Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 33 The Persistence of Trauma——The Subconscious (1)
We said earlier that we take as the point of departure for further research the acquired knowledge, not the aroused doubts.However, although the conclusions drawn from the two typical examples we cited earlier were satisfactory and interesting, they were not discussed.

First, we believe that the patients in the above two cases were "attached" to a certain point in the past, did not know how to seek to get rid of it, and finally broke away from the present and the future.They seem to be withdrawing from the world by taking advantage of their illness, just like the monks and nuns in ancient times lived out the rest of their lives in a monastery.For the first patient, the impact of the long-term marriage on her life was practically infinite.Her symptoms caused her to continue her marriage with her husband, and we seem to hear the voice of defending her husband, forgiving him, praising him, and pitying him in her morbidity.Although she was young enough to attract other men, she remained faithful to her husband for various reasons, real, false, or fanciful.Therefore, she does not see strangers, does not dress herself up, and does not even stand up easily once she sits down; she refuses to sign autographs and does not give gifts, so as to prevent what she owns from falling into the hands of others.

As for the patient in the second case, the girl's "sexual obsession" with her father in her early years was still playing a big role at this time.She knew that she was sick and could not marry others. From this, we can speculate that the reason why she was sick was that she was often attached to her father without getting married.

We cannot help but wonder if this abnormal and unhelpful attitude about how or why one should live is not unique to these two patients but common to all psychosis.Indeed, this is a common and important feature of all psychosis.Breuer's first hysterical patient showed a frightening momentum as he nursed his seriously ill father.Although she recovered, she has since become unable to cope with life, unable to handle the duties of a woman despite her health and vigor.After analysis, we know that each patient's symptoms and results will make him cling to a certain period in the past.In most cases, this past period is often the earliest period in life, such as childhood, or even earlier infancy.

The closest analogy to this behavior of the psychotic is the so-called "traumatic psychosis" which has been epidemic during the European War in recent years.Naturally the condition also appears before war, after a train wreck, or after various other life-threatening horrific experiences.Traumatic psychosis is not the same as those naturally occurring and of which we are often treated analytically; nor, of course, can we explain it in the light of the various points of view concerning other psychoses, for reasons which I intend to tell you later.Here, however, it is emphasized that this psychosis is exactly like any other.For traumatic psychosis, the source of the disease is an obsession with the trauma at the time, which is obvious.These patients are often recalled in dreams to the situation in which the trauma occurred; and in some cases of analyzable hysteria, the hysterical episodes seem to be a complete repetition of this situation.These patients were unable to adequately cope with the situation before and still do not seem to be able to do the job.Therefore, we must pay special attention to this point, from which we discover and understand the concept of so-called "economy" in spiritual life. The term "trauma" is no more than this "economic" sense.We call an experience if, for a very short period of time, it subjects the mind to the highest degree of stimulation, which prevents it from adapting in the normal way, and thus permanently disturbs the distribution of the effective functions of the mind. Called "traumatic".

In view of this analogy we have given the term "traumatic" to the persistent experience of psychosis.So far, we have put forward a simple condition for psychosis, that is, if a strong emotional experience exceeds the limit of a person's ability to cope, the result will lead to psychosis, and the formation of psychosis is roughly similar to trauma disease.In fact, between 1893 and 1895, Breuer and I developed the first formula for theorizing the new facts we observed, which was uncommonly consistent with this view.For the young woman separated from her husband in the first case, it is also not contrary to this statement. Since she cannot be "no regrets" about the nominal marriage, she still clings to this traumatic situation.As for the second case of a young girl who was attached to her father, the flaw in this formula was evidently discovered.First, the experience of girls adoring their father is extremely common and tends to diminish with age, so the word "traumatic" loses its meaning; An obsession with first sexual love, which at the time seemed quite innocuous, manifested years later as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive psychosis.The causes of psychosis are often thus extremely complex and variable; but we need not dismiss the "traumatic" view as false, it may still contribute to our theory in other ways.

