AN INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY

When Professor Freud of Vienna made his early
discoveries in the realm of the neuroses, and announced
that the basis and origin of the various symptoms
grouped under the terms hysteria and neuroses lay in
unfulfilled desires and wishes, unexpressed and unknown
to the patient for the most part, and concerned chiefly
with the sexual instinct, it was not realized what far-reaching
influence this unpopular and bitterly attacked
theory would exert on the understanding of human life
in general.

For this theory has so widened in its scope that its
application has now extended beyond a particular group
of pathologic states. It has in fact led to a new evaluation
of the whole conduct of human life; a new comprehension
has developed which explains those things which
formerly were unexplained, and there is offered an
understanding not only of the symptoms of a neurosis
and the phenomena of conduct but the product of the
mind as expressed in myths and religions.

This amazing growth has proceeded steadily in an
ever-widening fashion despite opposition as violent as
any of which we have knowledge in the past. The criticism
originally directed towards the little understood and
viiimuch disliked sexual conception now includes the further
teachings of a psychology which by the application to it
of such damning phrases as mystical, metaphysical and
sacrilegious, is condemned as unscientific.

To add to the general confusion and misunderstanding
surrounding this new school of thought there has arisen
a division amongst the leaders themselves, so that there
now exist two schools led respectively by Professor
Sigmund Freud of Vienna and Dr. Carl Jung of Zurich,
referred to in the literature as the Vienna School and
the Zurich School.

It is very easy to understand that criticism and opposition
should develop against a psychology so difficult of
comprehension, and so disturbing to the ideas which have
been held by humanity for ages; a psychology which
furthermore requires a special technique as well as an
observer trained to recognize and appreciate in psychologic
phenomena a verification of the statement that
there is no such thing as chance, and that every act and
every expression has its own meaning, determined by the
inner feelings and wishes of the individual.

It is not a simple matter to come out boldly and state
that every individual is to a large extent the determiner
of his own destiny, for only by poets and philosophers
has this idea been put forth—not by science; and it is a
brave act to make this statement with full consciousness
of all its meaning, and to stand ready to prove it by
scientific reasoning and procedure.

Developed entirely through empirical investigation and
through an analysis of individual cases, Freudian psychology
ixseems particularly to belong to that conception
of Max Müller’s that “An empirical acquaintance with
facts rises to a scientific knowledge of facts as soon as
the mind discovers beneath the multiplicity of single
productions the unity of an organic system.”^[1]

Psychoanalysis is the name given to the method developed
for reaching down into the hidden depths of the
individual to bring to light the underlying motives and
determinants of his symptoms and attitudes, and to reveal
the unconscious tendencies which lie behind actions and
reactions and which influence development and determine
the relations of life itself. The result of digging down
into the hidden psyche has been to produce a mass of
material from below the threshold of consciousness, so
astonishing and disturbing and out of relation with the
previously held values, as to arouse in any one unfamiliar
with the process the strongest antagonism and criticism.

Although originally studied only as a therapeutic
method for the sick it was soon realized through an
analysis of normal people how slight were the differences
in the content of the unconscious of the sick and of the
normal. The differences observed were seen to be rather
in the reactions to life and to the conflicts produced by
contending forces in the individual.

These conflicts, usually not fully perceived by the individual,
and having to do with objectionable desires and
wishes that are not in keeping with the conscious idea of
self, produce marked effects which are expressed either
in certain opinions, prejudices, attitudes of conduct,
xfaulty actions, or in some definite pathologic symptom.
As Dr. Jung says, he who remains healthy has to struggle
with the same complexes that cause the neurotic to fall ill.

In a valuable book called “The Neighbor,” written
by the late Professor N. Shaler of Harvard University,
there occurs this very far-reaching statement: “It is
hardly too much to say that all the important errors of
conduct, all the burdens of men or of societies are caused
by the inadequacies in the association of the primal animal
emotions with those mental powers which have been so
rapidly developed in mankind.”

This statement, reached by a process of reasoning
and a method of thought and study entirely different
from psychoanalysis, nevertheless so completely expresses
in brief form the very basis of the postulates
developed through psychoanalysis that I quote it here.
Such a statement made in the course of a general examination
of human relations does not arouse opposition nor
seem to be so difficult of acceptance. It appears to be
the individual application of these conceptions that has
roused such bitter antagonism and violent denunciations.

Rightly understood and used, psychoanalysis may be
compared to surgery, for psychoanalysis stands in the
same relation to the personality as surgery does to the
body, and they aim at parallel results.

It is well recognized that in the last analysis nature is
the real physician, the healer of wounds; but prior to the
development of our modern asepsis and surgical technique
the healing produced by nature was most often of a very
xifaulty and imperfect type—hideous scars, distorted and
crippled limbs, with functions impaired or incapacitated,
resulted from the wounds, or else nature was unable to
cope with the hurt and the injured one succumbed.

Science has been steadily working for centuries with
the aim of understanding nature and finding means to
aid and co-operate with her so that healing could take
place with the least possible loss of function or permanent
injury to the individual. Marvelous results have rewarded
these persistent efforts, as the brilliant achievements
of surgery plainly indicate.

Meantime, however, little thought was given to the
possibility of any scientific method being available to help
man overcome the wounds and conflicts taking place in
his soul, hurts which retarded his development and progress
as a personality, and which frequently in the struggle
resulted in physical pains and symptoms of the most
varied character. That was left solely to religion and
metaphysics. Now, however, this same assistance that
surgery has given to the physical body, psychoanalysis
attempts to give to the personality. That it cannot
always succeed is as much to be expected, and more,
than that surgery does not always succeed, for the
analytic work requires much of the individual. No
real result can be attained if he has not already
developed a certain quality of character and intelligence
which makes it possible for him to submit
himself to a facing of his naked soul, and to the pain and
suffering which this often entails. Here, as in no other
relation in life, an absolute truth and an absolute honesty
xiiare the only basis of action, since deception of any kind
deceives no one but the individual himself and acts as a
boomerang, defeating his own aims.

