Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 36 Resistance and Repression (2)
We shall now formulate this conception of the repressive process in more precise terms.This process is the main antecedent condition for the development of the symptom, and unlike the other processes, it has no parallel phenomena.And as an example, when an impulse or a mental process wants to be realized as an action, it may be canceled due to the "rejection" or "blame" of the actor; stored in memory.This decision-making process is well understood by the actor himself.Had this same impulse been repressed, the result would have been very different.Though the force of the impulse remains, it leaves no trace in the memory; the process is completed without the ego knowing it.Now this comparison does not give us a fuller insight into the nature of repression.

The word "repression" can have a more definite meaning owing to some theoretical concepts, which I will now explain.For this purpose, the word "unconscious" must first be given a pure, and then a systematic, meaning; in other words, we resolve to regard the consciousness or unconsciousness of a psychic process as merely one of the attributes of this process. , but need not be decisive.If the process is subconscious, its inability to penetrate the conscious may be a sign of its destiny, but need not be its ultimate destiny.To make this notion of destiny more concrete, we say that each mental process first exists in the unconscious state and then gradually develops into the conscious state, just as the technique of photography is first a negative and then printed. The positive film in turn becomes an image.However, not every negative is necessarily printed as a positive, and likewise every subconscious spiritual process does not have to be transformed into consciousness.This relationship can best be explained in the following words: Every independent mental process first belongs to the subconscious mind system, and then, through the action of certain conditions, it is transformed into a conscious system.

The simplest and most convenient concept of these systems is that of space.The system of the subconscious is thus compared to a gate, in which the various psychic impulses are numerous individuals, crowded close together.There is a smaller room adjoining the large hall, like an anteroom, where consciousness resides.And there is a person standing at the door where these two rooms are connected, who is responsible for guarding the door, examining and testing all kinds of spiritual impulses, and those excitements that he does not like are forbidden to enter the reception room.You will immediately understand that it does not matter which impulses the gatekeeper will expel at the door, or wait until they have burst into the reception room; different.Now, this metaphor can be used to expand our nouns.In the hall the unconscious cannot be transformed into consciousness if it approaches the door and is driven out by the gatekeeper; we then call them "repressed."And those excitements that are allowed into the reception room become conscious only when they are sufficient to attract conscious attention.So, the second room is called "the preconscious system".So far, this process of becoming conscious can be taken as a purely narrative meaning.If we call any impulse repressed, that is, the gatekeeper does not allow it to invade the foreconscious, so that it cannot finally burst out of the unconscious.The gatekeeper refers to the resistance we encounter when we use psychoanalytic treatment to release the repressed ideas.

I know that you may think these concepts are too simplistic and outlandish for a scientific narrative to allow.I understand that they are somewhat terse, and even that they may be inaccurate, but unless I am terribly mistaken, I shall replace them with higher concepts; and then whether you still find them queer, I do not know .In any case, they are always temporarily useful for explanation, like Ampère's dwarfs swimming in the current, and we should not despise them so long as they are helpful for explanation.However, I still think that these rough assumptions—the two rooms and the gatekeeper of the doorway between them, the consciousness standing at the end of the second room as an observer—are roughly similar to the actual situation.And I hope you will admit that the terms we call subconscious, preconscious, conscious, etc. are more accurate and easier to justify than the terms subconscious, interconscious, and co-conscious that other scholars have proposed or applied.

If this is the case, then I think you can extrapolate further, and thus point out that our assumptions about the psychic systems we use to explain psychotic symptoms have general utility, thus making normal functions more salient.This is naturally good.We cannot dwell on this conclusion for the time being, but our interest in the psychology of symptom formation will be greatly improved if, through the study of the pathological mind, we seek to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of the normal mind, which have always been mysterious. Great improvement.

Furthermore, have you not found the basis for many concepts of these two systems and their relation to consciousness?The gatekeeper between the unconscious and the preconscious is the censor who governs manifest dream forms.The daytime experience that gave rise to the stimuli of the dream is the material of the preconsciousness; this material is influenced by the unconscious and repressed desires and impulses during sleep at night, and uses its own power to impose associations. The action creates the latent thoughts of the dream.These materials are dominated by the subconscious system, and have been disguised, such as condensation and transfer, so that the normal mental activities, that is, the preconscious system, cannot be known and difficult to admit.This difference in function is what distinguishes the two systems; the relation of the preconscious to the conscious is permanent, so that its relation to the conscious determines which system each psychic process belongs to.Dreams are not a morbid phenomenon; every healthy person dreams during sleep.Every inference from dreams and psychotic symptoms applies to normal psychic life.

This is the end of our discussion of the effects of repression.It is only an indispensable prerequisite for the formation of symptoms.We know that symptoms are substitutes for other psychic processes driven by repression; but even if we were given repression, it would take a long time to understand the process by which such substitutes are formed.There are other aspects of repression, such as which mental agitation is repressed?What are the forces and motivations behind the repression?We know only a little about these issues.When we study resistance, we understand that the power of resistance emanates from the ego, that is, from overt or latent character traits; it is therefore this power that constitutes repression, at least in part, as far as we know That's all.

The second observation I am going to tell you will now help us a bit.Using analysis we can often discover the hidden purpose of psychotic symptoms.Of course this is not a new fact for you, as I have already pointed out in two examples of psychosis.But what do those two psychopathic examples really tell us?Of course you have the right to ask for countless examples to illustrate.However, I will not agree.Therefore, you must rely on your own experience or belief, and when it comes to belief, you can rely on the evidence recognized by many psychoanalysts as a basis.

