The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, vol. 1, part 1, 1920. This is the first number of a new international publication devoted to psychoanalysis. Directed by Professor Freud and edited provisionally by Dr Ernest Jones, it is an official organ of the International Psycho-Analytical Association, ranking equally with the Internationale Zeitschrift für Psycho-Analyse. Its promoters have felt that the need for such a journal published in English has become urgent owing to the interest in psycho-analysis now taken by many readers who are unfamiliar with the German language. It will deal with the subject of psycho-analysis and kindred studies, but will not attempt to cover the whole field of psychopathology. On the other hand, it will go beyond the clinical sphere and will include the applications of psycho-analysis to literature, education, mythology, philology, sociology, anthropology, and so on. The first number opens with an appreciative obituary notice, by Dr Ernest Jones, of the late Dr James Jackson Putnam, the well known American neurologist, whose acceptance of the doctrines of psycho-analysis had considerable influence in directing the attention of American and English students to the serious study of the subject. Professor Freud contributes an article on "One of the difficulties of PsychoAnalysis." He traces very briefly the history of his Libido Theory of the neuroses and points out that although in the course of individual human development the original narcissistic distribution of the Libido gives place to object-love, yet not all of the Libido passes over from the Ego to the objects of the outer world. In all men there is a certain amount of narcissism or self-love. He then goes on to show how man's self-love has been three times badly wounded by the results of scientific research. The first occasion was when, with the acceptance of the Copernican theory, it had to be recognised that man's dwelling place, the earth, was not, as he had fondly supposed, the centre of the universe. The second was when, with acceptance of the doctrine of evolution it became plain that the gulf between the brute and the human was not so great or so fundamental as man had thought. The demonstration of his kinship with the animal world was the second blow to his self-love. The third blow was inflicted by the psycho-analysts when they declared to be mistaken man's feeling that he is master of his own soul, that consciousness gives the Ego news of all important occurrences in the working of the mind, and that his will, guided by these reports, can keep his instinctive impulses under due control. Study of the neuroses by psycho-analysis showed, on the contrary, that much of importance, which is not reported to consciousness, goes on in the mind, and that the life of the sexual impulses cannot be wholly restrained. The demonstration of the unconsciousness of mental life and of the psychical significance of sexuality was the third blow to human narcissism. "No wonder, therefore, that the Ego does not favour Psycho-Analysis, and obstinately refuses to believe in it." Mr J. C. Flügel contributes an interesting study "On the Character and Married Life of Henry VIII," in which he applies psycho-analytic findings to historical material. He considers that the "behaviour of individuals long since dead can be satisfactorily accounted for on psycho-analytic theories (and perhaps in no other way)," and that this affords "very valuable corroboration of the utility and validity of the psycho-analytic method." The first of a series of elementary didactic articles on psycho-analysis is contributed by Dr Douglas Bryan under the title, "Freud's Psychology." It gives a clear and simple account of Freud's views on the nature and functions of the Conscious, the Pre-conscious, and the Unconscious. A very full review of the "Recent Psycho-Analytical Literature in English" is given by Dr Stanford Read. No less than 346 original contributions and 30 translations are tabulated. The Journal also contains the Reports of the International Psycho-Analytical Association and the history of the British Psycho-Analytical Society with a list of members and associate-members. The Journal of Neurology and Psychopathology, Vol. 1, No. 1. May, 1920. This is another first number of a new English journal. As indicated in its title, Neurology would seem to be its main interest; but the contents of the first number are fairly evenly divided between the two departments. The chief contribution on the psychological side is "A Note on Suggestion," by W. McDougall. In this paper Dr MacDougall defends his well known definition of suggestion against some criticisms made by Dr Bernard Hart in a paper read before the Royal Society of Medicine, and in turn criticises Hart's contention that all the processes ascribed to suggestion are in reality examples of 'complex-thinking.' He also takes exception to Hart's use of the term 'complex' to denote any group of ideas with strong affect, whether dissociated or not, and urges that the term should be reserved for sentiments of a pathological character, thus adhering to Jung's usage when he introduced the word into psychopathology. McDougall agrees with Hart that, if our knowledge is to be advanced, we require to know what is the particular emotional factor involved in suggestion, and he submits that this requirement is fulfilled in the view put forward by him in his Social Psychology, namely, that the conative force at work in the person accepting a 'suggestion' is commonly the instinct of submission. He brings forward a new consideration in support of this view. This is based on the observation that some physicians find only hysterical persons to be hypnotizable, and