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 psychical 
 Surgery 
 
 JOSEPH RALPH 
 
 _, „ II 
 
Psychical Surgery 
 
 A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF 
 
 THE ANALYTICAL METHOD 
 
 IN THE TREATMENT OF 
 
 MENTAL AND PSYCHICAL 
 DISTURBANCES 
 
 < — > 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH RALPH 
 

 Copyright 1920 
 
 BY 
 
 Joseph Ralph 
 
 *J U i -» 2 i iwcJ 
 
 printed by 
 
 Times-Mirror Printing & Binding House 
 
 los angeles, california 
 
 ©HIA570597 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 Sublimating the Impulses ..... 15 
 
 Mental Life of the Child 19 
 
 The Unconscious Complexes .... 35 
 
 The Neuroses 48 
 
 Psychoanalysis 55 
 
 Complexes and Dream Phenomena ... 65 
 
 Conclusion 74 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Just as the Rosetta Stone was the key by which 
 the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics became revealed 
 to western civilization, so have the Freudian principles 
 of psychoanalysis opened the door to an understanding 
 of the underlying causes for many of the mental and 
 psychical disturbances that have hitherto been so little 
 understood, and also to the means for curing them. 
 
 In order to intelligently understand what psycho- 
 analysis is, and thereby apprehend by what means un- 
 desirable mental and psychical conditions can be reme- 
 died through its application, it is necessary to under- 
 stand the basic principles that govern unconscious men- 
 tal life, and these the writer has endeavored to briefly 
 describe. The list of books at the end is set forth in 
 the interest of those who may desire to study the sub- 
 ject in its refinements. 
 
 Various so-called "modifications" of Freud's great 
 principles are practiced by various people, with which 
 the writer confesses scant sympathy. To quote Freud's 
 own opinions in this connection such "modifications" 
 are as counterparts of the famous knife of Lichten- 
 berg ; the hilt is changed to a new blade, the old trade- 
 mark retained, and the weapon then represented to 
 be the famous original. 
 
 Joseph Ralph. 
 
 May, 192c, 
 
 1 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The following is from Dr. William A. White's Out- 
 lines of Psychiatry : 
 
 "Genetic psychology gives the same value to mind 
 that anatomy and physiology do to the body, and like 
 them recognizes that present forms can only be ex- 
 plained by the past. In other words the mind has a 
 history just as the body has : it has its embryology and ; 
 
 its comparative anatomy, and a study of the develop- 
 ment of the mind in the individual, and its degree of 
 development, likenesses and differences in different 
 races throws the same sort of light upon psychological 
 facts as does the study of embryology and comparative 
 anatomy upon the facts of anatomy and physiology." 
 
 In man's unconscious mental processes the archaic 
 still survives ; in fact it constitutes the basis of human 
 character. Charity and selfishness, humility and ego- 
 tism, kindness and cruelty, self-abnegation and arro- 
 gance, love and hatred, and all such characteristics of 
 strength and frailty, spring from common ancestral 
 roots. That which is good is a sublimation of what 
 was previously crude ; that which is not good is a primi- 
 tive strain that has not yet become refined. 
 
 Beneath the veneer of civilization the savage in man 
 still exists, and this becomes only too evident when the 
 
8 Psychical Surgery 
 
 individual is subjected to unusual stress, for although 
 under such conditions we see some people exhibiting 
 the very best qualities they possess,, on the other hand 
 we see others exhibiting the very worst. 
 
 In times of great danger the sublimated race preserv- 
 ative instinct is manifested in some individuals by deeds 
 of service to others and in self sacrifice, but in other 
 instances we see the impulses of the primitive savage 
 breaking through the barriers of cultural restraint and, 
 dominated in his unlovely brutality by the animal in- 
 stinct of personal safety, trampling down women and 
 children, the sick and the aged. In mob experiences, 
 such as in lynchings. neither retribution nor justice 
 exist as actuating impulses : the only dominating desire 
 is that of rending. In times of flood and similar dis- 
 aster, when social authority may be temporarily para- 
 lyzed and the property rights of individuals are for 
 the moment unguarded, we find that the first neces- 
 sary protective measures on the part of the first 
 re-established authority is that of shooting down with- 
 out compunction the reincarnated troglodyte repre- 
 sented in the person of the looter. For that matter 
 the whole of society's penal code has been devised for 
 the purpose of securing protection from the atavistic 
 tendencies of its own members. 
 
 In his Psychology of the Unconscious Jung says: 
 "We know, although individuals are widely separated 
 
Introduction 9 
 
 by the differences in the contents of their conscious- 
 ness, they are closely alike in their unconscious psy- 
 chology. It is a significant impression for one working 
 in practical psychoanalysis when he realizes how uni- 
 form are the typical unconscious complexes." When 
 we speak of "human nature" in relation to some unde- 
 sirability of character we are therefore uttering a psy- 
 chological truism, for the core of human character 
 consists of the strains of our ancestral heritage. We 
 have only to dig sufficiently deep down into our per- 
 sonalities for the savage to become revealed. 
 
 If we apply the acid test to our individual selves we 
 can discern in our daily actions the influences of our 
 archaic past; they crop out everywhere and under all 
 
 conditions. In characteristics that are sometimes 
 
 » 
 
 charitably called foibles or idiosyncrasies we can rec- 
 ognize in ourselves primitive strains tinging our 
 actions. The farther we are removed from cultural 
 restraint the more pronouncedly evident our primitive 
 strains become ; in our own homes we are therefore 
 more primitive than when we are exposed to the social 
 gaze, still more so in our conscious thoughts, and most 
 of all in our unconscious selves. 
 
 Every thought that comes up into the consciousness 
 that we would be ashamed for the world to recognize 
 is a cave-man heritage, and every undesirable action 
 can be linked up with unsublimated archaic tendencies ; 
 
10 Psychical Surgery 
 
 so whether we are selfish, egotistical, cruel and vain, 
 or charitable, humble, kind and unaffected, depends 
 wholly upon the nature and degree of moulding that 
 our underlying ancestral strains have undergone. It 
 will therefore be only too sadly obvious that,, although 
 we have come a long, long way in our striving for a 
 fullness of psychical expression, we still have a long, 
 long way to go. 
 
 According to the Freudian concept the human mind 
 has three broad divisions: (a) the conscious, (b) the 
 fore-conscious, and (c) the unconscious. 
 
 The conscious part of the mind is that faculty that 
 enables the personality to adapt itself to environment 
 by intellectual thinking. The fore-conscious is where 
 memories are stored that have been more or less intel- 
 lectually appreciated, and which can be recalled to 
 consciousness (to a greater or lesser extent), by an 
 effort of will (recollection). The unconscious is where 
 memories are stored that are neither apprehended nor 
 controlled by the consciousness. 
 
 The student of psychoanalysis should accustom him- 
 self to considering the terms the fore-conscious and 
 the unconscious as substantives and not as adjectives, 
 for these terms do not imply mental conditions but 
 mental divisions, though these are not necessarily 
 sharply defined. 
 
 A well balanced personality is one that is capable of 
 
Introduction 11 
 
 estimating at a proper value every condition that it 
 may be confronted with, and reacts thereto in a manner 
 directly proportional to the requirement. Thus, for 
 example, small things should never annoy us and big 
 ones should always be apprehended according to their 
 exact values. Unfortunately, however, perfectly well 
 balanced personalities are not the general rule for most 
 of us have temperamental weaknesses. 
 
 In a psychiatrical sense the most complete mental 
 life is that which permits the widest range of adjust- 
 ment in order to cope with the requirements of environ- 
 ment, and conversely a mental life that permits only 
 of a limited adjustment is a relatively incomplete one. 
 The one is flexible within a wide range of adaptability, 
 while the other is lacking in this respect. 
 
 In spite of the best available cultural training, even 
 when supplemented by strong religious influences, and 
 with the individual personally aspiring to a betterment 
 of conditions, we often witness the phenomena of un- 
 desirable impulses breaking through the barriers of 
 cultural restraint with more or less painful and disas- 
 trous consequences. It is a common experience, in 
 fact, for an individual to be highly circumspect in his 
 relation to the requirements of his general environment 
 and yet in some particular instance to betray a psy- 
 chical "flaw." Then again we often witness minds 
 that seem to function more or less normally under com- 
 
12 Psychical Surgery 
 
 monplace conditions, but which seem to "fly off" when 
 the conditions become in any way stressful. It is in 
 relation to such instances as these that psychoanalysis 
 has a special interest. 
 
 It is impossible to proceed very far in a considera- 
 tion of mental phenomena without being confronted 
 with their relationship to the sexual life. In fact it is 
 now an accepted psychiatrical truism that the sexual 
 and mental activities are so closely interrelated that any 
 aberration in the latter (except where the physical pro- 
 cesses of the brain are involved), presupposes some 
 form of aberration in the former, a condition which is 
 invariably shown by analysis to result from a lack of 
 sublimation of the sexual impulse where cultural re* 
 quirements have restricted its physical expression. 
 
 It is very necessary that the term sublimation be 
 thoroughly understood in its psychoanalytical sense, 
 otherwise there can be no rightful apprehension of the 
 basic principle of Freud's theory of the neuroses and 
 of mental disturbances in general. This principle pre- 
 dicates that sexual sensations are physical expressions 
 of an underlying psychical quality that constitutes the 
 primal race-preservative instinct, and that this instinct 
 can by the requisite mental training be used in a wholly 
 psychical manner. In his Psychoanalytical Method 
 Dr. Oskar Pfister defines this process of sublimation 
 as "Turning the life force from primary functions 
 
Introduction 13 
 
 chiefly to such higher activities as realize these func- 
 tions symbolically." The exact meaning of all of which 
 is that it is possible for the physical attributes of the 
 sexual impulse to become so thoroughly absorbed by 
 ethical and religious aspirations and efforts as to lose 
 their physical insistence: the impulse finds an expres- 
 sion and satisfaction in a sublimated manner and form. 
 In this connection a great truth that psychoanalysis 
 has demonstrated is that, no matter whether the sexual 
 impulse eventually finds its expression in a physical 
 way, or becomes wholly sublimated into ethical and 
 religious activities, the course of its development must 
 not be interfered with ; it must fully mature. Further- 
 more, when sexual maturity has been attained the im- 
 pulse must be used, and if it cannot be used in a phy- 
 sical manner it must have an opportunity to become 
 expressed in a sublimated form. If an expression is 
 not attained through either one of these two courses 
 then the general psychic life is liable to experience very 
 grave disturbances. 
 
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 ^LLtBaLANCED FfcR.SONAL.lTY 
 
 Illustrating the development of a well balanced personality from the 
 Race-preservative and self-preservative p»iin nr rli«t instincts. 
 
