CONCEPTIONS AND MISCONCEPTIONS 217 



portrayal of the repressed wish subjected to a process of 

 modification through the effort of consciousness to evade 

 its real significance. The symptoms thus expressive of 

 a neurosis are in each instance the resultant of contrary 

 and opposed psychic trends, and represent in their outcome 

 a compromise between the two. 



Such remodeled, distorted expressions of the brute, 

 primitive instincts as appear in the symptoms of neurotic 

 disorders, Freud has called the phenomena of unconscious 

 symbolization. This unconscious symbolization of instinc- 

 tive trends whereby is effected the necessary palliation 

 required by the censor of consciousness is the crux of 

 Freud's interpretation of the neuroses. 



According to Freud, the instinct of reproduction is 

 paramount in the life of the individual. Yet the sexual 

 trend is not the simple, unitary, static phenomenon it is 

 generally assumed to be, but, like other factors of evolu- 

 tion, is a dynamic process having its integrative compon- 

 ents derived from simpler elements. Freud points out 

 that the sensations contributory to this impulse are origi- 

 nally composed of dispersed and inarticulate components, 

 having their seats in various erogenic zones located over 

 the body surface and situated chiefly in the regions com- 

 posing the body orifices. The sensations arising from such 

 erogenic zones are present, he tells us, in earliest infancy, 

 and it is of these scattered, incoherent elements that the 

 characteristic sexual feelings pertaining specifically to the 

 organs of reproduction are later constituted. The ulti- 

 mate attainment of the instinct directly conducive to re- 

 production consists, then, of a process of integration rep- 

 resenting the product of individual evolution. Accord- 

 ingly, there are three possible courses in the development 

 of the ultimate sexual life of the individual : 



First, the sexual life may take a normal course leading 

 to the gradual absorption, so to speak, of these scattered 

 auto-erotic trends into the resultant allo-erotic instinct 

 comprised in the ultimate reproductive quest, and having 



