NOTES ON RECENT PERIODICALS Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Part III, 1924. The first original article in this number is by Professor Freud and is entitled "The Passing of the Oedipus Complex." In it he traces the process by which the Oedipus complex succumbs to the fear of castration, the child's ego proving, as a rule, victorious in the conflict with his libidinal attachment to the parents. The phallic phase then gives place to the latency period, identification replaces objectcathexis and the formation of the super-ego is begun. This paper has already appeared in Vol. II of Freud's Collected Papers (published by the Institute of Psycho-Analysis and the Hogarth Press). Dr A. J. Westerman Holstiju (Amsterdam) writes an appreciation of the work of Professor Jelgersma and of his influence on the Leyden school of psychiatry. In 1911, in his Rectorial Address, Prof. Jelgersma declared himself an adherent of psycho-analysis and in 1917 he took an active part in the founding of the Dutch Psycho-Analytical Society. The writer speaks of Prof. Jelgersma's remarkable psychological insight and sympathy, of his tolerance of the opinions of others and, above all, of his steady insistence on strictly scientific and empirical methods. It is largely due to his pioneer work that psychology in Holland has made so great an advance in the last fifteen years. Dr Carp contributes an article on the part played in perversion by the pregenital fixation of the libido. He gives an account of a case of obsessional neurosis with oral fixation and homosexual tendencies. He shows that here the attempt to overcome the Oedipus complex by means of one (the oral) instinct-component resulted in the transference of libido to the subject's own penis as a surrogate for the mother's breast (introjection). Later, the object-fixation reappeared in perverse practices (suckingerotism) in which the primary organ-pleasure was repeated. Dr Carp found that the patient's homosexual tendencies, to which his anal erotism contributed, represented by a process of displacement from above downwards an identification with the mother. The penis, as before, represented the nipple and the anus was equated to the mouth. The writer's experience has led him to believe that it is not uncommon for this form of homosexuality to originate in a strong oral fixation of the libido. Dr J. M. Rombouts writes on Asceticism and Power." He remarks that it is not uncommon to find cases of obsessional neurosis and of schizophrenia in which one side of the subject's personality is so strongly developed in the direction of asceticism as almost to constitute a secondary personality. He illustrates his observation by the case of a young man in whom periods of sexual temptations alternated with periods of rigid asceticism. He shows that the latter fulfilled a double purpose, being in part an expiation for the sins of the flesh and in part an expression of the desire for power. Where the ascetic tendency has the latter motivation the lower, hated impulses are regarded as alien forces, sometimes as actually outside the subject's personality. There is an attempt to return to the primitive narcissistic phantasies of omnipotence, and object-cathexes are resented and withdrawn as being an impoverishment of the ego. Thus in some schizophrenic patients we meet with the idea that a part of the ego is lost in the sexual act, an idea which forms an additional incentive to asceticism. Other incentives are found in identification with the mother, who is conceived of as wholly pure, or with the father-imago when the father is regarded as being far above anything weak or base. By means of these stages it is possible to arrive at a stage of narcissistic omnipotence, in which the subject, free from all object-cathexes, conceives of himself as God-like or even as God Himself. Dr Jelgersma contributes an article entitled "A Peculiar Custom on the Island of Mark in Holland." A translation of his article appears in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. The custom referred to is that of dressing the boys of the island in girls' clothes, until they are seven years old, when they are at once dressed like adult men. Dr Jelgersma traces the custom to the parents' unconscious fear of incest. Dr J. H. van der Hoop (Amsterdam) writes on the subject of projection. This process has been described by Freud as follows: "An inner perception is suppressed and in its place its content, having undergone a certain distortion, enters consciousness as a perception from without1." Dr van der Hoop thinks that this definition does not cover all the phenomena of projection. For example, persons of a kindly disposition frequently impute to others their own benevolent attitude. Here, though the feelings in question may be largely unconscious, it is difficult to account for the projection as the result of repressed tendencies. The writer would extend the definition to include not only inner tendencies