PROFESSOR FREUD'S PSYCHO-PATHOLOGICAL 



THEORIES. 



By G. T. MoRicE. K.C, B.A. 



Before the present war turned the attention of science from 

 the improvement of the conchtions of mankind to the means 

 oi destroying human hfe, one of the subjects that excited special 

 interest was /^sycho-patliohgy.. The use of this word sounds 

 rather pedantic ; but it is really a very convenient term to describe 

 morbid, disordered, or simply abnormal or unusual conditions 

 of the mind. A great impetus was given to this department of 

 study by the theories propoimded by Professor Freud, of 

 Vienna. Those theories, although their practical application has 

 been chiefly directed to the treatment of insanity, hysteria, or 

 other nervous disorders, cover such a wide area — extending, as 

 they do, to such matters as the explanation of dreams and of 

 ordinary mistakes in words and actions — that any person, who 

 is interested in the scientific study of human nature, is justified 

 in investigating and criticising tliem. Moreover, it is not un- 

 likely that they will play a practical i)art in education, and even 

 in the administration of justice, though it seems to me that to 

 do so they will have to take a more scientific form than as now 

 presented. 



The two main features of Freud's teaching may be said to 

 be the importance he attaches to the working of the unconscious 

 mind and the method he emplo) s to trace its working — the 

 method of psycho-analysis. Before dealing with his system, it is 

 well to understand one or two terms that he employs. A con- 

 veniently vague term that he often uses is a com pies. A com- 

 i;lex of the mind has been described as a system of connected 

 ideas with a strong emotional tone and a tendency to produce 

 actions of a definite character. But one can best understand 

 what is meant by examples. Thus a hoblw is a complex. A 

 person, for instance, has a hobby for photography. He wishes 

 to snapshot everything he sees, and his mind runs on photo- 

 graphy, and he is inclined to divert conversation into the same 

 channel. There are, however, complexes of an entirely different 

 character. A young man or woman is in love. This is a com- 

 plex. Disappointment in love leaves behind a complex of a 

 ])ainful character. There has been a repression of the complex, 

 to use another of Freud's favourite terms. The complex is then 

 a skeleton in the mental cupboard. 



A well-known psvchological experiment consists in ma'-in<>" 

 a list of words and repeating them aloud to the subject, who has 

 immediately to call out the word suggested to him by each word 

 in the list. An instrument is used which records to a fraction 

 of a second the interval in each case between the utterance of 



