at fault, since it was completely stored up, but the reproduction faculty was defective, and this defect of re- production was produced by emotional re- pression, — that is, the apparently forgotten words were associated with a disagreeable emotion. Consequently the inability of rec- ollection was for the purpose of protecting tile mind from this disagreeable emotion, in other words, the forgetting was a purposeful act of defense, it was motivated by an un- conscious wish to forget. In this case for the purpose of cure, it was not necessary to analyze all the forgotten words, because the removal of a few repres- sions, not only released other groups of re- pressions, but actually prevented new words from being forgotten. The forgotten words [13] REPRESSED EMOTIONS had not vanished, thej^ were preserved in the unconscious; they were merely sidetracked and could not be recalled because of repres- sion. The repression was purposeful, for the words were associated with disagreeable incidents. This is a simple instance of the action of emotional repression. In the neu- roses the mechanism is the same, but more complicated, capable of extreme ramifica- tions and can only be revealed by a long and searching psychoanalysis. Repression lies at the bottom of ordinaiy forgetfulness, it is an inability to reproduce memories and not an incapacity for storing them up. Analysis of such conditions shows how unscientific are the various methods de- vised for improving the memory. They are all based on the erroneous supposition that a memory defect is due to an inability to store up facts, the emotional factor of repro- duction being entirely disregarded. [14] THE MEANING Thus ordinary forgetiulness is not due to chance, but follows definite laws. In the case given, there was not only forgetfulness, but actual false recollection,— the striving for the escaped name brought substitutive names into the mind, which were recognized as false. The same process which produced the forgetting (an unconscious wish to for- o-et), led to the substitution (an unconscious wish to keep the word hidden). This forgetting is motivated by repression. The repressed material which side-tracked the word, prevented it from entering con- sciousness, was emotional, as around the ap- parently "forgotten" word were crystalhzed painful and rebellious feelings. When we come to study the mental de- velopment of an individual, as revealed to us by the psychoanalysis of adults and those of children who develop abortive neuroses early in life, we find that the first repressions do not begin until ab(nit the third year, and re- [15] REPRESSED EMOTIONS fer principally to the primitive impulses of hunger and love. Then they start with the sense of shame, the sense of pleasure in a body, certain perversions relating to the ex- creta, the desire to run about naked and to become destructive to property. In adults the childhood repressions appear only in dreams because of the strict censorship of society. This explains the frequent non-em- barrassment dream of being insufficiently clothed in company. H The unconscious is made up of repressed elements and the beginning of the uncon- scious coincides with the beginning of repres- sion. Therefore in very young children the dreams, whose only source is the unconscious, are literal wishes for food and play, without any evidence of repression. This brings us to the consideration of an interesting question, academic, it is true, yet fraught with the most practical applications, namely, first, why is the "unconscious" un- [16] THE MEANING conscious i * and secondly, what is the rela- tion of the collective unconscious of the race to the important herd instinct ? " The best explanation of the psychology of crowds can be found in the herd instinct, that is that the collective unconscious is imper- sonal. It is really nascent thought, which has not become crystallized into conscious action. The personal unconscious, that is, the unconscious of the individual human be- ings, is a part of this collective unconscious and cannot be separated from it. This ex- plains why no individual can be completely emancipated from the crowd or from the social structure of society in which he lives and moves and has his being. This also ex- plains the so-called "mental contagion" which is so important for collective opinion. Thus the herd instinct ensures that the be- 1 See at this point the interesting symposium by Nicoll, Rivers and Jones "Why is the 'Unconscious' Unconscious?" liritith Journal of Psychology— \'o\. IX, 1918. -• W. Trotter— "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War"— 1918. [17] REPRESSED EMOTIONS havior of the individual shall harmonize with the community as a whole, and determines the ethical code of man and his conduct and opinions. The herd instinct is, therefore, really the collective unconscious of society. The unconscious mind has six chief charac- teristics, namely: — 1. It is the result of repression and this repression occurs because the unconscious mental processes are of a character incom- patible with the civilized conscious person- ality. 2. It is dynamic in nature, for in the un- conscious the most active mental processes are active and elaborated. This active striv- ing is of the nature of wishing and these wish impulses form the external manifesta- tions of the unconscious. 3. It is the repository of crude and primal instincts. 4. It is infantile in character and this in- [18] THE MEANING fantile characteristic persists throughout the whole of life. 5. It is illogical and tends to ignore the ordinary standards of life. 6. Its sexual characteristics (using "sex- ual" in the broad, psychoanalytic sense) are predominant and as a rule, these characteris- tics manifest themselves in a symbolized rather than in a literal form. It is impossible to agree entirely with the idea, that the unconscious embodies entirely the lower and more brutal qualities of man, that it is irrational, primitive, savage, cruel and lacks individuality and self control. Out of crowds, in war or in revolutions, there have crystallized acts of sublime heroism, sort of sublimations of the unconscious, and this in itself invalidates the idea that the un- conscious is the repository of primitive and basal instincts alone. Concerning the origin of the unconscious [19] REPRESSED EMOTIONS it is best to quote from Rank and Sachs, with whom we are in complete agreement. "Our first question will naturally concern the origin of the unconscious. Since the uncon- scious stands completely foreign and un- known to the conscious personality, the first impulse would be to deny connection with consciousness in general. This is the man- ner in which the folk-belief has ever treated it. The bits of the unconscious which were visible in abnormal mental states passed as proof of "being possessed" that is, they were conceived as expressions of a strange individ- ual, of a demon, who had taken possession of the patient. We, who can no longer rely on such supernatural influences must seek to explain the facts psychologically. The hypothesis that a primary division of the psj^chic life exists from birth, contradicts the experience of the continual conflict between the two gi'oups of forces ; since if the separa- tion were present from the beginning, the [20] \ THE MEANING danger of shifting of boundaries would not exist. The only possible assumption, which is further confirmed by experience, is, the separation does not exist a priori but origin- ates only in the course of time. This de- marcation of the boundary hne must be a level of culture; thus, we may say it begins in earliest childhood and has found tempor- ary termination about the time of puberty. The unconscious originates in the childhood of man, which circumstance affords the ex- planation for most of its peculiarities." ^ Enmeshed as we all are in the complex structure of modern civilization, a certain amount of repression is often an instrument of safety for the individual. It is true that repression may reach a point of such inten- sity that there may be an outbreak of the re- pressed material after severe fatigue or emo- tional strain, leading to the development of neurotic disturbances or nervous "break- 1 otto Rank and Hans Sfichs, "The Sijinificancc of Psycho- •Dalysis for the Mental Sciences"— 1015. [21] REPRESSED EMOTIONS * downs" as they are popularly termed. A i nervous breakdown is not due to overwork or over-worry, these merely act as pre- \ cipitating factors in unlocking the material ■1 \ which has been repressed in the unconscious. This psychoanalytic conception is per- fectly sound and is diametrically opposed to the superficial view-point of the French school, particularly Babinski, who states dogmatically that "When the human soul is shaken by a profound and sincere emotion, there is no room left in it for hysteria." Of course such a conception deals only with recognized conscious processes. In order to understand the relation of repressed emo- tions to hysteria, it is necessary to approach the problem, not from the descriptive aspect, but from the interpretative, from the view- point of unconscious mental conflicts. The curse of modern civilization lies in ex- cessive repression leading to codes of be- havior and standards which are fraught with [22] THE MEANING great danger. As repression begins in the child, it is there that the difficulty arises. The child should be given free play and ac- tivity, adult codes should not be stamped on it, it should be taught to sublimate and not to set up an ideal so impossible of attain- ment that repression of this ideal becomes necessary, leading to all sorts of mental con- flicts. What is termed sadism is a form of re- pressed hate. In the early education of the child and in the suppressions of civilized so- ciety, hate is strongly repressed in its out- ward manifestations. The repressed ten- dency to hate is one of the stages in the de- velopment of normal children and shows it- self in them in outbursts of irritability and anger. Children, too, take a keen dehght in inflicting punisliment on animals, or on other children, on toys or dolls, the latter for the child symbolizing the living object. Certain adults seem to have never been able [•-'3] REPRESSED EMOTIONS to successfully sublimate this repressed cruelty so as to transform it into more use- ful social activity. They retain their child- hood pleasure by procuring enjoyment out of pain inflicted upon others. These individuals are unaware of their re- pressed cruelty and unconsciously seek posi- tions where this repressed feeling can find an outlet. Here also are grouped the neu- rotic antivivisectionists whose unconscious sadistic tendencies to inflict pain on others are covered up or compensated by, an over- tenderness for animals. As an example of cruelt}'-, which had be- come strongly repressed into the unconscious, the following case can be cited. In a young woman who was undergoing a psychoanaly- sis for a severe type of anxiety hysteria, the two following dreams occurred in one night. Dream 1. Her little dog seemed to have been injured and was covered with blood [24] THE MEANING and she carried him to a veterinary surgeon on a mattress. Dream 2. Her canary bird had been killed by two cats and appeared covered with blood. It is well known in psychoanalysis that where more than one dream occurs during the night, or rather during the same period of sleep, that it deals with the same repressed material. It is doubtful in these cases whether we are dealing with two dreams, or two halves of the same dream. Dreams rep- resent repressions into the unconscious, they are fulfillments of current wishes reenforced by infantile material. In the case referred to, the young woman had always been over- sympathetic towards animals, for years had been a member of the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals and was also an ardent antivivisectionist. The mere idea of inflicting pain on animals had always [25] REPRESSED EMOTIONS made her nauseated and she became hyster- ical if she saw an animal suffer. So strong was her attachment for animals that she had birds, dogs, a monkey and even a dried alli- gator in her home. Yet this young woman, who by her outward reactions was so sensi- tive to pain in animals, had in her uncon- scious a repository of repressed cruelty as shown by her dreams, since all dreams are the product of the unconscious. This solicitude for dumb animals was merely a conscious defense for her unconsciously repressed cruelty. An excellent example of sadism in history is Gilles de Retz of Brittany, the original Blue Beard, who was executed for lust-mm'- der at Nantes in 1440.^ The character of I ago, of all great crea- tions in literature, stands predominant as a type of repressed cruelty, of finding pleasure in the sufferings of others. lago is cruel be- i See Thomas Wilson's "Blue Beard, a Contribution to History and Folk-lore"— 1899. [26] THE MEANING cause he is pathological, pain is a source of pleasure to him and behind it all, lies the cjTiicism of his character and the almost com- plete lack of erotic feeling. lago is not, as Coleridge states, "the motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity," for admirable as this cliaracterization is, it does not express the deeper motives of lago's character. Frequently in marital conflicts, which con- stitute so large a portion of the defense-hys- terias of adult life, there is a strong tendency to outbursts of repressed cruelty in the quarrels of husband and wife, what really might be termed childhood reactions to adult situations. The history of civihzation has proved be- yond doubt that there exists a close relation- ship between cruelty and the sexual impulse. We can cite the exam])]es of those subjects whose cravings are satisfied by being whipped themselves or whij)ping others and finally those cases of lust murder which from [27] REPRESSED EMOTIONS time to time attract wide public attention. It is really the gratification of the sexual feeling by seeing or inflicting pain and as such, all adults possess it to a certain degree, but it is greatly repressed. Under certain conditions the repression is broken down, the adult regresses to the time of childhood when little or no repression took place. In these circumstances the repressed cruelty breaks forth and projects itself into all forms of abnormal symptoms. A case of automatic laughter on analysis was found to be based on sadistic fantasies and the laughter was really the unconscious pleasure in the ideas of pain. Early in the development of psychoan- alysis, the cause of every neurosis was sought in so-called trauma or emotional injury, the painful memory of the shock remaining active in the unconscious, but hidden from the thoughts of the subject and producing its effect in the manner of a foreign body. [28] THE MEANING At that time a complete talking out or abre- action, which constituted the so-called cathartic method, was thought to be suffi- cient to produce a cure. It is this viewpoint of psychoanalytic therapeutics which is still held by those who have not followed its re- cent developments and manifestations. These developments have become elaborated through the perfection of practical technique and a deeper understanding of repressions as they affect human emotions and conduct. It is now known that the task of psy- choanalysis consists primarily in overcom- ing those inner resistances which prevent the repressed emotions from finding complete and more nearly normal expression. While recent occurrences may act as precipitating factors in the production of the neurosis, the real basis of the neurosis is found in certain emotions wliich have become strongly re- pressed into the unconscious and are pre- vented from finding a normal escape. It is [29] REPRESSED EMOTIONS not necessary that actual memories or emo- tional scenes become repressed, for the re- pression of fantasies or images, particularly those produced in early childhood, can pro- duce neurotic manifestations. For instance a neurosis is often produced by carrying into adult life from early childhood, an abnormal fixation ^ on one of the parents, the father for the girl and the mother for the boy. These form the so-called Electra or OEdipus- complexes respectively. It is not necessary that the fixation be on the parents themselves to produce the neurotic deviation, it is suf- ficient if the emotion becomes attached to the image of the father or mother, as this 1 Fixation is a term utilized in psychoanalysis to indicate that during the course of individual development in child- hood, the emotional attachment to a member of the family lingered too long at a certain age. There it became re- pressed into the unconscious, but later in life, for some special reason, the expression of this fixation became reani- mated in the form of a neurosis, because the individual was never quite able to free himself from his childhood