You should remember that the results of the analysis of the symptoms in the previous two cases allowed us to penetrate into the most secret sexual life of the patient.In the first case the purpose or tendency of the symptom was more pronounced; in the second case it was perhaps obscured by other factors; of which we shall deal later.From these two cases it can be deduced that the same is true of various other cases of psychoanalysis.In any case, we will infer the patient's sexual experience and desire from the analysis. At any time, we must admit that these symptoms are for the common purpose, that is, the satisfaction of sexual desire; the patient will achieve sexual satisfaction through pathological symptoms. purpose, the symptoms are therefore mere substitutes which cannot be satisfied in practice.

Let us consider again the compulsive behaviors of the first patient.The woman had to be separated from her dear husband, with whom she could not live with him because of his handicap.She also has to remain faithful to her husband, so she cannot let others take her husband's place.And her obsessive-compulsive symptoms just satisfy her selfish desire, she can elevate her husband and justify his defects, especially his impotence.This symptom is essentially a desire-fulfillment, just like a dream; this refers especially to the fulfillment of erotic desires.In the case of the second patient, you have seen that the purpose of her ritual was to prevent the parents from having intercourse or from having children; so you may think that she basically intended to substitute this ritual for her own mother.Therefore, the purpose of this symptom also points to the elimination of obstacles to the satisfaction of sexual desire.We will return to the complications of the second case shortly.

The insights I advocated above cannot be applied universally. Of course, please note that what I said about the repression, the formation of symptoms, and the analysis of symptoms all come from the research on the three types of psychosis, and now they are limited to this Three types of psychosis are applicable, namely anxiety hysteria, conversion hysteria and obsessive-compulsive psychosis.We often refer to these three disorders as "transference psychosis", and they can all be treated by psychoanalysis.No such rigorous psychoanalytic research has been carried out on other types of mental illness, and no one has tried a certain type of illness so far, naturally because the possibility of cure is relatively small.Don't forget, too, that the science of psychoanalysis is still very young, and its research still needs a lot of time and many difficulties to overcome.Moreover, not so long ago, only one person practiced this therapy; now we have a better understanding of the symptoms of non-empathy psychosis in various aspects.Hopefully we will be able to tell you in the future how our hypotheses and conclusions continue to develop when applied to this new material, and show that these deep studies do not contradict our theory, but rather enhance its unity.Therefore, everything that has been said above applies only to these three "transference psychopathies".I will now add a sentence which will make the meaning of the symptoms more transparent.If we conduct comparative research and analysis on the pathogenic situations, the following results can be produced. This result can be summarized by a formula, that is, the cause of these patients’ illnesses is that the reality does not allow their sexual desire to be satisfied, which makes them feel some kind of regret.You will see how perfectly these two conclusions complement each other.Symptoms can thus be interpreted as vicarious gratifications of desires that cannot be satisfied in reality.

I have said before that psychotic symptoms are substitutes for sexual gratification, which has given rise to all kinds of outcry.Today, I intend to select only two of them to discuss.If any of you analyzed a large number of psychotic patients, you might shake your head and say: "This is not applicable to certain symptoms, because these symptoms seem to include an opposite purpose, namely, to exclude or suppress sexual desire. Satisfied." I don't want to refute your opinion.Regarding psychoanalysis, the facts are far more complicated than imagined, otherwise there is no need for psychoanalysis to explain.In the second patient mentioned above, there are indeed many actions in the ceremony that can be regarded as abstinence; such as taking away the clock to prevent the excitement of the clitoris at night, and guarding against the flowerpot and vase to protect her virginity.We have analyzed the various rituals of her bedtime, which are more abstinent, and the whole ritual seems to be only a rebellious memory and a defense against temptation.But psychoanalysis shows that its opposite does not form a contradiction.We may extend this statement by considering that the aim of the symptom is either sexual gratification or sexual inhibition; the point of hysteria is the positive gratification of desires, and that of obsessive-compulsive psychosis a negative ascetic tinge.Symptoms achieve both sexual gratification and abstinence, for this bipolarity has a well-founded basis at a certain point in the functioning of symptoms, a mechanism we have not yet had the opportunity to mention.In fact, the symptom is formed by the reconciliation of two opposite and conflicting tendencies; on the one hand, it represents the repressed tendency, and on the other hand, it represents the combined tendency of repressing other tendencies to cause the symptom.One of the two must gain the upper hand without the other needing to lose its position entirely.Hysteria, for example, is the admixture of two tendencies in one symptom, whereas the two parts of obsessive-compulsive psychosis are often distinct from each other, and the symptom then has a double character, consisting of two mutually counteracting behaviours.

The second doubt is more difficult to deal with.If you discuss all the resolutions of the symptoms, you will first think that the concept of sexual surrogate gratification must be greatly expanded to accommodate these explanations; or you will also point out that none of the symptoms will provide actual satisfaction, Rather, it is only the realization of a phantasy caused by the reproduction of a feeling or a certain sexual complex.Furthermore, you would think that such apparent sexual gratification is often childish and of little value, perhaps akin to masturbation, or reminiscent of ugly habits suppressed in infancy.Furthermore, you may be quite surprised that anyone would consider the gratification of abusive or frightening and unnatural desires as sexual gratification.In fact, we will not agree on these issues.Unless first conduct a thorough study of human sexual life and then define the category of the word "sex".

(End of this chapter)