LIBRARY OF WELLES LEY COLLEGE

FROM THE FUND OF EBEN NORTON HOR5FORD

/

STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

AN ACCOUNT OF TWENTY-SEVEN CONCRETE CASES PRECEDED BY A THEORETICAL EXPOSI- TION. COMPRISING LECTURES DELIVERED IN GENEVA AT THE JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU INSTITUTE AND AT THE FACULTY OF LET- TERS IN THE UNIVERSITY

BY

CHARLES BAUDOUIN

Author of Suggestion and Autosuggestion, etc., «tc.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY

EDEN AND CEDAR PAUL

8605

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1922

Copyright, 1922, By DODD, mead AND COMPANY, Inc.

\ \ SCbo seiBNc:E

3r

113 33

PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY

gftg ^utnn Se jBotien Company

BOOK MANUFACTURERS RAHWAY NEW JERSEY

TO

PIERRE BOVET & EDOUARD CLAPAREDE

OF GENEVA UNIVERSITY

AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRATION, FRIENDSHIP,

AND GRATITUDE

To explore the unconscious, to dig into the subsoil of the mind bj' specially designed methods, such will be the main task of psychology during the twentieth century. I am confident that this will lead to great discoveries, no less important, perhaps, than those made during the nineteenth century in the realms of physical science and natural his- tory.— Henri Bergson, 1901c

By stressing the dynamic aspect of subconscious phe- nomena, psychoanalysis becomes a vivifying ferment for psychology. Experimental psychology, while devoting it- self to elucidating the machinery of mental processes, has almost entirely forgotten the study of the causes that set this machinery in motion. Psychoanalysis aims at discov- ering and describing these hidden springs. The work of Sigmund Freud, through the novelty of the ideas it sug- gests, and through its fertilising influence, has become one of the most important events in the whole history of the science of the mind. — Edouard Claparéde, 1920.

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

Psychoanalysis is tersely defined by Edward Jones as ^Hhe study of unconscious mentation*' (Papers on Psychoanalysis, p. 2). Crichton Miller writes (The New Psychology and the Teacher, p. 135) : '*Tlie aim of psychoanalysis ... is to reveal to tlie individual, from his o\\ti experience, the unconscious motive that is at work in producing his neuroses.'' Charles Baudouin, we think, would accept both the definition and the statement of aim; but he would certainly stress the view that psychoanalysis has to deal with the normal more than with the pathological, that it is to be looked upon as a method of re-education rather than as a curative method. He takes, of course, the same view of autosuggestion. His desire is to coordinate the essentials of intuitionism (the Bergsonian doctrine considered apart from all meta- physics), the teachings of the New Nancy School, and the theories of psychoanalysis, as contributions to educational science, psychology, and philosophy. The present volume, therefore, consists of studies in psychoanalysis from this outlook, though incident- ally we find in it valuable therapeutic applications of the study of subconscious mentation.

We begin this preface by defining psychoanalysis, because it is a term which has hardly found its way into the most modern dictionaries, and because it is

viu TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

one used by many persons who have no more than the vaguest idea of its meaning. Before going on to a brief account of the analytic m_ethod, we wish to say a few words concerning the unconscious — or, as Baudouin prefers to call it, the subconscious. Even to-day there are many facile critics ready to say that you cannot study unconscious mentation because you cannot study a contradiction in terms or a non-existent entity. Nevertheless the subcon- scious is just as **reaP' as any other intangible entity we have to postulate for the intelligible pre- sentation of experience. Bertrand Russell shows in The Analysis of Mind that the concept '^conscious- ness" is itself less simple and obvious than most people are apt to imagine. Certainly to those who read Baudouin 's book with an open mind it will soon become apparent that the inferential datum, subconscious, is no less real than the immediate datum, consciousness. Let us put the matter in the more concrete phrases of '* behaviourist'' psy- chology. A great deal of human behaviour remains incomprehensible so long as we try to explain it as the outcome of the consciousness of which the doer is aware. Yet it becomes perfectly comprehensible when we realise that it is the outcome of something closely akin to consciousness, but of which the doer is unaware. This something-akin-to-consciousness- of -which -the-doer-is-unaware-and- which -detemdnes- behaviour, determines also thoughts and feelings, including the thoughts and feelings both of health and of disease. For short, we call it the subcon- scious or the unconscious.

