THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PSYCHO

ANALYSIS.

BY BEATRICE M. HINKLE.

MANY statements have been made in recent years to the effect that science and religion are not widely separated and antagonistic, as formerly thought, but are actually near relatives. The discovery of this relationship and the recognition of the possibility of their reconciliation has, however, been made chiefly by those interested in the preservation of religious ideas; there has been practically no consideration of the subject by anyone working from the scientific viewpoint.

Indeed psychoanalysis, which is one of the latest claimants for scientific recognition, has been largely instrumental in bringing into a clear light the soil and roots from which the spiritual arises. As a result of this work it is implied quite generally that the conception of the spiritual and religious nature of man can be regarded with a smile of superiority and this ancient heritage dismissed as having been disintegrated into its primitive elements and therefore of no further value for humanity. On the other hand the enemies of this technique and its findings have hurled as their most deadly weapon against its theories the charges of mysticism, of occultism, and of similar scientific bogies. Furthermore, these charges are for the most part accompanied by evidences of those emotional reactions of fear and anger which reveal something quite different from the cool detached scientific spirit that one expects from scientists; rather is the attitude one with which we have become more familiar in association with the defenders of religion when danger seemed threatening from the encroachments of science. Therefore we must realize that something fundamental is here involved which has a connection with a deep instinct in man. As William James expresses it "science itself has become devout."

Unfortunately, although the ideas of man may change his need does not change. His desire and longing to-day are the same as they were through the long stretches of prehistoric time out of which the myths of the race and the earliest of the Gods were evolved. He who in one age prayed "Our Father which art in Heaven" cannot, in another, eliminate this ancient human longing merely because it comes into conflict with

his intellect, while his entire emotional disposition remains the same. Yet there is for him no returning to the "God of his Fathers," and those who attempt to return meet with the disillusionment of a man who returns to the toys of his childhood. He humbles his pride and attempts to ignore his hard-won knowledge only to find the God who was once warm, living and near, is now a pale emasculated abstraction, a ‘Lifeforce,' a 'Spirit of Universal Good,' a 'Universal Energy.'

With the development of science and the emphasis on material and concrete fact, there began that objectification and formalizing of the Idea which inevitably destroys the spirit, and in this process the conception of God became deeply involved. Any effort to bring God into the realm of concrete reality, an object of the senses, or to make of him a purely intellectual and formalized being could not result in anything else than the loss of God altogether; for it is God as love, as a spirit, an unseen power, psychologically real, but not sensibly real, who is the object of worship. With the loss of this purely spiritual and personal God, the supreme object of love and adoration has also disappeared, and man is without an object great enough to act as a lure and lead him to reach beyond himself.

The knowledge that the old image of God and the religions belonging to it were the product of fear on the one hand, and the infantile wish for a loving, perfect parent on the other, in no way disposes of the problem nor renders the great need of humanity less poignant. For the real loss sustained by humanity in the materialization of the God image and the disappearance of faith in the power and greatness of religion for the development of individuals, has thrown a great amount of energy (libido) formerly bound up with these conceptions into the unconscious, and to this is due, in great measure, the disturbed, dissatisfied state of present day humanity.

Therefore, we are forced to seek for another way of solving the problem which shall at once recognize man's inner need and yet conform to the scientific attitude and the resulting reality of to-day. It is for him to face himself as object, to delve into his own depths to discover the origin and meaning of this need in himself and then deliberately to set himself the task of meeting it in an attitude satisfying to his intellect as well as to his feelings.

But this task is not one that can easily be accomplished by the individual unaided. Self-knowledge is not born of introspection, for introspection deals only with consciousness, and the springs of action and desire lie in the unconscious. He has need of a help outside of

himself, of an object conceived of as beyond himself, on whom he can project his love, and here he finds that the forces which destroyed his Gods, the forces of science, are already busied with the task of helping him to a new fulfilment.

Psychological science is largely occupied in these days with the problem of resolving the complex into the simple, and the disintegration of man's most cherished conceptions and ideals into what appears inferior and unworthy is not the least of the causes of his present disturbed condition. However, the tearing down which is the particular function of science can at the same time be the necessary process in the service of a new and better utilization of those great forces which are the basis of all man's achievement and strength as well as of his weakness and failure.

It is the aim of this paper to show that in psychoanalysis, paradoxical as it may appear, we have a method which has the power of awakening in the individual the very subjective experiences which we call spiritual, and which make for the kind of psychic growth and development that religion in all ages has aimed at calling forth. It seems an extraordinary fact that out of science, known chiefly as the destroyer of individual values, there has arisen something new and potentially creative, not only of individual values but of more highly evolved and integrated individuals themselves.

