The New York herald., 1921-01-23


a large one and the symbolism that appears
in dreams Is but small part OF II. Many
of the dream symbols do not mean anything
to- us because it may be that we do not
know what field they are called from. A
practitioner feels that he is confronted In
dream symbolism with an obsolete vocabu-
larry. Once these symbols constitute means
of expression they are no longer existent.
really profound study of symbolism in its
various fields is necessary for the success
Of the psychoanalyst.
The series of ideas which are called OBJ
sessions, ideas inaccessible to arguments
based on fact and logic, and which have for
ever been repressed, can be handled, treated
and overcome by psychoanalytic work. The
treatment of these obsessions is reasonable
If we cannot do away with them by taking
reality into account then we are justified
i'm saying they did not arise from reality. In
other words, these obsessions are mere delu-
sions OF the senses. How did they arise?
What kind of persons are liable to these OBJ
sessions?
1T is then that turn to the psychiatrist,
only to be disappointed as In the case of my
turning to the internist, and by the same sort
OF answer. Both refer me to the family
history of the patient. Both hold the same
general thesis the internist will tell me
when consult him in a case of diabetes that
the patient developed it from heredity, or
ne may tell me so. certainly the pSycnl-
artist will say that the person developing an
, obsesson does so because disposed to 1t by
heredity.
Neither case Is cleared up in any degree
by these answers, but without psyche
analysis we would have to be satisfied with
them and go on blindly. We want to know
more, especially in the case of obsession.
a mental thing. We want to know what
caused this breakdown of common sense.
xya f11r lly to ha h
ods of the psychoanalyst. BY conducting in
quiries along this line we are apt to find
the obsession full of meaning, well mo-
tivated, an integral part of the patients
emotional experience.
I'VE ask for the patients dreams, and al
most inevitably when we receive them find
what we expected. We find that the obses-
SION is necessary reaction toward an un-
conscious psychological process revealed in
other ways. and it is owing to this circum,
stance that 1t may be called an obsession-
that Is, something that cannot be removed
from the mind by argument based on fact
and common sense. We find In a ma
jortty Of such classifcations that whatever
the patient may say when awake, in sleep
he will show that he cuddles the obsession
because it is a consolation to him for the
loss he has suffered Of something else dear
to him.
Symbol and analogy as applied in psy-
choanalytical work have carried us to the
truth.
Obsession the Hardest Problem
Confronting the PsychoanaIyst
I'm talking about obsessions / have
touched on the hardest problem that comes
before the psychoanalyst he does not al
ways succeed in treating and removing It.
But all students Of this science are at
tracted rather than repelled by difficulties
And Of course they have the right to pursue
experiments without regard to immediate
practical result. There will always be types
OF nervous diseases that will refuse US the
opportunity of study. We cannot succeed
with these because we can't get the data.
Il am not attempting to defend psy-
choanalysis; that would be foolish. Its dis
coveries have already been translated into
therapy. and as the interest spreads to all
earnest medical inquirers these discoveries
will grow in number and in richness. 1 con-
slider that by means of this study the med