Peculiarities of Behavior - Wandering Mania, Dipsomania, Cleptomania, Pyromania and Allied Impulsive Acts.

Wilhelm Stekel

• Publisher: Clarke Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781447472759
• eBook ISBN: 9781528765053
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychoanalysis
• Index: Psychology

This fascinating book contains the first of two volumes written by Wilhelm Stekel pertaining to the peculiarities of human behaviour, with this volume covering such phenomena as wandering mania, dipsomania, kleptomania, pyromania, and other allied impulsive acts. Stekel was a pioneer of the study of human instinct and emotions, which were examined here for the first time in the light of their developmental history. This fascinating and accessible book details far-reaching investigations into the depths of the human soul, perfect for the student of psychology interested in the intricacies of impulsive behaviour. Chapters contained herein include: "Instinct", "Affect and Impulse"; "The Impulse to Wander"; "Flight into Parapathiac delirium"; "Narcotomania (Drug Addiction)"; "Stealing"; and "The Sexual Roots of Kleptomania". Wilhelm Stekel (1868 - 1940) was an Austrian psychologist and physician. He was an early follower of the seminal Sigmund Freud, often described as Freud's most distinguished pupil and commonly hailed as one of the founding fathers of modern psychoanalytical methodology. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE

CHAPTER I

INSTINCT, AFFECT AND IMPULSE

Instinct Drive—Freud’s Definition—Nutritional Instinct—Hunger—Instinct is Life: An Organic Function Representing Individual’s Latent Life Energy—Characteristics of Instinct—Relation of Affects to Instincts—Internal Conflict—Affect is Intellectual Elaboration of Instinct—No Affect Without Instinct—Feelings are the Intellectual Perception of Instinct Drive—Affect Preparedness—The Life Urge—Craving for Well-Being—Bipolarity of Affects: the Most Important Law of Psychology—Anxiety the Manometer of the Life Urge—Will to Live vs. the Will to Die—Sexual Instinct serves the Life Energy—Hunger and Love the most important Expressions of the Life Urge—Will to Power is derived from the Life Urge—I Act, therefore I Am—Persistent Craving for Well-Being—The Dictates of the Social Group is called Morality—Immoral Acts often Impulsive—Immorality a Relative Concept Depending on Time, Custom, Locality, Circumstance—Impulsive Acts arise through annulment of Conscious Inhibitions—Dreamy States—Loss of Differentiation between Reality and Dream in Parapathy—Repetitive Urge Characteristic of all Parapathiac Impulsive Acts—Past Infantile Pleasure the Driving Force—Conflict Between Primordial cravings and Dictates of Group Welfare—Will to Power the most important Primordial Reaction: It is the Will to Appropriate or have Dominion over what is Foreign—Man’s Primordial Reaction always Egoistic—The Egoistic Reflex—The Sexual Primordial Reaction—The Instinct of Imitation—The Instinct of Self-Reliance—All Primordial Reactions are Bipolar—Conflict between Social Urge and Individual Cravings—Impulse represents Supremacy of Egoistic Reflex—Normal and Morbid Impulse—Nietzsche’s “Eternal Recurrence”—The Attack—All Attacks are Inhibited Impulsive Acts—Anxiety a Protective Cloak against Asocial Tendencies—Character of Exhibitionism