which have been suppressed but also perceptions which have not been consciously assimilated, owing to an imperfect differentiation between subjective and objective. Such a lack of differentiation is to be observed in young children and in primitive peoples, in whom we regularly and normally meet with extensive projection. Even in civilized adults the process of differentiation is gradual and partial. Thus we are projecting when we attribute moods or sentiments to Nature, or our own feelings and ideas to our fellow-men or to God. Pathological projection arises when either the degree or the content of the projection is abnormal. It may be most clearly studied in (a) delusions of reference, and (b) schizophrenia. In (a) the content of the projection is plainly recognisable as repressed impulses. In (b) the confusion between subjective and objective may be carried to great lengths, as when the patient complains that his thoughts are put into his mind by outside agencies. The principal factors in pathological projection would seem to be (1) an increase in repression and a corresponding inner tension seeking discharge in the outside world; (2) a marked tendency to introversion. It is obvious that, since the subjective is the side of which the introvert is most conscious, he will tend to regard the evidence of his inner perceptions as valid in his conception of the outer world and may fail to correct his inner impressions by his experience. A consideration of these two factors in projection leads the writer to discuss the question of introversion, which he defines as a turning away from the outside world and a turning towards the subject's own being and the products of his inner life. Dr van der Hoop deprecates the conception of introversion as necessarily implying regression. He considers that the poet and the mathematician, both introverts, have not regressed but have adapted themselves to inner laws. At the same time the introverted attitude will determine the specific form of regression where that exists. The introvert regresses typically to narcissistic and autoerotic gratifications, whereas, in the extravert in whom regression occurs, either old objects (e.g. the parents) are invested with libido or old, infantile, gratifications are sought in connection with the present objects. (Both phenomena may be present.) Where introversion takes place in an extravert there will be a repression of infantile elements, which may lead to projection, but the manifestations of projection are likely to be transitory and they will not dominate the picture. On the other hand, introversion in the introverted type does not lead so directly to repression, for the subject's inner life holds more possibilities of sublimation and disguise. There is, however, a special proneness to projection, and this would seem to indicate that projection is primarily connected with introversion rather than (necessarily) with repression. Turning now to the question of the content of projection, the writer distinguishes between normal and psychopathological contents. The former are due to the imperfect differentiation between subject and object (as in children) and the latter to regression and repression. The question arises whether in delusions of reference and in schizophrenia we have to assume a specific regression to a particular phase of development. Dr van der Hoop's experience inclines him to think that the projection arising in delusions of reference is due to an intensification of the degree of introversion. In schizophrenia, on the other hand, he believes that there is a specific regression, not only to the autoerotic phase of individual development but to psychic forms which would seem to be an inheritance from far-back times in the history of the race (cf. 1 Freud, Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Paranoia. Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. ví, S. 417. Jung's Collective Unconscious), from some stage of development when, as in the infancy of the individual, the personal organisation was but imperfectly developed and distinguished from the outside world. Thus in the introversion of schizophrenia we have regression to the infantile-archaic phase of non-differentiation, and with the weakening of the critical faculty of the personality the liability to project is enormously increased. In a short communication entitled "The Two Kinds of Narcissism," Dr F. P. Muller (Leyden) distinguishes the narcissism which invests with libido the subject's self (his person or his intellectual gifts, as they really are or as he imagines them) and in so far retains an object-cathexis and makes reference to those around him, and the narcissism which aims at complete freedom from libidinal cathexes. To this latter type he gives the name of 'anerotism.' It is found in paraphrenics in whom the principal symptom is that of complete indifference. The gratification derived from this form of narcissism Dr Muller thinks proceeds from the