Such deep searching and penetrating into the soul is
not something to be undertaken lightly nor to be considered
a trivial or simple matter, and the fact is that
where a strong compulsion is lacking, such as sickness
or a situation too difficult to meet, much courage is
required to undertake it.

In order to understand this psychology which is pervading
all realms of thought and seems destined to be a
new psychological-philosophical system for the understanding
and practical advancement of human life, it will
be necessary to go somewhat into detail regarding its
development and present status. For in this new direction
lies its greatest value and its greatest danger.

The beginnings of this work were first published in
1895 in a book entitled “Studien über Hysterie,” and
contained the joint investigations into hysteria of Dr.
Breuer of Vienna and his pupil Dr. Sigmund Freud. The
results of their investigations seemed to show that the
various symptoms grouped under the title of hysteria
were the result of emotionally colored reminiscences
which, all unknown to the conscious waking self, were
really actively expressing themselves through the surrogate
form of symptoms and that these experiences, although
forgotten by the patient, could be reproduced
and the emotional content discharged.

Hypnosis was the means used to enable the physician
to penetrate deeply into the forgotten memories, for it
xiiiwas found through hypnosis that these lost incidents and
circumstances were not really lost at all but only dropped
from consciousness, and were capable of being revived
when given the proper stimuli. The astonishing part
about it was that with the revival of these memories and
their accompanying painful and disturbing emotions, the
symptoms disappeared. This led naturally to the conclusion
that these symptoms were dependent upon some
emotional disturbance or psychic trauma which had been
inadequately expressed, and that in order to cure the
patient one merely had to establish the connection between
the memory and the emotions which properly
belonged to it, letting the emotion work itself out through
a reproduction of the forgotten scene.

With further investigation Freud found that hypnosis
was unnecessary for the revival of the forgotten experiences,
and that it was possible to obtain the lost emotional
material in the conscious and normal state. For this
purpose the patient was encouraged to assume a passive,
non-critical attitude and simply let his thoughts flow,
speaking of whatever came into his mind, holding nothing
back. During this free and easy discussion of his life
and conditions, directed by the law of association of
ideas, reference was invariably made to the experiences
or thoughts which were the most affective and disturbing
elements. It was seen to be quite impossible to avoid
this indirect revelation because of the strength of the
emotions surrounding these ideas and the effect of the
conscious wish to repress unpleasant feelings. This important
group of ideas or impressions, with the feelings
xivand emotions clustered around them which are betrayed
through this process, was called by Jung a complex.

However, with the touching of the complex which
always contains feelings and emotions so painful or unpleasant
as to be unacceptable to consciousness, and which
are therefore repressed and hidden, great difficulties appeared,
for very often the patient came to a sudden stop
and could apparently recall nothing more. Memory
gaps were frequent, relations twisted, etc. Evidently
some force banished these memories so that the person
was quite honest in saying that he could remember nothing
or that there was nothing to tell. This kind of forgetfulness
was called repression, and is the normal
mechanism by which nature protects the individual from
such painful feelings as are caused by unpleasant and unacceptable
experiences and thoughts, the recognition of
his egoistic nature, and the often quite unbearable conflict
of his weaknesses with his feelings of idealism.

At this early time great attention was given towards
developing a technique which would render more easy
the reproduction of these forgotten memories, for with
the abandonment of hypnosis it was seen that some unknown
active force was at work which not only banished
painful memories and feelings, but also prevented their
return; this was called resistance. This resistance
was found to be the important mechanism which interfered
with a free flow of thought and produced the
greatest difficulty in the further conduct of the analysis.
It appeared under various guises and frequently manifested
itself in intellectual objections based on reasoning
xvground, in criticism directed towards the analyst, or in
criticism of the method itself, and finally, often in a complete
blocking of expression, so that until the resistance
was broken nothing more could be produced.

It was necessary then to find some aid by which these
resistances could be overcome and the repressed memories
and feelings revived and set free. For it was proven
again and again that even though the person was not at
all aware of concealing within himself some emotionally
disturbing feeling or experience with which his symptoms
were associated, yet such was the fact, and that under
proper conditions this material could be brought into
consciousness. This realm where these unknown but disturbing
emotions were hidden was called the “Unconscious”—the
“Unconscious” also being a name used
arbitrarily to indicate all that material of which the person
is not aware at the given time—the not-conscious.

This term is used very loosely in Freudian psychology
and is not intended to provoke any academic discussion
but to conform strictly to the dictionary classification of
a “negative concept which can neither be described nor
defined.” To say that an idea or feeling is unconscious
merely means to indicate that the individual is unaware
at that time of its existence, or that all the material of
which he is unaware at a given time is unconscious.

With the discovery of the significance in relation to
hysteria of these varied experiences and forgotten memories
which always led into the erotic realm and usually
were carried far back into early childhood, the theory of
an infantile sexual trauma as a cause of this neurosis developed.
xviContrary to the usual belief that children have
no sexuality and that only at puberty does it suddenly
arise, it was definitely shown that there was a very marked
kind of sexuality among children of the most tender years,
entirely instinctive and capable of producing a grave effect
on the entire later life.

However, further investigations carried into the lives
of normal people disclosed quite as many psychic and
sexual traumas in their early childhood as in the lives of
the patients; therefore, the conception of the “infantile
sexual trauma” as the etiological factor was abandoned
in favor of “the infantilism of sexuality” itself. In
other words, it was soon realized that many of the sexual
traumas which were placed in their early childhood by
these patients, did not really exist except in their own
phantasies and probably were produced as a defence
against the memories of their own childish sexual activities.
These experiences led to a deep investigation into
the nature of the child’s sexuality and developed the
ideas which Freud incorporated in a work called “Three
Contributions to the Sexual Theory.” He found so
many variations and manifestations of sexual activity
even among young children that he realized that this
activity was the normal, although entirely unconscious,
expression of the child’s developing life, and while not
comparable to the adult sexuality, nevertheless produced
a very definite influence and effect on the child’s
life.

These childish expressions of this instinct he called
“polymorphous perverse,” because in many ways they
xviiresembled the various abnormalities called perversions
when found among adults under certain conditions.