Sublimating the Impulses 15 
 
 SUBLIMATING THE IMPULSES 
 
 The initial point of the personality is the self-race 
 impulse, from which there emerges the first "split" in 
 the form of the race-preservative and the self-preserv* / 
 ative instincts. It is here, at the very lowest point of 
 human life, that we find the initial instance of mental 
 conflict, for the very attributes of these two instincts 
 imply counter reaction impulses. The one conduces to 
 self, while the other is for others. The one implies to 
 keep, while the other signifies to give away. 
 
 A well balanced personality is one in which the emo- 
 tions and the intellect form a fitting complement to 
 each other, and where neither improperly preponder- 
 ates. If the development of the personality is wholly 
 intellectual the result is a glorified form of an intel- 
 lectual cold-storage chamber ; on the other hand if the 
 emotional side is not. fittingly compensated by a desir- 
 able mental development it is quite possible that some 
 form of mental incompetence will materialize. 
 
 The lines along which the personality should develop 
 are illustrated in the accompanying diagram. Starting 
 from the race-preservative and self-preservative im- 
 pulse the sexual life opens out as a well defined quality 
 that possesses a primary tendency to seek a purely 
 
16 Psychical Surgery 
 
 physical expression, but the sublimating of which pri- 
 mary tendency is necessary if social betterment is to 
 be attained through the influences of religion, culture 
 and altruism. Concomitantly with this spiritual devel- 
 opment the mental life must receive its opportunity 
 also, and by means of educative measures become intel- 
 lectually developed. A well developed personality 
 therefore presupposes a well developed spiritual life 
 and a well developed mental life. 
 
 In the personality diagram a cross will be seen on 
 the sublimation line of the race-preservative side, the 
 position and significance of which should be noted, for 
 it is at that point where modern society breeds its 
 great army of psychical weaklings : the insane, the 
 perverse, the neurotics and hysterics. No matter how 
 much farther along the race-preservative line in the 
 personality's development the actual outbreak or break- 
 down may occur, nor what particular influences are 
 given as reasons for such outbreak or breakdown, the 
 cause of the trouble can invariably be traced to experi- 
 ences undergone at the stage or period of life indicated 
 by the cross in the diagram. (Physical influences are, 
 of course, excepted from this generalization). 
 
 A primitive impulse must either be given an oppor- 
 tunity to express itself according to its intuitive inclina- 
 tions or else be sublimated to a condition where its 
 initial energy can be utilized in some other direction. 
 
Sublimating the Impulses 17 
 
 But an impulse energy cannot be killed unless the 
 mechanism to which it pertains is also killed, and the 
 point of the cross on the sublimation line of the per- 
 sonality chart indicates where a wholly unnatural 
 condition is oftentimes developed by reason of the 
 sexual impulse being suppressed instead of being sub- 
 limated, and which psychical attitude leads eventuall}> 
 to sure and certain disaster. 
 
 Insanity, neurosis and hysteria, are mental and ner- 
 vous diseases pertaining to civilization but, contrary 
 to general understanding, neither mental stress nor 
 environmental complexities have anything whatever 
 to do with the inception of such disorders. The causes 
 of these derangements can nearly always be traced to 
 undesirable experiences in the mental and psychical 
 life of the individual in which the energy of the sexual 
 impulse has neither had an opportunity for natural 
 physical expression nor been sublimated into psychical 
 channels. 
 
 The sublimation of the sexual impulse means a pro- 
 cess by which, although there is a full development of 
 the sexual ability, the mind is so healthily occupied in 
 persistent efforts in the pursuit of high ideals that the 
 energy of the impulse is psychically absorbed; there is 
 therefore nothing ''dammed back" and the energy of 
 the race-preservative impulse is utilized by a desirable 
 form of mental activity; and as the best absorbing 
 
18 Psychical Surgery 
 
 trend of mental activity is always in the direction 
 where high ideals are concerned it necessarily follows 
 that sublimating aims are most easily and most strongly 
 visualized in the direction of religion, culture and altru- 
 ism. All of which is not only very beautiful but is 
 also very true. In its ultimate analysis, in fact, the 
 race preservative instinct finds its culminating expres- 
 sions in the highest forms of self-sacrifice. Whether, 
 therefore, this instinct becomes the guiding principle 
 of desirable actions or the blighting curse of psychical 
 abnormalities depends entirely upon the sublimating 
 influences that have been brought to bear on it. 
 
Mental Life of the Child 19 
 
 MENTAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 
 
 The nature of the training bestowed upon the per- 
 sonality during the years immediately succeeding ado- 
 lescence will greatly influence the general character, 
 but the underlying tendencies of that character are 
 largely determined by the influences the child is sub- 
 jected to during the pre-adolescent years of its life. 
 The adolescent time may be a critical one in the life 
 of the child, but the pre-adolescent years are far more 
 so ; in fact if the mental and psychical development of 
 the child has been governed by wholly desirable influ- 
 ences during the impressionable years that stretch from 
 the cradle to adolescence, the adolescent time proper 
 need give little cause for concern. 
 
 An understanding of characterstics in the mental 
 life of the adult necessitates an understanding of the 
 conditions under which the mental life of the child 
 develops, for it is during the child's early mental life 
 that many of the characteristics of the adult person- 
 ality are created. 
 
 No greater mistake has ever been made in connec- 
 tion with the early life of the child than the assump- 
 tion that it does not experience any sexual sensations 
 until there is a centralization of the sexual qualities 
 
20 Psychical Surgery 
 
 in the genital regions; for the sexual life of the child 
 really commences with its birth, just as its mental life 
 does. Furthermore, actual sexual reactions in the 
 child are observable almost from its first hour of exist- 
 ence, though the mother or nurse oftentimes fail to 
 note the significance of the evidences in this connec- 
 tion. 
 
 When the mother or nurse soothes a restless infant 
 by gently stroking its back or abdomen the "soothing" 
 effect is accomplished by producing a pleasurable phy- 
 sical sensation, and the exact nature of which pleasur- 
 able physical sensation is identical in form with sexual 
 gratification as experienced in adult life ; the only dif- 
 ference is that of degree. In the adult experience the 
 pleasurable physical sensations connected with sexual 
 gratification attain a definite climax at a particular 
 focal point, e. g., the genitals, whereas in the case of 
 the child there is neither climax nor focal point in the 
 sexual excitement, for at this time the sexual qualities 
 exist in the child's physical mechanism in a state of 
 diffusion, and consequently the sensations it experiences 
 are also of a diffused character; they are vague and 
 indefinable, but nevertheless their true characteristics 
 are unmistakable. 
 
 No matter at what early period we consider the 
 child's mental life (even if such a study commences 
 practically at birth), we do not conclude that it has 
 
Mental Lm of th£ Child 21 
 
 no mind because it is unable to comprehend what is 
 said to jit, or because it is unable to express itself in 
 words to us; such a view would be a suggestion that 
 the child is a congenital idiot; it is known, however, 
 that every movement of the eyes and clutching of 
 fingers on the part of the infant indicates the rudi- 
 mentary processes of mental activity. It is also obvious 
 (at least to the psychoanalyst), that the signs of "com- 
 fort" or of being ''soothed" when the hand of mother 
 or nurse gently stimulates the peripheral terminals of 
 sundry nerve processes are sure indications that phy- 
 sical pleasure is being experienced, and that this phy- 
 sical pleasure can only be of one possible nature. Thus 
 the first lesson to be learned in connection with an 
 understanding of the psychic life of the child is the fact 
 that sexual unfoldment commences at birth. 
 
 From this stage of sexual diffusion the child's life 
 develops into what is known as the auto-erotic period. 
 This is a stage in its life when a degree of mental 
 consciousness has become sufficiently developed to 
 enable it to take an interest in things, which interest 
 strongly centers around those parts of its body that 
 have to do with the requirements of its physical needs. 
 This mental attitude is known as erogenous interest, 
 and the parts of the body in which this interest strongly 
 centers are known as erogenous zones. 
 
 In the first stage of life the sexual qualities are 
 
22 Psychical Surgery 
 
 diffused, and the sexual reactions to such experiences 
 as the nerve excitation from a stroking by the mother's 
 hand are therefore unconscious; but in the auto-erotic 
 period the child's mind has developed sufficiently for 
 it to mentally associate certain actions with certain 
 reactions ; it has learned to think to at least some 
 extent : in other words, the child has developed out of 
 the totally passive stage of sexual development and 
 has entered upon the first experience of positive ac- 
 tion ; it has already effected a mental connection be- 
 tween the excitation of its erogenous zones and the 
 resultant pleasurable physical sensations. 
 
 As this erogenous interest manifests itself at a period 
 when both the mental and sexual processes are ex- 
 tremely susceptible to external influences it will be 
 seen that the auto-erotic stage of the child's life is 
 extremely critical, and it is at this early time in the 
 child's mental and psychical development that the seeds 
 are unfortunately sown for many of the undesirable 
 psycho-sexual characteristics that are met with only 
 too frequently in adult life. 
 
 In the unfolding of the child's mind a psychical atti- 
 tude becomes expressed which it is very necessary to 
 note though it is extremely hard to describe and still 
 harder to define, but which may be designated as the 
 life hunger, or the hunger to live. This indefinable 
 quality is the germ of the individual psychical life and 
 
Mental Life of the Child 23 
 
 expresses itself as an instinctive desire to "reach out" 
 in order to get into touch with conditions that are 
 beyond the immediate need, and acts as the urge of life. 
 This urge is the sum total of the ancestral memories 
 acting as an evolutionary instinct, and in a religious 
 sense can be quite appropriately called the spirit that 
 is within man. In psycho-analytical practice the term 
 libido is often used to express or designate this instinc- 
 tive desire, but in the writer's opinion the simple term 
 urge is quite as distinctive and even more expressive. 
 
 As the urge is the evolutionary instinct in the indi- 
 vidual it never rests, and is forever "reaching out" 
 from the known to the unknown, from the assured to 
 the indefinite. In the child we see evidences of the 
 life urge manifesting as a desire to taste and touch 
 anything and everything that is within reach, while in 
 the adult we can identify this same element operating 
 as an insatiable desire for betterment. It is this urge 
 that serves as "antennae" to the personality in a cease- 
 less groping outward from the present towards the 
 future as if expressing an immutable incentive to push 
 on. It constitutes the foundations of the personality, 
 to which it brings lessons garnered from a long his- 
 torical experience for the personality to profit by. 
 
 When the child passes from the auto-erotic stage 
 into the succeeding step of development of curiosity 
 hunger the underlying life urge can be recognized in 
 
24 Psychical Surgery 
 
 a manifesting of a most persistent desire to fathom 
 all particulars of environmental conditions, and to 
 surmount any form of barrier that serves to confine it ; 
 nothing is taken for granted, neither does anything 
 satisfy. In all its forms of activity the urge clearly 
 reveals the fact that it is an insistent natural force 
 forever working in the direction of a goal that has not 
 yet been attained. 
 
