surrender of the sense of will and feeling of effort. The one point in which the two conditions differ is in respect of the idea on which concentration has taken place. With hetero-suggestion we know that this is the idea of the Father imago1, which has been aroused through contact with a suitable substitute. With auto-suggestion all the evidence points to the idea being that of the actual Self.

I next propose to sketch a theory that shall take into account the preceding considerations. If I am right in concluding that the unconscious hyper-cathexis is of the idea of the Father in hetero-suggestion and of the Self in auto-suggestion, then we must search for some point of intimate contact between these two ideas. A clue in this direction is afforded by Freud's2 formula that the hypnotist replaces the ego ideal. For if we enquire into the nature and origin of the ego ideal, we discover that it is compounded of two constituents, derived from the Father and the Self respectively; so that here we have a nodal point connecting the two ideas.

It will be remembered that the original (primal) narcissism of the infant becomes in the course of development distributed in four directions, the actual proportion in each of these varying enormously with different individuals. One portion remains in an unaltered state attached to the real ego; this is probably the one concerned in the genesis of hypochondria. A second portion is deflected from any direct sexual goal and becomes attached to the idea of the parent, leading to adoration, devotion and general over-estimation. It is important to bear in mind that to begin with this process is much more a matter of narcissistic identification than of any form of object-love. A third is transferred on to an ideal ego and is one of the constituents of the 'ego ideal.' The fourth is gradually transformed into object-love. Now the second and third of these commonly fuse during the latency period of childhood or even earlier. The form assumed by the resulting ego ideal is largely derived from the ideas and mental attitudes of the father, the bond being effected through the second portion of narcissistic libido mentioned above, that attached to what may be called the father ideal. On the other hand, the energy that gives the ego ideal its significance is wholly derived ultimately from narcissistic libido. There are three routes for this: (1) directly from the original narcissism of the primary ego (Third portion mentioned above); (2) via the attachment to the father ideal (Second portion);

1 For the sake of simplicity, and also because it is the more important in this connection, the idea of the Father alone is referred to instead of that of both parents.

2 "Group Psychology," op. cit. p. 77.

(3) via the regression to narcissistic identification with the father that often takes place after a disappointment at the lack of gratification of object-love (Fourth portion).

When the hypnotist, as Freud says, takes the place of the ego ideal, what happens is presumably this: the thought of him becomes identified in the unconscious with that of the father, and in this way the constituents of the ego ideal which were built up in connection with the idea of the father-its form and two out of the three narcissistic components enumerated above-are re-animated. Perhaps, incidentally, this is the reason why it is so difficult for the hypnotist to give effective suggestions that obviously conflict with the father ideal, such as criminal and immoral suggestions.

Leaving for the moment this question of the mechanism whereby narcissism becomes re-animated, a matter to which we shall presently return, I wish to say a little about the effects of the process. Many clinicians are inclined to divide the effects of 'auto-suggestion' into two groups, which might be called pathogenic and therapeutic respectively. To take the pathogenic ones first: the notion is that 'auto-suggestion' may create various neurotic symptoms by allowing certain 'morbid' ideas to realise their full effects unchecked by others which normally would counteract them. Perhaps as good an example as any is the case of the oft-quoted medical student who imagined he was acquiring every disease except housemaid's knee. I would recommend that we should not use the term 'auto-suggestion' for this class of phenomenon, for the following reasons. The essence of such symptom-formation consists in a conflict between repressed libidinal wishes and the repressing force exerted from the side of the ego, particularly of the ego ideal. From one point of view the symptom might roughly be called a punishment inflicted on the personality by the ego for the striving towards gratification on the part of the repressed forbidden wishes. The fears of our medical student, for instance, represent the threat of castration (disease) as a punishment for repressed Oedipus wishes (incest with the mother and castration of the father). The morbid ideas that were allowed to develop during the reading of his text-books merely afforded suitable material that could be used by his ego for this purpose. So that to refer to the whole process as one of 'auto-suggestion' is to confine attention to one aspect of the process, and not to the most important aspect. The resultant symptom is only in part ego-syntonic, i.e. in harmony with the ego, the repressed wishes being not at all so, while the term 'auto-suggestion' should surely be applied only to mental processes that are wholly ego

syntonic. Further, one misses here the note of omnipotence so characteristic of the typical forms of 'auto-suggestion.'

What we have called the therapeutic effects of 'auto-suggestion,' on the other hand, differ in both these respects. They are marked to begin with by a belief, more or less profound, in the omnipotence of thought. The catch formula "Every day in every way I grow better and better” means, if it means anything, "I have only to wish to become stronger, handsomer, cleverer, self-confident and free from any suffering, and it will be so; my wishes are all-powerful and brook no obstacle.” Then, in contrast with 'pathogenic auto-suggestion,' the therapeutic tendencies in question are throughout ego-syntonic.

Successful auto-suggestion presupposes harmony even between the narcissism of the ego ideal and that which has remained attached to the real ego. It is the conflict between the ego ideal on the one hand and the real ego with its associated allo-erotism on the other that is responsible for neurotic states. How fraught the union is with consequences we know from Freud's1 studies of mania. The two states in which man's sense of power over both himself and his environment, and often his actual power, is at its maximum are, first, acute mania, and, secondly, the exaltation that follows on sudden conversion to a significant idea, most often a religious one. In both these cases, however, there has previously been a specially deep cleavage between the actual ego and the ego ideal, so that the reconciliation between the two results in a tremendous accession of energy through the release of the primary narcissism from the tyranny of the ego ideal. Yogi are reputed to display something of the same sense of power and self-content, which in their case is due to a union brought about by the more gradual process of auto-suggestion.

