Modern Theories Of The Unconscious

W L Northridge, Northridge, W L

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136325960
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

This is Volume XXIII of thirty-eight in the General Psychology series. So much has been written in recent years on the Unconscious that the time seems opportune to compare and contrast the various important theories that have held the field. Originally published in 1924, this present book aims at a general review of this kind. The subject is Modern Theories of the Unconscious, but as a study of current theories cannot well be entered upon without considering early theories, we include the latter in our general survey and devote the first chapter to their consideration. On account of its importance in modem psychology, Freud's theory is kept much in evidence throughout, and frequent references are made to it when dealing with the work of other authors.

Chapter IV
The Unconscious and Psycho-Analysis

CONSIDERABLE rivalry continues to exist between the adherents of the " subconscious theories " considered in the preceding chapter, and the exponents of the " unconscious theories " to the consideration of which this chapter is to be devoted. Only a few years ago Janet published an article in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. IX, in which he claimed that every principle in psycho-analysis had already found a place in his own theory, and that the difference between his theory and that of Freud was little more than verbal. Dr Ernest Jones, who is the leading exponent of the Freudian psychology in this country, replied that " the development of psycho-analysis both originated and proceeded quite independently of Janet's work, it was entirely uninfluenced by it throughout its whole course and would not have been different in one iota if Professor Janet's work had never existed." * These claims may be considered as extreme; for there can be no doubt that Freud was well acquainted with the work of Janet. He, himself, acknowledges that he owes much to the work of Charcot and Bernheim, and Janet's theory is but a development of the former's. Just before Freud originated his great system he paid a visit to Paris, where the work of Janet was well known. It is unthinkable that he should not have been influenced by it. At any rate there is no great system that has not its roots in earlier work, and the theories we have been considering in the preceding chapter represent the soil in which psycho-analysis had its roots.

At the same time the originality and uniqueness of Freud's system must in all fairness be conceded. It differs quite definitely, for example, from the theories just considered in its abandonment of hypnosis and hypnotic suggestion as therapeutic agencies. For one thing, Freud found that not every patient suffering from functional diseases could be hypnotised, and, for another thing, treatment by hypnosis, when that was possible, only produced temporary relief. It may be quite a successful method of healing if the disease has been due to suggestion; otherwise the cures wrought in this way are superficial and the trouble quickly returns. Freud claims that his method has succeeded in cases where hypnotic suggestion had proved a failure. The reason for this will become obvious when we consider how complex the root of mental disorder often is. One of the great merits of psycho-analysis is that without the use of hypnosis it can go far down to the depths of the mind—which for psycho-analysts means going far back in the life of the individual—and discover in this way the root of the particular trouble.

Psycho-analytic, or " unconscious " theories, as they may be conveniently called, are based on the study of hysteria, as were the theories of the subconscious. It is necessary, therefore, that we should give some account of psycho-analysis before describing more in detail the types of unconscious theory on which it is based. Accordingly, our procedure in this chapter will follow that adopted in the preceding one. The first part of the chapter will deal with the evidence which psycho-analysis offers as to the existence of the unconscious. The second part will deal with the types of unconscious theory involved.

I

The psycho-analytic method is the name given to the special means by which the memory is aided to reach the forgotten experiences of life, with a view to recalling to clear consciousness the details of emotional conflicts, which, although forgotten, exert an influence, often of an unfavourable sort, on the fortunes of one's life Let us give an account (i) of the origin and development of this theory; (ii) of the method employed for reaching the unconscious; and (iii) of the differences that exist between Freud's theory and those theories that diverge from it.

(i) Origin and development of Psycho-analysis—

The first impulse to the development of psychoanalysis came from Dr Breuer of Vienna. He had occasion in 1881 to treat an intelligent patient suffering from an acute form of hysteria. With him was associated, as student and assistant, the one who was destined to become the founder of the new movement, Sigmund Freud. These investigators found that the facts offered by this patient in explanation of her trouble constituted only a small part of the story which in the end her memory succeeded in drawing from its depths. Each symptom of her trouble disappeared when the reminiscence connected with it was restored to memory. Thus she had lost the power to drink, and in the course of treatment an experience was recalled which took place immediately before this symptom first appeared. In the home of a governess whom she disliked she saw a little dog drink water out of a glass. This disgusted her very much at the time, but she said nothing about it and soon it was forgotten. Though forgotten it did not cease to exist; it remained—or rather the emotion connected with it remained—in a " repressed " state in the unconscious. It was this repressed emotion that was the root of the particular symptom referred to. When the memory of the occurrence was recalled, and she had re-lived it in its emotional intensity, the symptom disappeared. So it was with all the other symptoms. As the barrier was removed that had hidden the patient's past life from her present consciousness, and one forgotten emotional episode after another was recalled to her memory, her distressing symptom passed away.