attachment during the course of development. The libera- tion from this attachment is one of the problems of psycho- analytic therapeutics. [30] THE MEANING image when conserved in the unconscious, may produce its pernicious effect as though the attachment were to the actual person. The neurotic may thus struggle with the image of one long since dead. In fact the image to which the patient is transfixed may liave died before the birth of the patient. It is such observations as these which tend to prove that the actual person is not neces- sary for the conflict, but the image of the person may produce a like effect. The strength of the repression depends upon the actual situation in which it origin- ated, the exact type of experience, the gen- eral social or ethical attitude towards the jjainful idea and the frequent unconscious wish to escape from the reality of the re- pressed feeling. A repression may be so severe, that the subject, in order to escape it, may regress to infantile forms of mental and physical activity, as is so often seen in cer- tain cases of multiple personality. [31] REPRESSED EMOTIONS It is the inner resistance which prevents the repressed emotions from emerging from the unconscious to the conscious and this re- sistance is a protective mechanism, an act of defense. While resistance may occur in every day life and form the basis of our antagonisms and dislikes and attacks of irritability to- ward certain individuals, yet it is in the course of the psychoanalytic treatment of the neuroses that they are the most marked and most clearly defined. Under these con- ditions, resistances furnish the best material for the study of the phenomenon. During a psychoanalysis, the repressing force which made the neurotic condition, by keeping vari- ous repressed emotions in the unconscious, is constantly exerting itself to prevent these emotions from becoming conscious. The conflict between the psychoanalysis and the desire on the part of the emotion to remain hidden, is the resistance to the treatment [32] THE MEANING which must be overcome. Its object is to keep the pathogenic material miconscious; hence all psychoanalysis is directed toward an overcoming of the resistances, for until these are abolished, the neurosis persists. These resistances during an analysis may assume many different forms, such as ap- parently motiveless hate, fear and apprehen- sion towards the physician, the "forgetting" of dreams and of appointments for the psy- choanalysis, finally certain types of dreams occur in which the unconscious resistance is clearly defined. In these cases as a rule, the analysis is dreamed of in a very uncom- plementary manner, on other occasions, as in the case of a young woman, there may be a veritable bombardment of resistances during the period of the analysis. In this case, in the course of the one visit, six clearly de- fined resistances were detected, such as a symptomatic action, the forgetting of a dream, coming late for an appointment, a [33] REPRESSED EMOTIONS curious error in spelling, etc. After these resistances were overcome, the analysis pro- gressed smoothly. An example of this resistance as it occurs in dreams, was furnished by the case of a young woman who was undergoing a psycho- analysis for anxiety hysteria. During the course of the analysis she had the following dream. She seemed to be taking an examination in Chinese history, but the questions were written upside down on the blackboard. In her hand she held a porcelain blue and white bust of Buddha. She was unable to answer the examination questions, in fact, she could not read them and so handed in a blank ex- amination paper. To the psychoanalyst, the analysis of this dream is clear. It represents a resistance in the form of symbols, the process of sym- bohzation being carried out unconsciously, [34] THE MEANING the subject being quite unaware of the sym- bols employed. It really represented the manner of unconscious thinking in a form unrecognizable by consciousness, and like all symbols, the choice was not arbitrary, but had its sources in the unconscious.^ In this case, the subject of the examination (Chinese history), the distortion of the ques- tions (upside down) and the statuette (Buddha), all signified a resistance, namely, that the psychoanalysis was a mystery to her, she was unable to understand its meaning or purpose. The teacher in the dream was the psychoanalyst and the blank examination paper, which she handed to him, symbolized her ignorance of the examination (psycho- analysis). There are different degrees of intensity of repression, but their mechanism and pur- 1 See my "What is Psychoanalysis?" pp. 60-61 for n more detailed explanation of symholisni in psychoanalysis. [.3.5] REPRESSED EMOTIONS pose are identical, whether it produces the absentmindedness and forgetting of every- day hfe or whether it produces a severe hys- teria. In dreams the repressed emotion often appears with startling clearness, either lit- eral or symbolized, according to the degree of resistance which produced the displace- ment and symbolism. Sometimes the orig- inal repressed feeling is so sidetracked dur- ing sleep, that the dream assumes the form of what is popularly known as a nightmare and technically as a anxiety dream. The power which produced the repression is always active and with the lapse of time the repression becomes more permanent and sinks deeper into the unconscious. It is the task of the psychoanalyst to dig out these buried emotions and for this reason, the older the person or the longer the duration of the neurosis, the more difficult becomes the psy- choanalytic therapy, as the cause of the neu- [36] THE MEANING rosis in these cases may be deeply buried in the lowest levels of the unconscious. It is these various levels of the unconscious which offer such perplexing problems for psychoanalysis in the removal of repressions and the neurotic conflicts. The descent into the various levels of the unconscious may be compared in its difficulties with Dante's own neurotic conflict, while the guide, Virgil, may be compared to the psychoanalyst. At the lowest level of the unconscious are the ar- chaic and primitive emotions such as nutri- tion and sex, then at the next level, rage, fear, and cruelty, a little higher up are lo- cated the abnormal fixations on the family, then occurs the level of the censor, finally the foreconscious and the conscious level. Of course this plan is purely schematic, but it is useful for purposes of description. It is at the level below the censor that all dreams are made. So the psychoanalyst becomes the paleo- [37] REPRESSED EMOTIONS psychologist and the uncovering of the vari- ous levels of the unconscious, each level rep- resenting a regression to the collective men- tal life of our ancestors, may be termed paleopsj'^chology.^ In the struggle between repressed emo- tions and the social conscious life there are produced irritations and antipathies, which ape synonymous with touching a sore spot in the unconscious. All of us in life attempt to avoid pain and seek pleasure, hf e is a con- stant attempt to e-sicape from reality, hence the popularity of the stage, the dance, the movies and the use of narcotic drugs. We recall so little of the past, particularly of our childhood life, not because it has faded from memory or been destroyed, but because it has been repressed. That the incidents of childhood are merely repressed and not for- gotten is shown by the fact that these appar- ently forgotten memories often appear liter- 1 This conception of the various levels of the unconscious is more completely elaborated in a later chapter of the book. [88] THE MEANING ally in dreams or in symptomatic actions. Repressed emotions seek satisfaction in the outlet of a more primitive manner in the form of a neurosis, such as anxiety, fear, depression, or compulsive thinking. This repression is determined because it is intoler- able and painful. Those who can work off their repressed feelings in social reconstruc- tion, mutual aid, intellectual work or aes- thetic pursuits, are the happiest individuals. This process of using a repressed emotion for a more useful purpose is termed sublima- tion. Those who bottle up their feelings, who become victims of introversion and shut up their personality by building a wall of resistance about it, who are unable to find an adequate escape from intolerable conflicts, who show infantile reactions to adult situa- tions, these are the unhappy neurotics. The requirements of civilized society, of a social and moral and ethical code, tend to make us repress our frank feelings. Hence [39] REPRESSED EMOTIONS arise the neuroses in an abnormal sense, and in everyday life, we have the conventional lies of civilization. These repressed emo- tions never emerge in their original shape, but are converted either into dreams, hys- terical symptoms, anxieties, fears, compul- sive thinking, depression and insomnia. The cohesion of modern society is based upon repression, not so much in the sense of legal formulations, but a repression arising from within the individual. Psychoanalysis understands the psychogenetic determinants of these repressed impulses and although in- wardly there may be mental conflicts, yet the repression of these conflicts produces an outward semblance of comfort. We all have past or present mental conflicts which we attempt to repress and this repression may be successful or unsuccessful. Some- times as a substitution for this repression an individual may take a flight into a sort of phantasmal comfort, that is, he may substi- [40] THE MEANING tute or rationalize for his real conflicts, some- thing which for the time heing may be a cover for this conflict, even though such a process may be based on insincerity. Mass repression is nothing but a collec- tion of individual repressions cemented to- gether by the herd instinct. Because of the evolution of modesty the greatest repression is in the sexual sphere. The unconscious, being a common ethnic possession is the same in both primitive and civilized society, with the difference, that in the latter, more repressed material is found. Neurotic disorders arise from a blocking of the sexual instinct, but the panacea is not sexual indulgence, otherwise the Don Juans of society would be free from neuroses. The psychoanalyst, when he approaches the problem of repression in the neuroses, needs more than skill, more than a perfect technique, more than a knowledge of the psychology of the neuroses. His mind must [41] REPRESSED EMOTIONS be clean as a surgeon's hands before an op- eration, his attitude towards the neurosis should be that of the physician whose task it is to help and not that of the moralist who thinks it his duty to criticize. Any criti- cism even inwardly, of the patient's life his- tory, of his conflicts and repressions is apt to set up within the analyst an inner resist- ance, and this resistance in the analyst as well as within the patient, may interfere with the course of the psychoanalytic therapy. Both patient and physician should clearly recognize the problem with which they are dealing, the truth must be thrashed out, no matter how painful. Every psychoanalyst should know his own resistances and com- plexes as well as his various social, religious and political prejudices. Psychoanalysis is of gi'eat value in a com- plex modern civilization, not only for the treatment of the neuroses, but also for the in- sight it furnishes into certain character de- [42] THE MEANING fects. To make a person aware of his re- pressions instead of closing his mind to them, is to utilize the knowledge gained for the development of his character. A psycho- analysis is thus an education, it raises the un- conscious to a higher cultural level. As is well known, psychoanalysis, as elab- orated by Freud, means an analysis of the mind, a study of man's unconscious motives, repressions and conflicts. Psychoanalysis also demonstrates that the very foundations of character spring from the unconscious of the individual and shape his behavior. In other words each individual determines his own character and destiny. Character traits are not inherited but acquired. In 1907 one of the greatest thinkers of the Freudian school, Alfred Adler, of Vienna, began the piil)lication of his remarkable works on individualistic psychology.^ He 1 See Alfred Adler's two principal Contributions — "The Neurotic Constitution" and "Organ Inferiority and its Psychical Compensation." [43] REPRESSED EMOTIONS demonstrated that the predominant traits of character are efforts on the part of the indi- vidual to overcome a feehng of either mental or physical inferiority. For instance, a man who as a boy is a weakling will become an advocate of the strenuous life, or one whose thoughts are not what they should be may become overzealous in the reform of so-called vulgar literature and art. Demosthenes, the stammerer, became the greatest orator of Greece. It is well known to physicians that a weak or inferior organ tends to overcome its de- fects : a weak heart compensates by growing larger and stronger, if one of the kidneys is removed, the remaining kidney enlarges and performs the work of two. This is exactly what happens in the men- tal sphere. The feeling of inferiority forces the individual to make supreme efforts to overcome this particular defect. Feelings [44] THE MEANING of inferiority are compensated for in various ways by the person becoming egotistical, boastful, envious, showing a tendency to un- dervalue all men and things except them- selves, developing ideas of greatness and om- nipotence of thinking. Of course, from a Freudian standpoint, this compensation is really a repression of the inferior feeling. This tendency to compensate is an uncon- scious mental process, the only conscious feeling being the over-compensation which takes the form of day-dreams. Their origin is unknown and never understood by the sufferer. These day-dreams are so often re- peated that they become part and parcel of the personality, they cannot be distinguished from reality. Thus, the individuals with feelings of inferiority, whether real or fan- cied, are individuals who possess inferior or- gans which they attempt to compensate. This is Adler's great contribution, the re- [45] REPRESSED EMOTIONS markable relationship between inferiority of physical structure or feelings of inferiority and mental compensation. The collective unconscious of society is the same as the unconscious of the single indi- vidual, because however much individuals may differ in their characterological traits, it is in their merging, their cohesion by what is termed the herd instinct, that unifies this plastic human material. Therefore society like an individual suffers from resistances, from mass repression and from flights into emotional upheavals. Society consequently can be psychoana- lyzed in much the same way as an individual. Thus psychoanalysis can show the real char- acter of society, can lay bare the hidden, subterranean motives which lie behind its various emotional manifestations. Society, too, like the individual, has its dreams and these di-eams in a primitive community take the form of symbolic creations, myths, folk [46] THE MEANING lore, and in a more materialistic age, of ideal commonwealths. All these efforts of society to break away from its present status are really the fulfill- ment of the repressed wishes of the collective unconscious, in the same manner that a dream represents the repressed wish of the individual unconscious. No social problem can be solved or understood unless the mo- tive force of this collective unconscious is taken into consideration. The motive force, the key to all human activity, is the repressed wish. The foundation of psychoanalysis rests upon the theory of the unconscious. Psy- choanalvsis frees the repressed impulses from the formation of neurotic symptoms and the false attitude towards reality and adapts these impulses to real possibiUties in social paths of gratification and develop- ment. It is the task of the psychoanalysis to warn [47] REPRESSED EMOTIONS against too strong repression in childhood and thus turn the normal impulses of the child into channels which are fraught with neurotic pitfalls. Instincts should be con- trolled and not repressed and this control should show itself in varying adaptations to reality. As stated by Rank and Sachs ^ — "The child is only to be educated by love and under this condition will feel sufficiently punished by a withdrawal of this. Only for a beloved person does he gladly give up the undesirable attributes and aims, and as- sumes an imitation, by way of identification with adults, what culture, in the shape of this beloved object of love demands of him." It was stated in a previous contribution.^ "The treatment of the psychoneuroses should begin early, it should be prophylactic and educate and correctly mold the psycho- sexual trends of his child. The best method lO. Rank and H. Sachs "The Significance of Psycho- analysis for the Mental Sciences." 