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE ix

Whilst the individual unconscious is anathema to many, the '^collective unconscious'^ of the school of Jung is itself anathema to analysts of the school of Freud, who regard the later developments of Jung's teaching as the aberrations of a mystic. Even Baudouin, who uses the term, is careful in most in- stances to enclose it in inverted commas. Objectors have unquestionable warrant for maintaining that there is no such thing as a collective unconscious, any more than strictly speaking there is a '^ collective con- sciousness,'' or any more than there can be a ''mass of suffering." We are individuals, and each one of us thinks and suffers alone. But we are likewise gregarious beings, and this fact may plausibly be considered to endow the "collective unconscious" with a conceptual reality, though at a more abstract remove than the individual unconscious. Thus, just as the term "collective consciousness" is used, with no mystical significance whatever, to denote a con- sciousness which is supposed to be practically iden- tical in a very large number of minds, so the term "collective unconscious" is applied to unconscious mentation of the same character. But the idea of the "collective unconscious" does not play any con- siderable part in Baudouin 's studies. He is mainly concerned with the investigation of the individual unconscious. Two-thirds of his book consist of an account of twenty-seven concrete cases examined by the analytic method.

Baudouin 's procedure for the study of subcon- scious mentation does not differ from that of the

X TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

Freudian school of psychoanalysts. But he leaves his readers to infer the details. Moreover, in this country at any rate, such hazy ideas still prevail as to the nature of the analytic method that a brief ex- position of its details seems appropriate.

With Baudouin, as with Freud, the interpretation of dreams provides the most important clue to the working of the unconscious. Of great importance, too, is the analysis and interpretation of day-dreams (cf. Varendonck, The Psychology of Bay-Breams), In Baudouin 's terminology, the common element in dreams and day-dreams is to be found in the ** out- cropping of the subconscious" (see Suggestion and Autosuggestion, Part II, Chapters Two and Three). Reminiscences, especially reminiscences of childhood, have also to be dealt with ; these reminiscences often seem trivial, but the significant point is apt to be this — that among the myriads of trivial experiences, certain trivialities are remembered. Of great, per- haps of equal significance, is the ** remembrance " of pseudo-reminiscences, the existence of *^ memo- ries'' which seem real to the subject's consciousness until their veridical reality is dispelled by the work of psychoanalysis.

Dreams, of course, are to a great extent symbolic, and in this connection Freud remarks (Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, p. 157) that it is a per- nicious error to ^* think that the translating of the symbols is the ideal method of interpretation and that you would like to discard that of free associa- tion." The analysis has to be pursued by asking the subject for associations to the main items in the

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE xî

dream, the day-dream, or the reminiscence (see Grlossary, association, etc.). Every dream, perhaps every day-dream and every reminiscence, has, or may have, a latent content as well as a manifest con- tent. The latent content is what the analyst has to discover if he is to * interpret" the dream, and thns to make the subject aware of the trends of his own unconscious. To quote Freud once more (op. cit., p. 143) : *^You will make use of the two comple- mentary methods: you will call up the dreamer's associations till you have penetrated from the sub- stitute to the thought proper for which it stands; and you will supply the meaning of the symbols from you own knowledge."

One point of the utmost importance in the tech- nique is the condition of the subject when the analyst is demanding associations. Freud writes (op. cit., p. 88) : *^When I ask a man to say what comes to his mind about any given element in a dream, I re- quire him to give himself up to the process of free association which follows when he keeps in mind the original idea. This necessitates a peculiar atti- tude of the attention, something quite different from reflection, indeed, precluding it. ' ' The reader should note that this is only another way of describing what Baudouin terms ^^ contention,'' i.e., **the psy- chological equivalent of attention, minus effort. ' ' It is also akin to ^^spontaneous attention" (interest) as contrasted with '* reflective attention." But, qua contention, it is, according to Baudouin, preemi- nently the state of mind requisite for the ** outcrop- ping of the subconscious" (see Glossary).

xîi TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

When Freud says tliat the analyst will snpply the meaning of dream symbols from his own knowledge, he is far from implying that the interpretation of the symbols is an arbitrary affair. Just as in the use of the microscope the power to interpret the visual images is attained only by long experience, and by collating the microscopist's personal experi- ence with that of others, so here. Consider, more- over, the use of language. In this matter we are all familiar with the symbolism that is obvious and de- liberate, the symbolism known as metaphor. But iBvery student of linguistic science knows further that language is full of hidden symbolisms, is packed with symbols whose significance has been forgotten. There is no hard and fast line between such sym- bolism and the symbolism of dreams, the symbolism whose meaning is veiled from consciousness until revealed by psychoanalysis. Now one of the most notable of Baudouin 's contributions to analytical science, and a matter upon which he differs from the Freudian school, is his careful study of conden- sation (see Glossary) in its bearing upon represen- tation by symbols. The Freudians regard symboli- sation (in dreams) as the means whereby the work- ings of the unconscious are veiled from the conscious mind. But Baudouin writes (p. 27): ''Condensa- tion ... is the first stage in the creation of the symbol. I look upon symbolisation as a general law of the imagination, and not as being necessarily the outcome of the masking of forbidden représenta^ tions. ' '

