PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 



6380 



PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 



another and of unimpeachable 

 honesty, have produced scripts 

 which were unintelligible until one 

 was supplemented by the other ; 

 and it has been supposed that in 

 such cases a disembodied intelli- 

 gence has deliberately given his 

 message in part to each writer, in 

 order to demonstrate his con- 

 tinued existence. 



Among abnormal physical pheno- 

 mena, violent movements of furni- 

 ture, crockery, etc., without ascer- 

 tainable cause except the presence 

 of a medium, have often been 

 described and have been popularly 

 attributed to tricksy sprites called 

 Poltergeists. The power claimed by 

 some mediums of moving objects, 

 : such as tables, without ordinary 

 material contact, deserves, and 

 has recently received, more serious 

 examination. This is, however, a 

 region where a fraudulent medium 

 has peculiar opportunities, and it 

 would be premature to say that 

 any certain results have been ob- 

 tained. See Dream ; Haunted 

 Houses ; Medium ; Poltergeist ; 

 Spiritualism. 



Bibliography. Phantasms of the 

 Living, E. Gurney, F. W. H. Myers 

 and F. Podmore, 1886 ; Studies in 

 Psychical Research, 1897 ; and 

 Moclern Spiritualism, F. Podmore, 

 1902 ; Human Personality, F. W. H. 

 Myers, 1903 ; Science and a Future 

 Life, J. H. Hyslop, 4th ed. 1906 ; 

 Psychical Research, W. F. Barrett, 

 1911; Experiments in Psychical 

 Science, W. J. Crawford, 1919; 

 and Publications of the Society for 

 Psychical Research. 



Psycho-analysis. Method of 

 investigating the processes of the 

 mind, and the fundamental motives 

 of conduct. The system was 

 devised and named by the 

 Viennese psychologist, Sigmund 

 Freud (q.v. ), whose work on the 

 subject, though developed and 

 modified by other investigators, is 

 still accepted as the authoritative 

 body of principles and practice of 

 the psycho- analytic school. Based 

 originally on researches into ab- 

 normal or neurotic mental states, 

 the Freudian theory has not only 

 done much to provide a new 

 therapeutic system for such cases, 

 but has also thrown a fresh light 

 on normal psychological processes. 



By the psycho-analyst the human 

 mind is conceived as a single 

 entity, but as having two distinct 

 but interdependent aspects, the 

 " conscious " and " unconscious " 

 mind. The former is that which 

 feels and reasons actually and in 

 the present. The latter is con- 

 ceived as a psychic region which 

 contains the forces collectively 

 described as memory, instincts, 

 habits, etc., and is not directly 

 known to the working conscious 



mind. Self-centred and primitive, 

 the unconsious mind preserves, 

 active but latent, those desires and 

 impulses which socialised life 

 obliges everyone to " repress " 

 from the upper consciousness, and 

 are seen openly active in the infant 

 or the savage. 



Between the conscious and un- 

 conscious minds there is frequently 

 a conflict ; a strong, primitive de- 

 sire is stifled because, through 

 reasons of social expediency or 

 moral constraints, it cannot be 

 gratified ; in other words, it is 

 " repressed." And the psycho- 

 analyst attaches great importance 

 to such repressions. The internal 

 struggle of the mind thus created 

 may show itself in a serious and 

 lasting neurosis, or merely in some 

 action unimportant in itself, but 

 explicable only with reference to 

 the hidden an 1 ', unknown desire 

 which persists in asserting itself. 



Method of Clinical Use 

 The nature of these unconscious 

 forces can only be explored by 

 processes designed to circumvent, 

 as it were, the so-called " censor," 

 the repressing force. With this 

 object the psycho-analytic method 

 was evolved, for clinical purposes. 

 Convinced that many hysteric, 

 neurotic, and neurasthenic ail- 

 ments, great and small, result from 

 the repression of unpleasant 

 desires, images, or experiences, and 

 especially in early childhood, 

 psycho-analysts seek to discover 

 the nature of these repressions. A 

 group of such repressed ideas is 

 technically known as a " com- 

 plex," and analysis is directed 

 towards bringing the complex out 

 into the conscious mind, so that 

 the subject may clearly realize the 

 real cause of his trouble. 



The dream has been care- 

 fully studied by psycho-analysts. 

 They hold that the dream is a 

 direct manifestation of the uncon- 

 scious mind, and that systematic 

 examination of the features of 

 dreams gives the analyst his best 

 approach into that difficult region. 

 According to Freud, the function 

 of the dream is to protect the 

 physiological process of sleep from 

 unconscious psychic disturbance, 

 by giving the mind a fulfilment of 

 its repressed or unattained de- 

 sires. The " censor " works to dis- 

 guise the inner and real meaning of 

 the dream by symbolism, the work- 

 ings of the unconscious being trans- 

 lated into terms of the conscious 

 mind, and this process makes the 

 " latent content " of a dream un- 

 recognizable to the dreamer. 



Through examination of dreams 

 and translation of their symbolic 

 expression the analyst can often 



discover repressed or " forgotten " 

 ideas, images, etc., of which the 

 subject has not any " conscious- 

 ness." Similar results aro disclosed 

 by the analysis of day-dreams, 

 fantasies, and hallucinations, and 

 some psycho-analysts have used 

 their method to investigate the 

 inner meaning of works of art, 

 pictures, poems, etc. 



The techaique of psycho-analysis 

 is based on the free association of 

 ideas. Its success depends largely 

 on a sympathetic rapport between 

 analyst and patient. Careful 

 questioning is carried on, often 

 upon the details of a dream, or on 

 the observed reactions of the patient 

 to a scheme of word-association 

 whereby he is invited to name, 

 freely, and without regard to 

 apparent sense or connexion, the 

 idea called up by certain chosen 

 words. Except in the hands of 

 properly equipped practitioners, 

 the psycho-analytic method should 

 not be experimented with. 



Cause of Neurotic Troubles 

 Freud's researches in abnormal 

 psychology went to show that the 

 forced repression of sexual in- 

 stincts was the commonest cause 

 of neurotic disturbances ; and he 

 and his school have tended to give 

 sex the paramount place among 

 human motives. Much misrepre- 

 sentation of the Freudian sexual 

 theory has been caused by mis- 

 understanding of it. The sexual 

 instinct as conceived by Freud is 

 far wider in scope than as under- 

 stood in ordinary parlance, and 

 does not justify the accusation that 

 psycho-analytic doctrine is neces- 

 sarily degrading to one's valuation 

 of humanity. 



Carl Gustav Jung, of Zurich, 

 has made important developments. 

 Dissatisfied with Freud's inter- 

 pretation of dreams in materialist 

 terms, he prefers to regard them 

 as aspirations of the unconscious 

 self towards the future. Much 

 important criticism has been di- 

 rected against the so-called deter- 

 minist character of the doctrine, its 

 assumption that human conduct 

 is infallibly ruled by a series of 

 previous actions or thoughts. 

 But, despite the self-damaging zeal 

 of certain enthusiasts, the general 

 principles of psycho-analysis will 

 probably have considerable in- 

 fluence on psychological research, 

 and on the practice of psycho- 

 therapy and education. See Dream ; 

 P'reud ; consult also The Works of 

 S. Freud ; Psycho-analvsis, A. A. 

 Brill, 1914 ; Studies * in Word 

 Association, C. G. Jung, 1918 ; 

 Psycho - analysis, Barbara Low, 

 1920; Elements of Practical Psycho- 

 analysis, P. Bousfield, 1920. 



