Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 1 Introduction
Gentlemen, you may have acquired some knowledge of psychoanalysis from reading or hearsay, which I do not know.Since the title of my lecture is "Introduction to Psychoanalysis," I will, as the name suggests, start from the very basics and have to treat you as ignorant of the field.

However, I can at least assume that it is already known that psychoanalysis is a method of treating neurotic disorders.Psychoanalysis is not the same as other medical methods in general, and often even the opposite.Usually, when a doctor wants to make a patient accept a new medical method, he will always exaggerate its convenience, so as to convince the patient of the effect of the treatment.I think this method is correct, and it also enhances the healing effect.And when we practice psychoanalytic therapy on psychotic patients, our method is different.On the contrary, we want to let the patient know that psychoanalytic therapy will be difficult, that it will probably take a long time, and that it will require much effort and sacrifice on his own.As for the curative effect, it is impossible to give a positive guarantee, and everything is determined by the patient's own attitude, understanding, cooperation and patience.There are of course reasons why our attitudes are so different, as you will know later.

Now, please forgive me for treating you like my psychopaths from the start.I advise everyone not to come again next time.Ladies and gentlemen, I can only share with you a little incomplete knowledge about psychoanalysis, which makes it difficult for everyone to form independent judgments about psychoanalysis.Your education, as well as your habits of thought, force you to oppose psychoanalytic therapy. You must first overcome your many personal ideas, so that you can suppress the resistance that comes from instinct.Of course, I cannot predict how much you will know about psychoanalysis after listening to my speech, but I can say with certainty that after listening to my speech, you will not be able to learn the research and diagnosis of psychoanalysis, nor will you be able to use psychoanalysis. Analyze and implement treatment.After this, if any of you are not content with a cursory knowledge of psychoanalysis, but make it a life's work, I not only discourage, but warn.Because today, once someone chooses this profession, the result is that he has no possibility of academic success, and even when he enters the society to practice medicine, he will not be understood, but will be hostile. All hidden sinful impulses are aroused and vented upon him.As you may have seen from the carnage of the European wars, the troubles he will have to deal with will be unpredictable.

However, a new knowledge has enough power to attract some people to be desperate.Those who choose to continue attending the lectures despite being warned are of course welcome.In any case, you have a right to know what I have said above as the crux of the difficulty of psychoanalysis.

First and foremost is the teaching and instruction of psychoanalysis.In medical courses, you have seen dissected specimens, precipitates of chemical reactions, and muscle contractions caused by nerve stimulation. You have become accustomed to using your eyes; Etiology, deduce the role and result of the whole pathological process.For surgery, you can either see it with your own eyes or try it yourself.Even in certain neurological treatments, you can see many visions. The abnormal words and deeds of patients give you many opportunities to observe, and these phenomena leave a deep impression on you.Therefore, the role of a medical professor is to explain and guide, just like leading you to browse a museum, so that you have a direct connection with the object of observation, confirm the existence of new facts through personal experience, and sublimate your experience and belief.

Unfortunately, however, psychoanalysis is very different. It is a therapy that is limited to the doctor talking to the patient and nothing else.Through the conversation, the patient tells about his past experiences, current impressions and troubles, expresses his wishes and vents his emotions.The doctor listens quietly, and then guides the patient to pay attention to something, explains it to him, and observes the patient's reaction of approval or disapproval.Relatives and friends of patients only believe in what they saw, experienced, or saw in movies. Now they hear that doctors "talk and cure" of course have a lot of doubts.At the same time, they are convinced that psychosis is purely imaginative, so their doubts are of course contradictory and illogical.In the beginning, talking was no different than witchcraft, and now we talk to make people happy or sad.Teachers use language to impart knowledge to students, and speakers use language to move audiences and influence their judgment.Language can guide emotional changes and serve as a bridge for us to communicate with each other.Therefore, talking therapy for psychosis should not be taken lightly.It should be satisfying to hear the analyst talking to the patient.