The teaching epitomised in the foregoing quota-

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE xiii

tion serves, like nmch that Baudouin writes, to bridge the gulf between the Freudian enthusiasts and those who dissent from Freudian theories and interpreta- tions. Mary Amold-Forster, in Studies in Dreams, writes (p. 112) : **My experience convinces me that it is not true to state that all dreams are symbolic, any more than we can accept as of universal truth the Freudian theory that they are all symbols of repressed desire/' Nevertheless, it is doubtful if there are any dreams free from condensation, as Baudouin defines it. Passing to the second criticism, we think Baudouin would agree that not all dreams are ** Freudian dreams." Probably everyone has such dreams inter alia. But it is the ** Freudian dreams" that serve as grist for the psychoanalytic mill — and psychoanalysts are no more free than lesser mortals from the tendency to count the hits and ignore the misses. Hence their belief that all dreams are ** Freudian dreams." Baudouin, however, nowhere commits himself to such an assertion. We believe he would accept the main conclusions of Mary Amold-Forster, whose fascinating volume should be read by all interested in dream life and in the pos- sibilities of regulating dreams by autosuggestion. Her theories and methods square with Baudouin 's own teaching anent the control of the subconscious.

This brief account of the psychoanalytic method has not been given to enable amateurs to begin the practice of psychoanalysis upon their friends and relations, nor even to enable them to undertake the first steps in the exceedingly difficult art of auto-

xiv TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

psychoanalysis. It lias been given to make it easy for tlie beginner to read Baudouin 's book, because he will have grasped certain essentials of technique at the very outset. Though it was not primarily writ- ten for the beginner, we regard Studies in Psyclio- analysis as perhaps the best work for the beginner hitherto published. We consider it better for this purpose than Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psy- choanalysis, which has recently been made available in English. The study of Freud should come after that of Baudouin, not before. Having read these two volumes, the reader may usefully turn to Jung's Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology , and to his Psychology of the Unconscious^ as authoritative expositions of the teachings of the Zurich School. His mind thus enlarged, the student will return with delight to the clarity of what is destined to become known as the Geneva School, and will read the Studies again and again. For, heartily as we may share Freud's ** dislike for simplification at the ex- pense of truth" (op. cit., p. 238), there is much jus- tice in Baudouin 's complaint (infra, p. 22) that: **The realm of the * unconscious' is necessarily ob- scure ; but the psychoanalysts would seem at times to have taken a positive delight in peopling it with shadows."

To the graduate in analytical literature we would not impertinently offer any hints as to how to read this book. But to novices in the field, and in espe- cial to those who open the Studies in Psychoanalysis solely because they have known and valued the

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE xy

author's Suggestion and Autosuggestion, we venture to say : Do not, at a first reading, trouble mucli about the Theoretical Part. This is written mainly for experts, is of import to them, and will interest them greatly even when they differ from the author. But, if you are a beginner, when you have finished the General Survey, go straight to the Case Histories. Eead them in the light of what has been said above about method and with the aid of the Glossary. Thereby you will be able to enjoy a course of Psy- choanalysis without Tears, and will then find your- self in a position to master the Theoretical Part with the smallest modicum of difficulty. Such, it will be noted, has been the author's own path of approach. He has worked by the inductive method. In the Case Kecords he is feeling his way and gaining his experience from day to day. The Theoretical Part represents his conclusions at the date of writing.

The beginner will enjoy, and even the expert who is not a hard-shelled adherent of one of the rival schools will value, the concreteness of treatment, and the gradual initiation into psychoanalytical ideas by the inductive method. The practice of many psycho- analyst writers has rather been to attempt a blud- geoning of the acolyte. (We do not talk of their patients, but of the readers of their books!) They take cock-shies at us with the Oedipus complex, say- ing: **You wanted to kill your father in order to take his place with your mother — that's the kind of beast you are!" They rub our noses in it! But Charles Baudouin gently leads us on to discover our less amiable peculiarities for ourselves. He suggests,

xvi TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

perhaps, but he does not insist. He attempts no more than to make us realise that '* everything hap- pens as if '' so and so were the case. In fact Baudouin treats us as the gentle psychoanalyst treats patients, and not as the rough psychoanalyst treats readers. He thus avoids prematurely applying to certain fun- damental complexes the somewhat brutal handling which has made many persons needlessly hostile to psychoanalysis.