Therefore, we now have to abandon the method we just adopted.This road is no longer available at this time, and we must do more research before we can find a satisfactory road.Before leaving the question of "traumatic obsession," however, we should realize that this phenomenon can be seen everywhere outside of psychosis; every case of psychosis contains such an obsession, but not every Associated with, or both occurring during the onset of psychosis.Grief, for example, is seen as a good example or model of emotional obsession with past events, which, like psychosis, is completely out of touch with the present and the future.But ordinary people understand the difference between grief and psychosis.In addition, some mental illnesses are referred to as "pathological grief."

If a person has had the whole fabric of his life shaken by a traumatic experience, he is indeed dead, forever absorbed in memory, and has no interest in the present or in the future; but such an unfortunate person does not necessarily become psychotic.Although, this is also a common and important feature of psychosis, let us not take it too seriously as one of the attributes of psychosis.

Second, we now paraphrase the second conclusion reached in the analysis; we need not limit ourselves to this.With regard to the first patient, we have learned of some of her idle compulsions and the so-called fond memories they aroused; we have also discussed how the two are related, and from this relationship we have also inferred compulsions. for what purpose.However, we have completely overlooked one rather noteworthy factor.When the patient repeats the compulsive movement, she does not understand that the movement is connected with previous experience; this relationship is hidden behind, and what kind of impulse drives it, she has no idea at all.Later, due to the influence of treatment, she suddenly discovered this relationship and told us that she did not understand at the time that the purpose of this behavior was to correct her past painful experience and increase the value of her beloved husband.It took a long time before she understood and acknowledged the power of this motive to make the sexual act compulsive.

The scene on the morning of the second day of the wedding, combined with the patient's tender love for her husband, formed what we think of as the "meaning" of the compulsive behavior.However, she was unable to understand both, and did not understand the cause and purpose of her compulsion when it occurred.Therefore, there is always some mental activity going on in her, the result of which is compulsive behavior; Known.Bernheim once conducted a hypnosis experiment. He asked the hypnotized person to hold an umbrella in the bedroom after 5 minutes. The hypnotized person really did what he said but didn't know why;This is what we call the "subconscious mental process"; and if no one can give a more correct and scientific explanation of the matter, we are willing to insist on the existence of the "subconscious mental process".If anyone protests that the subconscious mind is a scientific expedient, a figurehead, we must rebut his claims as utterly unreasonable.Something that doesn't exist can produce such an obvious phenomenon as compulsive sexual behavior!
The same is generally true of the second patient.She made a rule not to let the bolster touch the bed frame directly, but she also didn't know the reason, meaning and force of this rule.For this principle, no matter whether she confronts it frankly, resists it vigorously, or rejects it firmly, it will not help.She also wanted to find the reason, but it was also in vain.The many symptoms, ideas and impulses of obsessive-compulsive psychosis, firstly, no one understands their origin, and secondly, because they can control the resistance that normal mental life is powerless against, so in the patient's own eyes, they also feel as if they come from another source. A powerful monster in the world, or a ghost who lingers in the world.From these symptoms we clearly see a special area of ​​psychic activity separated from other activities.In other words, most of these symptoms are evidence of the unconscious, which is why clinical psychiatry, which recognizes only the psychology of consciousness, is helpless in the face of these symptoms and has to call them "symbols of special degeneration."Compulsive ideas and impulses themselves are no more subconscious than compulsive behavior.If they do not enter consciousness, they must not cause disease.However, some of the antecedent psychic processes we find upon analysis, and the chain relations discovered by interpretation, do come from the unconscious, at least until the patient becomes aware of this process as a result of psychoanalytic research.

In addition, please think about the following points: 1. Every symptom of every mental illness is sufficient to prove all the facts of these two cases; 2. No matter when and where the patient does not understand the meaning of these symptoms; 3. After analysis It can be seen that these symptoms originate from subconscious psychological processes, however, when everything goes well, they can be transformed into conscious ones.Therefore, you should understand that psychoanalysis cannot do anything about such a mindless subconscious, and we are more accustomed to treating the subconscious as a substantive thing.You may admit that people who know only the term "unconscious mind" but have never analyzed it, or studied the meaning and purpose of psychotic symptoms, are simply not qualified to speak on this subject.I therefore mention the matter again to call your attention to the fact that, since psychoanalysis can discover the meaning of psychotic symptoms, the existence of unconscious psychic processes is thus undeniably incontrovertible, or at least necessary to assume.

(End of this chapter)