2 Isador H. Coriat— "Psychoanalysis and the Sexual Hy- giene of Children"— TAc Child, Jan., 1912. [48] THE MEANING of controlling these feelings is to teach the child to change or sublimate these into higher artistic or intellectual interests." Dr. Oskar Pfister of Zurich, Switzerland,* has found a large number of neurotics among school children, neuroses whose origin is emotional, such as stammering, morbid fears, blushing, shyness, petty stealing and lying, all of which could be made to disappear under psychoanalytic treatment. It is to the lazy, uninterested, stupid, day-dreaming pupils (provided of course that actual or- ganic feeblemindedness can be eliminated) that psychoanalysis can be applied and be of material help. As an example, a young man came for personal advice because of inability to study and to concentrate. This is a very frequent complaint during the period of puberty and adolescence. An analysis proved that the 1 See Oskar Pfister— "The Psychoanalytic Method"— from whirh the quotations arc taltrn (translated by Dr. Charles U. Payne). [49] REPRESSED EMOTIONS subject suffered from -a very severe form of day dreaming, a sort of withdrawal from reality, because he preferred his day-dreams to more practical efforts of study. Such an individual tendency is full of danger for the development of a severe neurosis or even a psychosis and should be treated by psycho- analysis and not by the usual superficial ad- vice to take "training in concentration." In this case concentration was not at fault, the difficulty was an abnormal slipping back into a realm of day-dreaming because the realities of life no longer interested bim. School teachers should be trained in cer- tain psychoanalytic principles in order to better appreciate the odd or unusual child and to refer him to the proper source for treatment. The attitude of such children should not be dismissed with the mere label- ing of "stubborn" or "inattentive," for the motive for such a reaction usually lies deep within the personality of the child. [50] THE MEANING As an example of how much harm can be done by the parent in not handling the child properly, we refer to the case of a ten year old boy whose mother kept his hair long, in Dutch clip style, like a girl. The boy was the youngest of four children, all boys, and the mother's disappointment in not having a girl found an outlet in having the youngest child resemble a girl as much as possible. Here is a problem fraught with the most dangerous situations, in that this arouses in the boy not only a feeling of inferiority, but such a boy will be subject to ridicule from his playmates and thus tend to become less and less social. The development of such a mental atti- tude of sensitiveness and a shut-in personal- ity with all that it implies, lays the founda- tion for a se^'ere neurosis during the adoles- cent period, wlien the individual most feels the need of becoming a social being. Pfistcr well states as follows — "Parents [51] REPRESSED EMOTIONS must exercise particular care that no feeling of inferiority be aroused. In order that the child may have a normal relation to father and mother, both parents must work to- gether hai-moniously. The more completely we see through a pupil, so much the more interesting does he become to us, and the more profoundly he perceives himself under- stood by us, just so much the more influence do we gain over him. He will then no longer attempt to escape a just and neces- sary command by an unconsciously pro- duced headache or to gain our sympathy by unconsciously arranged sufferings and to pose as a victim of overwork when he is lazy." Finally to show how sensitive a child is and how it may develop into a situation which in an adult would be capable of easy adjustment, the case may be cited of an eleven year old girl who suddenly told the neighbors that she was badly treated at home and a few days later ran away, remaining [52] THE MEANING away the greater part of the night. It was shown on a short analysis, that her story of being badly treated at home was a mere fab- rication and that she told this tale and later ran away, because recently a baby sister had been given her room. This aroused such a feeling of jealousy in the child, that her sen- sations became those of a sudden impulse, to which she added the fabrication of being ill treated, in order to fortify her attitude. Teachers should have a knowledge of the child's unconscious mind for only by this knowledge will they develop a greater toler- ance for the various perplexities of child- hood, the dislikes and distastes of children and their often curious reactions to adult situations. Individual differences between children are marked and infinite. For tliis reason, the peculiar behavior of tlie child can never be fathomed by any one of the many so- called inlclligence tests. The failure to per- [38] REPRESSED EMOTIONS form one of these tests may not mean any intellectual deficiency in a given direction, but may be due to an emotional blocking of thought whose origin is in the unconscious. The adolescent situation and the trans- formation of puberty is thus expressed by Freud/ "Simultaneously with the over- coming and rejection of these . . . phan- tasies, there occurs one of the most important as well as one of the most painful psychic accompaniments of puberty: it is the break- ing away from parental authority. . . . Many persons are detained at every station in the course of development through which the individual must pass; and accordingly there are persons who never overcome the parental authority and never or very imper- fectly withdraw their affections from their parents. They are mostly girls, who to the delight of their parents retain their full in- fantile love far beyond puberty." 1 S. Freud— "Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory." [54] THE MEANING In psychoanalytic terms the situation named may be expressed as follows: — From very early childhood, beginning at the period between three and five years of age, children manifest prematm-e choice in relation to adults, particularly the adults of the family group, such as parents and nurses. This is the so-called family romance and this devel- opment in the family unit is of great impor- tance for the impressions stamped upon the plastic mind of the child. It is these impres- sions which are gradually repressed and forced from consciousness or the foreground of the mind into the unconscious or the back- ground of the mind. It is in the handling of these impressions which are so important for the later life of the individual, as to whether they will be successfully directed and the individual remain healthy, or the in- dividual become, incapacitated by these im- pressions and become the future neurotic. Thus there comes a time in the life of every [55] REPRESSED EMOTIONS one, in which the great decision must be made, whether or not he will retain his emo- tional fixation to the family or will break away from his infantile moorings, grow in- tellectually and emotionally, put aside his childhood and go forth into the world of reality. It is usually the only child who is most liable to retain his infantile attachment to the family group. When the critical period of puberty and adolescence arrives, such an "only child" becomes incapacitated by the struggle to break away and manifests symptoms of a so-called "nervous break- down" so erroneously described to overwork, when in reality it is due to an inner conflict between the attempt to come into touch with adult reality and the breaking away from infantile moorings. It is this conflict, this vicissitude of the emotional life, this swing- ing of the pendulum between childhood and adult development, with the new increase of repression which it brings with it, that leads [56] , » THE MEANING so often in adolescent girls to the neurosis known as hysteria. Boys too are liable to hysterical disturbances at tliis critical period, but to a far less degree than girls, since in the latter there is more repression and greater physiological and psychological cliange in the life history of the individual. In puberty and adolescence also the instinc- tive sexual tendencies attempt to find an ob- ject on which to fasten themselves outside the family group. This explains the strong craving for love and the adolescent crushes which are so often seen. These so-called "crushes" of adolescent boys and girls are usually a temporary phenomenon and are so frequently encoun- tered, that they can be interrupted as merely a phase of normal development. The im- portance of this tendency in a sublimated form in the life of adults, in the evolution of friendship, social help and nmtual aid, can- not be overestimated. [57] CHAPTER II REPRESSED EMOTIONS IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY The complex construction of a psycho- neurosis in an aduit, due to the influence ex- erted by the multipHcity of factors of civili- zation and cultural advancement, is some- times SO bewildering as to almost defy all attempts at analysis. In children, the or- ganization of a psychoneurosis is usually very simple, almost monosymptomatic, and in children, too, we often discover these neu- roses in the actual processes of making. When adult life is reached the individual has left behind him all the factors of his childhood life and all the repressed experi- ences and desires which tend to produce his adult characteristics. Among adults of [58] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY primitive races however, where the mental organization is far less complex than that of civilized man, certain psychoneurotic dis- turbances are found, which if analyzed, might disclose the mental mechanisms of these disturbances reduced to their simplest terms. It has been my good fortune to be able to secure data of this sort, pertaining to cer- tain curious nervous attacks which occur among the primitive races of the Fuegian Archipelago. These facts were supplied me, following along lines of a questionnaire, by the well known explorer Charles Welling- ton Furlong, F. R. G. S. who in 1907-1908, was in charge of the first scientific expedition to cross through the heart of Tierra del Fuego. Mr. Furlong's keen powers of ob- servation have made the data unusually complete. While he had no theory to offer in explanation of the attacks as seen among these primitive tribes, it is interesting to note [59] REPRESSED EMOTIONS that certain of the facts corroborate the well- known ideas of sexual repression as elabor- ated by Freud. The mental organizations of these people, likewise, seem to substan- tiate certain psychoanalytic conceptions. For a clear comprehension of these attacks, certain preliminary anthropological and geographical data are necessary. The following data relates to running amuck or "outbursts," among the Yahgan and Ona tribes of the Fuegian Archipelago. The data was obtained in 1907 and 1908 dur- ing expeditions through the regions of the Fuegian Archipelago. The Yahgans, some forty years ago, num- bered perhaps 2,500, but ia. 1908 this number had been reduced through contact with civili- zation and principally through an epidemic of measles to 173. These peoples are canoe Indians and inhabit to-day the Island coasts from Beale Island to the Wollastons inclu- sive, in the neighborhood of Cape Horn, [60] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY from about 54 50' S. Lat. to about 55 56' S. Lat., making them the southern-most inhab- itants of the world. The Ona Indians, a taller and finer race physically, who are foot Indians, occupy the mountain and forest re- gion of southern Tierra del Fuego from ap- proximately 53 50' S. Lat. to 55 3' S. Lat. The Onas formerly occupied the entire north- ern half of Tierra del Fuego and possibly numbered some 3,000, but through contact and warfare with tlie whites, who drove them south off the open lands of the north, they have been reduced to about 300. These people are of a light cinnamon colored skin, black liaired, and of a decided American In- dian type. The Onas are above the average stature, the Yahgans below it. It is not an infrequent occurrence for in- dividuals among both the Yahgans and Onas to be subject to sudden outbursts of furore and violence. At such times, however, it is the custom of some of the men to follow [(ii] REPRESSED EMOTIONS closely behind to see that harm does not come through injmy against trees, stimibling, or falling from the cliffs. They rarely touch the afflicted one except to prevent harm, and finally will lead him back to the camp, when the attack is over or when he is exhausted. While the attack occurs both among men and women, it seems to be more prevalent among men. The individuals in whom these attacks predominate are men in the prime of life, ranging from twenty-five to thirty-five years of age. These people are polygamous, as it is the custom for the old men to marry young girls thus leaving the old women to the younger men, which in many instances causes a scarcity of women. As a rule the character of the attack con- fines itself to the mad rushing away, as above described, at other times it consists of at- tempts to injure or kill. For instance, a rancher of Tierra del Fuego, was in the com- pany of some Onas, when suddenly a hatchet [62] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY whizzed by him, barely missing his head, and buried itself in a log of the Indian shelter. This was the result of an attack w^iich sud- denly appeared in a native who was afflicted thus from time to time. The actual outburst in this case was sudden, although it is diffi- cult to tell how long it might have been com- ing on in the form of brooding, which seems to be a premonitory phase of this condition. Concerning a personal experience with one of the early phases of the attack, Mr. Fur- long states as follows; — "I am fully con- vinced that one night while camping alone with Onas in the heart of the Fuegian for- ests, that my head man Aanakin, who had a good many killings to his credit, was brood- ing as he sat in his wigwam, which opened towards the fire; he watched me for nearly an hour with an attitude and expression which reminded me of the look a dog takes on sometimes before he snaps. Aanakin, I knew to be of a very moody nature, but this [03] REPRESSED EMOTIONS particular mood was so marked and por- tended evil so noticeably toward me without any apparent cause, that I decided to do something to break its mental trend. So putting fresh wood on the fire, to make a more brilliant blaze, I walked directly into his wigwam and motioned to one of his two wives who was lying beside him. There was a passing look of half-anger, half -sur- prise, but I gave no time for his mind to dwell in the same mood, for simultaneously I produced my notebook and pencil and be- gan to make drawings of animals and other things that were famihar to them. They like to watch one draw and name the thing, and so I kept them busy for perhaps an hour, and finally had them in gales of laughter. I am quite convinced that I forestalled an attack or a condition akin to it." It seems that an attack usually begins suddenly. However, an instance is given where an Ona becoming moody realized that [64] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY one of these attacks was incubating and put- ting his hands together begged to have his wrists and feet bound in order that he would not do liimself or others harm, or that it would not be thought that he meant to kill and consequently be shot in self-defense. This would seem in a way to indicate that there was no amnesia for the attack, as the Indian undoubtedly realized what he had done in previous attacks. The mood}' state and the realization of what might follow as the attack developed, demonstrates a sense of uneasiness as the premonitoiy symptom, which ends in a state of utter exhaustion and sleep. The nor- mal condition is resumed, practically on awakening from sleep and recovery of strength. From a description of Donald MclNIillan, the explorer, the Eskimo disease termed Pil)loklo strongly resembles these attacks of tlie Onas and Vahgan Indians witli the ex- [05] REPRESSED EMOTIONS ception that Piblokto was particularly prev- alent among women/ How an attack begins is shown by the case of Aanakin, an Ona of Furlong's expedition. A certain form of melancholia, brooding or moodiness, seems to precede many of these attacks, with a realization sometimes that an attack is developing. The Onas not being naturally a quarrelsome people, it may be that this reahzation and foreboding of the attack accounts for their tendency to run away from their associates, when they have endured the strain as long as they can, thus placing themselves in a position to avoid a deliberate assault or injury to those about them. It was further stated, in answer to the questionnaire — "I cannot give you absolute data regarding laughing or crying in this at- tack, screaming, yells, foaming at the mouth, biting the tongue, tearing the clothes, al- 1 See A. Brill— "Piblokto or Hysteria Among Peary's Eskimos" — Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease — 1913. [66] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY \ though I am of the opinion that any or all of these things may and do occur. As to violent resistance, the case, where the man wished to be bound, would show there was violent resistance, and it is probable that partly for this reason the Onas and Yahgans do not molest the afflicted except to prevent them from harming themselves, preferring to wait until the paroxysm exhausts them. I cannot state positively as to whether the attack is explained by the natives as being due to an evil spirit. While the people are polygamous, though having no form of re- ligious worship, they usually believe when any one has a disease that something has en- tered them or some one who dislikes them has surreptitiously sent some small animal or ar- row into tliem. Among the Yahgans the 'Yuccamoosh' (doctors) or magicians pro- ceed to pretend to extract these objects by a form of squeezing and hugging the patient, in tlie meantime blowing, hissing, etc., to [07] REPRESSED EMOTIONS force the object of evil out. I have never known of their doing this, however, to a per- son suffering from an attack. "I am unable to supply any direct data as to the relation of love, hunger, sexuality, death of relatives or absent relatives to an attack. On the death of a relative, the Yah- gans go through incantations in the form of a sort of weird death chant, which they often sing in unison at certain times of the day and night. They paint their faces to show the death to strangers, but they rarely men- tion the name of the dead, in fact by most it is considered an offense to do so. They simply say — 'He is gone.' 