We now come to the feature of Baudouin 's book which will most effectively disturb the complexes of many psychoanalysts. We refer to what the author terms the **mixed method,'' the coupling of psycho- analysis with suggestion. ** Psychoanalysis," writes Baudouin (p. 31), ^4s incompatible with certain forms of suggestion; but it is perfectly compatible with others. I regard the intolerance which some analysts display towards suggestion as no less de- plorable than the sceptical attitude of practitioners of suggestion towards analysis. " It is in the latter respect that Baudouin takes a different road from Coue, to whom suggestion unaided seems an all-suf- ficient therapeutic method. The deliberately con- joined use of suggestion and psychoanalysis is Baudouin 's contribution as a pioneer in the field of therapy. But an attentive reader of the Studies will soon realise that the author's dominant interest in psychoanalysis lies in the application of the method to the realm of art. This will be the topic of Baudouin 's forthcoming volume Psychoanalysis and esthetics. The hostility of certain analysts towards

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE xvii

suggestion leads sometimes to a ^^ censorship'' of the very word. A noted German pyehoanalyst, whose ** orthodoxy" no one would dispute, congratulates himself on the disappearance of morbid troubles when, in addition to analytical treatment, a continu- ous process of * incitation" (Aneiferung) is em- ployed by the physician. This pundit was reading a paper to a psychoanalytical circle, and he would not sully his hearers' ears with the obscene word *' suggestion"! Freud himself is less fastidious. Baudouin quotes (infra, p. Ill) a liberal utterance concerning suggestive therapeutics; and on p. 380 of the Introductory Lectures we read that in the later stages of the analysis the neurotic patient's internal conflict is **by means of the analyst's sug- gestions lifted to the surface, to the higher mental levels, and is there worked out as a normal mental conflict." Again, on p. 381, he speaks of *' changes in the ego ensuing as a consequence of the analyst's suggestions." Nevertheless, from the seven pages which, in his Introductory Lectures, Freud devotes to the topic of suggestion, we can only gather that his natural devotion to psychoanalysis has led him to ignore the latest developments of suggestive ther- apy. He was certainly unaware, at the date of these lectures (delivered in 1915 and 1917), of the theory and practice of autosuggestion as expounded in Sug- gestion and Auto suggestion J or he would not lay the stress he does on **the problem of the nature and source of one's suggestive authority." The point cannot be argued here. The Studies will have to fight its own battle with the Freudians. Suffice it to

xviii TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

quote Baudouin 's pragmatic conclusion (p. 31) : *^The method to which experience has led me, the method whose results are recorded in this book, is founded upon an unceasing collaboration between autosuggestion and psychoanalysis. Many, I know, regard this as a heresy. Whether it be heretical or not, I am confident that immense advantage can be derived from such collaboration.'' Readers must not, however, expect to find in the present work more than passing references to autosuggestion. Upon that topic the author has delivered his message in the earlier volume. But the translators may ven- ture to make a point which Baudouin has omitted to make for himself. Attentive students of Chapter Twelve, **The Search for a Guide," will come to realise that autosuggestion must owe a large part of its power and its extraordinary vogue to the fact that it enables those who practise it to find within themselves the guide of whom they are in search, and enables them in many instances to free them- selves from fixations without recourse to the aid of the psychoanalyst.

Jung, says Crichton Miller (op. cit., p. 203), ** wants to build for the future." Freud, impatient of large and vague generalisations, and sedulous to perfect and keep immaculate a rather narrow tech- nique, speaks regretfully of the days when Jung **was a mere psychoanalyst and did not aspire to be a prophet." Baudouin, less ambitious than Jung, but more ambitious than Freud, strives to collate the new psychology with the old, but also reaches out towards the future. He writes (p. 28); '*The

TRANSLATORS' PREFACE xix

intelligence ensures our adaptation to the real; the imagination ensures the adaptation of the real to ourselves.'^ Neither task can be adequately achieved without perfecting our knowledge of the subcon- scious. In a somewhat different sense from that in which the phrase is used by Freud (op. cit., p. 163) most readers of the Studies will feel of psychoanal- ysis that ^4f you give it your little finger it will soon have your whole hand.'* Immense is the fas- cination of a research that is destined to produce as great a change in man's life as was caused by the discovery of articulate speech, a greater change than was caused by the invention of writing or print- ing. *^The study of abnormal psychology — includ- ing its variant produced by artifice — has thrown more light on the workings of the normal mind than all the centuries of academic study of the latter.'' Thus writes Morton Prince in his foreword to Arnold-Forster's work on dreams. May we not hope that man, the tool-using animal, is on the eve of learning how to use the most stupendous of all tools — his own mind?