On the basis of the foregoing considerations I would formulate the following theory. SUGGESTION IS ESSENTIALLY A LIBIDINAL PROCESS:

THROUGH THE UNIFICATION OF THE VARIOUS FORMS AND DERIVATIVES OF NARCISSISM THE CRITICISING FACULTY OF THE EGO IDEAL IS SUSPENDED, SO THAT EGO-SYNTONIC IDEAS ARE ABLE TO FOLLOW UNCHECKED THE PLEASURE-PAIN PRINCIPLE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRIMITIVE BELIEF

IN THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THOUGHT. Such ideas may either develop to their logical goal (beliefs, judgements, etc.) or regress to their sensorial elements (hallucinatory gratification). The essential part of the unification in question is that between the real ego and the ego ideal. The condition under which it takes place is that the repressed allo-erotic impulses are to be renounced. This is made possible by a regression of their libido in the direction of auto

1 Idem, op. cit. pp. 107, 108.

erotism, which results in a further reinforcement of the narcissism. If the primary narcissism has been released and re-animated directly, by concentration upon the idea of self, the process may be termed auto-suggestion; if it has been preceded by a stage in which the ego ideal is resolved into the earlier father ideal, the process may be termed hetero-suggestion.

If this view proves to be correct, then the old question of whether most hetero-suggestion is really auto-suggestion or whether most autosuggestion is really hetero-suggestion must be regarded in another perspective. It is, in the first place, a much less important problem than has often been thought, for that the essential agent in both is narcissism is a more fundamental consideration than the question of the particular way in which this has been mobilised in a given case. It is highly probable that the process of re-animating narcissism may proceed to varying depths in different psychological conditions; that suggestibility varies greatly in different persons is of course well known. The fact that primary narcissism is more fundamental than the father ideal itself, and our clinical experience that the chief part even in hetero-suggestion is played by agents within the subject's mind, are considerations which incline one not to contradict Baudouin's opinion that more weight must be attached to auto-suggestion than to hetero-suggestion, though one should add the modification that perhaps the latter process may prove in most cases in practice a necessary stage in the evocation of the former.

Freud' thinks that the uncanny and enigmatic qualities that cling to the idea of hypnosis can be accounted for only by assuming that the regression to the infantile conception of the Father re-animates the inherited attitude towards the primal Father of the horde in savage times. The view here expressed could be brought into accord with this by supposing a similar re-animation of the well-known enormous narcissism of primitive man, with his absolute belief in the magical omnipotence of thought.

The theory here propounded perhaps throws some light on two further problems, the relation of hypnosis to sleep and to 'will-power' respectively. That the hypnotic state is psychologically exceedingly akin to sleep is well known, and is indicated in the very word itself. The fact has given rise to much speculation, but it should become more comprehensible when one recollects that sleep is the most complete expression of narcissism known, i.e. of the state which we here suppose to underlie that of hypnosis.

Without wishing to embark on a discussion of the nature of will, 1 Idem, op. cit. pp. 95-99.

I may briefly state my agreement with Lipps'1 view that the sense of will, and of striving or effect altogether, really emanates from a consciousness of inhibition, or put in more modern language—an intuition that in respect of the idea in question the conscious ego is inhibiting other, unconscious, mental processes. At all events it is plain that the will is specially connected with the conscious ego, and particularly the ego ideal. Most authors lay great stress on the practical importance, in both hetero- and auto-suggestion, of avoiding so far as possible any sense of effort, exercise of will-power or even of forced attention, and this might well be correlated with the view here expressed of the necessity for suspending the activity of the ego ideal. The exhortations of a patient's relatives that he should use his will-power,' or his 'self-control,' succeed only when the strength of the ego ideal is definitely greater than that of the repressed libidinal wishes, as it is in the normal. It is natural that the relatives should ask for this desideratum, but they overlook the fact that the very existence of neurotic symptoms shows that in all probability the two sides of the conflict are more evenly matched than they hope. It is only rarely that much can be accomplished by simple methods of reinforcing the ego ideal, i.e. the repressions.

Finally, the theory here advanced leads me to attempt some restatement of our formulations regarding the mechanism of mental healing in general. The essential problem is the fate of the repressed allo-erotic (usually incestuous) impulses which conflict with the ego ideal and constitute the important dynamic factor in every neurotic symptom. Only a part of them can be directly sublimated, a solution which the patient has already tried, though, it is true, under unfavourable psychological conditions. Now it would seem that all possible means of dealing with the situation therapeutically reduce themselves ultimately to two, and to two only. Either the libidinal energy of these impulses can be, more or less completely, re-converted into the narcissism from which they proceeded, this being effected by a regression in an auto-erotic direction, or else the assimilative capacity of the ego ideal can be raised. These two principles are, as will be shown in a moment, mutually contradictory and therefore to a large extent incompatible with each other, and this explains why it is fundamentally impossible to combine the two methods. of treatment based on them, those of suggestion and psycho-analysis respectively. One may lay down the dictum that if the patient is not treated by psycho-analysis he will treat himself by means of suggestion, or-put more fully-he will see to it that he will get treated by means "Suggestion und Hypnose," op. cit. S. 428, 472.

1