 In its struggle for satisfying its curiosity the urge 
 of the archaic comes directly into contact with the re- 
 quirements of social culture, and the characteristics 
 of the eventually developed personality will depend 
 upon the outcome of this contact. If the influences 
 that are exerted on the life urge are wholly good the 
 developed personality will be a desirable one and 
 vice versa. It should be remembered, however, that 
 the natural aim of the urge is that of attaining to an 
 individual expression, and that this is only possible by 
 development from within outwards ; hence no desir- 
 able individuality can be built up on admonitions, for 
 such a product would not in reality be an individuality 
 but simply a composite outcome. Characteristics must 
 not be "grafted on" to the developing personality, but 
 should be cultivated. 
 
 It can readily be understood that the child is liable 
 to be influenced very strongly by the characteristics 
 of those with whom it is most closely associated, and 
 
Mental Life of the Child 25 
 
 that the characteristics and temperamental traits of the 
 parents are therefore very important influences; but 
 these characteristics and temperamental traits — how- 
 ever important they may be to their owners — are pos- 
 sibly of still more importance to the child on account 
 of the reactions to which they may conduce in its 
 psychic life; in this connection, however, it is neces- 
 sary to understand the possibilities of what are known 
 as ambivalent reactions. 
 
 It is a commonplace that the idea lying closest to 
 another idea is an opposite, such as hot-cold, long- 
 short, light-dark, love-hate, kind-cruel, pain-pleasure, 
 etc., which "pairing" of ideas Bleuler of Zurich calls 
 "the two contrary feeling tones of one idea, or the two 
 opposed emotional aspects or tendencies of one idea" 
 and to which he applied the term ambivalency. It is 
 by reason of this ambivalent tendency that we have 
 the experience of rinding that the nearest idea in asso- 
 ciation to the one that is occupying the consciousness 
 is not one that is similar but one that is directly dis- 
 similar. This same principle exists in relation to the 
 emotions and the underlying psychic life that manifests 
 as impulses ; hence we find that the attitudes of joy 
 and grief, optimism and depression, love and hatred, 
 are paired in their emotional tendencies, so that only 
 too often it is but a step from one extreme to the 
 other; and in the underlying impulses we find attrac- 
 
26 Psychical Surgery 
 
 tion and repulsion, courage and fear, desire and aver- 
 sion existing similarly in ambivalent association. It 
 may in fact be stated as a cardinal principle of mental 
 and psychical life that the natural reaction from an 
 existing condition always produces a condition of an 
 exactly opposite nature. 
 
 This principle of ambivalent reaction is an extremely 
 serious factor in the psychic life of the child, and one 
 to the operation of which an almost illimitable train of 
 mental and psychical disturbances and abnormalities 
 are traceable. So extremely serious are the possibili- 
 ties in this direction that some such admonition as 
 Beware of Ambivalent Reactions would make a fitting 
 motto for the wall of every home where child life is 
 unfolding. An illustration will perhaps help to make 
 my meaning quite clear. L,et us suppose that the child 
 has been caught indulging in some little "animalistic" 
 action or other (say in relation to some of its bodily 
 functions, or perhaps in the form of sexual curiosity 
 in regards to itself or someone else), which behavior is 
 simply the result of a natural tendency at a certain 
 period in the child's life : further, let us assume that, 
 instead of being gently admonished so that the child's 
 attention (its urge), becomes carefully turned away 
 from an undesirable to a desirable direction, a psy- 
 chical shock is produced in the child through an unduly 
 harsh or threatening attitude or treatment on the part 
 
Mental Life of the Child 27 
 
 of the mother or other guardian. Under these circum- 
 stances the probabilities are that inj most cases a reac- 
 tion will occur which will take the form of the ambiv- 
 alent complement of the previously existing interest. 
 Hence, as the child's mental attitude just prior to the 
 psychical shock was one of intense interest, in which 
 there was undisguised pleasure, the ambivalent reac- 
 tion in the child's tender susceptibilities would prob- 
 ably take the form of deep aversion and intense pain, 
 aversion and pain being, as we have seen, the ambiv- 
 alent complements of interest and pleasure. The effect 
 on the child in such an instance might therefore take 
 the form of an extreme and unexplainable aversion to 
 anything and everything that has any memory asso- 
 ciation whatever with conditions it was previously so 
 much interested in. In its effort to "sense" its environ- 
 ment the urge in the child's psychic life has suffered 
 a severe wound, a repetition of which it naturally 
 seeks to avoid by retiring from the danger zone as far 
 as possible : thus we can see that the reaction of going 
 from extreme interest to extreme aversion and from 
 extreme pleasure to extreme shame is a manifestation 
 on the part of the Urge impulse to profit by its experi- 
 ence and is also a defense against the dangers of fur- 
 ther similar exposures. 
 
 It is of vital interest to the matured personality that 
 the child should not suffer any psychical shocks during 
 
28 Psychical Surgery 
 
 its extremely impressionable early years, and every 
 indication of interest or action in undesirable directions 
 should be treated gently (for such tendencies are nat- 
 ural and to be expected), and the interest towards un- 
 desirable things carefully deflected towards those that 
 are desirable. Under this careful treatment the urge 
 instinct will let go of the old and take hold of the new 
 without any realization of undesirable experiences. It 
 has had its development in the direction of cultural 
 requirements aided and without being shocked. 
 
 The origin of many of the unreasoning fears that 
 are experienced by many people remained a mystery 
 until solved by psychoanalysis, and only by these 
 methods have the true causes of many of such undesir- 
 able mental tendencies been revealed. We know now 
 that aversion is the ambivalent compliment of pleasur- 
 able interest and we also know that if we follow an 
 analysis of aversion to its ultimate we find that it is 
 fear. Reduced to its elementary qualities we also find 
 that shame is in reality fear ; in fact by psychoanalysis 
 it has been determined that fear constitutes the exact 
 basis of many hitherto seemingly different qualities. 
 Furthermore, it is now known that fears are devel- 
 oped from within the individual and constitute extreme 
 reactions from mental attitudes that were formerly of 
 an exactly opposite character. Fears all arise from 
 wounds that the life urge has experienced in its hunger 
 
Mental Life of the Child 29 
 
 struggle to better its environment, and invariably result 
 from injudicious actions on the part of parents, guar- 
 dians or teachers. 
 
 After the curiosity stage the child's life merges into 
 that of simulation. This is a period in the mental life 
 of the child when the mind has become sufficiently 
 developed to note the deportment and behavior of other 
 individuals and it endeavors to copy their actions to a 
 greater or lesser extent, especially the actions of those 
 who are much older. The child will have outgrown 
 the little atavistic tendencies that it manifested in its 
 auto-erotic and curiosity stages of development and is 
 now reaching out towards new forms of experiences; 
 it is beginning to consider itself as a self-governing 
 unit containing the means to adapt itself to its own 
 environment to a certain extent. The child's mental 
 horizon has now become broadened, but its responsi- 
 bilities have also become increased. 
 
 One of the startling discoveries made by psychoan- 
 alytical methods is the fact that infantile concepts can 
 be carried into adult life, and when this occurs (and it 
 is a very frequent occurrence), the adult personality 
 may be described as having "dents," i. e., portions of 
 the personality have never become properly rounded 
 out ; the individual in some respects has never grown 
 up. Conditions such as these are known as infantile 
 fixations and are often caused by the life urge of the 
 
30 Psychical Surgery 
 
 child being unduly influenced by some set of persistent 
 experiences which, by deflecting the urge from the 
 normal tendency to "reach out" cause it instead to 
 become fixed, or (as it is sometimes called in psychoan- 
 alytical phrase) "anchored." 
 
 It is during the simulation period of the child's 
 life that the foundations are laid for many of the 
 temperamental characteristics of adult life, many of 
 which are the results of infantile anchorages arising 
 either from an undue attachment to a parent or an 
 1 undue reaction from one. The range of undesirable 
 results that can arise from fixations is practically illim- 
 itable, but four broad possibilities may be considered, 
 each one of which constitutes a type: (1) The urge 
 of the child can be unduly attached to the mother, or 
 (2) it can be unduly attached to the father, or there 
 can be (3) an undue reaction from the mother, or (4) 
 an undue reaction from the father. In each of those 
 four broad types the fixation of concept may be of a 
 purely mental nature or be associated with the sexual 
 life also. If the fixation is purely mental the result 
 will be indicated in temperamental qualities, whereas 
 if the sexual life is involved the consequences may 
 take some of the many forms of well known perver- 
 sities. 
 
 Two of the commonest forms of temperamental 
 qualities resulting from infantile fixation are an undue 
 
Mental Liee oe the Child 31 
 
 tendency to shirk responsibility and to be dependent 
 upon the leadership of other people on the one hand, 
 and on the other, an intolerable hostility towards any 
 form of restraint. The first type generally results from 
 too great a solicitude on the part of a parent (gener- 
 ally the mother), by which the urge of the child be- 
 comes unnaturally moulded to a certain concept as to 
 its environment. In the other case the urge has become 
 subjected to an unjust repression from a parent (usu- 
 ally the father), which results in violent reactions. 
 
 In the adult life the undue attachment form of fix- 
 ation becomes manifested in a disinclination on the 
 part of the urge to assume the burdens of life by 
 aggressive action, and in continually seeking the "back- 
 waters" of the social swirl : it also sometimes exhibits 
 itself in the attempt to find its complement of satis- 
 faction in pursuits in which the more virile take little 
 interest. Where, on the other hand, there has been 
 a reaction from undue harshness, the adult character- 
 istics take the form of unruliness and intractibility 
 and intolerance to all forms of restraint. Most of the 
 mental belligerants that are met with in society belong 
 to this type, hence it will be seen that many of the 
 so-called "dominant" characters are in reality very 
 infantile ones. 
 
 The motive of the life urge is that of adaptability to 
 environment, to get into touch with the unknown by 
 
32 Psychical Suroery 
 
 reason of its knowledge of the known; its activities 
 should therefore always be progressive. Where there 
 is an anchorage to a mother-concept all progression 
 ceases as far as that particular concept is concerned, 
 and although the individual may live out his allotted 
 three score and ten years he goes to the grave an infant 
 so far as his mental growth has been arrested by 
 anchorages. On the other hand, where there is a vio- 
 lent reaction from a harsh and restraining parental 
 influence the resulting belligerant characteristic in the 
 adult life is in reality a life time protest on the part of 
 the urge against experiences undergone during the 
 infant life. In such cases it will be seen that people 
 who are thus affected never attain to truly individual 
 lives, but are governed throughout their whole exist- 
 ence by undesirable parental influences, and thus go 
 to the grave ruled by the characteristics of prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the terms fixation and 
 anchorage imply unconscious mental conditions, and 
 the personality thus affected has no conscious knowl- 
 edge of the existence of these conditions. Such a per- 
 son naturally thinks that the temperament, moods and 
 passions that he displays are what he has developed 
 within himself irrespective of extraneous influences, 
 whereas these qualities are oftentimes positive "graft- 
 ings" from the personalities of other people, and usu- 
 
Mental Life of the Child 33 
 
 ally of an undesirable nature. Our desirable charac- 
 teristics have probably entailed some very severe con- 
 scious efforts but our undesirable ones are of an uncon- 
 scious origin and we are not only consciously ignorant 
 of their causes but do not even have any conscious 
 apprehension of their existence often-times, for Nature 
 seems to blind our eyes to our own imperfections. 
 
