The history of the psychoanalytic movement · Sigmund Freud
III
If one maintains that the dream is something different from the latent dream-thoughts, which it elaborates, one will not wonder that the patients dream of those things with which their mind has been filled during the treatment, whether it be the “life-task” or being “above” or “below.” Certainly the dreams of those analyzed are guidable in a similar manner as dreams can be influenced by the application of experimental stimuli. One may determine a part of the material that occurs in the dream, but this changes nothing in the nature and mechanism of the dream. Nor do I believe that the so-called “biographical” dream occurs outside of the analysis. On the other hand, if we analyze dreams that occurred before the treatment began, or if attention is paid to what the dreamer adds to the stimuli supplied to him during the treatment, or if we avoid giving him any such task, then we can convince ourselves how far the dream is from offering tentative solutions of the life-task. For the dream is only another form of thinking; the understanding of this form can never be gained from the content of its thoughts, only the consideration of the dream-work will lead to it. The effective refutation of Jung’s misconceptions of psychoanalysis and his deviations from it is not difficult. Any analysis carried out in accordance with the rules, especially any analysis of a child, strengthens the convictions on which the theory of psychoanalysis rests, and repudiates the new interpretations of Adler’s and Jung’s systems. Jung himself, before he became enlightened, carried out such an analysis of a child and published it.[22] It remains to be seen if he will undertake a new interpretation of this case with the help of another “uniform new tendency of the facts,” to give Adler’s expression used in this connection.
The opinion that the sexual representation of “higher” ideas in the dream and in the neurosis is nothing but an archaic manner of expression, is naturally irreconcilable with the fact that these sexual complexes prove to be in the neurosis the carriers of those quantities of libido which have been withdrawn from the real life. If it were only a question of sexual jargon, nothing could thereby be altered in the economy of the libido itself. Jung himself admits this in his “Darstellung der psychoanalytischen Theorie,” and formulates, as a therapeutic task, that the libido investing the complexes should be withdrawn from them. But this can never be accomplished by rejecting the complexes and forcing them towards sublimation, but only by the most exhaustive occupation with them, and by making them fully conscious. The first bit of reality with which the patient has to deal is his malady itself. Any effort to spare him this task points to an incapacity of the physician to help him in overcoming his resistances, or to a fear on the part of the physician as to the results of this work. I would like to say in conclusion that Jung, by his “modifications” has furnished psychoanalysis with a counterpart to the famous knife of Lichtenberg. He has changed the hilt, has inserted into it a new blade, and because the same trademark is engraved on it he requires of us that we regard the instrument as the former one.
On the contrary, I believe I have shown that the new theory which desires to substitute psychoanalysis signifies an abandonment of analysis and a secession from it. Some may be inclined to fear that this defection may be more unfortunate for the fate of psychoanalysis than any other because it emanates from persons who once played so great a part in the psychoanalytic movement and did so much to further it. I do not share this apprehension. Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea. They become powerless when they oppose it. Psychoanalysis will be able to bear this loss and will gain new adherents for those lost. I can only conclude with the wish that the fates may prepare an easy ascension for those who found their sojourn in the underworld of psychoanalysis uncomfortable. May it be vouchsafed to the others to bring to a happy conclusion their works in the deep. ----- Footnote 1: “On Psychoanalysis.” Five lectures given on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., dedicated to Stanley Hall. Second edition, 1912. Published simultaneously in English in the American Journal of Psychology, March, 1910; translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Polish and Russian. Footnote 2: Breuer and Freud, “Studien über Hysterie,” p. 15, Deuticke, 1895. Footnote 3: Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, 1911, Vol. 1, p. 69.
Footnote 4: The Clinic of Psychiatry, Zürich. Footnote 5: Havelock Ellis, “The Doctrines of the Freudian School.” Footnote 6: G. Greve, “Sobre Psicologia y Psicoterapia de ciertos Estados angustiosos.” See Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse, Vol. 1, p. 594. Footnote 7: The collected publications of these two authors have appeared in book form: Brill, “Psychoanalysis, its Theories and Practical Applications,” 1912, 2d edition, 1914, Saunders, Philadelphia, and E. Jones’s “Papers on Psychoanalysis,” 1913, Wood and Company, New York. Footnote 8: The first official recognition that psychoanalysis and dream interpretation received was extended to them by the Psychiatrist Jelgersma, rector of the University of Leyden, in his rectorship address February 1, 1914. Footnote 9: An English translation has just appeared in the Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series, No. 23. Footnote 10: Cf. “Der Wahn und die Träume” in W. Jensen’s “Gradiva.” Footnote 11: Rank, “Der Künstler,” analyses of poets by Sadger, Reik, and others, my little monograph on a Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci; also Abraham’s “Analyses von Segantini.” Footnote 12: A translation is in preparation. Footnote 13: Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, translated by A. A. Brill, Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. Footnote 14: “Die Psychoanalytische Methode,” 1913, Vol. 1 of the Pedagogium, Meumann and Messner. English Translation by Dr. C. R. Payne. Moffat, Yard & Co., N. Y.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
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