'He is no more.' They feel the loss of relatives very keenly and sorrow for them, and sometimes become violent with grief and rage. "Regarding the primitive type of mental organization among these natives, — despite Darwin's first opinion of them, which was subsequently modified,— I consider these [68] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY people inherently intelligent, though of a very primitive type as far as culture is con- cerned, probably the most primitive in this hemisphere, perhaps in the world, as the Onas are to-day living in the Old Stone Age. Dr. E. Von Hornbostel of Berhn Univer- sity, who has collaborated with me in making a special study of my phonographic records of their songs, informs me that these songs are the most primitive American Indian songs of which they have any records." Of importance for a clear understanding of the mental traits of these Indian tribes, as the source from which these attacks de- velop, is the study of tlieir dreams, their sys- tem of taboos and their myths. So far as could be determined from the data supplied, the dreams of these primitive races strongly resemble the di-eams of children, as these aboriginal tribes possess many childlike at- tributes. In fact up to a certain age the civilized child is really a little savage, with [69] REPRESSED EMOTIONS his strong egotism and feelings of rivalry, his taboos, his jealousies and his few or no al- truistic tendencies. In the child as in the savage the wish and the thought are synony- mous, both want their desires immediately gratified, although such gratification may be impossible in reality. The dreams of the Yahgan Indians are simple wish-fulfillments, without disguise or elaboration, like the dreams of a civilized child. The Yahgan's attitude towards death is the same as that of many primitive races and their lack of understanding of the real meaning of death, strongly resembles in its attitude that of a civilized child. Any reference to death is strongly tabooed among them and to transgress this taboo, ex- poses the individual to gi^ave danger and severe punishment, even the punishment of the thing tabooed. Thus the person who transgressed this taboo becomes himself [TO] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY taboo by arousing the anger or the resent- ment of other members of this tribe. How- ever, a certain ambivalent ^ tendency seems to be present, for while the word "death" and the mention of the dead are prohibited, yet they feel deep grief and sorrow for their dead relatives. Transgi'ession of the taboo may arouse the other aspect of the ambiv- alent attitude (for instance anger instead of sorrow) and it thus becomes a source of dan- ger to the guilty individual and so by con- tagion and imitation to the community at large. This ambivalent tendency which leads to taboos is prominent among primitive races as well as in civilized children. For in- stance, in the latter there may be cited the taboo of pronouncing certain words which leads to the anxiety neurosis of stammering 1 Ambivalence is a term used in psychoanalysis, which, according to IJleuler, "gives the same idea two contrary feel- ing tones and Invests the same thought siiuultancously with both u positive and a negative character." [71] REPRESSED EMOTIONS or the taboo of objects possessing a sexual significance in producing the compulsion neurosis of kleptomania. As civilization and cultural advancement increase or as the child becomes the adult, the taboo tendency gradually declines, yet under certain condi- tions it may manifest itself as a psychoneu- rotic symptom. When we approach this problem of the taboo from the field of psychoanalysis, in those who Hve, not in primitive surround- ings, but in a highly civilized and complex society, we find certain individuals who have created artificial taboos for themselves: they follow out these prohibitions as strictly as the savage follows his taboos. This condi- tion is found in the compulsion neurosis, and as Freud very ingeniously suggests, the term "taboo disease" might be an appro- priate one for this malady. In the savage, the taboo is a conscious act, bound up with certain ceremonials of great religious and [72] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY social significance. In the compulsion neu- rotic, the taboo has its origin in the uncon- scious and the unconscious of the compulsion neurotic as shown by the dreams predomin- antly contains hostile and savage wishes and thus is synonymous with the conscious be- havior of primitive peoples themselves. After this digression we are in a position to understand the psychology of the taboo as it is revealed in the compulsion neuroses. For this purpose, it is best to relate briefly the history of a patient with a compulsion neurosis, who came under personal observa- tion. A young man for several years had had the feeling that he became easily contam- inated, either by touching objects which he felt were contaminated or by merely passing a location (such as a dug up street or sewer) , which he felt might be the source of contam- ination. As a result, he would set up all sorts of defensive acts to oppose this con- [73] REPRESSED EMOTIONS tamination, either by having his clothes fre- quently cleaned, or by habitually washing his hands. In the analysis a large number of peculiar dreams appeared which I have termed "calamity dreams." In these dreams, severe accidents or calamities would happen to people who were total strangers to the dreamer, such as little girls being run over by motor trucks or young men being severely cut by broken glass. This type of dream is very primitive and savage and clearly demonstrates an unconscious hostil- ity to inflict pain or suffering, directed to- wards any one. These feelings or wishes are repressed in the unconscious, and the com- pulsion neurosis, the feeling of contamina- tion, arises as a defense (or punishment) against these repressed, cruel and savage im- pulses. He worried about the future, because he felt that certain objects in years to come would remain contaminated from him. To [74] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY him the contamination is in the object, is part of it, and not inherent in his ideas, although it is the reahty of his thoughts which forms the basis of the compulsive thinking. He hopes hke primitive peoples, that the trans- fer of contamination will relieve him by ac- tually making the contamination cling to the object, he acts as if inanunate things were the carriers of contamination. This is the typical taboo-transference of savages and shows how primitive is the unconscious of a compulsion neurotic. As Freud states : ^ "Obsessive prohibitions possess as extraor- dinary capacity for displacement ; they make use of almost any form of connection to ex- tend from one object to another. The com- pulsion neurotics act as if the 'impossible' person and things were carriers of a danger- ous contagion, which is ready to displace it- self through contact to all neighboring things." 1 S. Freud— "Totem and Tnhoo"— p. 46. [T5] REPRESSED EMOTIONS As these particular primitive races have no conception of immortality, this taboo can- not be a religious or moral obligation or prohibition, but a social phenomenon for the benefit of the tribe or for the physical welfare of the individuals comprising the tribe. Freud also has pointed out how the avoid- ance of the names of the dead because of the fear of offense to the living is found among certain South American tribes. He states: — "One of the most surprising but at the same time one of the most interesting taboo customs of mourning among primitive races, is the prohibition against pronouncing the name of the deceased. The avoidance of the name of the deceased is, as a rule, kept up with extraordinary severity. Thus among many South American tribes it is considered the gi^avest insult to the survivors to pro- nounce the name of the deceased in their presence, and the penalty set for it is no less than that for the slaying itself. . . ." "The [76] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY strangeness of this taboo on names dimin- ishes if we bear in mind that the savage looks upon his name as an essential part and im- portant possession of his personality." In civilized society too the death of a dearly be- loved one is often followed by a purposeful forgetting (repression) of their physical ap- pearance, a sort of defense of the mind to minimize the loss. A third factor of importance is a study of their myths. These are the savage's day dreams. The relation between myths and dreams is well known, both having their roots in the unconscious thinking of the race. In the individual this unconscious mental process produces dreams, in the race and society, myths. Only one instance will be cited, the legend of the Yahgan Indians concerning tlie creation of the first man and woman. AVhen one of the tribe was asked how the first human being came into the world, he replied that a long time ago the [77] REPRESSED EMOTIONS first man came down from the sky on a rope, and later, the woman followed. Here is a striking instance of how an adult Indian had applied his knowledge of individual births literally to a cosmic process, a genuine crea- tion myth as a form of symbolic thinking. There seems little doubt in this case, that the sky which to all savages appears like a bowl, represented the uterus and the rope, the um- bilical cord. The resemblance of this myth to certain birth or parturition dreams, as en- countered in the psychoanalytic investiga- tions of civilized adults, is certainly striking. How is this mass of material to be inter- preted? The mental traits of these people as shown by an analysis of their taboos, myths and dreams, are very primitive in or- ganization, in fact according to Mr. Fur- long, they represent the most primitive types of culture in the world. Individuals of such primitive mental traits have not yet learned to successfully repress their emotions and [78] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY hence are liable to sudden emotional out- bursts. Substitution and repression in civ- ilized races are utilized to cover complex and multifarious ways of expressing social wishes and wants. In the savage there is little or no repression and substitution, be- cause his desires are simple and easily satis- fied. These primitive people therefore resemble children, without inhibitions or repressions. Their attacks of violence and furore are sud- den emotional reactions, perhaps hysterical, but without any phenomena of what is termed hysterical conversion, such as the changing of ideas or emotions into physical symptoms of paralysis or loss of sensation. The relation of the attacks to an unsatis- fied sexual craving is shown by the fact that the attacks occur only in young men whose lil)ido remains unsatisfied, as according to tribal custom they are compelled to marry old women, or, in the words of the explorer [70] REPRESSED EMOTIONS who lived among the people, "old derelicts." This factor, combined with the observation that the victims of the attack are free from the loss of consciousness and amnesia and the absence of an absolute evidence pointing to foaming of the mouth or biting of the tongue, would seem to indicate that the outbursts were hysterical rather than epileptic in nature. It seems that the attacks themselves are motivated, not so much by the actual gross sexual as by an ungratified or only partially gratified love which would occur in a man who is compelled by social and tribal custom to marry an old woman. Among the Eski- mos this factor is at work in the woman, among the Fuegians in the men. Conver- sion phenomena were absent, because their mental organization is very simple, in the same way that childhood hysteria is free from conversion symptoms or at most is mono- symptomatic. [80] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY That the unconscious thinking of man is the same the world over and that similar symbolic representations of repressed feel- ings can be found in primitive tribes sep- arated by time and space, is shown by the identity of the myths of the Pueblo dwellers of America and the Polynesian and Aus- tralian myths, as compared with the myths of the Fuegian. There is a strong identity between dreams and myths, both are child- hood phantasies which have been repressed into the unconscious and both are symbolic. In the case of a dream this repressed ma- terial is projected into the partially sleeping consciousness, in the case of a myth, it is projected either as the birth of a hero or a birth-process or as a phantasy of heroism and salvation. A myth becomes then really a waking dream. ^ Symbolism is the true 1 See on this point Abruhain's "Dreams and Myth-s" Rank's— "Myth of the Birth of the Hero." Also my paper "Dreams and the Samson Myth" (Int. Zeit. f. Artz Psycho Analyse— Vol. II, No. 5) and "The Sexual Symbolism of the Cretan Snake Goddess (Psychoanalytic Review, Vol. IV, [81] REPRESSED EMOTIONS language of the thinking and feehngs of primitive people and unconsciously of civil- ized peoples. It has its roots in the uncon- scious, since all symbols are identical be- cause unconscious thinking is identical. The unconscious not only originates in the childhood of man, but it may also be said to have its origin in the childhood of the world. If it were possible to penetrate into the mind and motives of prehistoric man, such data might be able to throw light upon unconscious symbolism in its most primitive form and the earliest stages of its develop- ment. While the skeletal remains of pre- historic man have been subjected to a search- ing anatomical investigation on account of their comparative abundance, yet the data upon the mental activities of the men of pre- historic times, by the very reason of their remoteness, must be very fragmentary.^ No. 3). The best discussion of the entire question is found in Freud's "Totem and Taboo." 1 See on this Henry Fairfield Osborne's "Men of the Old [82] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY It can be shown on the basis of fairly abundant material, particularly in the plas- tic arts and paintings in the caverns, that the various races of prehistoric times seemed to possess, in much the same way that modern man possesses, strong yearnings and mo- tives, pleasure and pain. Men even in those remote times tended to emphasize the sexual element and their beautiful color paintings in the caverns seemed to show, that even long years ago, men attempted to repress reahty, to break away from it in the struggle for existence and from the monotony of life in the dark caverns. Some of the pliallic symbolism of their every day utensils is interesting, a symbol- ism so often found in dreams. Symbolism and consequently even repression, although to a less extent than in a more modern civilization thus liad its origin in the remotest stone Afre"— 1915, and my critic.ii review of the same, from n psyclioanalytie standpoint in the Journal of Abnormal Piychology, Vol. II, No. \. [83] REPRESSED EMOTIONS ages of the past. The symbolism of dreams draws its material from this remote ancestry, showing how primitive and archaic the un- conscious of man is and how often the dream is merely a fragment of the mental life of our remote ancestors. We are now prepared to briefly discuss a few primitive myths as projections of mate- rial which is repressed in the unconscious of man and of the race.