EDEN AND CEDAR PAUL.

London, July, 1922.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. GENERAL SURVEY

tact;

vii

1. The two Gradations of Psychoanalysis . 1

2. Guiding Principles of the present Work 10

PART ONE: THEORETICAL EXPOSITION

n. SKETCH OF AN AFFECTIVE THEORY OF THE ASSO- CIATION OF IDEAS 25

1. From Associationism to Psychpanalysis . 25

2. The Laws of affective Association . . 33

3. Dreaming and Action .... 53

m. DYNAMICS OF THE AFFECTIVE LIFE, AND THE

EVOLUTION OF INSTINCTS 67

1. The Function of the Dream. — ^Dreaming

and Play 67

2. The Idea of an Evolution of Instinct . 82

3. The Genealogy of Tendencies ... 96

IV. MIXED METHOD: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND SUGGES- TION . . 121

1. Contrast 121

2. Conciliation 127

xxi

xxiî TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART TWO: CASE HISTORIES

CHAPTER PAGE

V. CHILDREN 147

1. Linette: Dreams of forbidden Pleasures.

Fixation upon the Mother . . . 149

2. Mireille : Fixation upon the Mother. Re-

fusal of the feminine Rôle . . .171

3. Robert: A Schoolboy's Feelings about

School. Introversion (Analysis of a School Essay) 181

4. Jean: Protest against the Father (Anal-

ysis of a School Essay) .... 186

VI. THE CRISIS OF ADOLESCENCE 190

1. Raoul : Budding Virility. The feeling of

Constraint 192

2. Kitty: A young Girl's Passion for a

Woman 195

3. Grerard: Vacillating Sublimation. A

State of Conflict 206

Vn. ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE PARENTS . . . .219

1. Miriam: A religious and social Calling

inspired by the Cult of the Father. A State of Conflict 221

2. Marcel : Dread of the Father. Timidity

and undue Scrupulosity . . . 231

3. Otto: Repressed Virility. Awkwardness

and Constraint. A philosophic Trend 242

Vin. THE INSTINCT OF SELF-PRESERVATION AND THE

INSTINCT FOR MOTHERHOOD .... 266

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii

CHAPTER PAGE

1. Autopsy choanalysis. Dreams during an

Attack of pulmonary Tuberculosis . 268

2. Yvonne: Fears concerning Childbirth . 282

3. Renée: Refusal of Femininity and of

Motherhood 284

4. Martha : Longing for Motherhood. Men-

strual Irregularity 292

IX. TYPICAL NERVOUS DISORDERS 294

1. Alexander : Anxiety States . . .296

2. Roger: Psyehasthenia. Impotence . . 321

3. Germaine: Spasm of the Eyelid. Fussy

Activity . 339

X. MENTAL DISORDERS 350

1. Bertha: Introversion. Delusions of Per-

secution. Neuralgia .... 352

2. Ruth: A fixed Idea. Impressions of

Rape 362

3. George: Mental Aberrations in an Epi-

leptic .367

XI. SUBLIMATIONS 377

1. Alfred: Stammering. Maladaptation to

social Life. A Taste for Music . . 379

2. Ida : Sexual Shock at Puberty. Maniacal

Disturbances, esthetic Sublimation . 383

3. Adam : Sublimation in Danger . . . 388

4. Jeanne: Non- Acceptance of Marriage.

Thwarted Maternal Instinct. Vacil- lating Sublimation 393

xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

5. Queenie: Fixation upon the Father.

esthetic and religious Sublimation . 410

Xn. THE SEARCH FOR A GUIDE 421

1. Rynaldo: Change of Analyst. From

Hostility to Sympathy .... 422

2. Stella: Sublimation of the Idea of the

Guide 448

GLOSSARY 461

BIBLIOGRAPHY 475

INDEX 485

STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL SURVEY

1, The two Categories of Psychoanalysis

Almost the only book by means of which readers of the French tongue can gain a knowledge of the prin- ciples of psychoanalysis is Kégis and Hesnard's faithful exposition of Freudian theory/ This work should be read by all students of physoanalytical theory. In the present study, I write from an en- tirely different point of view. My primary aim has been to expound psychoanalysis as concretely as pos- sible, by the record of a number of cases analysed by myself. As far as concerns the theory upon which the practice is based, this cannot be purely and simply Freudian, for I have also assimilated the ideas of other psychologists, such as Adler, Jung, and Flournoy ; and, furthermore, my theoretical out- look has necessarily been modified by the data, how- ever slender, of my own experience. Thus I make no claim to do over again the theoretical work which