In the light of these additional investigations Freud
was led to change his formulation, for instead of the
symptoms of the neurotic patient being due to definite
sexual experiences, they seemed to be determined by
his reactions towards his own sexual constitution and
the kind of repression to which these instincts were
subjected.

Perhaps one of the greatest sources of misunderstanding
and difficulty in this whole subject lies in the term
sexuality, for Freud’s conception of this is entirely different
from that of the popular sense. He conceives
sexuality to be practically synonymous with the word
love and to include under this term all those tender
feelings and emotions which have had their origin in a
primitive erotic source, even if now their primary aim is
entirely lost and another substituted for it. It must also
be borne in mind that Freud strictly emphasizes the
psychic side of sexuality and its importance, as well as
the somatic expression.

Therefore, to understand Freud’s theories, his very
broad conception of the term sexual must never be forgotten.

Through this careful investigation of the psychic life
of the individual, the tremendous influence and importance
of phantasy-making for the fate was definitely
shown. It was discovered that the indulgence in day-dreams
and phantasies was practically universal not only
among children but among adults, that even whole lives
xviiiwere being lived out in a phantastic world created by the
dreamer, a world wherein he could fulfil all those wishes
and desires which were found to be too difficult or impossible
to satisfy in the world of reality.

Much of this phantasy thinking was seen to be scarcely
conscious, but arose from unrealized wishes, desires and
strivings which could only express themselves through
veiled symbols in the form of phantastic structures not
understood, nor fully recognized. Indeed, it is perhaps
one of the most common human experiences to find
“queer thoughts,” undesired ideas and images, forcing
themselves upon one’s attention to such an extent that
the will has to be employed to push them out of mind.
It is not unusual to discover long-forgotten impressions
of childhood assuming a phantastic shape in memory, and
dwelt upon as though they were still of importance.

This material afforded a rich field for the searchers
into the soul, for through the operation of the law of
association of ideas these phantastic products, traced back
to their origin, revealed the fact that instead of being
meaningless or foolish, they were produced by a definite
process, and arose from distinct wishes and desires which
unconsciously veiled themselves in these mysterious forms
and pictures.

It is conceded that the most completely unconscious
product of an individual is his dream, and therefore Professor
Freud turned his attention from phantasies and
day-dreams to the investigation of the nightly dreams of
his patients to discover whether they would throw light
upon the painful feelings and ideas repressed out of
xixconsciousness, and therefore inaccessible to direct revelation.

This brilliant idea soon led to a rich fruiting, for it
became evident that contrary to the usual conception that
the dream is a phantastic and absurd jumble of heterogeneous
fragments, having no real relation to the life of
the individual, it is full of meaning. In fact, it is usually
concerned with the problem of life most pressing at the
time, which expresses itself not directly, but in symbolic
form so as to be unrecognized. In this way the individual
gains an expression and fulfilment of his unrealized wish
or desire.

This discovery of the symbolic nature of the dream
and the phantasy was brought about entirely through the
associative method and developed empirically through
investigations of the dreams of many people. In this
manner it became evident that certain ideas and objects
which recurred again and again in the dreams and phantasies
of different people were definitely associated with
certain unconscious or unrecognized wishes and desires,
and were repeatedly used by the mind to express these
meanings where a direct form was repressed and unallowed.
Thus certain dream expressions and figures
were in a general way considered to be rather definite
symbols of these repressed ideas and feelings found in
the unconscious. Through a comparative and parallel
study it soon appeared that there was a similar mechanism
at work in myths and fairy tales and that the relationship
between the dreams and phantasies of an individual
and the myths and folk tales of a people was so close
xxthat Abraham could say that the myth is a fragment
of the infantile soul life of the race and the dream is
the myth of the individual.

Thus through relating his dreams the patient himself
furnished the most important means of gaining access to
the unconscious and disturbing complexes with which his
symptoms were connected.

Besides the dream analysis the patient furnished other
means of revelation of his complexes—his mannerisms
and unconscious acts, his opening remarks to his physician,
his emotional reactions to certain ideas; in short the whole
behavior and verbal expressions of the individual reveal
his inner nature and problems.

Through all this work it became clear that in the
emotional nature lay the origin not only of the various
nervous illnesses themselves, but also of the isolated
symptoms and individual idiosyncrasies and peculiarities
which are the part of all humanity and that the pathogenic
cause of the disturbances lies not in the ignorance
of individuals, but in those inner resistances which are the
underlying basis of this ignorance.

Therefore the aim of the therapy became not merely
the relief of the ignorance but the searching out and combating
of these resistances.

It becomes evident from even this brief description
of the analytic procedure that we are dealing with a very
complex and delicate material, and with a technique which
needs to make definite use of all influences available for
the help of the patient. It has long been recognized
that the relation established between physician and patient
xxihas a great effect upon the medical assistance which
he is able to render—in other words, if a confidence and
personal regard developed in the patient towards the
physician, the latter’s advice was just so much more
efficacious. This personal feeling has been frankly recognized
and made of distinct service in psychoanalytic treatment
under the name of transference. It is through
the aid of this definite relationship which must be
established in the one being analyzed towards the analyst
that it is possible to deal with the unconscious and
organized resistances which so easily blind the individual
and render the acceptance of the new valuations very
difficult to the raw and sensitive soul.

Freud’s emphasis upon the rôle of the sexual instinct
in the production of the neurosis and also in its determining
power upon the personality of the normal individual
does not imply that he does not also recognize other
determinants at the root of human conduct, as for
instance, the instinct for preservation of life and the ego
principle itself. But these motives are not so violently
forbidden and repressed as the sexual impulse, and therefore,
because of that repressive force and the strength
of the impulse he considers this primary in its influence
upon the human being.

The importance of this instinct upon human life is
clearly revealed by the great place given to it under the
name of love in art, literature, poetry, romance and all
beauty from the beginning of recorded time. Viewed in
this light it cannot seem extraordinary that a difficulty
or disturbance in this emotional field should produce such
xxiifar-reaching consequences for the individual. The sexual
impulse is often compared with that of hunger, and this
craving and need lying in all humanity is called by Freud
libido.