^ In the myths of the Pueblo dwellers we are told, that "According to their Genesis, the ancestors of the Pueblo dwellers issued from the fourfold underworld through a Sipapu, which some regard as a lake, and thence journeyed in search of the Middle Place of the world. Earth's navel." Here the birth symbolism is very evident as in all primitive thinking, the application, as in the Fuegian 1 The material utilized here is taken from the "Mythology of all Races," Vol. 10, North American Indian, — Hartly Burr Alexander, and Vol. II, "Oceanic," by Roland R. Dixon. [84] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY myth, of an individual birth process to a cosmic birth process. In the Pueblo mythology, too, the "Plumed Serpent" is connected both with lightning and fertility and the same identity can be detected in the analysis of the Pro- metheus myth. In the "highly dramatic snake dances of the Hopi Indians, there are several acts which seem to represent the fructification of the maize by the "Plumed Snake." This latter quotation shows that the phallic synibolism of the serpent is recog- nized by the comparative mythologist as well as by the psychoanalyst. The natives of Australia are in their cul- ture among the lowest people in the world, luit at the same time they possess extraor- dinary complex social organizations and elaborate rchgious ceremonials. They have but httle repression hence their mytli« refer- ring to the origin and birth of human beings are very literal and not at all symbohzed. [85] REPRESSED EMOTIONS "They had no distinct limbs or organs of sight, hearing or smell, and did not eat food, and presented an appearance of human be- ings all doubled up into a rounded mass in which just the outline of the different parts of the body could be vaguely seen." In an- other creation myth, there was absolutely no repression, the ocean was derived directly from the amniotic liquor. In a Polynesian myth, showing the CEdipus trend, we see the symboHzation of the repressed family conflict which so fre- quently occurs in the childhood of man, lays the foundation for a future neurosis and often appears in the dreams of adults. In these dreams the father is slain or does not appear and the mother is triumphant. These over-attachments to one of the family group, usually the son to the mother, are strongly repressed as the individual develops, and forms what is known as the CEdipus complex, from the well known Greek [86] IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY legend. This legend, like the Polynesian myth, merely represents the repressed feel- ings of the race, the over-love for the mother and hate for the father. This Polynesian myth is very interesting because it occurs in a very primitive race which had the same Qi^dipus legend, as the more cultured Greeks, although these two races were sepa- rated by immense periods of time. In this myth, the father is symbolized as the sky and the mother as the earth. ^ 1 See on this point, "Mythology of all Races," Vol. 9, •'Oceanic Myths" in Chapter I, "Myths of Origins and the Deluge." [87] CHAPTER III BEPRESSED EMOTIONS IN LITEKATUEE It is generally admitted that Russian literature abounds in abnormal characters and in delineations of nervous and mental diseases, and as such it offers interesting and valuable material for the psychoanalyst. The best examples of these psychopathic and neuropathic personahties are found in the Russian novel, but occasionally we find this morbid tendency in Russian lyric poetry. Readers of Lermontoff's "Tamara," which is sort of a Russian Lorelei, will find a striking resemblance to Heine's famous poem in its association of pleasure with pain. The best psychopathic examples are found in Dostoevsky, who painted abnormal men and women in novels of tremendous power. Because he himself was an epileptic and so understood the disease with all the up- [88] IN LITERATURE setting factors producing the individual at- tacks, Dostoevsky described epileptic con- vulsions, the ecstatic aura or warning of the attacks and the epileptic personahty, with an astonishing degree of accuracy. For this reason, the works of Dostoevsky furnish a valuable clinic for the psychoanalyst/ No one but a sufferer from epilepsy could have written the astonishingly accurate and terse account of an epileptic attack, as it appears in "Crime and Punishment." A less gifted author or one who did not under- stand the disease, would have produced an eye-witness's description of an epileptic convulsion. Not so Dostoevsky. For him, an epileptic attack, as to all epileptics, is not objective, it consists merely of a queer and sometimes indescribable bodily sensation and then a break in consciousness. For example, Raskolnikov, after the mur- der, is about to make a voluntary declara- 1 Sec "A Study of the Epilepsy of Dostoevsky" by L. Pierce Clark — Botton Mpdicnl and Surgical Journal — 1915. [80] REPRESSED EMOTIONS tion of his crime before the pohce. He com- plains of being dizzy, and then Dostoevsky goes on to say: ^ — "Raskolnikov picked up his hat and walked toward the door, but he did not reach it. . . . When he recovered consciousness, he found himself sitting in a chair, supported by some one on the right side, while some one else was standing on the left, holding a yellowish glass filled with yellow water." This is a description of a genuine epileptic seizure ; exactly the manner in which sufferers from epilepsy character- ize their attacks — a queer feeling and then they find themselves lying on the ground or in a hospital bed. Other examples of the portrayal of the abnormal mental states are seen in the curi- ous religious symbolism of Korolenko's "Makar's Dream," the sensual details in Kuprin's stories of garrison life and also in "The Little Demon" of Feodor Sologub. 1 "Crime and Punishment" Part II. Chapter I— (Con- stance Garnett's translation). [90] IN LITERATURE Both as a novel and a psychiatrical docu- ment, "The Little Demon" is a masterpiece. Briefly, the storv states that the schoolmaster Peredonov has been promised an inspector- ship of schools if he will marrj^ his mistress and around this slight nucleus there develops the various ramifications of his mental dis- ease. Out of this coveted inspectorship, the various delusions arise, elaborate themselves more and more and become more complex as the different situations of the novel de- velop. The thwarted desires of the school- master finally crystallize into clearly formed delusions of persecution; in other words, Peredonov becomes the victim of a mental disease known as paranoia. In the history of psychiatry this term has had wide varia- tions and been loosely used, but in individ- uals of Peredonov's personality, it refers to a type of mental reaction where the affected subjects are inclined to see a sinister mean- ing in things and to misinterpret actual occurrences. [91] REPRESSED EMOTIONS In Peredonov's case, as in all paranoiacs, the delusions are the logical outgrowth of actual situations in the life of the individual. These actual situations, however, are never misinterpreted unless there occurs, as in the case of Peredonov, what may be termed an overloading of each situation with certain emotions and unfulfilled desires. Thus the delusion formation is not the disease, it is merely the symptom, the outward exj^ression of the underlying pathological mental state. From this standpoint "The Little Demon" is not only a masterly novel but also a psy- chiatrical document of great value. All who have carefully analyzed the gen- esis and development of paranoiac delusions have seen Peredonovs in reality and have noted their over-suspiciousness and misinter- pretation of actual life situations. With the exception of Maupassant's "Le Horla" I know of no work in prose literature in which the complicated skeins of a mental [92] IN LITERATURE disorder are so cleverly unraveled as in this novel by Feodor Sologub. There is an in- teresting parallel, too, between the visual hallucinations of the "Being" in "Le Horla" and the hallucinations of the "Nedotikomka" in the "Little Demon." Another example of an accurate portrayal of a pathological mental state, both in the reactions of the individual involved and of the means utilized to bring this indiv.idual out of his abnormal mentality, is found in Goncharoff's "Oblomoff." Oblomoff is not only a product of supreme merit, parallel to the best work of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Turgenieif , but it possesses a valuable psychoanalytic interest in that it portrays a certain type of repressed or shut in human character and shows the reactions of that character to inner conflicts and upset- ting emotional factors. Tlie author pre- sents a valuable portrayal of a shut-in or introverted personality, and demonstrates [93] REPRESSED EMOTIONS how love acted on this introverted individual in the same manner in which a psychoanaly- sis works. This book is therefore of great interest to the psychoanalytic physician. Intuitively the author portrayed a certain type of neu- rosis, probably the outgrowth of his own ex- periences. Olga is really the psychoanalyst and Oblomoff the patient. The genius of the author has unconsciously traced the de- velopment of a neurosis and its conclusion that is more slowly and painfully reached by the psychoanalyst. We are in the presence of a unique and at the same time a highly scientific conception. In order to understand the book and its relation to the writer and his time, it be- comes necessary to say a few words concern- ing the author, Goncharoff.^ Kropotkin states that the most popular novel of Gon- 1 Much of what follows concerning Goncharoflf is taken from the admirable account In Kropotkin's "Idealg and Realities in Russian Literature." [94] IN LITERATURE charoflT is "Oblomoff," which like Turge- nieff's "Fathers and Sons" and Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and "Resurrection," is one of the profoundest productions of the last half century. "It is so thoroughly Russian, so Russian indeed," he says, "that only a Russian can fully appreciate it, but it is at the same time universally human, as it intro- duces a type which is almost as universal as that of Hamlet or Don Quixote." It is here that we see the real significance of the novel, it is the "universally human," as Oblomoff represents a type of character, or even of disease, which is represented by withdrawal from reality and living and lux- uriating in day dreams. It appears that the novel portrays the close connection between its principal char- acter and the author himself, in fact, it seems, as in so many supreme works of art, to be nothing more than GoncharofF's pro- jection of his own inner feelings in the form [95] REPRESSED EMOTIONS of a literary creation. In his short auto- biography, Goncharoff states . . . "My people did not let me have even a wish, all had been foreseen and attended to long since. The old servants, with my nurse at their head, looked into my eyes to guess my wishes, trying to remember what I liked best when I was with him, where my writing table ought to be put, which chair I preferred to the others, how to make my bed. The cook tried to remember which dishes I liked in my childhood . . . and all could not admire me enough." When the novel was published in Russia in 1859, it made an extraordinary impression. "All educated Russia read Oblomoff and discussed Oblomoffism. Every one recog- nized something of himself in Oblomoff, felt the disease of Oblomoff in his own veins . . . and now forty years afterward, one can read and re-read 'Oblomoff' with the same pleas- ure of nearly half a century ago, and it has [96] IN LITERATURE lost nothing of its meaning, while it has ac- quired many new ones. There are always living Oblomoffs." There are always living Oblomoffs! How true! We are attracted to Hamlet and Faust again and again because they represent universal types, every one has something of Hamlet or Faust within him. So is Oblomoff a universal type. The psy- choanalyst meets with Oblomoffs continually in his practice. Every neurotic, who lives in his day dreams, who has withdrawn more or less from reality, who as a consequence dis- plays the inhibition and inertia of introver- sion is an Oblomoff. The character of Oblomoff presents such valuable material for the psychoanalyst, because it portrays the neurosis of a real human being. Before proceeding to the analysis of the novel, it miglit be well to give a short out- line of the case of a neurotic patient, so that it may be compared with the hero in Gon- [97] REPRESSED EMOTIONS charoff's production. It will be noticed, that the artificial creation cannot be differ- entiated from the real individual. It refers to the case of a young man who might be termed a modern Oblomoff thus showing that the character of Oblomoff is not limited to any particular time or race. He was an extreme neurotic, who for years had withdrawn more and more from reality, had built a sort of mental Chinese wall around his mind, and as in a forbidden city, had preferred to luxuriate in his day dreams rather than come into touch with reality. In his case as in Oblomoff 's there is no balanced proportion of day-dreaming and realistic functioning, the realistic does not control his day-dreaming but rather the day-dreaming controls the realistic. From his early childhood, as in Oblomoff and in GoncharofF's Autobiography, his rel- atives absolutely directed his everyday life. He did everything slowly and with a great [98] IN LITERATURE deal of inhibition and when completely dom- inated by his day-dreams, he would display intense inertia and become completely in- active. This living in day-dreams and idly allow- ing the day-dreams to represent wishes or desires which are impossible of fulfillment in reality, is termed ''autistic thinking," a term introduced by the Swiss physician Bleuler. This autistic thinking is universal, from the child to the adult. It exists in all grades of intensity in human beings. In normal and healthy individuals it is kept within certain limits by logical thinking, the autistic think- ing never gains the upper hand. When the balance between the two is upset, a neurosis develops. The neurotic withdraws from reality and lives in the unreality of the day- dream, but can always bv an effort bring himself l)ack into touch with reality again. To use a Miltonic i)hrase, the neurotic is constantly "hatching vain empires." [99] REPRESSED EMOTIONS In extreme cases, the individual is com- pletely dominated by his autistic thinking, he loses all contact with reality, lives in his day-dreams, his fairy tales; and this living in the fairy tales may produce a delusional state which the subject is unable to expel. Such a person is insane, the victim of a mental disease because he lives his fairy tale, it is real to him, he believes in it and conse- quently no amount of reasoning or logic can shake his belief. Such a person, in technical terms, lacks insight. It is thus that certain individuals develop the belief that they are great personages, a king or a queen. Napo- leon, Jesus. On the surface, the thinking or ideas of such persons appear sheer non- sense, something absolutely impossible is imagined and beheved to be real. A beautiful example in contemporary lit- erature, of the manner in which autistic thinking may completely dominate the per- sonality and so lead to a complete with- [100] IN LITERATURE drawal from reality, can be found in Lord Dunsany's "The Coronation of INIr. Thomas Shap." * ^Ir. Shap's occupation consisted of the dull monotony of a prosaic clerk until he began to first perceive "the very beastliness of his occupation" and "from that moment he withdrew his dreams from it" and "took little flights with his fancy at first; dwelt all day in his dreamy way on fields and rivers lying in the sun- light." Little by httle he withdrew more and more from reality, "his soul was no longer in them." He began to lead another life, neglected his business, in his own imagi- nation he lived in scenes of oriental splendor and finally dominated them as king "throned on one amethyst." Here we have an exquis- ite picture of the paranoiac domination of the personality of an individual who has be- come dissatisfied with reality, in which the })alance of his own tliouglits and of coming > Lord Dunsany — "The Book of Wonder." [101] REPRESSED EMOTIONS into touch with reality, was completely upset. It will be seen that there is no