^ Régis and Hesnard, La Psychoanalyse des Névroses et des Psychoses, 1914.

1

2 STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

has been so ably done by Kegis and Hesnard; my book is not a study of the authorities. I approach the problem from the other side, where it is con- crete and individual.

These considerations will explain one of the diffi- culties of compiling the volume; they will account for what may be regarded as its defects. My aim has been to produce a record of my own work which might interest experts, not to write a popular treatise for beginners. On the other hand, I was writing for French readers, most of whom are in fact beginners in this subject. Consequently it was incumbent on me to deal with general principles, many of which are trite matters for the expert. Have I been clear enough to be comprehensible to the general reader; have I been concise enough to escape being tedious to the expert? I do not know. But I am not without hope that the way in which I have had to write my book will prove to have been an advantage after all. I believe that a theoretical discussion of the general principles of psychoanal- ysis is eminently desirable, even though such an examination may be considered superfluous by cer- tain psychoanalysts, extremists of their school.

There is good reason for surprise that a thought trend so notable both in quality and in quantity should still be little known in France. Freud's most imporJ:ant work, Traumdeutung,'^ has never been translated into French. There is a great contrast, in this respect, between France and the English-

* See complete bibliography at end of volume.

GENERAL SURVEY 3

speaking lands. Traumdeutung was translated into English in 1913, and psychoanalysis has now be- come a household word in Britain and the United States. Works on philosophy, various aspects of science, and even popular science, have been writ- ten by persons who have made the new outlook their own/ To return to France, the neglect of psycho- analysis in this country is readily explicable — quite apart from the war. Nor are all the reasons wholly discreditable to French thought.

A regretable indiiference, routinism and paro- chialism, have doubtless played their part. But the psychoanalysts are not free from blame. The realm of the ^'unconscious'' is necessarily obscure; but they would seem at times to have taken a positive delight in peopling it with shadows. They have been neologist to excess ; some of their theories are fantastically bold; not a few of the exponents are fanatics. These characteristics of the new doctrine were naturally repugnant to the French mind, which,

^ A few instances maj^ be given. Philosophy : W. H. R. Rivers, Mind and Medicine, 2nd éd., 1920 ; Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind, 1921. Psychology : A. G. Tausley, The New Psychology and its Relation to Life, new edition, 1922 (this work is directly inspired by psychoanalysis) ; Anonymous (The Plebs League), An Outline of Psychology, 1922 (this exposition of psychology for working'-class students is likewise permeated with psycho- analytical theory) ; Millais Culpin, Spiritualism and the New Psychology. Sociology: W. M. Gallichan, The Psychology of Man-iage, 1917 (it is significant that on p. 64 the author de- scribes C. G. Jung as "one of the greatest psychologists of our day") ; Eden and Cedar Paul, Creative Revolution, 1920 (these writers lay especial stress on "the new lights Freudianism sheds upon the problems of revolutionary communism"). The list might be gxeatly extended.

4 STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

loves clarity and good sense and is humorously scep- tical. Psychoanalysts have occasionaly done their best to justify Nietzsche's aphorism: ^*The German spirit is a form of indigestion." They would ap- pear, too, to have found it pleasing to break down all the bridges connecting their ^*new science'' with the psychology of yesterday. Like Christopher Columbus they have discovered a new world, have thereupon renounced allegiance to the old, and have even been inclined to deny the existence of the old. We ought not to break down these bridges, but rather to strengthen them. Where could such work be more successfully carried on than at Geneva, the meeting-place of two cultures? We have to thank the late Théodore Flournoy for having guided our footsteps in this direction, for having sought out the points of contact between the psychology of William James and the psychology of Sigmund Freud, and between their respective terminologies. Flournoy 's Une mystique moderne is a model of that scientific tolerance which is less common than people are apt to suppose. The Genevese group of psychoanalysts is guided in the same spirit by Edouard Claparède ; this spirit likewise animates Pierre Bovet's remark- able study L'instinct combatif. I wish to take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to all these colleagues.