The Oedipus Problem

With further investigations into the nature of the
repressed complexes a very astonishing situation was
revealed. The parental influence on children is something
so well recognized and understood that to call attention
to it sounds much like a banality. However, here
an extraordinary discovery was made, for in tracing out
the feelings and emotions of adults it became evident
that this influence was paramount not only for children
but for adults as well; that the entire direction of lives
was largely determined quite unconsciously by the parental
associations, and that, although adults, the emotional
side of their nature was still infantile in type and
demanded unconsciously the infantile or childish relations.

Freud traces out the commencement of the infantile
attachment for the parents in this wise.

In the beginning the child derives its first satisfaction
and pleasure from the mother in the form of nutrition
and care for its wants. In this first act of suckling Freud
sees already a kind of sexual pleasure, for he apparently
identifies the pleasure principle and the sexual instinct
and considers that the former is primarily rooted in the
latter. At this early time commence such various infantile
actions unconnected with nutrition as thumbsucking,
xxiiivarious movements of the body as rubbing, boring,
pulling and other manifestations of a definite interest in
its own body, a delight in nakedness, the pleasure exhibited
in inflicting pain on some object and its opposite,
the pleasure from receiving pain. All of these afford the
child pleasure and satisfaction, and because they seem
analogous to certain perversions in adults they are called
by Freud the “polymorphous perverse sexuality” of
childhood. The character of these instinctive actions
which have nothing to do with any other person, and
through which the child attains pleasure from its own
body, caused Freud to term this phase of life as autoerotic
after Havelock Ellis. However, with the growth
of the child there is a parallel development of the psychic
elements of its sexual nature and now the mother, the
original object of its love, primarily determined by its
helplessness and need, acquires a new valuation. The
beginnings of the need for a love object to satisfy the
craving or libido of the child are early in evidence and,
following along sex lines in general, the little son prefers
the mother and the daughter the father after the usual
preference of the parents.

At this early time children feel deeply the enormous
importance of their parents and their entire world is
bounded by the family circle. All the elements of the
ego which the child possesses have now become manifest;
love, jealousy, curiosity, hate, etc., and those instincts
are directed in the greatest degree towards the objects
of their libido, namely the parents. With the growing
ego of the child there is a development of strong wishes
xxivand desires demanding satisfaction which can only be
gratified by the mother; therefore there is aroused in
the small son the feeling of jealousy and anger towards
the father in whom he sees a rival for the affection of
the mother and whom he would like to replace. This
desire in the soul of the child Freud calls the Oedipus
complex in recognition of its analogy to the tragedy
of King Oedipus who was drawn by his fate to kill his
father and win his mother for a wife. Freud presents
this as the nuclear complex of every neurosis.

At the basis of this complex, some trace of which can
be found in every person, Freud sees a definite incest wish
towards the mother which only lacks the quality of consciousness.
Because of moral reactions this wish is
quickly subjected to repression through the operation of
the “incest barrier,” a postulate he compares to the incest
taboo found among inferior peoples. At this time the
child is beginning to develop its typical sexual curiosity
expressed by the question, “Where do I come from?”
The interest and investigation of the child into this problem,
aided by observations and deductions from various
actions and attitudes of the parents, who have no idea
of the watchfulness of the child, lead him, because of his
imperfect knowledge and immature development, into
many false theories and ideas of birth. These infantile
sexual theories are held by Freud to be determinative in
the development of the child’s character and also for the
contents of the unconscious as expressed in a future
neurosis.

These various reactions of the child and his sexual curiosity
xxvare entirely normal and unavoidable, and if his
development proceeds in an orderly fashion then, at the
time of definite object choice he will pass smoothly over
from the limitations of the family attachment out into
the world and find therein his independent existence.

However, if the libido remains fixed on the first chosen
object so that the growing individual is unable to tear
himself loose from these familial ties, then the incestuous
bond is deepened with the developing sexual instinct and
its accompanying need of a love object, and the entire
future of the young personality endangered. For with
the development of the incestuous bond the natural repressions
deepen because the moral censor cannot allow
these disturbing relations to become clear to the individual.
Therefore, the whole matter is repressed more
deeply into the unconscious, and even a feeling of positive
enmity and repulsion towards the parents is often
developed in order to conceal and over-compensate for
the impossible situation actually present.

This persistence of the attachment of the libido to the
original object, and the inability to find in this a suitable
satisfaction for the adult need, interferes with the normal
development of the psycho-sexual character, and it is due
to this that the adult retains that “infantilism of sexuality”
which plays so great a rôle in determining the instability
of the emotional life which so frequently leads
into the definite neuroses.

These were the conclusions reached and the ground on
which Freudian psychology rested, regarding the etiology
xxviof the neurosis, and the tendencies underlying normal
human mechanisms, when Dr. Carl Jung, the most prominent
of Freud’s disciples, and the leader of the Zurich
school, found himself no longer able to agree with
Freud’s findings in certain particulars, although the
phenomena which Freud observed and the technique of
psychoanalysis developed by Freud were the material on
which Jung worked and the value of which he clearly
emphasizes. The differences which have developed lay
in his understanding and interpretation of the phenomena
observed.

Beginning with the conception of libido itself as a
term used to connote sexual hunger and craving, albeit
the meaning of the word sexual was extended by Freud
to embrace a much wider significance than common usage
has assigned it, Jung was unable to confine himself to
this limitation. He conceived this longing, this urge or
push of life as something extending beyond sexuality even
in its wider sense. He saw in the term libido a concept
of unknown nature, comparable to Bergson’s élan vital,
a hypothetical energy of life, which occupies itself not
only in sexuality but in various physiological and psychological
manifestations such as growth, development,
hunger, and all the human activities and interests. This
cosmic energy or urge manifested in the human being he
calls libido and compares it with the energy of physics.
Although recognizing, in common with Freud as well as
with many others, the primal instinct of reproduction as
the basis of many functions and present-day activities of
mankind no longer sexual in character he repudiates the
xxviiidea of still calling them sexual, even though their development
was a growth originally out of the sexual.
Sexuality and its various manifestations Jung sees as most
important channels occupied by libido, but not the exclusive
ones through which libido flows.