 If a fixation occurs in relation to a concept involv- 
 ing any aspects of the sexual functions the foundations 
 are therein laid for the development of some form of 
 the many strange sexual aberrations that are only too 
 prevalent, the causes of which were not even intelli- 
 gently conjectured until revealed by psychoanalytical 
 methods. The psychcpathology of sexual aberration is 
 a very sorrowful study and is one that lies beyond the 
 province of this little book; it may be said, however, 
 that the possible combinations and phases of undesir- 
 able sexual tendencies that can result from some forms 
 of disturbances in the early life of the child are very 
 great indeed, and may range in importance from those 
 that are vague in quality and indistinct in character up 
 to those that constitute serious menaces to cultural 
 requirements. 
 
 From this brief sketch of the mental life of the child 
 it will be seen that the development of the mental and 
 sexual processes is exposed to great possibilities for 
 evil, and that lasting injury to the mental characteris- 
 
34 Psychical Surgery 
 
 tics and psychic life of the adult personality can only 
 be avoided by an intelligent recognition of these 
 dangers on the part of parents and guardians, coupled 
 with an adoption of the necessary means for avoiding 
 them. It will also be seen that in order to form any 
 broad conception of the conditions that constitute adult 
 mental life., together of the causes for deviation from 
 normality of actions, it is necessary to follow the 
 etiological trail clear back to the cradle. 
 
 In electrical science the term "stepping up" is used 
 to describe the process of transforming a low voltage 
 into a higher voltage, and in releasing infantile fixa- 
 tions and primitive concepts by psychoanalysis the aim 
 is also that of stepping up: a stepping up of the per- 
 sonality from infantile tendencies to the higher stand- 
 ards required by the adult life. The patient is helped 
 to grow up. 
 
The Unconscious Complexes 35 
 
 THE UNCONSCIOUS COMPLEXES 
 
 Whether a personality is well balanced in tempera- 
 ment, rational in conduct, and unprejudiced in opin- 
 ions, or badly balanced in temperament, irrational in 
 conduct, and prejudiced in opinions, depends wholly 
 on the extent and nature in the unconscious mental 
 mechanism of what are known as complexes. It is 
 therefore very important that people should know what 
 unconscious complexes are, how they are formed, and 
 by what means they influence the conscious actions. 
 
 A complex is a constellation of ideas in the uncon- 
 scious that has become grouped around the memory 
 of some painful experience that has been repressed 
 by the consciousness. Under some condition or other 
 an experience has been undergone by the individual 
 that has resulted in great pain, such as in the form 
 of shame, remorse or aversion, etc., and which experi- 
 ence there is a strong desire to forget. The experience 
 has been so extremely undesirable and painful that the 
 personality desires to even disavow to itself that the 
 unpleasant incident has actually taken place, and desires 
 to completely banish all remembrance of it from the 
 consciousness. The effort to thus banish the offending 
 memory is often very successful as far as the conscious- 
 ness is concerned, but at a cost to the personality that 
 
Y 
 
 36 Psychical Surgery 
 
 is very great. The offensive memory may have become 
 forced out of the consciousness, it is true, but it still 
 survives in the unconscious and also still continues to 
 exert an undesirable influence and in a way of which 
 the consciousness has no knowledge. 
 
 If the undesirable memory had been frankly faced 
 by the consciousness, and the attention turned health- 
 ily to the freshly materializing experiences of an active 
 daily life, the painful effects of the undesirable memory 
 would be gradually modified by the continual inrush- 
 ing of new associations, and eventually the painful 
 thoughts would become a part of the general synthesis 
 of the mental life and thereby lose their individual in- 
 sistent qualities : the undesirable influences of the pain- 
 ful memory would by these means become dispersed. 
 It is by such dispersing methods as these that the most 
 poignant of griefs become assuaged in the course of 
 time, because a continual inrush of new experiences 
 in the daily life modifies and transforms the previously 
 existing undesirable psychical attitudes. 
 
 If an undesirable memory is not neutralized by being 
 assimilated into the memories of new experiences, but 
 is forced out of the consciousness, it sinks to the uncon- 
 scious level of the mental mechanism and although 
 completely obliterated from further conscious recog- 
 nition it still retains its vitality and continues to exert 
 it and in a most disastrous manner ; for instead of the 
 
Thd Unconscious Complexes 37 
 
 painful memory being exposed to modifications by asso- 
 ciating with newly materializing experiences from the 
 exterior world, it not only retains its undesirable innate 
 characteristics but also manifests a persistent tendency 
 to become associated with all other memories that pos- 
 sess sympathetic qualities. It is by such processes as 
 these that undesirable memory constellations become 
 formed in the unconscious. 
 
 Repressed memory constellations (complexes) exert 
 influences upon the conscious actions in a manner sim- 
 ilar to that in which hereditary impulses influence 
 them, for in neither case is there any conscious recog- 
 nition of the influences that are being exerted because 
 there are no intellectual connections between an im- 
 pulse and a conscious action. 
 
 The only distinguishing difference between an 
 hereditary impulse and an acquired one (for a complex 
 is in reality an acquired impulse), is that an hereditary 
 impulse represents the sum of the ancestral memories 
 of the race, whereas the acquired impulse revolves 
 around some one particular memory of an incident 
 in the individual's own experience. 
 
 The impulse activity of a complex takes the form 
 of violently reactioning from any influence that is 
 associated in any way with the conditions that caused 
 the repression in the first instance ; hence, anything 
 seen, felt, heard, or thought of by the consciousness 
 
38 Psychical Surgery 
 
 that has any memory associations whatever with the 
 set of conditions under which the original painful 
 experience occurred, produces a mental or psychical 
 disturbance. Under such conditions the consciousness 
 is so influenced by the underlying unconscious complex 
 that it lives over again the original painful experience 
 either in the form of a mental attitude or an emotional 
 disturbance. 
 
 Many of the well known phobias (unaccountable 
 fears and aversions) such as agoraphobia (fear of open 
 spaces) and claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces) 
 etc., afford illustrations of influences upon the con- 
 sciousness exerted by complexes that result from pain- 
 ful memories. In such cases there is nothing in the 
 open or confined spaces themselves to justify any 
 mental or emotional disturbance ; but in some way or 
 other such conditions as these revive unconscious 
 memory associations in relation to something painful 
 that has occurred in the individual's life and which has 
 been repressed from the consciousness. The mental 
 or emotional disturbance that is experienced in such 
 cases is a psychical pain resulting from the irritation 
 of an old mental wound. 
 
 A primitive impulse is an intuitive inclination to 
 react to environmental influences according to an in- 
 stinct based upon memories of previous experiences, 
 and is an unconscious mental process whereby the per- 
 
The Unconscious Complexes 39 
 
 sonality profits by the accumulated experiences of the 
 race in relation to environmental requirements ; and 
 acquired impulses (in the form of complexes), act in 
 a precisely similar manner. For instance, in the phobia 
 illustrations : the psychical pain experienced by the 
 consciousness through an arousal of a painful uncon- 
 scious memory is intended by the unconscious mental 
 mechanism to serve as a warning to the consciousness 
 of the presence of danger, and as an intimation that 
 the particular conditions now being experienced (by 
 being seen, felt, heard or thought of), are similar in 
 character to those that caused so much pain upon a 
 previous occasion. For there are no intellectual pro- 
 cesses available to the unconscious whereby it can 
 understand that the existing conditions from which it 
 is reacting do not contain anything that is painful per 
 se; its "sense" is restricted to the mechanical gener- 
 ation of a form of mental or emotional disturbance 
 whenever it is exposed to an excitation by a set of 
 conditions in any way analagous to those that created 
 the painful memory in the first place. 
 
 It must not be assumed that the formation of uncon- 
 scious complexes is an unusual occurrence or that they 
 are produced only by unusual experiences, for the 
 reverse is the case. For that matter the whole of the 
 unconscious mental mechanism is governed solely by 
 intuitive processes in which no form of intellectual 
 
v^ 
 
 40 Psychical Surgery 
 
 functioning takes part. The unconscious is that part of 
 the mind where all memories that sink into it become 
 converted into a mechanical impulsiveness, the innate 
 intuitive inclination of which is to react automatically 
 (i. e., as an impulse), whenever it is subjected to stim- 
 ulations by conditions that are similar to those that 
 created the original memory in the first place. All 
 memories that cannot be recalled to the consciousness 
 by the voluntary attention (thinking) become naturally 
 inclined to make their existence and nature manifest in 
 the form of an impulse ; hence it follows that our whole 
 unconscious mental life is one vast ramification of 
 memory constellations functioning as acquired or sec- 
 ondary impulses, and is the plane where the individ- 
 ual's own acquired impulses become linked up with 
 those that constitute the primitive impulses of the race : 
 it is a place where the present becomes associated 
 with the archaic past. 
 
 We are prone to speak of our voluntary thoughts, 
 the assumption being that we can create thoughts by 
 our conscious efforts, but a little reflection will suffice 
 to show that a voluntary thought is an impossibility. 
 When we are thinking we concentrate our conscious 
 attention upon a specific idea and then "sort out" the 
 thoughts that come up into the consciousness from the 
 fore-conscious in response to the "stirring up" the con- 
 centrated attention has accomplished. We create 
 
The Unconscious Complexes 41 
 
 nothing whatever by thinking, but simply consciously 
 utilize something that we have previously garnered 
 into the mind as a result of observation, experience 
 and reflection. 
 
 The process of intellectual thinking consists in (a) 
 directing the attention towards an idea, and (b) esti- 
 mating, discriminating, and utilizing or rejecting the 
 thoughts that come up into the consciousness ; and the 
 nature and value of the thoughts that come up into the 
 consciousness and become available to it will then 
 depend upon the following two major considerations : 
 (a) the nature and value of the thought memories 
 that are stored in the fore-conscious, and (b) the avail- 
 ability of the stored memories to the consciousness 
 without exposure to unconscious censorship. 
 
 As regards the nature and value of the thought 
 memories that are available to the consciousness under 
 ideal conditions, the conception held by Locke is as 
 true today as when formulated in 1690, viz. that noth- 
 ing can come forth from the mind but what has, in 
 some form or other, previously entered therein ; to 
 which conception Freud's researches into the psycho- 
 pathology of everyday life has given additional inter- 
 est; for we now know that the thoughts that come 
 up into the consciousness as a result of the directed 
 attention do not reflect the impartial qualities of the 
 underlying memories but are of a biased character, and 
 
42 Psychical Surgery 
 
 are thus biased because they have been subjected to a 
 censorship by the underlying complexes. 
 