hard and fast line to be drawn between the autistic thinking, the repressed ideas of normal indi- viduals and of cases of nervous and mental disease. In normal individuals, there is a constant balancing: there always remain many points of contact in reality; in the abnormal cases, these points of contact grow less and less, until they entirely disappear. But autistic thinking, if well balanced, is not absolutely dangerous. A neurotic dif- fers from a normal individual in that he pos- sesses only isolated points of contact with reahty. As Bleuler states it — "A humanity without autistic thinking could not have de- veloped . . . the autistic contains most of our ideals. The autistic forms of thinking have for thousands of years given form to human ethics ; they have created ideals which would be impossible to logical thinking, dim ideals certainly, but guiding stars towards [102] IN LITERATURE which mankind may direct his groping way." ' The sleeping beauty motive, as it runs through imaginative fairy literature, is also a type of autistic thinking and may be di- vided into different forms. In the first, as exemplified by Catulle Mendes's exquisite tale (The Sleeping Beauty), the Princess had been dreaming beautiful dreams for a hundred years and in her dreams she is "adored by a lover more handsome than any of the Princes of the earth; I do not gain anything by coming out of my enchantment." — Then the Princess goes on sleeping and dreaming again. In the other form as in Tennyson's "Day Dream," the Princess is awakened from her sleep by the magic kiss of the Prince and instead of returning to sleep, she remains awake, — "And deep into the dying day, The liappy Princess followed hit im. 1 R. Bleuler — "Autistic Thinking" — American Journal of Intanity (Spccinl nuniher). [103] REPRESSED EMOTIONS It can thus be clearly seen, how the wish fulfillment and symbolism of fairy tales is parallel with what occurs in neurotic sub- jects. In the latter, autistic thinking or day-dreaming may also take two forms, the one in which the subject prefers to remain shut in, as in the stupor of dementia precox, and the second, in which there is a constant struggle to break through the day-dreaming shell, as in hysteria and various psychoneu- roses. This final triumph can only be brought about through a successful psycho- analysis. The fact that the same mental mechanism is found in fairy tales as in neurotic subjects, is explained by the fact that the makers of fairy tales struggled with the same conflicts as the nervously ill and projected their conflicts into imaginative lit- erature. As stated by Rikhn,' "Fairy tales are inventions of the directly utihzed, immediately conceived experiences of the 1 Franz Riklin— "Wish Fulfillment and Symbolism in Fairy Tales." [104] IN LITERATURE primitive human soul and general human tendency to wish-fulfillment, which we find again in modern fiction only somewhat more complicated and garbed in different forms." In fact, dreams often resemble fairy tales and such types of dreams may be termed fairy tales from the unconscious. The sym- bolism is universal; it is constructed from the unconscious and projected either in primitive fairy tales and myths or in di'cams and the various neuroses. The first example of the application of psychoanalysis to a novel, is Freud's analy- sis of Wilhelm Jensen's "Gradiva." In Oblomoff, as in Gradiva, the author knew nothing of the theoretical or technical as- pects of psychoanalysis, but tlie novel in each case not only accurately portrayed a neurotic disease but showed how the spon- taneous reactions to a love affair could re- lieve a neurosis. The "Gradiva" idea was not entirely the product of the author's fancy, [1 ().'>] REPRESSED EMOTIONS but may occur in a genuine neurosis, as I have the opportunity to observe. In this case the dream of a neurotic young girl strongly resembled in its details and sym- bolism, the young archaeologist's dream in "Gradiva." In another case, a young neurotic dreamed of his physician seated at a rough table carv- ing a lotus flower on a little oval piece of wood, with a small knife resembling a scal- pel. The symbolism here is clear. The scalpel indicated that the psychoanalytic physician worked with human material like a surgeon, in fact it symbolized the psycho- analysis as surgery of the mind, while the act of carving symbolized the psycho- analytic treatment. In both cases the dreams represented the repressed emotions of the individual, symbolized in the bas- reHef of the dream. In both the novels, too, as will be subse- quently described in detail, the girl acted as [106] IN LITERATURE the psychoanalytic physician; in "Gradiva" she cured the delusion, in "Oblonioff" she almost completely relieved the shut-in and repressed personahty. As Freud so well jjtates it — "The accomplishment of the task is easier for 'Gradiva' than for the physi- cian; she is in this connection in a posi- tion which might be called ideal from many points of view. The physician who does not fathom his patient in advance, and does not possess within himself, as conscious memory, what is working in the patient's unconscious, must call to his aid a complicated technique in order to remove the disadvantage. The disturbance disappears by being traced back to its origin. Analysis brings cure at the same time." ' After these long but rather necessary in- troductory remarks, we may now proceed to the analysis of Oblomoff." Oblomoff was a Russian gentleman of 1 S. Frcud — "Delusion nnd Drrain" — 1918. 2Thp translation used is by C. J. Hogarth. [107] REPRESSED EMOTIONS moderate means, living in Petrograd about the middle of the nineteenth century. The central theme of the book lies in the effort of Oblomoff himself, of his friends and of the girl, Olga, to lead Oblomoff out of his shut-in or introverted life, into touch with reality. In other words the book represents a struggle between introversion or the tend- ency to live within oneself and extroversion or the effort to make interests flow outward, to attach themselves to objects and to live in events in the outer world of reality. It is here that the profound psychoanalytic significance and insight of the book lies. The mental attitude towards his surround- ings, the inertia, is well shown in the follow- ing description : — "On the walls and around the pictures there hung cobwebs coated with dust; the mirrors, instead of reflecting, would have more usefully served as tablets for recording memoranda; every mat was freely spotted [108] IN LITERATURE with stains; on the sofa there lay a forgotten towel, and on the table (as on most morn- ings) , a plate, a salt cellar, a half eaten crust of bread, and some scattered crumbs— all of which had failed to be cleared away after last night's supper. Indeed, were it not for the plate, for a recently smoked pipe that was propped against the bed, and for the recumbent form of Oblomoff himself, one might have imagined that the place con- tained not a single living soul, so dusty and discolored did eveiything look, and so lack- ing were any active traces of the presence of a human being. True, on the whatnots there were two or three open books, while a newspaper was tossing about, and the bureau bore on its top an inkstand and a few pens; but the pages at which the books were open were covered with dust and beginning to turn yellow (thus i)roving that they had long been tossed aside) , the date of tlie newspaper belonged to the previous year, and from [109] REPRESSED EMOTIONS the ink-stand, whenever a pen happened to be dipped therein, there arose with a fright- ened buzz, only a derelict fly." In spite of this mental inertia, his apathy, these characteristics are superficial. He gave himself up again to his day dreams, he lives in them and these day dreams pass into genuine dreams in the same imperceptible manner unknown to the dreamer, as Raskol- nikov passes into an epileptic attack. The author goes on to state further de- tails of Oblomoff's day-dreaming — "But in Oblomoff 's study, all remained silent as the tomb. Zakhar peeped through the chink of the door, and perceived that his master was lying prone on the sofa, with his head rest- ing on the palm of his hand. The valet en- tered the room. " 'Why have you lain down again?' he asked. " 'Do not disturb me : cannot you see that I am reading?' was Oblomoff's abrupt reply. [110] IN LITERATURE " * Nay, but you ought to wash, and then to write that letter!' urged Zakhar, deter- mined not to be shaken off. " 'Yes, I suppose I ought. I will do so presently. Just now I am engaged in thought.' "As a matter of fact, he did read a page of the book which was lying open — a page which had turned yellow with a month's ex- posure. That done, he laid it down and yawned. " 'How it all wearies me !' he whispered, stretching, and then drawing up his legs. Glancing at the ceiling as once more he re- lapsed into a voluptuous state of coma, he said to himself with a momentary sternness: 'Xq— business first.' Then he rolled over, and clasped his hands behind his head. "As he lay there he thought of his plans for improving his property. Swiftly he passed in review certain grave and funda- mental schemes affecting his plow land [111] REPRESSED EMOTIONS and its taxation; after which he elaborated a new and stricter course to be taken against laziness and vagrancy on the part of the peasantry, and then passed to sundry ideas for ordering his own life in the country. "First of all, he became engrossed in a design for a new house. Eagerly he lingered over a probable disposition of the rooms and fixed in his mind the dimensions of the dining room and the billiard-room, and determined which way the windows of his study must face. Indeed, he even gave a thought to the furniture and to the carpets. Next, he designed a wing for the building, calculating the nmnber of guests whom the wing would accommodate, and set aside proper sites for the stables, the coach houses, and the servants' quarters ; finally he turned his attention to the garden. The old lime and oak trees should all be left as they were, but the apple trees and pear trees should be done away with, and succeeded by acacias. [112] IN LITERATURE Also, he gave a moment's consideration to the idea of a park, but after calculating the cost of its upkeep, came to the conclusion that such a luxuiy would prove too expensive — wherefore he passed to the designing of orangeries and aviaries. "So vividly did these attractive visions of the future development of his estate flit before his eyes that he came to fancy himself already settled there, and engaged in wit- nessing the result of several years' working of his schemes. "On a fair summer's evening he seemed to be sitting at a tea-table on the terrace of Oblomoffka — sitting under the canopy of leiify shade which the sun was powerless to penetrate. From a long pipe in his hand he was lazily inhaling smoke, and reveling both in the delightful view which stretched beyond the circle of trees and in the coolness and the quiet of his surroundings. In the distance some fields were turning to gold, as [113] REPRESSED EMOTIONS the sun, setting behind a famihar birch- grove, tinged to red the mirror-hke surface of the lake. From the fields a mist had risen, for the chill of evening was falling, and dusk approaching apace. To his ears, at intervals, came the clatter of peasantry as they returned homewards, and at the en- trance gates the servants of the estabhsh- ment were sitting at ease, while from their vicinity came the sound of echoing voices and laughter, the playing of balalaiki,^ and the chattering of girls as they pursued the sport of gorielki.^ Around him, also, his little ones were frisking — at times climbing on his knee and hanging about his neck; while behind the samovar^ was seated the real ruler of all that his eyes were beholding — his divinity, a woman, his wife! . . . And in the dining-room, a room at once elegant and simply appointed — a cheerful fire was 1 Three stringed, lute-like instruments. 2 A sort of catch-as-catch-can. 3 Tea-urn. (Notes of the translator.) [114] IN LITERATURE glowing and Zakhar now promoted to the dignity of a major-domo, and adorned with whiskers turned wholly gray, was laying a large, round table to a pleasant accompany- ing tinkle of crystal and silver as he ar- ranged, here a decanter and there a fork. "Presently the dreamer saw his wife and himself sit down to a bountiful supper. Yes, and with them was Schtoltz, the com- rade of his youth, his unchanging friend, with other well-known faces; lastly, he could see the inmates of the home retiring to rest. . . . "Oblomoff 's features blushed with dehght at the vision. So clear, so vivid, so poetical was it all that for a moment he lay with his face buried in the sofa cushions. Suddenly there had come upon him a dim longing for love and happiness; suddenly he had become athirst for the fields and hills of his native place, for his home, for his wife, for chil- dren — [115] REPRESSED EMOTIONS "After lying face downwards for a mo'' ment or two, he turned upon his back. His features were alight with generous emotion, and for the time being, he was happy. "Again the charming seductiveness of the sleep-waking enfolded him in its embrace. He pictured to himself a small colony of friends who should come and settle in the villages and farms within a radius of fifteen or twenty versts of his country house. Every day they should visit one another's houses — whether to dine or to sup or to dance; until everywhere around him he w^ould be able to see only bright faces framed in sunny days — faces which should be ever free of care and wrinkles, and round, and merry, and ruddy, and double-chinned, and of unfailing appetite. In all his neigh- borhood there should be constant summer tide, constant gayety, unfailing good fare, the joys of perennial lassitude. " 'My God, my God !' he cried in the f ull- [116] IN LITERATURE iiess of his delight : and with that he awoke. Once more to his ears came the cries of the hawkers in the courtyard as they vended coal, sand, and potatoes : once more he could hear some one begging for subscriptions to l)uild a church; once more from a neighbor- ing building which was in the course of erec- tion there streamed a babel of workmen's shouts, mingled with the clatter of tools." The reverie gradually faded into a real day dream, which has all the characteristics of a genuine dream— a wish fulfillment projected into the future. The medical advice for this neurosis is in- teresting, but inaccurate, according to our modern standards. "You must avoid emotion of every kind, for tliat sort of thing is sure to militate against a successful cure. Try, rather, to divert yourself with riding, with dancing, with moderate exercise in tlie open air, and with pleasant conversation— more especially [117] REPRESSED EMOTIONS conversation with the opposite sex. These things were designed to make your heart beat more hghtly, and to experience none but agreeable emotions. Again, you must lay aside all reading and writing. Rent a villa which faces south and lies embowered in flowers, and surround yourself also with an atmosphere of music and women." The doctor then goes on to give the advice of traveling for curing the neurosis, not realiz- ing that a neurotic carries his conflicts with him wherever he goes. In his dreams he regresses to his whole past life, he reviews it from childhood up, just as a neurotic individual always does. This affords the author an opportunity to make clear the background out of which the shut-in personality develox)ed and in one as- tonishing passage, the whole of Oblomoff's emotional development is summarized and described. "Moreover, should the boy at any time [118] IN LITERATURE want anything, he had three or four sen- ants to do his bidding; and in this fashion he never learnt what it was to do a single thing for himself. "Yet in the end his parents' fond sohci- tude wearied him, for at no time should he even cross the courtyard, or descend the staircase, without hearing himself followed by shouts of 'Where are you going to, Illya?' or 'How can you do that?' or 'You will fall and hurt yourself !' Thus pampered hke an exotic plant in a greenhouse, he grew up slowly and drowsily, and in a ^ay which turned his energies inward, and gradually caused them to wither." Like Zoc in Jensen's novel "Gradiva," Olga has upon Oblomoff the effect of a psy- cho"analysis. She acts upon his repressed and introverted life in a way a chemical fer- ment or catalyzer acts, she wishes to attract to herself the repressed and shut-in emotions of C)l)lomoff. But as we shall clearly see, [119] REPRESSED EMOTIONS she only partially succeeds, for Oblomoff is only incompletely drawn out of the prison- walls of his shut-in mind and then his neu- rosis sinks again to a lower cultural level, he reverts to the purely nutritional tendencies of childhood. The love affair is thus de- scribed. . . . "From that