This is an energic concept of life; and from this viewpoint
this hypothetical energy of life or libido is a living
power used instinctively by man in all the automatic
processes of his functioning; such very processes being
but different manifestations of this energy. By virtue
of its quality of mobility and change man, through his
understanding and intelligence, has the power consciously
to direct and use his libido in definite and desired ways.

In this conception of Jung will be seen an analogy to
Bergson, who speaks of “this change, this movement and
becoming, this self-creation, call it what you will, as the
very stuff and reality of our being.”^[2]

In developing the energic conception of libido and
separating it from Freud’s sexual definition, Jung makes
possible the explanation of interest in general, and provides
a working concept by which not only the specifically
sexual, but the general activities and reactions of man can
be understood.

If a person complains of no longer having interest in
his work or of losing interest in his surroundings, then one
understands that his libido is withdrawn from this object
and that in consequence the object itself seems no longer
attractive, whereas, as a matter of fact, the object itself
is exactly the same as formerly. In other words, it is
xxviiithe libido that we bestow upon an object that makes it
attractive and interesting.

The causes for the withdrawal of libido may be various
and are usually quite different from those that the persons
offer in explanation. It is the task of psychoanalysis to
discover the real reasons, which are usually hidden and
unknown. On the other hand, when an individual exhibits
an exaggerated interest or places an over-emphasis
upon an idea or situation, then we know there is too much
libido here and that we may find as a consequence a corresponding
depletion elsewhere.

This leads directly into the second point of difference
between Jung’s views and those of Freud. This is concerned
with those practically universal childish manifestations
of sexuality called by Freud “polymorphous
perverse” because of their similarity to those abnormalities
of sexuality which occur in adults and are called
perversions.

Jung takes exception to this viewpoint. He sees in the
various manifestations of childhood the precursors or
forerunners of the later fully developed sexuality, and
instead of considering them perverse he considers them
preliminary expressions of sexual coloring. He divides
human life into three stages. The first stage up to about
the third or fourth year, generally speaking, he calls the
presexual stage, for there he sees the libido or life
energy occupied chiefly in the functions of nutrition and
growth, and he draws an analogy between this period and
that of the caterpillar stage of the butterfly.

The second stage includes the years from this time
xxixuntil puberty, and this he speaks of as the prepubertal
stage.

The third period is that from puberty onward and can
be considered the time of maturity.

It is in the earliest stage, the period of which varies
greatly in different individuals, that are fully inaugurated
those various manifestations which have so marked a
sexual coloring that there can be no question of their
relationship, although at that time sexuality in the adult
meaning of the word does not exist.

Jung explains the polymorphism of these phenomena
as arising from a gradual movement of the libido from
exclusive service in the function of nutrition into new
avenues which successively open up with the development
of the child until the final inauguration of the sexual function
proper at puberty. Normally these childish bad
habits are gradually relinquished until the libido is entirely
withdrawn from these immature phases and with
the ushering in of puberty for the first time “appears in
the form of an undifferentiated sexual primitive power,
clearly forcing the individual towards division, budding,
etc.”

However, if in the course of its movement from the
function of nutrition to the sexual function the libido is
arrested or retarded at any phase, then a fixation may
result, creating a disturbance in the harmony of the
normal development. For, although the libido is retarded
and remains clinging to some childish manifestation,
time goes on and the physical growth of the child
does not stand still. Soon a great contrast is created
xxxbetween the infantile manifestations of the emotional
life and the needs of the more adult individual, and the
foundation is thus prepared for either the development
of a definite neurosis or else for those weaknesses of
character or symptomatic disturbances which are not
sufficiently serious to be called a neurosis.

One of the most active and important forms of childish
libido occupation is in phantasy making. The child’s
world is one of imagery and make-believe where he can
create for himself that satisfaction and enjoyment which
the world of reality so often denies. As the child grows
and real demands of life are made upon him it becomes
increasingly necessary that his libido be taken away from
his phantastic world and used for the required adaptation
to reality needed by his age and condition, until finally
for the adult the freedom of the whole libido is necessary
to meet the biological and cultural demands of life.

Instead of thus employing the libido in the real world,
however, certain people never relinquish the seeking for
satisfaction in the shadowy world of phantasy and even
though they make certain attempts at adaptation they
are halted and discouraged by every difficulty and obstacle
in the path of life and are easily pulled back into
their inner psychic world. This condition is called a
state of introversion. It is concerned with the past and
the reminiscences which belong thereto. Situations and
experiences which should have been completed and finished
long ago are still dwelt upon and lived with.
Images and matters which were once important but which
normally have no significance for their later age are still
xxxiactively influencing their present lives. The nature and
character of these phantasy products are legion, and are
easily recognized in the emotional attitudes and pretensions,
the childish illusions and exaggerations, the prejudices
and inconsistencies which people express in manifold
forms. The actual situation is inadequately faced;
small matters are reacted towards in an exaggerated
manner; or else a frivolous attitude is maintained where
real seriousness is demanded. In other words, there is
clearly manifested an inadequate psychic adaptation towards
reality which is quite to be expected from the
child, but which is very discordant in the adult.

The most important of these past influences is that of
the parents. Because they are the first objects of the
developing childish love, and afford the first satisfaction
and pleasure to the child, they become the models for all
succeeding efforts, as Freud has worked out. This he
called the nuclear or root complex because this influence
was so powerful it seemed to be the determining factor
in all later difficulties in the life of the individual.

In this phase of the problem lies the third great difference
between Jung’s interpretation of the observed
phenomena and that of Freud.

Jung definitely recognizes that there are many neurotic
persons who clearly exhibited in their childhood the same
neurotic tendencies that are later exaggerated. Also that
an almost overwhelming effect on the destiny of these
children is exercised by the influence of the parents, the
frequent over-anxiety or tenderness, the lack of sympathy
or understanding, in other words, the complexes of the
xxxiiparent reacting upon the child and producing in him love,
admiration, fear, distrust, hate, revolt. The greater the
sensitiveness and impressionability of the child, the more
he will be stamped with the familial environment, and
the more he will unconsciously seek to find again in the
world of reality the model of his own small world with
all the pleasures and satisfactions, or disappointments
and unhappinesses with which it was filled.