 It will be remembered that our whole unconscious 
 mental life is a mechanism whereby memories of en- 
 vironmental experiences become endowed with impulse 
 activities, the functions of which activities take the 
 form of reactioning intuitively whenever conditions are 
 experienced in the conscious life that are similar to 
 those that produced the memories in the first instance. 
 It is by this great principle of Nature that the con- 
 sciousness is able to benefit from its vast range of en- 
 vironmental experiences without carrying the cumula- 
 tive burden of the multitude of memories that are con- 
 nected with such experiences. But this intuitive 
 response on the part of the unconscious mental mechan- 
 ism does not by any means absolve the consciousness 
 of its responsibility for accepting or rejecting the im- 
 pulse as a motive of action. 
 
 When an acquired impulse (unconscious complex) 
 responds to an excitation from some experience that 
 has aroused an old unpleasant memory, the effect on 
 the consciousness takes the form of a mental or emo- 
 tional disturbance, the nature and degree of which will 
 depend upon the seriousness of the original (repressed) 
 memory. Many of the strange slips of speech, the 
 sudden losing of one's subject in conversation, the 
 forgetfulness of names, places and incidents that are 
 
The; Unconscious Complexes 43 
 
 really familiar, etc., etc., are nearly all the results 
 of "psychical barriers" that have been raised by the 
 unconscious mental mechanism against a threatened 
 revival of some memory that would be painful if 
 recalled. 
 
 From what has been said it will be seen that the 
 unconscious mental mechanism transmutes many of 
 the memories of conscious experiences into intuitive 
 functions, thereby enabling the personality to profit 
 from experiences in a great many cases without utiliz- 
 ing conscious discrimination, i e., by "sensing" a con- 
 dition "intuitively." But it will also be noted that 
 although the intuitive impulses (complexes) constitute 
 one of Nature's great aids to the personality whereby 
 it is enabled to profit by experience in many ways in 
 a semi-mechanical manner, yet these intuitive impulses 
 are not necessarily reliable guides for the conscious- 
 ness to follow : in many instances, indeed, they are dis- 
 tinctly the reverse of reliable. It is extremely neces- 
 sary, therefore, that the unconscious mental mechanism 
 is utilized by the consciousness as a servant, and that 
 this servant is never permitted to assume the role of 
 master. Our insane asylums are full of unfortunate 
 people who have disregarded this injunction, and the 
 profusion of "twilight" cases of persons possessing 
 unbalanced mentalities with whom we often rub shoul- 
 ders in the daily life also affords numerous instances 
 of a similar disregard of this important rule of conduct. 
 
44 Psychical Surgery 
 
 It will be remembered that extremely painful re- 
 pressed memories manifest strong tendencies to become 
 associated with other memories in the unconscious 
 that are of a sympathetic character, and thus form 
 constellations or "complexes," and it will be easy to 
 apprehend that the bigger a memory constellation 
 grows the greater will be the extent to which it can 
 affect the conscious actions until, in extreme cases, the 
 consciousness becomes eventually overpowered by the 
 insistent activities of this unconscious mental "cancer," 
 and a state of mental irresponsibility results. 
 
 It will be seen that it is very vital to the personality 
 that it apprehends the nature and extent of the uncon- 
 scious complexes so that the conscious actions can be 
 regulated accordingly, for it is by the nature and extent 
 of these complexes that the characteristics of the per- 
 sonality are determined and the conscious actions influ- 
 enced. We are all just what we are, and do just what 
 we do, by reason of the complexion of the unconscious 
 mental life, and it is this unconscious mental life that, 
 in reality, constitutes the personality; for the person- 
 ality is the sum of the unconscious mentality. 
 
 The whole experience of adult life consists in con- 
 forming to the requirements of environment in a way 
 that will conduce to the best interest of the race, and 
 also in interlocking reactions between the conscious 
 and the unconscious mental lives as a result of this 
 
The Unconscious Complexes 45 
 
 environmental experience. These interlocking reac- 
 tions between the consciousness and the unconscious 
 consist of (a) repressions, (b) reactions (intuitive 
 impulses), and (c) conflicts; and whether the per- 
 sonality becomes a desirable socialized unit, and main- 
 tains itself as such, or a psychical derelict, will depend 
 upon the outcome of the conflicts between the conscious 
 and unconscious elements of the mental mechanism. 
 
 A desirable socialization of the personality entails 
 the necessity of repressing all tendencies that would 
 not comply with cultural requirements if permitted to 
 become expressed. These repressing efforts com- 
 mence with the dawn of individual responsibility, con- 
 tinue practically to the grave, and result in the re- 
 pressed memories becoming absorbed into the uncon- 
 scious where all of them, the good and the bad, the 
 strong and the weak, constitute the mechanism of the 
 unconscious mental life, the influence of which upon 
 the consciousness results in one long persistent conflict. 
 The outcome of this conflict will decide whether the 
 personality becomes and remains a well balanced and 
 therefore valuable member of the social economy, or 
 an ill balanced personality, and consequently one that 
 may become a charge upon society instead of a sup- 
 porter of it. 
 
 All mental and emotional disturbances are the result 
 of conflicts between undesirable unconscious complexes 
 
46 Psychical Surgery 
 
 and a resisting consciousness, and a mental or nervous 
 "breakdown" is nothing more or less than a breaking 
 down of the defensive power of the consciousness 
 against insistent impulses on the part of undesirable 
 unconscious complexes. Of course, the individual who 
 suffers from the breaking down of this defense will be 
 totally unable to apprehend the real nature of the ail- 
 ment that afflicts him, for he will always look for a 
 conscious reason for a condition that is unconscious 
 in character ; he may never even realize that any mental 
 conflict has existed, and when the defense finally proves 
 inadequate so that the consciousness becomes a prey 
 to ungovernable emotional impulses the cause of the 
 disaster may be attributed to "overwork," which is 
 something that has never caused a "breakdown" in 
 anyone. Then again if the conflict is purely mental, 
 so that a breaking down of the defense results in some 
 form of mental disturbance, the connection between 
 cause and effect is even more incomprehensible to the 
 sufferer's friends; in fact the cause of such affliction 
 is often of such a wholly unaccountable nature to peo- 
 ple not possessing psychiatrical knowledge that it is 
 sometimes even attributed to some inscrutable divine 
 reason, an explanation which is, of course, both stupid 
 
 and blasphemous. 
 
 From this brief outline of psychiatrical facts it 
 should be realized that it is very vital that the individ- 
 
The: Unconscious Complexes 47 
 
 ual should constantly apprehend the nature, extent and 
 tendencies of his unconscious mental life, so that the 
 necessary measures can be adopted by the conscious- 
 ness to take advantage of the best that is available from 
 the unconscious, and at the same time to neutralize 
 the tendencies of impulses that menace the well being 
 of the personality. 
 
48 Psychical Surgery 
 
 THE NEUROSES 
 
 The original research work that led to the develop- 
 ment of the analytic method of psychical surgery was 
 carried out in the course of a study of the neuroses by 
 Dr. Josef Breuer, chief of the Clinic of Psychiatry, 
 Zurich, in 1880-1882, and which study acted as a mag- 
 net to the attention of a young medical student named 
 Sigmund Freud, who was then working for his exam- 
 inations ; and although the technique of psychoan- 
 alysis has now become developed to such an extent 
 that no one person can claim sole merit for its present 
 status, Freud's name will ever bear the same relation 
 to it as Lister's does to the governing principles of 
 antiseptic surgery. But in Freud's case there was no 
 sudden jump from obscurity to prominence, for the 
 process of deciphering the hieroglyphics of the etio- 
 logical scroll of the neuroses entailed many years of 
 most painstaking labor, and even when the actual 
 causes of the neuroses became so evident that they 
 could not be gainsaid Freud encountered the bitterest 
 hostility, for his discoveries entailed a revolution of 
 previously entertained theories. But truth must always 
 refuse to place sacrificial tributes on the altars of ignor- 
 ance and superstition, and although Freud had to 
 
The Neuroses 49 
 
 contend with much reactionary opposition on the part 
 of even his own professional associates for a consider- 
 able time, the truth of his contentions eventually be- 
 came so obvious that they could no longer be denied. 
 
 Stripped of all palliative phraseology, the cause of 
 a neuroses is an abnormal condition in the sexual 
 life of the patient arising from a repression of the 
 sexual impulse unaccompanied by a corresponding 
 /process of sublimation, and the best indication of the 
 unerring truth of this diagnosis is the apparent absence 
 of all sexual desire on the part of the sufferer. In 
 other words : The total lack of any conscious sexual 
 desire is a positive sign of the existence of an unde- 
 sirable unconscious sexual life. 
 
 Curiously enough Freud obtained his first clue to 
 the etiology of the neuroses from three different 
 sources, as Breuer of Zurich, Charcot of Paris and 
 Chrobak of Vienna had each of them extended to 
 Freud certain hints to some of the generalized opin- 
 ions they held in this respect, but in relation to which 
 opinions no research work had been carried out. For 
 it required a young man of vigorous mentality and 
 endowed with a rich faculty for visualizing a great 
 possibility to follow up the clue that Breuer, Charcot 
 and Chrobak had discerned, and one who was prepared 
 to follow truth for truth's sake — irrespective of where 
 the quest might lead. 
 
50 Psychical Surgery 
 
 Even today the mental attitude that probably Breuer, 
 Charcot and Chrobak shrewdly suspected would be 
 manifested in relation to the sexual theory of the 
 neuroses is still in evidence in many directions, so that 
 some temporizing mortals (undoubtedly undesirably 
 influenced by their own unconscious complexes), sub- 
 scribe to Freud's general principles but with very 
 definite reservations, and in applying what they profess 
 to be the Freudian technique indulge in what is merely 
 a substituted hodge-podge of their own creation. 
 
 Under the analytical method every case of neurosis 
 is found to lead back to a period in the mental and 
 sexual life of the patient when very strong and unnat- 
 ural repressions were indulged in, and which repres- 
 sions resulted in a diverting of the energy of the sexual 
 impulses from their natural inclinations to unnatural 
 channels, so that this unused and un sublimated energy 
 became an outlaw force which eventually produced a 
 havoc of disturbance throughout the whole psychical 
 mechanism. 
 
 It is a common experience for people to practically 
 starve to death with an abundance of enticing food 
 available to the purse but lying beyond the price of 
 hunger. There is no desire for food although the phy- 
 sical mechanism so obviously stands in need of it ; and 
 a neurosis is similarly a sign of starvation — sexual 
 starvation, albeit not the slightest sign of sexual hunger 
 
The Neuroses 51 
 
 is consciously apprehended. In fact sexual hunger is 
 never consciously realized by the neurotic sufferer and 
 all thoughts relating to the physical aspects of sexual 
 indulgence are oftentimes repugnant ; nevertheless, as 
 the reader will have come to realize by this time, 
 when we want to understand the consciousness we 
 must have recourse to an exploration of the uncon- 
 scious. The conscious disturbance is merely an effect 
 of undesirable unconscious conditions. 
 