Psychoanalysis concerns itself with the feelings and emotions, not as many imagine that it may destroy them or rob man of something beautiful and precious, but in order to give him an understanding of them and thus help to release him from bondage and lead him to a greater power and freedom. The very nature of this task, dealing as it does with the strongest and deepest elements in man, namely those of love and its allied forces, must of necessity produce a great disturbance in the mind, for reason plays a poor second where strong emotions are aroused. However, when the real significance of the work is grasped, it will be seen that something has been added to man; a new power produced by the widening and deepening of his consciousness. Conceptions and ideas concerning love and religion, heretofore only intuitively expressed, now become actualities subject to scientific examination, and when interpreted psychologically are intellectually acceptable and become capable of conscious direction. Although originally developed entirely as a therapeutic measure, the technique of psychoanalysis has so greatly increased the understanding of human conduct that its usefulness has been broadened far beyond that of a treatment for the sick. It is this

aspect of the subject that offers humanity a new means of assistance in its endless struggle towards a higher development, one which includes the primitive basis of human desires as demanded by science and, at the same time, the experiences and conceptions known through religious teachings.

Psychoanalysis as developed and propounded by Freud and his pupils, definitely regards the inadequate or faulty development of the sex instinct, under which heading he embraces all the tender emotions associated with love in whatever form, as the basic cause of all neurotic states and symptoms. He considers that children hold a definite sexual wish towards their parents and that the failure to renounce this by the natural means of the mechanism of repression and transference to another object (such as occurs normally during the period of object seeking), is the cause of a lack of psycho-sexual development, with the consequent outbreak of a neurosis as a substitute formation for the unconscious and denied sexual desire. In the same way he attributes the development of culture to erotic sources and in the predominating influence which he ascribed to the sexual instinct in the life of man there is reason enough for the great antagonism and misunderstanding of his work which it was fated so long to receive. There can be nothing surprising in this when we consider what a new and radical departure from time-honoured medical methods as well as from the popular religious and philosophical conceptions, was implied in his theories. That the sexual instinct and the love emotions should play a very important part in the aetiology of the neuroses, however, is surely not extraordinary when we consider the attitude towards sexuality which our civilization has produced. With slight reflection upon the matter it is very evident that an instinct which has been fought over and struggled against for thousands of years, which has been the leading theme in poetry, romance, and the arts, must be something which possesses the power to disturb man greatly and even affect him destructively, although in a form which he is quite unable to recognize. His taboos and repressions have not destroyed it. It goes on operating in spite of his strongest opposition and his highest ethical formulations. The way of the past was to degrade the instinct and see it as something inferior and unworthy of man which must be repressed. Hence to discuss it in a concrete fashion as an active factor in human life appeared sullying and unclean. The great outcry against recognizing the power of the sexual impulse over humanity, and even against permitting an examination of these claims must itself signify something important. It reveals in the first instance

a great fear that the problem may not be really disposed of and therefore that man's effort through the method of repression may be found inadequate. With no other way to meet the danger he may be confronted with its overwhelming power; for man may not surrender himself to the 'pleasure principle' save at his peril.

Practically it is impossible to deal with the problems of any individual without coming upon sexuality; the very repressions and inhibitions to which it has been subjected have only served to give it more prominence and importance in life than it might otherwise have had. This fact has been taken advantage of by critics who have asserted that the impure mind of the analyst suggests sexual problems to the patient and that they are not spontaneous productions. There is no doubt that there are analysts who are incompetent, crude and underdeveloped themselves, and incapable of handling the delicate material with which they deal, just as there are surgeons who are clumsy and awkward operators. Unquestionably great harm and injury can be done by both. This, however, is no argument against surgery, nor is it an argument against psychoanalysis; nothing could be further from the truth than that the method of psychoanalysis suggests to the patient the material which he produces. Nor does analysis strive to hold the individual in the gross forms of his instinct; rather its aim is to help him to lead them to a higher expression.

Besides the sexual instinct there is another great primary force at work in all human beings, namely the ego instinct, the desires and strivings of which are as imperious and demanding in many persons as the sexual instinct. Freud recognizes the ego motive, but has given it very little importance, definitely stating that psychoanalysis is only concerned with showing that all egoistic strivings are admixed with feeling components from the sexual sphere. The claims of the ego impulse for independent recognition soon found a champion in one of Freud's earliest pupils, Alfred Adler. He became convinced that instead of the sexual impulse playing the predominant rôle, the strivings of the ego under the aspect of the "Will to Power" were the controlling motives of human life and dominated character formation, conduct, and the neuroses. He also saw the sexual element in the personality but, reversing Freud's view, he considered that this is always admixed with the ego components and plays a secondary rôle. The conflicts between the feelings of inferiority and the desire for superiority Adler calls "The Masculine Protest" or the "Will to Power," taking the latter term from Nietzsche, whose whole philosophy is based on the theory that the J. of Psych. (Med. Sect.) п

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