time forth she lived in him alone, while he, for his part, racked his brains to avoid incurring the loss of her esteem. Whenever she detected in his soul — and she could probe that soul very deeply — the least trace of its former characteristics, she would work for him to heap reproaches for his leth- argy and fear of life. Just as he was about to yawn, as he was actually opening his mouth for the purpose, her astonished glance would transfix him, and cause his mouth to snap with a click which jarred his teeth. Still more did he hasten to resume his alac- rity whenever he perceived that his lassitude was communicating itself to her, and threat- [120] IX LITERATURE ening to render her cold and contemptuous. Instantly he would undergo a revival of strenuous activity; and then the shadow he- tween them would disappear, and mutual sympathy once more beat in strong, clear accord. Yet this solicitude on his part had not, as yet, its origin in the magic ring of love. Indeed the effect of his charmed toils was a negative rather than a positive. True, he no longer slept all day — on the contrary, he rode, read, walked, and even thought of resuming his writing and his agricultural schemes; yet the ultimate direction, the in- most significance, of his life still remained confined to the sphere of good intentions. Particularly disturbing did he find it when- ever Olga plied him with some particular question and demanded of him, as of a pro- fessor, full satisfaction of her curiosity. "This occurred frequently, and arose not out of pedantry on lier part, but a desire to know the right and wrong of things. [121] REPRESSED EMOTIONS "At times a given question would absorb her even to the point of forgetting her con- sideration for Oblomoff. For instance, on one occasion, when she had besought his opin- ion concerning double stars, and he was in- cautious enough to refer her to Herschel, he was dispatched to purchase the great author- ity's book, and commanded to read it through, and to explain the same to her full satisfaction. On another occasion he was rash enough to let slip a word or two con- cerning various schools of painting: where- fore he had to undergo another week's read- ing and explaining and also to pay sundry visits to the Hermitage Museum. In the end how he trembled whenever she asked him a question!" This is the defeated transference of Oblomoff; here it is that love fails. This emotional transference, which is really only the acknowledged sympathy between two in- dividuals, forms the basis of all love affairs, [122] IN LITERATURE and love affairs often have an unhappy end- ing because this transference fails. Why? Because in every love affair it is necessary for one of the parties involved to cut loose from the moorings or attachments to the members of their own family, to tlieir blood relations. Where this fails or only partially succeeds, there arises both a conscious and unconscious mental conflict during the period of the love affair and in all these cases it leads to a severe neurotic anxiety. It is for this reason so many young people have a so-called "nervous breakdown" dur- ing a period of betrothal; the acknowledged sympathy, the transference between the two sexes remaining incomplete. In the young man it is incomplete because of too stnjng attachment to the mother, in the young woman because of too strong attach- ment to the father. While in these cases, the neurotic anxiety is conscious, yet the mental conflict, tlie over-attacliment to the REPRESSED EMOTIONS parent of the opposite sex, is very strong and deeply imbedded in the unconscious where it can only be detected through a psy- choanalysis. As a rule this over-attachment is very clearly seen in dreams, where the parent appears in a more or less disguised form or sometimes in a condensation, like a composite photograph, of the parent and the loved one. This over-attachment to the family group is very beautifully portrayed in Oblomoff's first dream. He dreamed that he was seven years old and awoke in his little cot at home. "Oblomoff's nurse had long been waiting for him to awake, and now she began to draw on for him his stockings. This he re- fused to allow her to do: which end he at- tained by frisking and kicking, while she tried to catch hold of his leg, and the pair laughed joyously together. Finally, she lifted him on her lap, and washed him and combed his hair; after which she conducted [124] IN LITERATURE him to his mother. On seeing his long dead parent, the sleeping Oblomoff's form trem- bled with delight and affection, and from under his unconscious eyelids there stole and remained two burning tears. . . . "Upon him his mother showered affection- ate kisses, and gazed at him with tender so- licitude to see whether his eyes were clear and healthy. Does he in any way ail? she inquired. Had he (this to his nurse) slept quietly, or had he lain awake all night? had he had any dreams? Had he been at all feverish ? Lastly, she took him by the hand, and led him to the sacred ikon. Kneeling with one arm around his form, she prompted him in the words of the prayers, while the boy repeated them with scanty attention, since he preferred, rather, to turn his eyes to the windows, whence the freshness and scent of a lilac-tree was flooding the room. " 'Shall we go for a walk, to-day, mama?' suddenly he asked. [12.5] REPRESSED EMOTIONS t( i^ 'Yes, darling,' she replied hastily, but kept her gaze fixed upon the ikon, and hur- riedly concluded the sacred formula. Yet into the words of that formula her very soul was projected, whereas the little one re- peated them only in nonchalant fashion." Thus Oblomoff is merely autistic thinking and his dreams are regressions to the earlier and happier days of his childhood, when he was moored to the various members of the family, — that is the dreams were genuine wish fulfillments. He is unhappy now, he lives within himself because he is no longer a child, his real childhood is skmibering in his adult unconscious and only appears like a living being in the form of a dream. The disease "the apathetic malady of Oblo- moff ka" is what would be termed in psycho- pathology an introversion neurosis, which has all degrees of intensity and which is man- ifested by the individual slowly shutting himself off more and more from reality, [126] IN LITERATURE finally sinking into and living completely in day dreams. Under these conditions, real- ity loses its hold and the inner world of un- reality finally assumes a dominating power. The result is inevitahle, a mental inertia a lack of will power, what the French term aboulia. As Jung expresses it — "Whoever intro- verts, that is to say, who ever takes away from a real object without putting in its place a real compensation is overtaken by the inevitable results of introversion." ^ So it was with Oblomoff. The fatalistic inevitable results of his introversion are ex- pressed in the following passage. . . . "Such the philosophy which our Plato of Oblomoffka elaborated for the purpose of lulling himself to sleep amid the problems and the stern demands of duty and of des- tiny. He had been bred and nourished to play the part, not of a gladiator in the arena 1 C. CI. Jung "Psycholofry of llic Unconscious" — 1916. [V27-] REPRESSED EMOTIONS but of a peaceful onlooker at the struggle. Never could his diffident, lethargic spirit have faced either the raptures or the blows of life. Hence he expressed only one of its aspects, and had no mind either to succeed in it, or to change anything in it, or to repent of his decision. As the years flowed on, both emotions and repining came to manifest themselves at rarer and rarer intervals, until, by quiet, imperceptibl-e degrees he became finally interned in the plain, otiose tomb of retirement which he had fashioned w^ith his own hands, even as desert anchorites who have turned from the world dig for them- selves a material sepulcher. Of reorganiz- ing his estate, and removing hither with his household, he had given up all thought. The steward whom Schtoltz had placed in charge of Oblomoff ka, regularly sent him the income therefrom, and the peasantry prof- fered him flour and poultry at Christmas- [128] IN LITERATURE tide, and everything on the estate was pros- pering." Thus his introversion has phinged him into a lower cultural level where the sublimations of civilized society, of intellect, of logical thinking mean nothing to him. His life, his reactions, his elan vitale, to use the Berg- son ian phrase, became a mere nutritional craving. . . . "He has succeeded in escap- ing life, in driving a bargain with it, and en- suring himself an inevitable seclusion." How true this phrase is. . . . "He suc- ceeded in escaping life." For psychoanaly- sis shows that that is the purpose of intro- version, to escape the conflicts of life, of reality, by building a mental Chinese wall around the mind. In fact, a neurotic is so inaccessi})le because of this Chinese wall. The neurotic turns away from reality, he takes a flight in disease, runs under cover so to si)eak and thus secures safety. Introver- [120] REPRESSED EMOTIONS sion is a method of escaping from reality. Concerning Olga's failure to draw Oblo- moff out of his introversion, Oblomoflf him- self gives the hint of the reason of his failure in the following words— "Alas !" was Oblo- moff's repetition, "Olga wishes forever to be on the move. Apparently she cares nothing about dreaming over the poetical phases of hfe, or losing herself in reveries. She is like Schtoltz. It would seem as though the two had conspired to live life at top speed." It seems, therefore, fair to assume, that if the character of Olga had been a little more ideal, a little more poetic in connection with her practical ability, she would have suc- ceeded. Therefore the love-transference only partially appealed to Oblomoff; only partially awakened his emotions. He could not come into contact with the more sub- limated aspects of love, he could not be re- awakened from the slumber of his idle [130] IN LITERATURE thinking and so regressed to that childhood to which his day-dreams were totally at- tached. He went the path of least resist- ance and slipped back into his introversion; in the words of the author, he was "deter- mined to be powerless." A year and a half later, Oblomoff was sitting in his dark, murky rooms, in the same condition as when he was first introduced to us. So Oblomoff married his landlady because his nutritional cravings and desires drew him back to the childhood of his dreams. Food alone, and not the higher sublimated pleasures of love and intellectual interest, were self sufficient for him. He does not have to go beyond his own body for satis- faction, his pleasures are found in the expec- tation of eating and in the taste of food. He thus becomes tremendously introverted, shut-in, h'ke those cases of dementia precox wliich in the terminal stages of their disease [i;3i] REPRESSED EMOTIONS are interested only in the immediate pleas- ures of the body. Oblomoff's surroundings are described as follows: "Hams hung from the ceiling of the store- room (to avoid damage by mice), and, with them, cheeses, loaves of sugar, dried fish, and bags of nuts and preserved mushrooms. On a table stood tubs of butter, pots of sour cream, baskets of apples, and God knows what else besides, for it would require the pen of a second Homer to describe in full, and in detail, all that had become accumu- lated in the various corners and on the vari- ous floors of this little nest of domestic life. "Nor was his coffee prepared for him with less care, attention, and skill than had been the case before he had changed his old quar- ters for his present ones. Giblet soup, mac- aroni with Parmesan cheese, soup concocted of kvass and herbs, home-fed pullets . . . all these dishes succeeded one another in reg- ular rotation, and by so doing helped to make [132] IN LITERATURE agreeable breaks in tbe otberwise monoto- nous routine of tbe little establishment." . . . His mental condition is portrayed in the following passage — "Thus Oblomoff lived in a sort of gilded cage — a cage within which, as in a diorama, the only changes included alternations of night and day and of the seasons. Of changes, the disturbing kind which stir up the sediment from the bottom of life's bowl — a sediment only too frequently both bitter and obnoxious — there were none. Ever since the day when Schtoltz had cleared him of debt, and Tarentiev and Tarentiev's friend liad taken themselves off for good, every adverse element had disappeared from Oblomoff's existence, and there surrounded him onlv «:ood, kind, sensible folk who had agreed to underpin his existence with theirs, and to help him not to notice it, nor to feel it, as it j)iirsucd its even course. Every- thing was, as it were, at peace, and of that [laaj REPRESSED EMOTIONS peace, that inertia, Oblomoff represented the complete, the natural, embodiment and expression. After passing in review and considering his mode of life, he had sunk deeper and deeper therein, until finally he had come to the conclusion that he had no farther to go, and nothing farther to seek, and that the ideal of his life would best be preserved where he was — albeit without poetry, without those finer shades where- with his imagination had once painted for him a spacious, careless course of manorial life on his own estate among his own peas- antry and servants." In his introversion, he retraces his mental development, he regresses to his childhood in his dreams because he loves his childhood, because he was happy then, he wishes to be there again and since he cannot have his childhood in reality he has it in his dreams. He does not identify himself with his en- [134] IN LITERATURE vironnient, his environment is undisturbed and means nothing to him. Oblomoff is merely an exaggerated form of wliat often tempore rily occurs in normal individuals, but here in the latter without any final breaking away from reality because of the perfect balancing between logical thinking and autistic thinking. This retreat or flight from reality has in addition, a profound social significance. All of us are more or less dominated by day dreams and these day dreams technically ex- pressed as autistic thinking, are really the fulfillment of our innermost wishes, wishes which are impossible of fulfillment in reality. There is thus a withdrawal from reality but with isolated points of contact in the nor- mally balanced individual. Life is a conflict between reality and retreat from it, particu- larly il" the reality becomes unbearable. It would seem then, without stretching [135] REPRESSED EMOTIONS the comparison too far, as if the dreams were the only reahties, since in them are fulfilled our innermost desires and ambitions, and all our perplexities and conflicts are solved ac- cording to our heart's desire. This is the hypothesis of Freud . . . namely, that all mental activities correspond to two funda- mental principles . . . the "pleasure prin- ciple" and the "reality principle." The "pleasure principle" is for the purpose of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain and it is here that the concept of repression steps in. The "reality principle" is the concept of ad- justment to reality, either by contact with it or by withdrawing from it, and by reality we mean the mental as well as the physical world. All explorers, all those who with a scien- tific impetus follow what is called the spirit of adventure, are really those who retreat from reality by seeking new worlds. There is this exception however — they balance their [136] IN LITERATURE logical thinking with their autistic thinking, they keep their points of contact thus saving themselves from the fate of the neurotic or the stuporous patient. It is a question whether complete intro- version can ever lead to a favorahle issue and liberate the enoi-mous psychical energy which seems to be latent in the unconscious. In- troversion is always dangerous in the sense that the inner cravings of man possess a monstrous laziness and consequently any tendency to lose oneself in introversion may lead to indolence with its inability for the production of creative work. [137] CHAPTER IV THE SUBLIMATION OF REPRESSED EMOTIONS We are now prepared to discuss how re- pressions are removed, in other words, how does a neurosis get well? One of the greatest problems of psycho- analysis may be stated in a few words — namely, how does psychoanalysis work? It is generally admitted that it is not due to suggestion, since in all psychoanalytic treat- ment, in which careful attention is paid to, technique, the element of suggestion is care- fully avoided. Neither can it be said to be due to explanation, for to explain the un- conscious source of the nervous illness or to enter into a discussion of the dreams, fre- quently produces a feeling of antagonism (resistance), which may well nigh prove in- [138] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS surmountable in the cure of a nervous ill- ess. It is easy to talk of the breaking down of resistance, of transference, of sublimation, of abreaction,^ but these are the end-results of psychoanalysis rather than its inner mechan- ism and do not explain the real reason for the working of the psychoanalytic procedure. The test then of all psychoanalysis is the pragmatic one. It will be admitted by all psychoanalysts, that psychoanalysis, used in the sense con- ceived by Freud, is directed primarily to the unconscious, for dreams, symptomatic ac- tions, the wide range of the neuroses them- selves, have their origin in the unconscious. The so-called resistance is merely the force wliich prevents a deep penetration into the > Hy al)reuctic)n is nu-jiiit the irn-ntal processes of work- Injf off a pent-up emotion by living throuph it apain in fetlinjr and action. If con)i)lett'Iy abreactiHl, a repressed emotion is diffused and works itself off harmlessly, if not coniplftely al)reacted, it may lead to states of mental dis- sociation. [139] REPRESSED EMOTIONS unconscious, which for certain purposes does not wish to be revealed. It defends itself against being brought into the hght of con- scious thinking. Transference on the other hand represents the opposite of resistance, the ability to penetrate into the deeper strata of the un- conscious. Psychoanalysis then is the tech- nical instrument, if it may be so called, used for the purpose of penetrating or digging into the unconscious. If the term may be permitted every psychoanalyst is a paleo- psychologist, whose duty it is to penetrate into the historic past of the individual psyche, and to explore the primitive mentality. It has been generally admitted through study of dreams, and of the taboos and neu- roses of primitive men, that the unconscious, from which all neuroses take their origin, is archaic and barbaric, in fact, all neuroses are expressions of this barbaric unconscious. The presence of the (Edipus motive as an [140] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS expression of this archaic and unethical un- conscious is sufficient proof of the uncultural nature of the unconscious. The unconscious originated not only in the childhood of man, but because it contains so many repressed motives, may also be said to have originated in the childhood of the world. These re- pressed motives are revealed in dreams, as during sleep the censorship of social inhibi- tion is removed. There arise then dreams of revenge, the symbolic dream of flying and also the non-embarrassment dream of being insufficiently clothed. The dreams offer the best and it might be said, the incontrovertible evidence of these repressed feelings, which, since they cannot be fulfilled in reality, are fulfilled either in dreams or in neurf)tic disturbances. Thus a dream in every case, is merely a fulfilled repressed wish of the unconscious. As stated by Hank and Sachs:' "A searching i"The Significance of Psychoanalysis for the Mental Sciences." [141] REPRESSED EMOTIONS investigation revealed sufficient grounds to justify the supposition that the collective primitive forms of mental life, as they exist in the child and remain preserved in the un- conscious of adults, are identical within cer- tain limits with the processes of the mental life of the savage, so far as these may hold as reflections of primitive humanity." In the unconscious is condensed and capit- ulated the cultural history of mankind. As the different sti-ata of the earth have revealed to human paleontologists different cultural levels, so to the psychoanalyst, the study of dreams reveals t-lie different cultural levels in the unconscious. Any description of the unconscious therefore must be expressed, not in the horizontal terms, but as being composed of different stratigraphic levels. All who have worked in psychoanalysis have been impressed with the fact that the motives or wishes of the unconscious are barbaric and unethical. The dream offers [142] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS us the best evidence of this barbarism, since the dreani-formation takes place exclusively in the unconscious. The dream reveals very primitive mental states, which for years have been more or less suppressed and dormant. Thus the unconscious contains the same de- sires which existed consciously in our very remote ancestors. The dream reveals the mind of prehistoric man, rather than the hu- man mind as it has been rationalized and changed through culture and education and through the evidence offered by the dream it is possible to reconstruct the entire human mind. If then the unconscious reveals very primi- tive and barbaric ways of thinking and if the only wishes at its disposal are more or less unethical and anti-social, several questions of great practical importance present them- selves. Can these unconscious motives be ()l)literatcd '. Can they be raised to a higher cultural levcH If these (juestions can be rU3] REPRESSED EMOTIONS answered in the affirmative, then we must look for such evidence in the dream, which is purely the product of the unconscious. It is now a matter of common observation that psychoanalysis can actually change the nature and motives of a subject's dreams/ Psychoanalysis, therefore, does for the un- conscious of the individual what education does for the race. The best evidence of this cultural advancement in the unconscious can be demonstrated in dreams. That psychoanalysis is certainly effective in raising the primitive motives of the uncon- scious, can be shown by the following facts, taken from a psychoneurotic case which was 1 Attention was first called to this phenomenon, so valu- able for a clear understanding of the workings of psycho- analysis and its prognostic value, in a paper published by me in the New York Medical Journal for March 23, 1913. It was later further elaborated in my statistical study of psychoanalytic treatment and finally summarized in my paper on "Hermaphroditic Dreams" {Psychoanalytic Be- ^igiv — Oct. 1917), where it was stated that psychoanalysis can actually change the unconscious bi-sexual tendency of man, in the same way that it can raise our primitive un- conscious traits to a higher cultural level. [144] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS carefully studied, over a long period of time. A young man of high intelligence and with a cultured social background, at the begin- ning of the psychoanalysis, presented very primitive types of dreams, showing that his neurosis was the expression of barbaric re- pressed wishes. After some months of treatment, another dream of the same type occurred, in which a marked censorship was shown and an attempt to neutralize the fan- tasy, although at the beginning of the psy- choanalysis he knew intellectually about the censorship, but was unable to utilize it. This change as the result of psychoanalysis is interesting, for it demonstrates that the unconscious had been raised to a higher cul- tural level, where censorship became active and acted like a psychological taboo. The original feeling in this case proved that the patient's unconscious was the reposi- tory of exceedingly primitive cnwtions and wishes; emotions, antedating the taboo, be- [U5] REPRESSED EMOTIONS cause no psychological barrier had been de- veloped or erected. It is the unconscious that has changed rather than the censor; it has undergone a higher evolution as a result of psychoanalysis. This may be taken as the working of psy- choanalysis. A neurosis is the expression, usually symbolic, of the barbaric motives of the unconscious. Psychoanalysis has an educational influence in that the method raises the unconscious to a higher cultural level and sublimation. In this modification of the unconscious by psychoanalysis, the motives are so changed that they become really civilized, in fact a complete analysis is a complete regeneration. When a neurosis gets well spontaneously, without the aid of psychoanalysis, it is very doubtful if there is a complete recovery in the genuine psychological sense. By this is meant, that after a patient plunges into a neurosis, and the neurotic symptoms dis- [146] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS appear, either by the process of time or through the ordinary methods of reeduca- tion, the unconscious difficulties and conflicts which produced the neurosis, still remain, and are liable to reappear again through future upsetting factors. In the spontan- eous recovery of a neurosis (the term "re- covery" being used for want of a better word ) , several processes may take place, viz. : 1. If the neurosis was an escape from an unbearable situation, the symptoms gradu- ally simmer down or a conscious process of readjustment or compromise takes place. 2. The neurosis in itself or its nucleus re- mains, but becomes "walled off" as it were, ready to break out at any future time under proper conditions of fatigue, worry, anxiety or emotional upheaval. 8. There may develop a complete under- standing of the neurotic symptoms without the symptoms disappearing, in fact the neu- rosis remains, but is borne with a more phil- [147] REPRESSED EMOTIONS osophical attitude. This is what usually takes place after methods of ordinary reedu- cation, the neurosis remains, but its symp- toms (fear or compulsive ideas) are looked upon from an entirely different angle. 4. A spontaneous readjustment of the un- bearable situation which was responsible for the neurosis, may take place in the uncon- scious. In these cases there is either merely a rearrangement of the pathogenic material or it has been forced down to a lower level of the unconscious. It is extremely doubt- ful if this material has been completely ra- tionahzed by the personality. As an example of this latter process, a woman whose son had gone to war was ex- tremely troubled by a recurrent dream in which her son's military uniform disappeared little by little. In this case, as the dream demonstrates, in spite of her conscious patri- otism there was an unconscious protest against war, because, as she stated it, the [148] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS war situation had shifted from an impersonal interest to a personal one "because it brings my son into the vortex and may swallow him up in it." The unconscious symbolized this process in the dream by making the mih- tary uniform gradually disappear. An in- teresting case is reported by Rivers ^ which shows in a very clear manner how spontan- eous readjustments may take place in the unconscious. An officer who had been par- tially buried by an explosion and apparently uninjured, immediately collapsed when he saw the remains of a fellow officer who had been blown to pieces. This vision haunted him in dreams to the extent that he would awaken in tlic utmost terror. Finally he became afraid to go to sleep. Under the effect of psychotherapeutic conversation, the character of the dreams changed. At first he saw the mangled body but without horror, then in a dream he took some of his friend's 1 W. 11. H. Rivers — "Th»- Uei)ression of War Experi- ence"— Lancet, 1918. [149] REPRESSED EMOTIONS personal belongings to send to his relatives and finally he dreamed that he was talking with his friend. Then the insomnia disap- peared. In this case a spontaneous read- justment of the nature of a wish fulfilhnent took place in the unconscious. In none of these methods of "spontaneous recovery," is there a genuine recovery; the conflict which lay at the root of the neurosis has not been eliminated, only "walled off," readjusted or resymbolized. Psychoanaly- sis alone can cure a neurosis, for it actually eliminates the unconscious conflicts which lie at the basis of the neurosis, either by raising the barbaric wishes to a higher cul- tural level, by bringing the patient into touch with reahty again, from which reality all neurotics withdraw, or by teaching the patient to utilize the energy of the neurotic conflict for more practical purposes. Psy- choanalysis is like an archaeological excava- tion, it digs out the buried complexes and [150] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS then they disintegrate. Through the draw- ing-out of these repressed motives and im- pulses into the full light of consciousness, through facing and understanding the neu- rotic difficulties, lies the ethical value of psy- choanalysis. It is an erroneous idea that psychoanalysis consists entirelv of sexuality in its narrower sense or that it is the searching after porno- graphic thoughts in the patient, as some of its myopic critics would lead us to believe. A properly conducted psychoanalysis refers less to sex in its literal sense, than does the details of a medical history in a physical dis- order. On the contrary, it is the broad, sex- ual conceptions of psychoanalysis, embrac- ing all liuman emotions, conflicts and desires, wliich gives psychoanalysis its high ethical value. Psychoanalysis teaches how to meet these problems, without flying from them on one hand in repression, or by embracing and treasuring them in unhealthy fantasies. A [1.51] REPRESSED EMOTIONS successful psychoanalysis should leave the patient completely sublimated, that is, it should enable him to utilize the unconscious energy for the higher purposes of life, it should teach not to waste this energy in fighting the neurosis. In order to demonstrate the beneficial re- sults of psychoanalysis, I can cite the case of a young man, who several years ago under- went a psychoanalysis for a neurosis of ex- treme severity. As a result of treatment the neurotic symptoms entirely disappeared. At the beginning of the Great War, he en- listed, and at the time, I felt so sure of the beneficial results of psychoanalysis, in pro- viding a thorough reeducation and adjust- ment of the patient's unconscious, that I was able to predict that it was practically im- possible for him to develop a war neurosis. This for the reason that experience has shown that this was one of the types of per- sonahty which was particularly prone to de- [152] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS velop the neurosis popularly known as "shell shock." This prediction was subse- quently verified, for he went through the war and was engaged in some of the most severe battles, exposed to the usual fatigue and anxieties of military hfe, without the slightest neurotic symptoms developing. In the unconscious, however, one inter- esting symptom developed and I feel sure that it was the psychoanalysis alone which prevented the symptom from projecting it- self into the conscious mental life and thus producing a war neurosis. It is well known that a large majority of war neuroses, such as the cases of functional tremor, paralysis or blindness, are merely unconscious methods of escape from an unbearable situation. The patient had a dream that he was blind, but in the dream there was a complete under- standing and correction of what the blind- ness meant, namely, — a relief from military necessity. The fact that tliis remained a [15a] REPRESSED EMOTIONS dream, that the unconscious wish was im- mediately understood, prevented this uncon- scious wish from converting itself into the symptom of hysterical blindness, after the manner of the mechanism of the conversion hysterias. The unconscious had been so well educated by the previous psychoanalysis, that it no longer took the infantile satisfac- tion of making the subject escape from what he consciously felt was his patriotic duty. At the Fifth International Congress for Psychoanalysis held in 1918, the main theme for discussion was the treatment and psycho- analysis of the War neuroses, popularly known as "shell shock." It was generally concurred that the war neuroses were merely manifestations of the mechanisms of the re- actions to fright, the same as the "fear neu- roses" in the times of peace. The neuroses were classified as anxiety hysteria and re- pressed hysteria, and like all neuroses were [154] SUBLIMATION OF EMOTIONS merely methods of escape from an unbear- able situation, chosen unconsciously. As in all neuroses, the repression had failed to solve the unconscious conflict and conse- quently the subject could escape his diffi- culties only by a flight into disease. The chief criticism which has been directed towards the psychoanalytic treatment of the neuroses has been that there are no statistics available showing the results of the method, the same as is the case in other departments of clinical medicine. It appears that this skeptical attitude was justified and it was with the purpose of disarming or minimizing such criticism, that a statistical study was undertaken.^ Some of the cases were severe, others mild, but in a large majority of these, other 1 Sec my jiapcr "Snnio StHtistiril Ftesults of the I'sycho- anulytic Tn-atiiient of tin- Vsychoncuroses" —I'ni/rhnntialiffic licriew — A})ril, 1917. Sinci- this paper was jiuhlished, the psychoanalytic treatment has b