 It must be understood that the sexual impulse is * 
 the primal race preservative energy, and can only be 
 killed by killing the body ; in fact to kill the one means 
 a killing of the other. This race preservative energy 
 must either be utilized in a physical sense or else be 
 absorbed by a desirable mental attitude, and a neurosis 
 is a sure and certain sign that one or other or both of 
 these requirements have been violated. 
 
 The requirements of society entail upon the individ- 
 ual a restraint upon the sexual impulses, and a sub- 
 limation of them to meet the requirements of a higher 
 order of things. Unfortunately, however, there is 
 abundant evidence that mental and psychical develop- 
 ment have not kept pace with the cultural demands 
 in regard to the sexual relations. In other words : 
 where social conditions impose a state of sexual con- 
 tinence in the individual under certain conditions 
 (and thereby deny a physical expression to the sexual 
 
52 Psychical Surgery 
 
 impulse), it only too often transpires that the mental 
 life of the individual has not been sufficiently trained 
 to sublimate the energy that is represented in the pent 
 up sexual desire. Under such conditions as these the 
 only available defense that many individuals seem able 
 to erect against the sensations of sexual hunger is that 
 of denying the very existence of that hunger, e. g., by 
 considering it sinful and wicked for any thoughts con- 
 cerning the sexual life to be harbored in the conscious- 
 ness for a moment. They therefore repress from the 
 consciousness all thoughts concerning sexual matters 
 as being sinful and zvicked, and thereby generate in 
 the unconscious sexual complexes, which consist of 
 constellations of memories and thoughts that revolve 
 around a central sexual idea, and the emotional dis- 
 turbance known as neurosis results from an uprush of 
 this repressed unconscious force when its insistence 
 succeeds in breaking down the defense that the con- 
 sciousness has erected against it. 
 
 The lesson that society has to learn in its own inter- 
 est is, that cultural barriers to a primitive impulse 
 must be created in the unconscious mental life if such 
 barriers are to consist of anything more than mere 
 conventional platitudes, for morality and immorality 
 are unconscious attributes and not merely conscious 
 mental attitudes. Therefore if a thought is "sinful" 
 or "wicked" when in the consciousness it doesn't be- 
 
The Neuroses 53 
 
 come pure and holy simply by being compelled to take 
 up its abode in the unconscious, for such a process 
 only succeeds in transforming a passing mental atti- 
 tude into an intuitive impulse. 
 
 Dr. Eduard Hitschmann of Vienna, one of the most 
 responsible commentators on the Freudian theory of 
 the neurosis, pointedly tells his medical brethren that a 
 time has now arrived when truth and honesty demand 
 recognition of the fact that the person who has broken 
 down from "overwork" is not sick by reason of trying 
 to perform duties that the average civilized brain is 
 amply able to accomplish, but by reason of a gross 
 abuse of the sexual life. In which connection, of 
 course, the term abuse is used in a directly opposite 
 sense from that in which it is commonly applied, and 
 really means neglect: a neglect to recognize that the 
 sexual impulse must find its expression in some way. 
 If it is not used physically, it must be used in a subli- 
 mated manner, and if it is neither used physically nor 
 becomes sublimated it will eventually manage to secure 
 an expression in the form of an emotional anarchy; 
 for that is what a neurosis really is. 
 
 The cause of the emotional anarchy being the exist- 
 ence of undesirable unconscious conditions a cure for 
 neurotic tendencies can only be hoped for through 
 an adjustment of the unconscious complexes. Of 
 course people are continually "breaking down" through 
 
54 Psychical Surgery 
 
 neurotic conditions and "recovering" from them; but 
 the point to remember is that the "breaking down" is a 
 breaking down of a defense, hence a "recovery" is 
 merely a success in re-establishing the defense for at 
 least a temporary period ; the menace itself, however, 
 still exists. It is the constitutional "weak spot" that 
 sooner or later takes its toll. 
 
Psychoanalysis 55 
 
 PSYCHOANALYSIS 
 
 Psychoanalysis is a name coined by Freud to desig- 
 nate the methods he originated and developed for 
 determining and eradicating unconscious mental com- 
 plexes, and to which the term psychical surgery is \l 
 aptly applied. The term "psychoanalysis" has been 
 and still is used by various people in connection with 
 procedures that do not comply with the Freudian con- 
 cept, and many of which methods not only form no 
 legitimate part of, but are actually inconsistent with 
 the Freudian technique. In this connection it may be 
 stated that the farther one gets away from Freud's 
 governing considerations in this great study the less 
 competent one becomes to apprehend the vital char- 
 acteristics of his great discoveries. 
 
 The curing of undesirable unconscious mental condi- 
 tions by psychoanalysis is effected by making syste- 
 matic efforts to deliberately excite the complexes, by 
 noting the nature of the reactions that are thus pro- 
 duced, by tracing the line of connection that exists 
 (in the form of associative memories) between the 
 exciting agencies and the resultant reactions, and by 
 these means making the unconscious memories con- 
 scious. 
 
56 Psychical Surgery 
 
 In order to deliberately excite the complexes a series 
 of test words of from one to two hundred is prepared, 
 the memory associations of which cover a very wide 
 field. These words are known as stimulus words and 
 are projected to the subject by the analyst with the 
 understanding that the patient responds by uttering 
 the first word or idea that comes into the mind — no 
 matter what the word or idea may be. The word or 
 idea expressed by the patient in response to the 
 stimulus word of the analyst is known as the reaction. 
 This reaction is noted down by the analyst, together 
 with the reaction time, which is measured in fifths of 
 a second ; and when the whole series of stimulus words 
 has been gone through the list is repeated, and all vari- 
 ances from the results of the. first test noted — if there 
 are any; these variances are known as reproductions. 
 
 The result of this initial test will probably develop 
 instances of some or all of the following reactions : 
 
 (a) The reaction associations may be unusual in 
 character. 
 
 (b) The reaction time may be unusually long. 
 
 (c) A significant reaction may transmit a dis- 
 
 turbance to succeeding reactions. (This is 
 called perseveration) . 
 
 (d) The reproduction reactions may show vari- 
 ances from the original reaction. 
 
 The following will serve to illustrate : 
 
Psychoanalysis 57 
 
 If in response to the stimulus word tree the reaction 
 response is, say, paper, it will be apparent that there is 
 some association in the subject's mind between these 
 two ideas of a somewhat unusual character. It does 
 not necessarily follow, however, that an unusual asso- 
 ciation is a significant one, for on analysis the connec- 
 tion may prove to be quite ordinary and explainable; 
 such an instance, however, would be a point for further 
 attention on the part of the analyst. 
 
 If it is found that the normal reaction time for a 
 particular individual is, say, 2.3 seconds, and then a 
 reaction time of 3.4, 4.1, or something even higher is 
 experienced in some instances, all of such prolonged 
 reactions are significant. Then) if in the reproduction 
 test the reaction word is a different one to that which 
 was noted in the original test, or if there are any per- 
 severations (note explanation at "c"), such phenomena 
 are always significant and are known as complex 
 indicators. 
 
 The next stage of the technique may consist in util- 
 izing what is known as the free association of ideas in 
 relation to those stimulus words to which there were 
 significant reactions — which principle of free associ- 
 ation must be fully apprehended by the subject. 
 
 When we are thinking intellectually we are concen- 
 trating the voluntary attention on some subject, and 
 actively criticizing, analyzing, estimating, co-ordinating, 
 
58 Psychical Surgery 
 
 and otherwise sitting in judgment upon the nature and 
 value of the thoughts that come up into the conscious- 
 ness ; but in permitting a flow of free associations there 
 must be no criticism or analysis on the patient's part 
 whatever, and a positively free expression must be 
 given to the analyst of every thought that comes up 
 into the consciousness as it occurs. There must be no 
 reservations whatever. 
 
 Every thought that comes into the consciousness has 
 a memory history to which, naturally, it is connected; 
 and whenever a thought comes into the consciousness 
 it is because it has some memory association with the 
 stimulating agency, no matter how apparently incon- 
 gruous this association may appear. What the analyst 
 aims at is therefore to take those words or ideas in 
 connection with which there were significant reactions, 
 project them to the subject (i. e., recall them to him), 
 and enjoin him to speak freely whatever comes up into 
 the consciousness in response to these ideas, to refrain 
 from any criticizing, to let the mind drift along where- 
 ever it chooses, and to frankly describe to the analyst 
 every aspect of such mental panorama. 
 
 The scenes that form in the consciousness as a reac- 
 tion to some stimulus idea constitute part of the actual 
 memory history of the idea that is suggested. They 
 constitute the roots that lead down into the mental 
 storehouse from which the intellectual concept in rela- 
 
Psychoanalysis 59 
 
 tion to the idea has been derived; and if the subject 
 will refrain from exercising any criticism and simply 
 act the part of a spectator as it were, then every suc- 
 ceeding memory scene that comes into the conscious- 
 ness does so by reason of some memory association 
 with the preceding one. In other words, one scene 
 leads to another by reason of sympathetic associations ; 
 and all such scenes are the visualized memory roots 
 of the idea that was held in the consciousness in the 
 first place. An illustration may serve to make this 
 quite clear: 
 
 If the mind is directed towards some idea there be- 
 comes formed in the consciousness a pictorial scene 
 in which the original idea will form an essential part. 
 Thus, if the idea of cat is suggested, with the under- 
 standing that the consciousness is to hold that idea 
 until it is involuntarily superceded by some other idea, 
 a scene will be formed in the mind in which a cat, and 
 probably some particular one, will be a feature; and 
 every element of the scene in question, no matter 
 whether it is a landscape, an article of clothing, or any 
 other conceivable object, will have some memory asso- 
 ciation with the stimulus idea — cat. 
 
 If the processes of free association are permitted to 
 act entirely without restraint it will not be long before 
 scenes will be coming up into the consciousness which 
 the subject would not consider had any direct relation 
 
60 Psychical Surgery 
 
 to the original idea; the mind will have apparently 
 wandered far away from the original idea. But if the 
 associations have been free, no matter how far removed 
 the last scene may appear to be from the original one, 
 there is always a connection between them, even if it 
 is not consciously remembered. 
 
 The great necessity for the subject to wholly refrain 
 from any criticism as to the relevancy or importance 
 of any idea that may come into the mind should now 
 be apparent. The object of the analyst is to stimulate 
 and maintain a floiv of intuitive memory associations, 
 hence there must be an entire withholding of any intel- 
 lectual control or judgment on the patient's part. 
 