This condition to be sure is not a recognized or a
conscious one, for the individual may think himself perfectly
free from this past influence because he is living in
the real world, and because actually there is a great difference
between the present conditions and that of his
childish past. He sees all this, intellectually, but there is
a wide gap between the intellectual grasp of a situation
and the emotional development, and it is the latter
realm wherein lies the disharmony. However, although
many ideas and feelings are connected with the parents,
analysis reveals very often that they are only subjective
and that in reality they bear little resemblance to the actual
past situation. Therefore, Jung speaks no longer of the
real father and mother but uses the term imago or image
to represent the father or mother, because the feelings
and phantasies frequently do not deal with the real
parents but with the distorted and subjective image
created by the imagination of the individual.

Following this distinction Jung sees in the Oedipus
complex of Freud only a symbol for the “childish desire
towards the parents and for the conflict which this
craving evokes,” and cannot accept the theory that in this
xxxiiiearly stage of childhood the mother has any real sexual
significance for the child.

The demands of the child upon the mother, the
jealousy so often exhibited, are at first connected with
the rôle of the mother as protector, caretaker and supplier
of nutritive wants, and only later, with the germinating
eroticism, does the child’s love become admixed with
the developing sexual quality. The chief love objects are
still the parents and he naturally continues to seek and
to find in them satisfaction for all his desires. In this
way the typical conflict is developed which in the son is
directed towards the father and in the daughter towards
the mother. This jealousy of the daughter towards the
mother is called the Electra complex from the myth of
Electra who took revenge on her mother for the murder
of the husband because she was in this way deprived of
her father.

Normally as puberty is attained the child gradually
becomes more or less freed from his parents, and upon
the degree in which this is accomplished depends his
health and future well-being.

This demand of nature upon the young individual to
free himself from the bonds of his childish dependency
and to find in the world of reality his independent existence
is so imperious and dominating that it frequently
produces in the child the greatest struggles and severest
conflicts, the period being characterized symbolically as a
self-sacrifice by Jung.

It frequently happens that the young person is so
closely bound in the family relations that it is only with
xxxivthe greatest difficulty that he can attain any measure of
freedom and then only very imperfectly, so that the libido
sexualis can only express itself in certain feelings and
phantasies which clearly reveal the existence of the complex
until then entirely hidden and unrealized. Now
commences the secondary struggle against the unfilial and
immoral feelings with a consequent development of
intense resistances expressing themselves in irritation,
anger, revolt and antagonism against the parents, or else
in an especially tender, submissive and yielding attitude
which over-compensates for the rebellion and reaction
held within.

This struggle and conflict gives rise to the unconscious
phantasy of self-sacrifice which really means the sacrificing
of the childish tendencies and love type in order to
free libido; for his nature demands that he attain the
capacity for the accomplishment of his own personal
fulfilment, the satisfaction of which belongs to the developed
man and woman.

This conception has been worked out in detail by
Jung in the book which is herein presented to English
readers.

We now come to the most important of Jung’s conceptions
in that it bears practically upon the treatment
of certain types of the neuroses and stands theoretically
in direct opposition to Freud’s hypothesis. While recognizing
fully the influence of the parents and of the sexual
constitution of the child, Jung refuses to see in this infantile
past the real cause for the later development of
the illness. He definitely places the cause of the pathogenic
xxxvconflict in the present moment and considers that in
seeking for the cause in the distant past one is only following
the desire of the patient, which is to withdraw
himself as much as possible from the present important
period.

The conflict is produced by some important task or
duty which is essential biologically and practically for the
fulfilment of the ego of the individual, but before which
an obstacle arises from which he shrinks, and thus halted
cannot go on. With this interference in the path of
progression libido is stored up and a regression takes
place whereby there occurs a reanimation of past ways
of libido occupation which were entirely normal to the
child, but which for the adult are no longer of value.
These regressive infantile desires and phantasies now
alive and striving for satisfaction are converted into
symptoms, and in these surrogate forms obtain a certain
gratification, thus creating the external manifestations of
the neurosis. Therefore Jung does not ask from what
psychic experience or point of fixation in childhood the
patient is suffering, but what is the present duty or task
he is avoiding, or what obstacle in his life’s path he is
unable to overcome? What is the cause of his regression
to past psychic experiences?

Following this theory Jung expresses the view that the
elaborate phantasies and dreams produced by these patients
are really forms of compensation or artificial substitutes
for the unfulfilled adaptation to reality. The
sexual content of these phantasies and dreams is only
apparently and not actually expressive of a real sexual
xxxvidesire or incest wish, but is a regressive employment of
sexual forms to symbolically express a present-day need
when the attainment of the present ego demand seems
too difficult or impossible, and no adaptation is made to
what is possible for the individual’s capability.^[3]

With this statement Jung throws a new light on the
work of analytic psychology and on the conception of
the neurotic symptoms, and renders possible of understanding
the many apparent incongruities and conflicting
observations which have been so disturbing to the critics.

It now becomes proper to ask what has been established
by all this mass of investigation into the soul, and
what is its value not only as a therapeutic measure for
the neurotic sufferer, but also for the normal human
being?

First and perhaps most important is the recognition of
a definite psychological determinism. Instead of human
life being filled with foolish, meaningless or purposeless
actions, errors and thoughts, it can be demonstrated that
no expression or manifestation of the psyche, however
trifling or inconsistent in appearance, is really lawless or
unmotivated. Only a possession of the technique is necessary
in order to reveal, to any one desirous of knowing,
the existence of the unconscious determinants of his mannerisms,
trivial expressions, acts and behavior, their
purpose and significance.

xxxviiThis leads into the second fundamental conception,
which is perhaps even less considered than the foregoing,
and that is the relative value of the conscious mind and
thought. It is the general attitude of people to judge
themselves by their surface motives, to satisfy themselves
by saying or thinking “this is what I want to do or say”
or “I intended to do thus and so,” but somehow what
one thought, one intended to say or expected to do is very
often the contrary of what actually is said or done.
Every one has had these experiences when the gap between
the conscious thought and action was gross enough
to be observed. It is also a well known experience to
consciously desire something very much and when it is
obtained to discover that this in no wise satisfied or
lessened the desire, which was then transferred to some
other object. Thus one became cognizant of the fact
that the feeling and idea presented by consciousness as
the desire was an error. What is the difficulty in these
conditions? Evidently some other directing force than
that of which we are aware is at work.