Little was made of the experience gained from this case for a period of ten years, but Freud had been tremendously impressed by it, and, returning to Vienna after his period of training in France under Charcot, he persuaded Breuer to resume with him the investigation of other cases on the basis of the results obtained in this one. They continued to work together for a time. Then Breuer, seeing, as Freud says, that the researches were driving him in a direction in which he did not wish to go further, abandoned the work, and Freud continued the investigations himself. The result was the production of a theory that claims to be quite as revolutionary as the Darwinian theory of evolution, though in a different realm. Its importance is not confined to the clearer insight it gives into the nature of nervous troubles and how they may be cured. From the field of abnormal psychology it has extended its influence to general psychology, anthropology, folk-lore, religion, economics, criminology, sociology, history, politics, and biography. In all these departments of thought the working of unconscious motives is easily manifest to the trained psycho-analyst.

At first Freud was inclined to regard the traumatic experience as the chief factor in the ætiology of mental disorders. Soon, however, he came to the conclusion that this was not the only, nor the most important, factor to be reckoned with. Reaction to the shock, whatever its nature may be, depends on the person's temperament, hereditary tendencies, earlier mental history, and other conditions. The shock itself is not so much the cause as the occasion of the trouble, the real root of which usually lies in the forgotten experiences of childhood. These early experiences remain in the unconscious and add their emotional strength to the present painful experience. It is this that renders the traumatic occurrence important in the causation of the neurosis.

Having discovered in this way the importance of the early experiences of life Freud gave himself to a thorough investigation of the nature of child life. Upon the results of this study he has built up his whole system. He has discovered—and this is fundamental in his theory—that the unconscious in which is to be found the source of neurotic illness has been built up from infancy by the repression of experiences and impulses that, to the later developing consciousness, are seen to be painful. It is not the impulses in themselves that are painful; on the contrary, during the first years of life they are the only source of pleasure available to the child. But what society regards as natural in the child it will refuse to tolerate in the adult. Accordingly, as the child develops, the sources from which he derived gratification change to sources of pain. His methods of deriving pleasure become incompatible with the social and moral standards of civilisation and have, on that account, to be repressed. This repression goes on from the early years of life. Once the dawn of consciousness begins, the child is met with prohibitions from parents and others, so that its natural cravings and instincts are not allowed free expression. Early in life, therefore, the individual learns to control his impulses and to thrust out of consciousness anything that clashes with recognised standards of conduct. This process of thrusting out of the mind, initiated by the prohibitions of parents or guardians, becomes habitual, and a mechanism—by which forgetting takes place automatically—is brought into existence. This mechanism is known as the " mechanism of repression."

Since repression begins very early, the unconscious must not be conceived of as consisting merely of forgotten experiences, i.e., of experiences once present in consciousness and later thrust into the unconscious. Some of Freud's critics do not seem to understand this. Maurice Nicoll tells us, in referring to Freud's theory, that " the unconscious part of the human psyche contained only what had once belonged to the conscious personal life," * and even Mr Bertrand Russell makes the following statement: " It is not necessary to suppose, as Freud seems to do, that every unconscious wish was once conscious and was then, in his terminology, ' repressed,' because we disapproved of it." † The opposite of this is implied in Freud's theory, and on more than one occasion he has explicitly stated the fact that the unconscious contains much that never saw the light of consciousness.‡ Probably the term " repressed " is misleading, because it seems to suggest a thrusting of conscious material into the unconscious; but, as Freud explains, it does not matter very much whether we thrust an objectionable person out of our home who has found his way in, or keep him out from the first, shutting the door against him. At any rate Freud regards the unconscious as consisting of experiences that have been repressed out of consciousness because of their painful character, and instinctive strivings that, by the mechanism of repression, have been kept in an unconscious state from the first.

What is the characteristic of these painful impulses that render them subject to the forces of repression and keep them in the unconscious? And how do repressed emotional experiences lead to mental trouble, and the various aberrations which Freud has connected with them? This leads us to Freud's account of the instinctive life of childhood and the possibilities open to it in the course of its development. Two sets of instinctive impulses are taken into account by Freud—the sexual and the ego impulses. His system proceeds on the assumption that early in life these become quite antagonistic to, and incompatible with, each other. The conflict through which repression takes place depends on the way in which these two sets of tendencies oppose each other. While both types of instinct are recognised, however, Freud regards the sexual ones as fundamental, and his whole theory is built up on this belief. We shall now give a brief account of his theory of the sexual type of instinct.

According to Freud the sexual instincts do not come into existence at the age of puberty; they are present and operate in every individual from infancy. It is this part of Freud's psychology that has aroused the greatest antagonism. Later we shall contend that much of this antagonism is based on a misconception of Freud's position and use of terms. Here we will content ourselves by pointing out the unreasonableness of the view that the instincts known as sexual could come suddenly into operation at puberty unless they were present in some form, at some level of development, before adolescence. There is a great difference between sexuality as commonly conceived and the type of sexuality characteristic of childhood, out of which the former develops. Freud's view is that the sexual instincts proper are developed out of certain partial trends, organised as opposites, that are found in all childhood. These are sadism and masochism, observationism and exhibitionism. Also certain zones of the body are capable, when stimulated, of producing sensations that are sexually toned.