these only so long as they are neurotic; when they are cured they can no longer be hypnotized and are insuggestible. McDougall thinks that those who have this experience which is unknown to many hypnotists-must adopt what he calls, without meaning to be offensive, the domineering attitude. This tends to rouse the self-assertive instinct of a normal person, thus nullifying the effects of the instinct of submission or preventing it from coming into play. McDougall's only concession to his critics is to amend his original definition, so that it now reads, "Suggestion is a process of communication resulting in the acceptance with conviction of the communicated proposition independently of the subject's appreciation of any logically adequate grounds for its acceptance." The substitution of the words in italics for the original phrase, "in the absence of," adds greatly to the accuracy of the definition. The Psychoanalytic Review, July 1920, Vol. ví, No. 3. The July number of this well known American publication contains an article by Dr W. H. R. Rivers on "Freud's Concept of the Censorship." Rivers finds it difficult to accept a concept which involves the working within the unconscious of an agency so wholly in the pattern of the conscious as he considers to be the case with Freud's censorship. Instead of finding a sociological parallel to this unconscious activity he thinks we ought to look for one in the physiological sphere. If we assume an organisation of unconscious experience similar to the organisation of the nervous system in different levels, we should have a number of levels in which experience belonging to adult life would occupy a position higher than that taken by the experience of youth, and this again would stand above the experience of childhood and infancy. Each level would preserve in its mode of action the characteristics of the mentality in which it had its origin. The higher levels would control the lower levels and prevent the manifestation of their lower modes of expression. On this view the distortion of dreams is not the result of censorship, but is merely the natural mode of expression at the infantile level becoming manifest when the control of the higher levels is removed in sleep. This interpretation involves the denial of the function of the dream as the guardian of sleep. It may have such a function, but, if so, it is a secondary aspect of the process. Rivers thinks the concept of a censorship as accounting for the 'distortion' in the symptoms of hysteria is even less appropriate than in the case of the dream. The production of hysterical symptoms by suggestion is an indication of the primi tive character of the reaction, for susceptibility to suggestion is to be connected with the gregariousness of man in the early stages of the development of human culture. Hysteria is the coming into activity of an early form of reaction to a dangerous or difficult situation. “The protection against the danger or difficulty so provided is the direct consequence of the early form of reaction, and the concept of a censorship making it necessary that manifestations shall take this form is artificial and unnecessary.' Rivers applies the same principle to the explanation of lapses of control in the more purely neurological sphere, such as false strokes in work or play, and spasmodic movements having a more or less purposeful character ('tics'). He concludes his paper by drawing attention to the existence, in both civilized and savage culture, of some parallels to the process which he proposes to substitute for Freud's censorship. Dr Edward W. Lazell contributes a paper on "Psychology of War and Schizophrenia," in which he combats the opinion arrived at by those who think that the experience of the war has shown the Freudian doctrine of the psycho-sexual genesis of the neuroses and psychoses to be erroneous. He admits the part played by the instincts of self-preservation and the fear of death, but he adduces the great mass of evidence resulting from the study of schizophrenia to show that the fear of death is an "elaboration of the sexual instinct." He summarises Freud's views on the psychic mechanisms of primitive man with reference to death, killing, sacrifice, remorse, and the development of taboo, and points out how they may be applied to the interpretation of the delusions of schizophrenia. He says it is remarkable that in the delusions of war schizophrenics" there is an almost complete absence of colouring matter applying to the war. In fact they show the same delusional content and symptoms as those schizophrenics who have not been in the war at all. In other words, the conflict is a strictly personal one, the sexual nature of which is clearly apparent in the stories of the patients themselves." Dr Mary K. Isham discusses "The Paraphrenic's Inaccessibility," and there is a translation of an article by Honorio F. Delgado on "Psychological Psychiatry.' This latter is expository and shows Delgado to be a follower of the post-psychoanalytic School of Jung and Silberer. Abstracts from psycho-analytic journals and of books on psycho-analysis have been a special feature of The Psychoanalytic Review from its inception, and the July number contains abstracts of Imago, ш. No. 4, of several books, and of some articles from psychological and medical journals. T. W. M. PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEDICAL SECTION OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY The following is a list of the meetings of the Medical Section since its formation: May 15, 1919. June 11, 1919. October 29, 1919. November 26, 1919. Psychology and Medicine, by W. H. R. RIVERS. The Generation and control of Emotion, by A. E. CARVER. The