Dr. G. Stanley Hall uses a very striking symbol when
he compares the mind to an iceberg floating in the ocean
with one-eighth visible above the water and seven-eighths
below—the one-eighth above being that part called conscious
and the seven-eighths below that which we call the
unconscious. The influence and controlling power of the
unconscious desires over our thoughts and acts are in this
relative proportion. Faint glimmers of other motives
and interests than those we accept or which we believe,
often flit into consciousness. These indications, if studied
xxxviiior valued accurately, would lead to the realization that
consciousness is but a single stage and but one form of
expression of mind. Therefore its dictum is but one,
often untrustworthy, approach to the great question as
to what is man’s actual psychic accomplishment, and as
to what in particular is the actual soul development of
the individual.

A further contribution of equal importance has been
the empiric development of a dynamic theory of life; the
conception that life is in a state of flux—movement—leading
either to construction or destruction. Through the
development man has reached he has attained the power
by means of his intelligence and understanding of definitely
directing to a certain extent this life energy or
libido into avenues which serve his interest and bring a
real satisfaction for the present day.

When man through ignorance and certain inherent
tendencies fails to recognize his needs or his power to
fulfil them, or to adapt himself to the conditions of reality
of the present time, there is then produced that reanimation
of infantile paths by which an attempt is made to
gain fulfilment or satisfaction through the production of
symptoms or attitudes.

The acceptance of these statements demands the recognition
of the existence of an infantile sexuality and the
large part played by it in the later life of the individual.
Because of the power and imperious influence exerted by
the parents upon the child, and because of the unconscious
attachment of his libido to the original object, the mother,
and the perseverance of this first love model in the
xxxixpsyche, he finds it very difficult, on reaching the stage
of adult development and the time for seeking a love
object outside of the family, to gain a satisfactory model.

It is exceedingly important for parents and teachers
to recognize the requirements of nature, which, beginning
with puberty, imperiously demand of the young individual
a separation of himself from the parent stem and
the development of an independent existence. In our
complex modern civilization this demand of nature is
difficult enough of achievement for the child who has the
heartiest and most intelligent co-operation of his parents
and environment—but for the one who has not only to
contend with his own inner struggle for his freedom
but has in addition the resistance of his parents who
would hold him in his childhood at any cost, because they
cannot endure the thought of his separation from them,
the task becomes one of the greatest magnitude. It is
during this period when the struggle between the childish
inertia and nature’s urge becomes so keen, that there occur
the striking manifestations of jealousy, criticism, irritability
all usually directed against the parents, of defiance
of parental authority, of runaways and various other
psychic and nervous disorders known to all.

This struggle, which is the first great task of mankind
and the one which requires the greatest effort, is that
which is expressed by Jung as the self-sacrifice motive—the
sacrifice of the childish feelings and demands, and of
the irresponsibility of this period, and the assumption of
the duties and tasks of an individual existence.

It is this great theme which Jung sees as the real
xlmotive lying hidden in the myths and religions of man
from the beginning, as well as in the literature and
artistic creations of both ancient and modern time,
and which he works out with the greatest wealth of
detail and painstaking effort in the book herewith presented.

This necessitates a recognition and revaluation of the
enormous importance and influence of the ego and the
sexual instinct upon the thought and reaction of man,
and also predicates a displacement of the psychological
point of gravity from the will and intellect to the realm
of the emotions and feelings. The desired end is a
synthesis of these two paths or the use of the intellect
constructively in the service of the emotions in order to
gain for the best interest of the individual some sort of
co-operative reaction between the two.

No one dealing with analytic psychology can fail to
be struck by the tremendous and unnecessary burdens
which man has placed upon himself, and how greatly
he has increased the difficulties of adaptation by his rigid
intellectual views and moral formulas, and by his inability
to admit to himself that he is actually just a human being
imperfect, and containing within himself all manner of
tendencies, good and bad, all striving for some satisfactory
goal. Further, that the refusal to see himself in
this light instead of as an ideal person in no way alters
the actual condition, and that in fact, through the cheap
pretense of being able only to consider himself as a very
virtuous person, or as shocked and hurt when observing
the “sins” of others, he actually is prevented from developing
xlihis own character and bringing his own capacities
to their fullest expressions.

There is frequently expressed among people the idea
of how fortunate it is that we cannot see each other’s
thoughts, and how disturbing it would be if our real
feelings could be read. But what is so shameful in these
secrets of the soul? They are in reality our own egoistic
desires all striving, longing, wishing for satisfaction, for
happiness; those desires which instinctively crave their
own gratification but which can only be really fulfilled by
adapting them to the real world and to the social group.

Why is it that it is so painful for man to admit that
the prime influence in all human endeavor is found in the
ego itself, in its desires, wishes, needs and satisfactions,
in short, in its need for self-expression and self-perpetuation,
the evolutionary impetus in life?