Such originality as the present work possesses will, then, be due to a search for points of contact between psychoanalysis and ordinary psychology. These points of contact must be found if the science

GENERAL SURVEY 5

of the subconscious is to be made assimilable. Claparède holds that it does not suffice to translate psychoanalysts' writings into French. He considers that as far as may be, we ought also to translate their thought, their terminology, their very theories, into forms more familiar to French minds and to non-Freudian psychologists. Unquestionably, an unmodified exposition of the psychoanalysis of the schools is apt to produce on unfamiliar ears the effect produced on Pascal by the Spanish Latin of certain Jesuit fathers. *^Can these fellows really be Christians f he asks. I am not certain to what degree a ^^translation'' of this kind is possible. But I am sure that a discussion of the relationships be- tween psychoanalysis and ordinary psychology is essential, and I believe that it will throw light on many points that are still obscure.

In the field of theory, I have endeavoured to show the ties between the psychology which has now be- come classical, that of Ribot, James, Bergson, and Claparède, to say nothing of the almost forgotten Jouffroy. At the same time, I have borne in mind Descartes' methodological rule: ^^ Divide the subject into as many subdivisions as you can, for this will help you to solve the difficulties." It seems to me that in the totality of ideas which pass by the gen- eral name of psychoanalysis, at least one great dis- tinction ought to be made.

(a) Psychoanalysis starts by laying the founda- tions of an affective theory of the association of ideas, sl theory which discerns in affectivity, often subconscious, the cause of the ostensibly incoherent

6 STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

creations of the imagination. It is upon this that the new method of studying the subconscious has been based.

(b) This affectivity which is discerned behind the imagination, is in its turn linked by psychoanalysis with instinct. To the psychoanalysts, all the higher sentiments appear to be products of the evolution of a crude instinct. Thus we arrive at a biological theory of ajfectivity, which is likewise an evolu- tionary theory of instinct.

It follows that there are two categories, sufficiently distinct, though not hitherto sufficiently distin- guished :

(a) imagination explained by affectivity;

{b) affectivity explained by instinct. The former theory, which is supported by an abun- dance of facts that anyone can observe for himself, is all the better for being separated from the latter theory ; for this, though in broad outlines it appears acceptable, is complicated in matters of detail by a number of hypothetical and contradictory formulas. We must leave to to-morrow the perfectionment of this biological theory. By confusing the issues, by trying to compact the two theories into one, we run the risk of giving a hypothetical aspect even to data that are based upon an extremely solid foundation.

Larguier des Bancels, in his recent work Introduc- tion à la psychologie, writes (Avant -propos, pp. 13-14) : **The American school draws a distinction between functional psychology and structural psy- chology. Structural psychology analyses the phe- nomena ; it endeavours to discover their mechanism ;

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in a word, it describes them. Functional psychology is concerned with the purport of these same phe- nomena, and seeks to elucidate their biologic rôle. Here we have two perspectives. They are equally legitimate but the observer cannot occupy two view- points at the same time. Aristotle's psychology is functional psychology. Locke remains the master of structural psychology. The doctrine of the facul- ties is a return to Aristotle. The associationism of the nineteenth century carries on the tradition of Locke and his eighteenth-century successors."

The first category of psychoanalysis (the affective theory of association) is a structural psychology; the second category is a functional psychology. We have here *Hwo perspectives. They are equally legitimate, but the observer cannot occupy two view- points at the same time." They are related to one another just as anatomy and physiology are related to one another. Now it is certain that the dynamic and functional point of view which has been the favourite outlook in psychology since James, is the only one enabling us to formulate an integral science of the phenomena of existence. We have no more right to blame Freud than we have to blame William James for having wished to construct a dynamic psychology. Nevertheless we are entitled to add that the second point of view (functional) must be a sequel to the first (structural). When people begin to give functional explanations in default of a sufficient descriptive foundation, they must never forget that they are formulating mere hypotheses. These may of course be extremely useful in research

8 STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

as guiding ideas ; but they are dangerous, for many people are inclined to make of them a slippery descent into an unscientific finalism. A dynamic explanation is the goal we must seek to attain; but all djmamic explanations will be provisional so long as our static descriptions remain inadequate. In like manner, when we have to trace a continuous curve representing experimental data, we must not endeavour to do so until we have directly deter- mined a sufficient number of isolated points through which the curve has to pass. It is the business of functional psychology to trace the curve; but it is the business of structural psychology to ascertain the points through which the curve must pass.