CHAPTER II

THE IMPULSE TO WANDER

Neophilia and Neophobia—Unrest—Compulsive Talking and Swearing—Case 1: A woman who talks incessantly for one or two hours every morning—Impulse to touch every male on the genitalia—Affect transposition—Case 2: Bulimia and Dipsomania—Case 3: Compulsive wandering—Oniomania—Folie de Toucher—The attempt to flee from self—Morbid travel mania—Tramping—Case 4: A psychotic tramp—Dromomania, Poriomania and Fugues—Janet’s classification—Epileptic wanderers—Author’s classification: centrifugal wandering (Fugue)—Centripetal wandering (Dromomania proper)—Circular wandering (Poriomania)—Persistent (wander) impulse—Case 5 (Morel): An American wandering towards the east in search of a permanent abode (Paradise)—Meaning of the symbolism—Case 7: Paralogiac flight with centrifugal tendency (Meader)—Interpretation of the symbolism—Rôle of the father complex—The Electra complex—All centrifugal wanderings represent flight from self—Impulsive acts during Sleep—Dreams—Criminal tendencies—Case 8: A mother throws her child out of the window during stuporous sleep in a dream—Case 9: Patricide during sleep—Case 10: Uxoricide during sleep—Incestuous acts during somnambulism—“Moonstruck” Wanderers—Relationship between Criminality and sleep walking—Symbolic acts during Somnambulism—Case 11 (Krafft-Ebing): A Monk who during sleep walking goes through the motion of stabbing the prior—The Sleep walking scene in Macbeth—The Repetitive urge—Sadger’s conclusions regarding Sleep walking—The Incest wish hypothesis one-sided—Case 12: A Sleep wanderer who reverses his Conscious attitude towards his Love objective—Sleep walking, a form of symbolic wandering—Alleged influence of the Moon—Psychology of Noctambulism—Psychic Traumata during Sleep—Nocturnal “relations”—Case 13: Sexual impotence relieved after disclosure of a nocturnal incestuous relationship—Case 14: Sleep walking fantasy of a woman—Depression; Suicidal thought; the patient’s account of her Experience and Mental state—Wandering mania, noctabulism, restlessness—Oniomania, Bulimia, uncontrollable Daytime pollutions—Fixation on the Younger brother—Disclosures of Incestuous relationship during hypnoidal state—Repetitive urge of the traumatic scene—The mother complex—Case 15: Repetitive tendency during Sleep walking (Janet)—Transvaluation of impulses—Case 16: An impotent Pædophiliac who protects himself against crime by running away from home—Case 17: Physician, Catholic, emotionally fixated on his sister-in-law, saves his moral self by runing away—Hatred as a cover for the incest wish—Janet’s explanation of fugues—Transposition of love into Hatred—Attitude of parents towards children—Jealousy—Case 18: A Young Man’s flight from home to avoid Shooting his future Brother-in-law—Rationalization of the Flight impulse—Case 19: A Father, through unconscious Jealousy, absents himself from his Daughter’s wedding—Case 20 (Hilda Milko): A girl runs away to escape incestuous fixation on the father—Dromomania and Nostalgia—Jaspers’ emphasis of Morbid longing for home and its Relation to Arson—Fixation on the family and on infantile impressions—Embryonal impulses—Belated reaction—Leonhard Frank’s illustrative novel—Cancelling humiliations of childhood—Vengeance of Sons against Fathers—Patricide, the most common crime in fantasy; Freud’s Œdipus Complex—Mania for mountain climbing—Case 21 (Emil Gutheil): Symbolic significance of sport—Its oracular value—Transposition of Hatred into Regret after Death of the Father—Case 22: Substitutive Impulse after death in the family—Case 23 (Janet): Nostalgia—Psychology of the Deserter—Viktor Tausk’s classification of army Deserters—Conclusions

CHAPTER III

FLIGHT INTO PARAPATHIAC DELIRIUM

Autobiography of Dora: a woman who fled “home” during a “brain storm,” to escape the evil influence of a lover—Her first love disappointment—“Spite” marriage—Impotent, hypochondriac husband—Three lovers; illicit relations with first sweetheart—The “monster”—The army officer, “Melanie”—Extra-Uterine Pregnancy—Laparatomy—Disappointment—Fourth lover, husband’s orthopedist—The Love Alphabet—The artist at the cure resort—Telepathy and hypnotism—Voyeurism—First excursion—Laughter on being kissed—The promise—Discussion of perversions—“Awakening the senses”—Attempt at control through suggestion—Confessions—Awakening her conscience—Pleasure without guilt—Artist’s sadistic attitude—Dora’s jealousy—The “Hero’s” cowardice—First news from ailing mother and brother—The “Nora” suggestion—The hero’s fear of the little dog—Awakening of remorse—The hand kiss—The husband’s helpless jealousy—The artist adroitly sharpens Dora’s inner conflict—Unconscious irony—Her recognition of the artist’s abnormality—Conversion of her troubled conscience into gastric pains—Sexual anæsthesia—Regret over the occurrence—Artist’s narcissism—Ibsen’s Nora—Artist’s fear of women—He protects himself against reproaches—The symbolism of crossing the border—Death wishes—Nora Identification—Symbolic loss of the dog chain—Growing resistance—Dora’s interest in prostitution—Artist vs. mother—Bladder sexuality—Symbolic protest against sexual humiliation—Self-deception—Symbolic cleansing on returning to the hotel—Jealousy—Bath—First hallucination—Onset of the “Brain Storm”—Symbolic scalding of the ring finger—Rationalization in delirium—Artist’s attempt to increase Dora’s jealousy—Her resistance grows—Loss of appetite as expression of moral nausea—Conversion symptom—Onset of Menstruation—Self-reproaches on account of neglect of her mother—Voice of conscience grows louder—Jealousy—Artist’s pose as cynic—Dora begins to find her own will—Dawn of moral reaction—Forgetting the door key—Self-depreciation—Searching for mother—Somatization—Expatiation acts—Money as symbol of love—Alleged request to tell the husband everything—Confession—Symbolic representation of the adventure—The Nora rôle—Hallucinations on the street—The blue ribbon—Husband’s pathetic helplessness—Self-accusations—Sudden resolution to go to the mother—Longing for a strong leader—White and black don’t mix!—Parting from lover and from husband—On train—Attitude of self-depreciation—Inner unrest—Exteriorization of mental contents—Hallucinatory vision—Symbolism of orderly—Hesitation to go to Vienna—Visualization of inner conflict—Hesitation to ask questions—Hallucinatory vision of the artist—Complete loss of awareness—Resistance to suggestion—The trip to the hospital—Symbolic annulment of excursion—Purification symbolism—Eye, symbol of female genital—Fear of Insanity—Anesthesia of finger tips—The physician’s visits—End of constipation, symbolic solution of the conflict—Interest in the new environment—“Penitent” in a combination of Nunnery, Insane hospital and Jail—Husband’s promise to call for her—Gradual recovery of sense of orientation—Paramnesia—Arrival of the husband—The conflict—Gradual resolution—Dream disclosing fixation on the brother—The real objective and motive of her flight—Concluding remarks