The basis for the unpleasantness of this idea may perhaps
be found in an inner resistance in nature itself which
forces man to include others in his scheme, lest his own
greedy desires should serve to destroy him. But even
with this inner demand and all the ethical and moral
teachings of centuries it is everywhere evident that man
has only very imperfectly learned that it is to his own
interest to consider his neighbor and that it is impossible
for him to ignore the needs of the body social of which
he is a part. Externally, the recognition of the strength
of the ego impulse is objectionable because of the ideal
conception that self-striving and so-called selfish seeking
are unworthy, ignoble and incompatible with a desirable
character and must be ignored at all cost.

xliiThe futility of this attitude is to be clearly seen in the
failure after all these centuries to even approximate it,
as evidenced in our human relations and institutions, and
is quite as ineffectual in this realm as in that of sexuality
where the effort to overcome this imperious domination
has been attempted by lowering the instinct, and seeing
in it something vile or unclean, something unspeakable
and unholy. Instead of destroying the power of sexuality
this struggle has only warped and distorted, injured and
mutilated the expression; for not without destruction of
the individual can these fundamental instincts be destroyed.
Life itself has needs and imperiously demands
expression through the forms created. All nature
answers to this freely and simply except man. His failure
to recognize himself as an instrument through which
the life energy is coursing and the demands of which
must be obeyed, is the cause of his misery. Despite his
possession of intellect and self-consciousness, he cannot
without disaster to himself refuse the tasks of life and
the fulfilment of his own needs. Man’s great task is
the adaptation of himself to reality and the recognition
of himself as an instrument for the expression of life
according to his individual possibilities.

It is in his privilege as a self-creator that his highest
purpose is found.

The value of self-consciousness lies in the fact that
man is enabled to reflect upon himself and learn to understand
the true origin and significance of his actions and
opinions, that he may adequately value the real level of
his development and avoid being self-deceived and therefore
xliiiinhibited from finding his biological adaptation. He
need no longer be unconscious of the motives underlying
his actions or hide himself behind a changed exterior,
in other words, be merely a series of reactions to stimuli
as the mechanists have it, but he may to a certain extent
become a self-creating and self-determining being.

Indeed, there seems to be an impulse towards adaptation
quite as Bergson sees it, and it would seem to be a
task of the highest order to use intelligence to assist one’s
self to work with this impulse.

Through the investigation of these different avenues
leading into the hidden depths of the human being and
through the revelation of the motives and influences at
work there, although astonishing to the uninitiated, a
very clear and definite conception of the actual human
relationship—brotherhood—of all mankind is obtained.
It is this recognition of these common factors basically
inherent in humanity from the beginning and still active,
which is at once both the most hopeful and the most
feared and disliked part of psychoanalysis.

It is disliked by those individuals who have prided
themselves upon their superiority and the distinction between
their reactions and motives and those of ordinary
mankind. In other words, they attempt to become personalities
through elevating themselves and lowering
others, and it is a distinct blow to discover that beneath
these pretensions lie the very ordinary elements shared
in common by all. On the other hand, to those who have
been able to recognize their own weaknesses and have
xlivsuffered in the privacy of their own souls, the knowledge
that these things have not set them apart from others,
but that they are the common property of all and that
no one can point the finger of scorn at his fellow, is one
of the greatest experiences of life and is productive
of the greatest relief.

It is feared by many who realize that in these painfully
acquired repressions and symptoms lie their safety and
their protection from directly facing and dealing with
tendencies and characteristics with which they feel unable
to cope. The repression and the accompanying symptoms
indicate a difficulty and a struggle, and in this way are
a sort of compromise or substitute formation which
permit, although only in a wasteful and futile manner,
the activity of the repressed tendencies. Nevertheless,
to analyze the individual back to his original tendencies
and reveal to him the meaning of these substitute formations
would be a useless procedure in which truly “the
last state of that man would be worse than the first”
if the work ceased there. The aim is not to destroy
those barriers upon which civilized man has so painfully
climbed and to reduce him to his primitive state, but,
where these have failed or imperfectly succeeded, to help
him to attain his greatest possibilities with less expenditure
of energy, by less wasteful methods than nature
provides. In this achievement lies the hopeful and valuable
side of this method—the development of the synthesis.
It is hopeful because now a way is opened to
deal with these primitive tendencies constructively, and
render their effects not only harmless but useful, by
xlvutilizing them in higher aims, socially and individually
valuable and satisfactory.

This is what has occurred normally in those individuals
who seem capable and constructive personalities; in those
creative minds that give so much to the race. They have
converted certain psychological tendencies which could
have produced useless symptoms or destructive actions
into valuable productions. Indeed it is not uncommon
for strong, capable persons to state themselves that they
knew they could have been equally capable of a wasteful
or destructive life. This utilization of the energy or
libido freed by removing the repressions and the lifting
of infantile tendencies and desires into higher purposes
and directions suitable for the individual at his present
status is called sublimation.

It must not be understood by this discussion that
geniuses or wonderful personalities can be created
through analysis, for this is not the aim of the procedure.
Its purpose is to remove the inhibitions and restrictions
which interfere with the full development of the personality,
to help individuals attain to that level where
they really belong, and to prepare people to better understand
and meet life whether they are neurotic sufferers
or so-called “normal people” with the difficulties and
peculiarities which belong to all.

This reasoning and method of procedure is only new
when the application is made to the human being. In
all improvements of plants and animals these general
principles have been recognized and their teachings constructively
utilized.

xlviLuther Burbank, that plant wizard whose work is
known to all the world, says, “A knowledge of the battle
of the tendencies within a plant is the very basis of all
plant improvement,” and “it is not that the work of plant
improvement brings with it, incidentally, as people mistakenly
think, a knowledge of these forces, it is the knowledge
of these forces, rather, which makes plant improvement
possible.”

Has this not been also the mistake of man regarding
himself, and the cause, partly at least, of his failure to
succeed in actually reaching a more advanced and stable
development?

This recognition of man’s biological relationship to
all life and the practical utilization of this recognition,
necessitates a readjustment of thought and asks for an
examination and reconsideration of the facts of human
conduct which are observable by any thoughtful person.
A quiet and progressive upheaval of old ideas has taken
place and is still going on. Analytic psychology attempts
to unify and value all of the various phenomena of man
which have been observed and noted at different times
by isolated investigators of isolated manifestations and
thus bring some orderly sequence into the whole. It
offers a method whereby the relations of the human being
biologically to all other living forms can be established,
the actual achievement of man himself adequately valued,
and opens a vista of the possibilities of improvement in
health, happiness and accomplishment for the human
being.

Beatrice M. Hinkle.

10 Gramercy Park.

xlvii