Sadism (from Count de Sade, whose novels exploit cruelty of man to woman) signifies the sort of pleasure derived from inflicting pain on others. This tendency to be cruel manifests itself early in children. They take pleasure as a rule in torturing small animals and subjecting them to a lingering death. This pleasure Freud regards as sexual in nature.

Masochism (from L. von Sacher-Masoch, an Austrian novelist, who depicts this form of cruelty practised upon oneself) stands for the pleasure often derived in suffering. It is the passive opposite of sadism.

Observationism is the active pleasure of looking—the tendency " to peep. " It means curiosity of a sexual kind, and it inspires many of the awkward questions which the child of five or six asks—especially about the birth of younger children.

Exhibitionism, again, is the opposite of this. It stands for the passive pleasure of being looked at. It represents the tendency of children to " show off." All these traits, whether we agree to characterise them as sexual or not, are certainly to be found in connection with the behaviour of all children.

The zones of the body that are capable of yielding, when stimulated, a sexually toned pleasure are called by Freud " erogenous zones." Not only are the excretory regions and the mouth so characterised, but recently Freud suggests that for aught we know there may be internal erogenous zones as well. The process of deriving pleasure from these sensitive bodily regions is called " auto-eroticism," and it begins very early in the life of the child. The pleasure derived from sucking is sexually toned, and this is the earliest pleasure the child experiences of an erotic kind.

Freud sums up these various types of infantile behaviour, sadistic, masochistic, observationistic, exhibitionistic, and the auto-erotic activity as the expressions of " libido "—a term which in Freud's theory signifies the conative force behind all types of sexual desire. Some analysts call it sexual hunger. Dr Putnam employs the term sexual craving as the most appropriate.

What is the ultimate fate of the libido in the process of its development? This is an important question, for on the transformation of the libido depends the possibility of mental health or illness.

It is a strange conception underlying psycho-analysis that the libido has to be quantitatively as well as qualitatively regarded. It is compared by Freud to a stream, part of which can get divided off from the main channel and utilised for other purposes; but this conception is essential to his theory, for the quantity of libido to be disposed of, as well as emotional shock and strain, is a factor in the development of neuroses. Normally part of the libido underlying the activities of early life and denoted as sexual goes to the development of the sexual instincts proper; the other part gets utilised in other ways that are of value to the higher interests of life. It is made to subserve the welfare of the individual and society. The sadistic trend, for example, if it is pronounced in any child, will go in part to the formation of the sexual instincts and in part to useful activities of life, such as are connected with the work of the butcher or the profession of the physician. In exhibitionism the transformation of part of the libido not sexually utilised can be clearly traced in the powers of the orator, preacher, actor, and painter. It is not quite so easy to discover the fate of the libido expressed in the other trends; but it may be that the explanation of the martyr's joy depends on an excessive masochism, and observationism may lead in the life of the adult to a thirst for knowledge and to researches of various kinds. The process by which the libido becomes transformed and utilised in connection with higher products is known as sublimation, and the activities in which it is employed are called " sublimated activities."

It is a misunderstanding of Freud's theory of sublima tion to regard the higher activities only as products of the libido and, therefore, as manifestations of the sexual instincts. All that the theory of sublimation involves is that the libido which is not utilised in the development of the sexual instincts proper is utilised by, and reinforces, the higher mental, æsthetic, social, and religious activities. Dr Putnam, in his addresses on psycho-analysis, explains that so far as the sexual instincts are concerned the higher activities exist in their own right, though, in accordance with the theory of evolution, they must be regarded as the products of cruder forms of activity. He argues, as I think correctly, and psycho-analysts do not disagree with him, that in the earlier stages of human life these activities were foreshadowed and were potentially present. All men have some conception of an ideal life which influences the development of these higher activities, and, therefore, these activities cannot be entirely the product of sublimation.

Let us now consider the fate of the libido in abnormal cases.

When there are aberrations in mental development the libido may take any one of three possible courses, the deciding factors being the relative strength or weakness of the repressing factors, and the amount of libido that has to be utilised. If the repressing force, represented by early training, the force of education, etc., is not sufficiently strong, the libido may continue in its earlier forms. When this is the case certain perversions arise. Many activities that commonly take place in adult life, such as thumb sucking, are mild forms of such perversion; others of a more pro nounced kind are frequently found disguised in cases of neurotic trouble. Sadism may persist in the form of excessive cruelty. We get an illustration in the case of Nero, who is said to have gloated over the persecution of the early Christians. Some psycho-analysts hold that war is the result of a sudden outburst of this early infantile trait that has been kept for years in a state of repression.

The repressing forces may be too strong instead of too weak. Reaction follows where this is the case. Thus if sadism is unduly repressed it may lead to the type of reaction exemplified in the anti-vivisection movement, or extreme sensitiveness in various forms.

There is another possibility: the repressing force may neither be too strong nor too weak—the libidinous tendencies may be quite as strong as the repressing factors so t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• INTRODUCTION
• Contents
• I. FORMER THEORIES OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
• II. MYERS' THEORY OF THE SUBLIMINAL SELF
• III. THE THEORIES OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
• IV. THE UNCONSCIOUS AND PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
• V. CONCLUSION
• INDEX