CHAPTER IV

NARCOTOMANIA (DRUG ADDICTION)

All narcotic drug addicts victims of asocial impulses which they try to repress—Morbid dread—Types of drinkers: habitual and periodic—Habitual Drinker usually a Parapathiac—Feeling of loneliness—Bleuler’s description of Chronic Alcoholism—The conclusions of Preisig and Amadau—Injured pride—Criminal impulses—Double thinking—Drink impulse and depression—Poe, Fritz Reuter—Psychogenic determinants of delirium tremens—Epileptoid attacks and delirium—Kraepelin’s observations—Polar tension between primordial cravings and social desires—Vengeance—Master Leukhardt’s testimony—Combination of Impulses—The Spendthrift—Sexuality and alcoholism—Ferenczi’s views—Case 26 (Strasser)—Case 27 (Stekel): The will to be well—Masturbation and alcoholism—Case 28: Patient’s secret calendar—Case 29: Morphine addicts are parapathiacs—Periodicity—Case 30 (Kirschbaum): Morphine addiction serving an antisexual tendency—Strength of first impressions—Psychoanalysis, the only rational therapy for drink and drug addictions—All narcotomaniacs flee from some truth

CHAPTER V

STEALING (THEFT)

Fluctuation of Sense of property—Cheating at games—Petty stealing—Theft and Superstition—Folklore—Literary and artistic plagiarism—Illustrations—Unconscious Imitation—Cryptomnesia—Jung’s observations—Sense of Ownership—Theft, a Psycho-sexual infantilism—Wagner-Jauregg’s description of infantile root of the tendency to steal—Gottfried Keller’s description of the act—Hermann Hesse’s account—Wrestling as a form of Erotic pleasure—Conclusions

CHAPTER VI

THE SEXUAL ROOTS OF CLEPTOMANIA

Cleptomaniac steals for the sake of stealing—The forbidden act, not the stolen article, furnishes the lure—Emotional intoxication—Cleptomaniac is infantile—Laqueur’s conclusions regarding store thiefs—Case 32 (Duboisson): Transposition of Impulses and Symbolization of real life in dreamy states—Leppmann’s observations—Author’s first contribution revealing sexual roots of Cleptomania—Case 33: Cleptomania in manic-depressive insanity—The gist of Cleptomania: taking hold of something forbidden—Symbolism of the act of Stealing—The Conclusions of Gross—Krafft-Ebing’s observations—Case 34: Depression, menstruation and Cleptomania—Depression, the reaction of unfulfillable Sexual desire—Knowledge of Sexual symbolism the key to Cleptomania and to all Monomanias—Case 35 (Didier)—Case 36 (Lasègue)—Case 39 (Placzek)—Case 40 (Chlumsky)—Cases 42 and 43 (Pfister)—Case 44 (Försterling): Rôle of Masochism—Case 45 (Zingerle): Sadism—Cleptomaniac types in Marquis de Sade—Case 46 (Juliusburger): Childhood and theft—Adolescence—Case 47—Case 48: Hand, the organ of seizing—Buying mania (Oniomania)—Case 49 (Hilda Milko): Vicarious form of Cleptomania—Patient’s characteristic Dreams—Desire to repeat Past experience—Cleptomaniac act represents a Repetitive compulsion—Oniomania vs. Cleptomania—Reaching out for the Unattainable to make it real—Strictly speaking, there are no Monomanias—Case 50: Sleep walking and Cleptomania—Patient’s dreams—Desire to repeat an infantile episode—Patients who rob themselves

PECULIARITIES OF BEHAVIOR

VOLUME ONE

I

INSTINCT, AFFECT AND IMPULSE

The unfree denizen of the wilderness does not feel the fetters which bind the man of culture: he thinks the latter enjoys greater freedom. In the measure that I acquire greater freedom I create new limits and new problems for myself.