Psychology of Child Education, by MARIA MONTESSORI. (Joint Meeting with the Educational Section.) December 17, 1919. Some Physical Signs of Unconscious Wishes, by W. H. B. January 21, 1920. February 18, 1920. April 28, 1920. June 23, 1920. STODDART. Recent Advances in Psycho-Analysis, by ERNEST JONES. Left-handedness and Mental Deficiency, by HUGH GORDON. (Joint Meeting with the Educational Section.) An Outline of the Idea of Re-birth in Dreams, by MAURICE DISORDERS OF SYMBOLIC THINKING DUE TO LOCAL LESIONS OF THE BRAIN. By R. MOURGUE. Nous admettrons ici comme un résultat acquis de la pensée scientifique contemporaine que les troubles de l'expression verbale de la pensée, les seuls que nous désirions envisager ici, auxquels, pour suivre la tradition, nous conservons le terme général d'aphasie, ne peuvent nullement être ramenés à des pertes d'images en relation avec des lésions de prétendus centres étroitement spécialisés. Considérant ce point de vue de psychologie structurale comme définitivement périmé, nous en tiendrons au point de vue de la psychologie fonctionnelle tel qu'il a été établi par les travaux, issus de points de vue différents, mais concordants dans leurs résultats généraux de Hughlings Jackson, Bergson, P. Marie, Von Monakow, A. Pick, etc. M. Head vous a exprimé son point de vue sur la question1; il n'y a rien à ajouter à sa démonstration si rigoureuse. En admettant donc ce point de vue, qui tend à s'imposer de plus en plus, nous nous demanderons en faisant seulement appel à l'observation la plus immédiate, et, lorsque cela sera possible, à l'auto-observation vécue des malades, s'il est vrai, comme on l'a dit, que les troubles de l'expression verbale dus à des lésions cérébrales soient les plus propres à nous faire entrevoir la nature de la pensée. Dans cette recherche nous croyons qu'il faut se placer résolument sur le terrain de la psychologie fonctionnelle, comme l'avait fait Hughlings Jackson, qui, ici encore, fut un grand précurseur et devança l'application, si à la mode aujourd'hui, en Allemagne, de la psychologie de la pensée à la neuropathologie. En effet, si on se place avec certains auteurs, héritiers de la psychologie des idéologues, au point de vue structural, on en arrive à dire que pensée et langage s'équivalent strictement et que, en conséquence, tout aphasique présente un affaiblissement intellectuel. Cette métaphysique nominaliste est d'usage courant, encore à l'heure actuelle, chez certains neurologistes. Remarquons, en outre, qu'elle caractérise le complexe des phénomènes étudiés uniquement par son côté négatif, c'est-à-dire ignore le principe 1 Le lecteur devra se rapporter pour l'exposé intégral des idées de M. Head au mémoire suivant: "Aphasia and Kindred Disorders of Speech" (Linacre lecture for 1920), Brain, Part 2, vol. 43 (July, 1920). J. of Psych. (Med. Sect.) I 7 d'Hughlings Jackson, que la maladie, par les symptômes qu'elle présente, n'est pas l'expression de symptômes négatifs, ce qui n'a pas de sens, mais est la manifestation des degrés inférieurs de l'activité mentale. Or parcourons, par exemple, l'auto-observation du Dr Saloz père, de Genève, qui fut atteint d'aphasie totale suivie de guérison1. Ce malade a fort justement noté l'indépendance de la pensée et du langage, lorsqu'il écrit: Dans l'aphasie verbale, la persistance (ou la persévération) du souvenir du son du mot correct (ou de la lettre) n'implique pas la conservation de sa notion compréhensive, c'est pourquoi je dis qu'il y a toujours à ce moment-là, dans l'aphasie verbale, un déchet plus ou moins fort de l'intelligence du phénomène et par conséquent du malade lui-même. M. Naville observe, en passant, que le Dr Saloz illustre ici les deux concepts allemands du Wortlautbegriff et du Wortsinnverständniss. Par contre, l'absence d'évocation du mot n'implique nullement l'absence de ce que le malade appelle 'l'idée intuitive' de ce mot: J'insiste de nouveau, dit-il, afin de mieux faire comprendre ma pensée, que chez l'aphasique entaché de surdité verbale relative, il existe en tout cas une sorte de paraphasie incomplète (comme chez moi, par exemple) caractérisée par le sentiment de la conservation quand même de l'idée intuitive du mot plus ou moins correctement énoncé, mais avec perte partielle du souvenir de son émission non appropriée à la circonstance, ce qui donne très souvent au discours du dit aphasique cet air embarrassé, bourru, inquiet et souvent malheureux, parce que, sentant lui-même l'insuffisance de ses propres moyens de compréhension de la notion du mot formé, il est toujours tourmenté par le sentiment d'oublier une partie de ses éléments, ce qui lui procure l'impression que l'observateur ne peut le comprendre, ce qui arrive en effet très fréquemment3. Nous n'avons rapporté les deux remarques précédentes que pour mieux marquer l'indépendance globale des deux processus du langage et de la pensée. Nous tenterons tout à l'heure d'arriver à une formule plus précise. Pour cela, faisons encore appel à l'auto-observation du Dr Saloz, et essayons de mettre en relief le complexe de symptômes qui reparaissent le plus souvent sous sa plume, ce qui, de son point de vue d'aphasique, constitue le point cardinal de son affection: J'ai eu souvent l'impression que je tenais la lettre, la syllabe ou le mot en puissance1, mais par le fait d'un accroc intempestif, les voies psychologiques ont été subitement comprimées, déviées, oblitérées, coudées, etc., ou peut-être inhibées temporairement 1 F. Naville, "Mémoires d'un médecin aphasique. Auto-observation et notes psychologiques du Dr Saloz père, de Genève, atteint d'aphasie totale suivie de guérison,” Archives de psychologie, t. XVII, mai, 1918. 2 Souligné par nous. 3 Loc. cit. pp. 17, 18. 4 Souligné par nous, |