 It will be realized that an unreserved expression on 
 the part of the subject of the unrestricted and uncon- 
 trolled flow of thoughts that come up into the con- 
 sciousness will entail a not inconsiderable sacrifice of 
 personal feelings, for the analyst cannot proceed very 
 far with his work before the curtains of the soul will 
 of necessity have to be drawn wide apart, and of course 
 the question as to whether the personality shall un- 
 dergo a passing pain or endure a life-time agony is 
 one for the patient to personally decide. The memory 
 roots of an idea, however, know no ethical or moral 
 frontiers, and psychical surgery entails quite a little 
 temporary conscious pain ; but it cures. 
 
 The greatest obstacle that the analyst has to over- 
 
Psychoanalysis 61 
 
 come is not the conscious resistence resulting from a 
 shrinking on the part of the patient from giving free 
 and unrestricted expression to ideas and thoughts that 
 are painful, but the unconscious resistence. For the 
 uncovering of an unconscious complex entails an over- 
 coming of conditions that the complex is always 
 endeavoring intuitively to create; but if painstaking 
 efforts are made to follow the technical measures that 
 are available in this respect it may be said that, in the 
 case of fairly good subjects, the ultimate discovery of 
 the undesirable underlying complex can always be 
 accomplished. 
 
 When the processes of free association are invoked 
 in relation to the ideas to which there were significant 
 reactions in the first series of test words, the analyst 
 will begin to have access to the memory roots of the 
 ideas to which these reactions are related, and in course 
 of time will probably reach a point where an uncon- 
 scious resistence is encountered. During this flow of 
 memory associations, however, the analyst will have 
 formed some very definite conclusions of his own, and 
 will prepare and project a second series of test words, 
 in which there will be interposed words that the 
 analyst suspects may invite some significant reactions, 
 and which are known as critical words; and while using 
 these w T ords he will, as in the case of the previous 
 set (and all subsequent sets of words if such be event- 
 
62 Psychical Surgery 
 
 ually used), carefully tabulate the resulting reactions 
 as to (a) their nature, (b) time of reactions, (c) 
 reproduction variation, and (d) general disturbances. 
 The significant reactions in this second test will be 
 utilized as stimulus agencies for inviting a fresh series 
 of flows of free associations, by means of which the 
 ideas connected with all of the significant reactions 
 can be traced to their memory; roots as in the previous 
 instance ; and thus on until a further unconscious resist- 
 ance may possibly be encountered. In this latter event 
 the analyst will construct another set of test words, 
 interspersed with which will be further critical words 
 of such a nature that the analyst may consider calcu- 
 lated to invite further significant reactions, and then 
 proceed to stimulate further flows of free associations. 
 
 It will be seen that it will be only a question of 
 time, and of resourcefulness on the part of the prac- 
 titioner, before the enveloping process of the analysis 
 will succeed in attaining its object ; for the net will have 
 become spread so wide, and the mesh of the net will 
 be so fine, that only such unpropitious conditions as a 
 too advanced age of the subject, or some undesirable 
 characteristics in connection with his mental attitude, 
 can prevent eventual success. 
 
 As the analysis proceeds the memory roots of con- 
 scious ideas become traced deeper and deeper down 
 to their unconscious sources, until in course of time 
 
Psychoanalysis 63 
 
 the whole range of memories relating to the undesir- 
 able complexes are made available to the consciousness. 
 By this means the connection between the undesirable 
 tendencies of the adult life and the infantile concept 
 memories from which they have been derived can be 
 linked up, and the patient is enabled to peer into the 
 very recesses of his own soul and thereby, for the first 
 time, come face to face with his true self. 
 
 A little reflection on the reader's part will now 
 enable him to understand why a cure of a mental or 
 emotional disturbance is effected simply by making 
 the unconscious causes of the ailment recognizable by 
 the consciousness. It will be remembered that the 
 nature of the mental or emotional ailment is in the form 
 of a disturbance of the conscious mental life by an 
 unconscious influence, which influence can only exist 
 by reason of its dissociation from conscious recogni- 
 tion. The analytical method of psychotherapeutics 
 therefore consists in systematically exploring the un- 
 conscious, recovering therefrom the repressed undesir- 
 able dissociated memories, bringing them up again into 
 the consciousness, and (by resynthesizing them into 
 the conscious mental life) destroying the impulses 
 generated by these memories. 
 
 In the case of an infantile fixation, for example, the 
 memories of an experience that seemed crushing to 
 the infantile mind will appear trivial when brought up 
 
64 Psychical Surgery 
 
 into the adult consciousness, for the adult mind will 
 have an opportunity of placing an adult appraisment 
 upon a juvenile concept and thereby become released 
 from its juvenile anchorage. The personality therefore 
 becomes "stepped up" in relation to whatever temper- 
 amental feature had been restrained from proper devel- 
 opment. 
 
 In the case of repressions that have occurred during 
 adult life, the undesirable thoughts and memories that 
 have been transformed from being unpleasant conscious 
 elements into positively harmful unconscious influ- 
 ences, are again brought back to the plane of conscious- 
 ness and frankly faced, with the result that the unde- 
 sirable impulses are divested of their power, for they 
 have become again transformed from being intuitive 
 impulses into mere unpleasant thoughts, which un- 
 pleasant thoughts will soon lose any sting that might 
 still be clinging to them by reason of the capacity of a 
 readjusted personality to view things from a higher 
 and more commanding mental attitude ; for the con- 
 sciousness will have become unburdened of the "drag" 
 of its unconscious conflicts and will be thus enabled 
 to bring a whole self to meet the responsibilities of the 
 daily life instead of a self that had hitherto been 
 divided against itself. 
 
Complexes and Dream Phenomena 65 
 
 COMPLEXES AND DREAM 
 PHENOMENA 
 
 Fieud's analysis of the unconscious mental life of 
 his patients soon brought him into contact with their 
 dream experiences, and by utilizing his analytical 
 methods he demonstrated that dreams are never mean- 
 ingless jumbles of casual ideas mentally pictorialized 
 but are always indicative of underlying unconscious 
 mental conditions. The analysis of dreams eventually 
 constituted one of Freud's most important methods for 
 uncovering the unconscious mental life of his patients 
 and is described by him in The Interpretation of 
 Dreams as "the Via Regia to an understanding of the 
 unconscious mental life." 
 
 The technique of dream analysis consists in resolving 
 the dream into its elemental parts, and then utilizing 
 the ideas or thoughts that those elemental parts consist 
 of as stimulus agencies for inviting flows of free asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 The elements of a dream are always orderly per se, 
 and any seeming disorderliness in the visualized ideas 
 of which the dream is composed is not a disorderliness 
 of the dream elements themselves but of the manner in 
 which they are grouped together; for that matter no 
 
66 Psychical Surgery 
 
 element of anything can be otherwise than orderly, for 
 it is necessarily something that is complete in itself. 
 
 Dream phenomena are based upon the ever present 
 tendency of repressed thoughts (wishes that the con- 
 sciousness desires to disavow) to secure an expression 
 in the consciousness when there is a relaxation of the 
 cultural censoring qualities, and which relaxation is 
 most pronounced in that twilight state of consciousness 
 which immediately precedes the awakening from actual 
 sleep. The seeming disorderliness of the dream, 
 •manifested in the form of distortion and disguise, is a 
 compromise between the censoring tendencies of the 
 consciousness and the underlying dream thoughts, and 
 is an expression by indirect means of thoughts that 
 would not be tolerated by the consciousness if ex- 
 pressed in a direct manner. It is a putting into the 
 form of a symbolical picture thoughts and wishes that 
 the cultural consciousness desires to deny the exist- 
 ence of. 
 
 As the thoughts that constitute the foundations of 
 the dream have been repressed by a conscious censor- 
 ship at some time or other, this same censoring influ- 
 ence (in the form of a conscious defense), has to be 
 overcome by the repressed thoughts in order to again 
 receive conscious recognition ; and as the twilight stage 
 of consciousness (which immediately precedes awaken- 
 ing from actual sleep), is a period when the cultural 
 
Complexes and Dream Phenomena 67 
 
 censorship of the consciousness is naturally in a similar 
 ' 'twilight stage" of assertiveness, the conditions are 
 most propitious for a certain degree of escape of re- 
 pressed thoughts, which escape takes form in the con- 
 sciousness as a dream picture. By reason of the exist- 
 ence of some extent of wakefulness on the part of the 
 cultural censorship, however, the thoughts that suc- 
 ceed in escaping temporarily from the unconscious are 
 subjected to so much resistence by the censorship that 
 they become disordered in their grouping; the dream 
 thoughis only escape in a disguised form. 
 
 The two chief factors in dream disguise are conden- 
 sation and displacement. Condensation is caused by 
 various unconscious ideas becoming condensed into one 
 picture fragment, such as a composite person-figure 
 where the height of one person, a feature of clothing 
 of another, or a mannerism of another, etc., become 
 blended into one seeming individual, or where the 
 whole or a part of some object, person, form or scene 
 constitutes a seeming part or parts of some other 
 object, person, form or scene, etc., the endless possible 
 varieties of such combinations being of course obvious. 
 
 In displacement the dream thoughts that are actually 
 of the greatest significance appear in the dream picture 
 in the least significant manner and vice versa; hence 
 those elements in a dream picture that are the most 
 strongly defined may represent the least significant of 
 
68 Ps^hicai. Surgery 
 
 the underlying dream thoughts; while the hazy part, 
 the part that seems to fade away the most quickly 
 when the sleeper awakens, is oftentimes the vital ele- 
 ment around which an unconscious conflict revolves 
 with the greatest insistence. That which we remember 
 is often important, but that which is indistinct and is 
 so readily forgotten is vital. 
 
 It is by reason of the almost infinite possibilities in 
 the grouping of dream thoughts through condensation 
 and displacement that the dream picture appears to be 
 •so wholly incomprehensible until the exact conditions 
 are revealed by analysis ; but a dream is always signifi- 
 cant, even to the most seemingly trivial elements, and 
 if on analysis some particular element has no great 
 significance per se it will always be found to be closely 
 associated with some element that has. In dream phe- 
 nomena contradictions are only apparently such, and 
 what at first may appear trivial becomes very important 
 when its value is rightly appraised. 
 
 In dream scenes the tendencies and wishes of the 
 unconscious thoughts find an expression, the degree of 
 which expression, together with the directness or indi- 
 rectness that it takes, depends wholly upon the cultural 
 resistance that has to be overcome by the undesirable 
 dream thoughts; and lest any self righteous person 
 should unctiously assume an attitude of excessive holi- 
 ness based upon the fact that he is not a prolific 
 
Complexes and Dream Phenomena 69 
 
 dreamer it must be understood that, just because 
 dreams reveal the existence of undesirable unconscious 
 conditions the lack of dreams by no means gives any 
 license for assuming that the unconscious conditions 
 are any the more desirable. The lack of dreams only 
 indicates that the period of transition from lethargic 
 sleep to complete consciousness is very rapid, and in 
 such cases the twilight interval is either eliminated or 
 extremely abbreviated. Unconscious thoughts are 
 therefore not necessarily any the better by reason of 
 their not being revealed by dream phenomena, in which 
 connection Freud says that "The mark of the beast is to 
 be found in all dreams," which remark Ferenczi ampli- 
 fies by saying: "There is not a single dream that 
 cannot be shown by analysis to offend against some 
 legal or ethical canon." The dreams of small children 
 are, of course, excepted, and the dreams of small chil- 
 dren are the only ones in which there is no disguise, 
 simply because there is nothing to be disguised. 
 