MAX STIRNER.

This work, like all the other volumes in my series, is concerned with Disorders of the Instincts and Emotions. Thus far I have never discussed the nature of instinct and affect. I dislike definitions. Everybody knows what instinct means even though no one has yet satisfactorily defined the term. The definition of affect also presents unsuspected difficulties. For that reason the use of these terms, instinct and affect, has led to serious confusion. Möbius defines an instinct as the power which drives. Freud,¹ too, emphasizes the functional aspect of instinct:

“Under the drive of an instinct we understand its motor momentum, the sum of energy, or the volume of the working capacity which it represents. The character of a ‘driving’ energy, is a common characteristic of all instincts, indeed their essence. Every instinct is a quantum of activity; when we speak loosely of passive instincts we can only mean instincts with passive aim.”

Thus, Freud also lays stress on the driving force as the characteristic feature of the instinct. Nevertheless we know that the instinct does not always drive. Let us take an illustration: the nutritional instinct. Hunger compels us to take food; occasionally it impels to crime. But as soon as the hunger sensation is satisfied, the driving ceases. More than that! An activity of a negative character sets in: there arises a distinct aversion against additional food consumption. The instinct itself is still present; but it manifests itself in another form. Hunger, however, is not an instinct, just as love is not an instinct. Freud, for instance, refers to sadism and masochism, to hunger and love, as instincts. Schiller’s famous verses wherein he depicts hunger and love as the mainsprings of all striving are frequently quoted. But that which may be permitted to a poet, who must have recourse to metaphors and symbolism, has no place in the rarified atmosphere of science. Hunger is merely the expression of a need, an instinctive drive, as Freud maintains. The instinct, according to Freud, never operates like a momentary impact force, it is always a constant energy. The instinctive drive, necessity, impels us to seek gratification upon the path determined by the instinct.

But what is hunger if not an instinct? It is the expression of a need. The feeling of hunger is generated by the gastric chemism in a biologic-physical manner. The chemism acts as a light inciter (appetite); it swells into hunger and may induce strong unpleasant sensations. We know that there are persons without appetite who take their meals at regular hours, merely to avoid the unpleasant sensations produced by keen hunger. Others wait for these unpleasant sensations to set in before eating because stilling them by the taking of food, they find, increases their pleasures of the table. But these processes are no longer purely instinctive, they are complicated by a psychic elaboration.

There lies the crux of the whole matter. In order to understand instinct we must turn to the lowest forms of life, to the protozoa. The smallest speck of a “living creature” differs from inorganic matter by the fact that it responds to external stimuli. Every cell reacts to external excitation with an appropriate response. If the stimulus is increased it leads to paralysis (Max Verworn). Excitation and paralysis are the most archaic expressions of life. May we ascribe instinct to the infusoria? Certainly! The power which impels these animalcules to throw out and draw in pseudopodia, or feelers, for the purpose of securing a speck of food, is an instinct. But the instinct is bound up with the speck of living protoplasm; it is immanent in its physical structure.

Instinct is the sign of life; indeed, it is life.

Instinct is that life energy, latent and constant, of whose ultimate nature we are ignorant, and which asserts itself whenever life is endangered. The greatest danger is hunger,—perishing from lack of nourishment; for life is a continual cycle of building up and tearing down protoplasmic material.

Instinct is a property of protoplasm; it is an integral characteristic of living matter. The protozoon does not feel hunger. The living protoplasm builds up and tears down in the interest of life without the intervention of a directing factor. With the appearance of tracts (nerves) for the transmission...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Wilhelm Stekel
• Translator’s Preface
• Contents of Volume One
• Chapter I Instinct, Affect and Impulse
• Chapter II The Impulse to Wander
• Chapter III Flight into Parapathiac Delirium
• Chapter IV Narcotomania (Drug Addiction)
• Chapter V Stealing (Theft)
• Chapter VI The Sexual Roots of Cleptomania
• Notes to Volume One