Listening in on psychoanalytic sessions is not allowed, and sessions are not open to the public, so it is very difficult to overhear conversations.When we teach psychiatry, we also give students examples of neurasthenia or hysteria, and the patients will only talk about their illness and symptoms, and nothing else.The practice of psychoanalytic treatment requires the patient to talk freely, and they do so only when they have a special trust in the doctor.If an unrelated third party appears on the scene, he will remain silent.All that is talked about in psychoanalysis are their secret thoughts and feelings, all of which they dare not touch themselves, and certainly do not want to tell others.

Therefore, you cannot visit any psychoanalytic treatment, and if you want to study psychoanalysis, you can only learn from hearsay.It is very difficult for you to form your own judgments about psychoanalysis on the basis of this indirect knowledge alone.Therefore, it is very important for you to trust the reporter.

Suppose now that you are listening to a history professor instead of a psychiatry course; and suppose the professor is talking about the biography and exploits of Alexander the Great.So what makes you believe this to be true?Alexander's deeds are less reliable than psychiatry in the circumstances, the great battles your history professors have not seen;But what evidence do historians have?Or he provided information to you, such as the records of Diodorus, Plutarch, and Aryan who were contemporary with Alexander or later.He also shows you the statues and coins of Alexander preserved in Pompeii, and the photographs of the inlays of the battle of Issos.Strictly speaking, all the evidence only shows that the ancients no longer had any doubts about Alexander's existence and military exploits.But you may criticize these accounts of Alexander as unreliable, because not all details have sufficient evidence.However, when you have listened to the lecture, I can say that none of you doubted the existence of Alexander any more.What is the reason?First of all, the professor will never force you to believe historical facts that you have doubts about, because it is useless; secondly, since ancient times, historians have recorded historical facts, and there are very few conflicts.If you must doubt these historical facts, then there are two test methods: the first test is whether there is a motive for fraud, and the second is to refer to whether many records are consistent.The result is unknown, but of course I am sure of Alexander, while Moses and Nirot are slightly inferior.Then, later on, you will understand what is suspicious about psychoanalysis.

Now, you can ask questions: If psychoanalysis has no objective evidence, and if it cannot be visited publicly, how can it be believed to be true and how can it be studied?Of course, the research work of psychoanalysis is not easy, and there are very few people who have studied it deeply so far. However, it has a way after all, and the study of the personality of the self can be used as an introduction to psychoanalysis.The term "self-study" is used here for lack of a better term, and it's not exactly introspection.Many common psychological phenomena can be used in this self-analysis after you have a certain knowledge of self-analysis.Thus it will become clear to you that, despite the limitations of psychoanalytic progress, its presentation is by no means a lie; Use as much opportunity as possible to observe the beauty of the psychoanalyst's craft.Of course, although this method is good, it varies from person to person, and it cannot be used for everyone.

Another difficulty to be overcome was not inherent in psychoanalysis itself but was due to the influence of medical research.Expose yourself long and completely to the influence of medical research, and your mental attitudes will be far removed from those of psychoanalysis.Medical training enables you to understand the function or disorder of the human body based on anatomy, explain it using chemistry and physics, and explain it in greater depth using biology.No attention to the spiritual life, ignorance that the spiritual life is the development of a complex organism.Psychoanalysis is strange and suspicious to you, and has no scientific value. Naturally, only poets, philosophers, metaphysicians and ordinary people study it.It is this that prevents you from being a good doctor.If you want to cure a disease, you first need to be clear about the spiritual life of the patient. If you ignore it and let the charlatans and wizards you despise achieve curative effects, this is the price.