mere discharge of affect undirected towards any object. He believes that we have an analogy to it in such activities as the making of purposeless movements or sounds, which may be observed both in the lower animals and in human beings. In children the anerotic pleasure in activity would seem to precede the true narcissistic admiration of their own actions. Other short communications include remarks by Dr A. Endtz on the subject of the dreams of schizophrenics, showing that in some cases at least the content of the dream is the same as that of the delusion and that the patient has not insight into the unreal nature of the dream; an analysis of the dreams of a patient suffering from retentio urinae, by Dr Westerman Holstiju; and a discussion of delusions of persecution in women, by Dr W. J. J. de Sauvage-Nolting. This number of the Zeitschrift contains also critical notices and reviews, notes on the psycho-analytical movement, and correspondence of the International PsychoAnalytical Association CECIL BAINES. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, MEDICAL SECTION (Previous notices in Journal, Vol. I, p. 96, Vol. II, p. 99.) 1921 October 26th November 23rd 1922 January 25th February 22nd October 25th The Affect in Dreams, by W. H. R. RIVERS. The Castration Complex, by DOUGLAS BRYAN. The Evolution of the War-Neuroses, by GERALD H. FITZGERALD. Homosexuality and Alcoholism, by ROBERT M. RIGALL. November 29th The Importance of the Instinct of Self-Preservation, by E. N. December 20th An Attempt to explain the 'Reality-feeling' Associated with the Phantasies of the Insane, by H. DEVINE. 1923 January 24th February 28th March 22nd April 25th May 23rd June 27th October 24th November 29th 1924 February 27th March 11th April 30th October 22nd November 26th Autosuggestion and Transference, by WM. BROWN. Some Observations and Criticisms of Psychotherapeutic Methods, by J. A. HADFIELD. The Nature of Autosuggestion, by ERNEST JONES. Joint Meeting with Education Section. A Symposium on Delinquency and Mental Defect, by N. EAST, C. BURT, F. G. SHRUBSALL and W. H. B. STODDART. Narcolepsy, by C. WORSTER-DROUGHT. The Psycho-Analysis of Hate and Sadism, by JAMES GLOVER. The Classification of the Neuroses, by EMANUEL MILLER. Primitive Mentality and the Unconscious, by H. GODWIN Baynes. The Rôle of the Physician in the Aetiology of certain Symptoms of the Traumatic Neuroses, by A. C. WILSON. 'Meaning' and 'Setting' in relation to Pathological States-A The Significance of the Mouth in Psycho-Analysis, by EDW. GLOVER. William Sharp and The Immortal Hour, by H. CRICHTON-MILLER. THE NEURAL SUB-STRATA OF REFLECTIVE THOUGHT AN OUTLINED INTEGRATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BY GEORGE G. CAMPION1. ANY attempt to unravel the workings of the neural sub-strata of reflective thought involves the presupposition that we possess some coherent view of the phenomena presented to us by reflective thought itself, and also that this view, whatever it may be, is one which is congruous with the workings of the neural processes with which it is proposed to try and establish for it a definite relationship; and further, any coherent view of the nature of reflective thought involves the whole question of epistemology and lies within the ambit of metaphysics. The psycho-neural problem has thus a twofold aspect, the metaphysical and the neural, and to attempt any solution of the problem from one side only would be something like trying to explain the normal ontogenetic development of any living being by the study of structure or function alone apart from their reactions on one another. Huxley said forty-six years ago that the psycho-neural problem was "the metaphysical problem of problems 2" Wm. James more than thirty years ago stated that its solution when it came would come in terms of metaphysics and Sir Charles Sherrington said in his Address to the British Association three years ago that "it is to the psychologist that we must turn to learn in full the contribution made to the integration of the animal individual by mind," and that "the how of the mind's connection with its bodily place seems still utterly enigma 5." 1 This paper was written under the belief that it was to be a joint contribution with Professor Stopford, with whom the neurological part of the argument was slowly matured over a period of many months, but on its completion Professor Stopford thought that his contribution was insufficient to justify his name appearing as a joint author and the writer felt reluctantly obliged to acquiesce in its withdrawal. He desires to express his appreciation of the inexpressible value to him of the help thus given and his sincerest thanks for it. The paper has been left in its original form and in its general tenour expresses the views of both. 2 On Sensation and Unity of Structure of the Sensiferous Organs. Text Book of Psychology, p. 464. 4 Presidential Address British Association, 1922, p. 12. Ibid. p. 15. Med. Psych. v 5 |