 A dream is always excited by something that has 
 been experienced on the preceding day, the nature of 
 which exciting influence, however, will not be appre- 
 hended until revealed by analysis, for the principles 
 involved are exactly similar to those which exist when 
 a complex is aroused during the waking state, i. e., 
 there is no conscious recognition between the experi- 
 ence and the unconscious reaction. An experience 
 
70 Psychical Surgery 
 
 having been undergone (in the form of something 
 seen, heard or thought of), by which repressed uncon- 
 scious memories are stimulated into activity, these 
 memories acquire a conscious expression at the first 
 opportunity; this opportunity is the twilight stage of 
 consciousness that is probably experienced towards 
 the morning of the night after the day that the stimu- 
 lating experience occurred. 
 
 The procedure of analyzing dreams is to divide the 
 dream into its elemental parts, then to take these 
 parts, in turn, and utilize them as stimulus ideas for 
 generating flows of free associations. These flows of 
 free associations will be found to lead down into the 
 unconscious to the actual dream thoughts, the nature of 
 which will constitute the true meaning of the dream 
 picture. In following these flows of free associations 
 from the conscious dream picture to the unconscious 
 dream thoughts we retrace downwards the more or less 
 exact course by which the dream thoughts came up into 
 the consciousness from the unconscious. The free asso- 
 ciation of ideas constitutes the tell-tale trail of the 
 escaped undesirable unconscious wishes. 
 
 The main principles of dream phenomena may be 
 thus summarized: 
 
 (a) A dream always expresses the fulfillment of a 
 wish, (b) The unconscious thoughts expressed in the 
 dream are of great significance to the personality, (c) 
 
Complexes and Dream Phenomena 71 
 
 The dream is disguised in direct ratio to the cultural 
 requirements that would be violated if the expression 
 were undisguised, (d) The dream is always excited 
 by some experience of the preceding day. (e) The 
 elements of the dream picture can be traced to the 
 underlying dream thoughts by the technique of con- 
 forming to the requirement of maintaining flows of free 
 association of ideas, (f) The dream thoughts, , natur- 
 ally, constitute the true meaning of the dream picture. 
 
 It is by means of the disguise presented by the dream 
 picture that the underlying undesirable thoughts suc- 
 ceed in finding expression, and in a way that is often 
 particularly seductive to the consciousness ; so seduc- 
 tive, in fact, that it is a common experience for a 
 person to narrate a dream as a humorous experience, 
 and to be totally unaware that by so doing he is throw- 
 ing wide open the doors of his soul so that any passing 
 wayfarer who may possess psychoanalytical knowledge 
 can discern what lies therein. 
 
 We dream only of things that we would like to 
 forget or that we wish had never happened, and thus 
 it is that we have so few dreams in relation to pleasant 
 experiences of the past or of departed loved ones. We 
 do not dream of things that we consciously like or of 
 people whom we consciously love, for there are no 
 repressions of thoughts in connection with things we 
 like or of people we love; on the contrary we like to 
 
72 Psychical Surgery 
 
 keep the memories of pleasant experiences and of loved 
 associations forever green in our consciousness, and 
 to live them over and over again in our waking life, 
 for we never tire of feasting on such remembrances. 
 But it is from the things that we dislike and the memo- 
 ries that are painful that we desire to be consciously 
 dissociated, and which we wish to force out from our 
 consciousness with as much violence as possible ; hence 
 it is from these sources of repressed painful memories 
 that our dreams are produced. It may be that we will 
 tlream of a departed loved one upon occasion, the 
 experience of which may at first glance seem impos- 
 sible to associate with any undesirable memory, but 
 under the acid test of the analytical method it always 
 transpires that the seemingly pleasant dream picture is 
 only a ghastly camouflaging disguise behind which 
 lurk painful memories of some action of ours that we 
 not only wish had never happened but the very exist- 
 ence of which we have strived to consciously deny. 
 
 The dream experiences of a person indicate more 
 directly and positively than any other index, the exact 
 character of the unconscious mental life, and one of the 
 most interesting phenomenon in connection with the 
 practice of psychoanalysis is the progressive improve- 
 ment effected in the unconscious mental life by the 
 analytical method as revealed in the changed character 
 of the dream experiences. As the analysis progresses 
 
Complexes and Dream Phenomena 73 
 
 the dreams become fewer in number, and the disguise 
 less complicated until, in ideal cases, the camounaging 
 factor disappears altogether, so that whatever dreams 
 occur are again as open and guileless as was the case 
 in the infant life ; the unconscious mind, the soul of 
 the personality, has become cleansed of its psychical 
 undesirabilities. 
 
74 Psychical Surgery 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Every form of physical substance is composed of ele- 
 ments that are indestructable, though the manner in 
 which elements are grouped together can be altered 
 and a new form of substance thereby created; in the 
 mental world similar principles prevail. The memories 
 of all of the experiences that the individual has under- 
 gone constitute the elements that decide the character 
 of the mental attitude, and memory-elements are as 
 indestructable as physical elements are. But memory- 
 elements can be regrouped just as physical elements 
 can, and by this means a new "substance" can be cre- 
 ated in the form of a readjusted mental attitude. This 
 is what the analytical method of psycho-therapeutics 
 accomplishes ; old and undesirable memory groupings 
 are dissolved and new and more desirable groups cre- 
 ated, and a re-adjustment of the conscious mental 
 attitude thereby effected. 
 
 It is very necessary that a new conception in rela- 
 tion to the treatment of undesirable memories becomes 
 developed in the popular mind and the harmful effects 
 of certain old ideas thereby avoided. Instead of trying 
 to forget painful memories (which means an attempt 
 to believe that the painful experiences have never 
 
Conclusion 75 
 
 occurred), there should be adopted the sound psychi- 
 atrical doctrine of dispersing them; not to attempt the 
 impossible task of making such memories extinct but 
 to neutralize their undesirable tendencies by re-group- 
 ing them in association with other dominating memo- 
 ries of a desirable character. By these means instead 
 of a conscious pain becoming transformed into an un- 
 conscious disease, the undesirable memory-elements 
 that are dominating the mental attitude are rendered 
 innocuous. The object aimed at, therefore, in psy- 
 choanalysis is not forgetfulness (which is impossible) 
 but dispersion. It is the impossibility of conforming 
 to the former idea that has resulted in wrecking so 
 many otherwise promising lives, and it is the sound 
 psychiatrical principle of the latter concept whereby 
 hope is extended to and cures effected in many cases 
 of mental and psychical disturbances that would other- 
 wise be practically hopeless. 
 
 Psychoanalysis is not a philosophy to be preached, 
 but a scientific technique whereby help can be given 
 to those who, by reason of the nature of their afflic- 
 tions, are unable to help themselves, and to whom 
 sermons and lectures would only be mockeries. Of 
 course the analytical method is a form of psychical 
 surgery that inflicts upon the patient a certain degree 
 of passing mental pain, but the very decision to under- 
 go this passing discomfort is in itself sufficient evidence 
 
76 Psychical Surgery 
 
 of an underlying intensity of desire to reach to a higher 
 level of mental and psychical completeness. 
 
 In concluding this little book I will take the liberty 
 of quoting the following from Albert Mordell's The 
 Erotic Motive in Literature : 
 
 "Ghosts of sorrows and grief that we have thought 
 laid away still revisit us in our waking hours. They 
 stalk before us and open up old wounds, and we learn 
 that these are not yet healed. They awaken agonies 
 that again smite us; they make us harken back again 
 to* unkind words dealt us, to suffering inflicted, to injus- 
 tice done. Shocks which time had made obtuse are 
 revived; we reap the harvest of anxieties garnered in 
 our hearts ; and we discover that the old despair has not 
 altogether vanished but still occasionally gnaws us. 
 
 "The dead rules the living; forgotten incidents, soul 
 wrecking mistakes, chance misfortune still dominate us 
 * * * It is life's grimmest tragedy that we carry within 
 us ghosts of our old days — ghosts which take us by 
 surprise by their vigor. They mock us at their will; 
 we are tormented unawares; they take the savor out 
 of our food; they dangle at our footsteps when we go 
 to the house of mirth ; they trail us in ghastly pursuit 
 long after we have emerged from the house of mourn- 
 ing." 
 
 It is in relation to the "laying the ghosts" of the 
 past that the technique of psychoanalysis can be hope- 
 
Conclusion 77 
 
 fully applied ; ghosts of past memories that are forever 
 rising up from out of the unconscious mind to bind 
 and fetter both conscious actions and mental attitudes ; 
 memories that (in tragic error) have been considered 
 dead, but which in reality have only been dissociated 
 from conscious recognition and control. 
 
The following are most of the important works on 
 psychoanalysis that are as yet available in English: 
 
 The Psychoanalytic Method.... Dr. Oskar Pfister 
 
 Psychoanalysis, Its Theory and Application Dr. A. A. Brill 
 
 The Technique of Psychoanalysis Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe 
 
 Papers on Psychoanalysis Dr. Ernest Jones 
 
 Contributions to Psychoanalysis Dr. S. Ferenzci 
 
 History and Practice of Psychoanalysis Dr. Poul Bjerre 
 
 History of the Psychoanalytical Movement 
 
 ~ Dr. Sigmund Freud 
 
 The Interpretation of Dreams Dr. Sigmund Freud 
 
 Th*e Psycho pathology of Everyday Life Dr. Sigmund Freud 
 
 Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex 
 
 Dr. Sigmund Freud 
 
 Selected Papers on Hysteria Dr. Sigmund Freud 
 
 Freud's Theory of the Neuroses Dr. E. Hitchman 
 
 The Dream Problem _ Dr. A. E. Maeder 
 
 Psychology of the Unconscious Dr. C. G. Jung 
 
 Analytical Psychology Dr. C. G. Jung 
 
 Outlines of Psychiatry Dr. William A. White 
 
 Human Motives Dr. James Jackson Putnam 
 
 Man's Unconscious Conflict Dr. Wilfred Lay (Ph.D.) 
 
 The Child's Unconscious Mind Dr. Wilfred Lay (Ph.D.) 
 
 The Mental Hygiene of Childhood Dr. William A. White 
 
 Mechanics of Character Formation.... Dr. William A. White 
 
 A Study of the Mental Life of the Child _ 
 
 ..Dr. H. Von Hug-Hellmuth 
 
 The Erotic Motive in Literature « Albert Mordell 
 
 The Significance of Psychoanalysis for the Mental 
 
 Sciences Dr. Otto Rank and Dr. Hanns Sachs 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 lillllllhil 
 012 358 067 9