This distinction between the two categories corre- sponds to the distinction which Bovet has drawn be- tween psychoanalysis as a method and psychoanal- ysis as a doctrine, for whereas the method is essen- tially based on the former theory, the doctrine is built on the latter.

** Psychoanalysis,^' writes Bovet, *4s, above all, a method for the study of the subconscious. To initiate ourselves into psychoanalysis is to form an idea of this method and to attempt the manipulation of this instrument.

** Frequently, however, experts in psychoanalysis, identifying the method with the results, present it to us as a body of doctrines bearing upon the nature of the subconscious ego, and offer it to us as a new psychology. In this they resemble a Pisan of the seventeenth century who should have given the name of * telescopy' to Galileo's opinions concerning the

GENERAL SURVEY 9

satellites of Jupiter and concerning the solar system in general.

^'It is well to point out that the wide differences which separate the various schools of psychoanalysts (those of Freud, Adler, and Jung, respectively) do not impair in any way the value of the instrument which they all alike use as a means of study. The differences relate to the interpretation of the facts which psychoanalysis has revealed. Let us suppose that two astronomers, independently studying the planet Mars, detect the phenomenon which is kno^vn as the gemination of the canals of that luminary. Perhaps one astronomer will tell us that the gemina- tion is due to some peculiarity in the refraction of light, whereas the other will ascribe it to a seasonal variation in the distribution of the waters of the planet. But the existence of such disputes does not justify us in contending that telescopes are useless. Rather should they urge us to perfect our utilisation of telescopes, or to supplement their employment by other methods which will enable us to reduce the uncertainties attendant on the interpretation of the phenomena we are observing. ^ ^ ^

I shall perhaps, when I come to the concrete ex- position of cases, be charged with having failed to abide by my ov/n distinction. I am aware that it is extremely difficult to avoid adopting the current methods of exposition. Conversely, in practice it is sometimes difficult to disentangle the fact from the interpretation. Simply by recording a fact, we in- terpret it ; and language is a web of interpretations.

^ Pierre Bovet, La Psychanalyse et L'éducation, pp. 4-5, 1920.

10 STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

When, therefore, the reader comes across a fnnc- tional interpretation which seems to him to lack adequate verification, let him prefix the words: ** Everything happens as if . . .'' This prefix will not conflict with the essence of my thought.

3, Guiding Principles of the Present Work

Thanks to this distinction, I have at least been able to avoid the perpetual mingling of comprehen- sive functional hypotheses with the description of the affective laws of the association of images (Chapter Two). I therefore regard the symholism of dreams as a natural result of the working of the laws of condensation and displacement, and I do not apriori consider symbolism to be the purposive masking of repressed and *^ censored'^ mental proc- esses. This notion of the * ^ censorship ' ' has been strongly criticised, even by psychoanalysts (Eivers, for instance). There are plenty of cases in which it is not necessary to invoke such a hypothesis, whereas condensation is a persistent fact. This con- densation, which groups images characterised by a common affect, groups them so as to form a single composite and new image, is the first stage in the creation of the symhoL I look upon symbolisation as a general law of the imagination, and not as being necessarily the outcome of the masking of forbidden representations. This applies equally to artistic symbols, which have with good reason been com- pared to the spontaneous symbols of dreams. An author may use a symbol to disguise his thought and thus throw an official censorship off the scent;

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this is what Montesquieu did in his Lettres persanes. On the other hand, an author may use a symbol sim- ply as a means of self-expression; this is the prac- tice of the symbolist poets.

The condensation of images lies at the very root of creative imagination. This implies that creative imagination is the direct outcome of an affective state, so that we might say that sensibility itself is the true creator of new images. Condensation is more powerful in strong affective states than in weak ones; it is more powerful likewise in dreams than in waking states. This leads us to ask what may be the common element in affective states and dream states, and we realise that the two types of condition are characterised by a suspension of activity, of spontaneous movement. Both affectivity, and the dream or the reverie which affectivity engenders, are pent-up action.

Thence we pass to the dynamic outlook (Chapter Three), and we ask what can be the function or functions of the dream (and of such kindred states as reverie and aesthetic creation). First of all, we look upon the dream as an exercise of the creative imagination. In this respect its usefulness, even from the point of view of action, is evident. The intelligence ensures our adaptation to the real; the imagination ensures the adaptation of the real to ourselves. But when we come to consider the re- markable law of displacement