The lack of ancillary subjects in philosophy in medical schools stems from, or can be forgiven for, a deficiency in medical education itself.Neither speculative philosophy, descriptive psychology, nor experimental psychology (a side subject when studying the psychology of the senses) can teach you about the mind-body connection, or about the health of your mental life.Although there are also clinical books on psychiatry that describe various symptoms of mental disorders, even psychiatrists are not sure whether those purely descriptive formulas are scientific.Because there is no way to know what is the cause of the symptoms described in the book, what is composed of them, and what is the connection; too many unknowns make the content in these books either unrelated to mental changes, or only connected but unexplained .Mental illnesses that are cured have been shown to be caused by some organ side effect.Psychoanalysis is to make up for this deficiency.Psychoanalysis can provide a psychological basis for psychiatry. To find out the causes of physical and mental illnesses, you have to put aside the worldly prejudices and the old rules from anatomy, chemistry or physiology, and use completely pure The concept of psychology to see psychoanalysis.At first, you may feel a little uncomfortable.There is also a hindrance which is neither caused by current education nor influenced by mental attitudes.Psychoanalysis must be free from prejudices, those that have nothing to do with anatomy, chemistry, or physiology, rational, moral, or aesthetic.And all of these are deeply ingrained in human evolution, and breaking them is not easy.

Note that we have been so accustomed to equating mind and consciousness that it is through consciousness that the characteristics of mental life seem to be defined.Obviously, psychology is considered to be the science of consciousness as its object of study, and any views that conflict with it have no place to stand.But the first claim of psychoanalysis is that the unconscious mental processes are the most universal, and that the conscious mental processes are only divisions from the whole mind.Psychoanalysis negates the saying that "psychological is conscious", so it has to go against people's common beliefs.Psychoanalysis believes that the human mind has processes of feelings, thoughts, and desires, etc., and that these can be unconscious.Because of this assertion, psychoanalysis was initially suspected of being an absurd witchcraft, and even scientifically minded people did not sympathize with it.I think the statement "psychological is conscious" is rather biased, although it is not easy to understand. Just imagine, if there is a subconscious mind, at what stage of human development can we deny it, and what are the benefits of doing so? guess.Therefore, whether mental activity and consciousness belong to the same category, or the dispute beyond it is just a game of words and has nothing to do with facts.What I will say, however, is that the affirmation of the existence of unconscious mental processes is a decisive step in a new direction for the world and for science.

Next is the second claim of psychoanalysis, which is closely related to the first claim. It holds that sexual impulse, in either a broad sense or a narrow sense, is an important cause of neurosis and psychosis. The second claim can be called another original idea of ​​psychoanalysis , but it has been neglected for a long time.Furthermore, psychoanalytic theory holds that the sexual drive makes an extraordinary contribution to the spiritual life of man, including the highest cultural, artistic, and social achievements.

It seems to me that it is precisely because of this conclusion that everyone has such aversion and hostility to psychoanalysis.Now, you must be very interested in how this conclusion was reached.We believe that in order to survive, human beings have to sacrifice the satisfaction of primitive impulses to create civilization; every individual in every age continuously participates in it, repeatedly sacrificing instinctive pleasure for the public interest, so civilization can develop and continue.Of all these exploited instincts, the sexual instinct is especially important.It can be argued that sexuality has been sublimated beyond its instinctual goals, deriving other goals and taking on a higher social significance.However, because sexual impulses are often difficult to control, the organizations built on them are often less stable; facing the diversion of sexual energy, everyone in the social culture is in danger of encountering sexual impulse rebellion.Once the sexual impulse is unbridled and returns to the original goal, it will bring crisis to social civilization.Therefore, the relationship between sex and social development has been frozen for a long time, the power of sexual instinct is also denied, sexual life is covered up, and the topic of sex is banned.Questions about sex are completely avoided.Therefore, psychoanalysis is bound to be criticized, seen as evil, ugly, and even dangerous.However, the theory of psychoanalysis is the objective result of scientific research, and it is not easy to refute it, which makes opponents spare no effort to find excuses.It is also human nature to like to regard unreasonable facts as illusions, and then easily find reasons to oppose it, and drive social civilization to refuse to accept it. Out-of-control emotions are mixed with seemingly reasonable reasons to slander the theory of psychoanalysis. Cling to prejudices against us.

Of course, we will never back down in the face of such opposing theoretical forces.We want to affirm the results of our hard research.Within the sphere of scientific research, we believe that all prejudices, whether justified or not, should be discarded.

The above mentioned are some of the difficulties that beginners in psychoanalysis will face, which may be too much for you.If these tests are bearable, our lectures will continue.

(End of this chapter)