第 19 节
作者:
暖暖 更新:2021-02-24 22:59 字数:9322
Woodworth has pointed out。 All associations are conditioned by the physical condition of the patient; by his mood; by the nature of the environment he finds himself in; by the personality of the examiner and his powers of suggesting; his purposes and (very important) by the patient's purposes; which he cannot bid 〃Disappear!〃 As for the results of treatment; every neurologist meets patients again and again who have been 〃psychoanalyzed〃 without results。 Moreover; psychoneurotic patients get well without treatment; as do all other classes of the sick; and the Christian Scientist; the osteopath and the chiropractic also have records of 〃cures。〃 This is not the place to discuss in further detail the Freudian ideas (the wish; the symbol; the jargon of transference; etc)。 The leading follower of Freud; Jung; has already broken away from the parent church; and there is an amusing cry of heresy raised。 Soon the eminent Austrian will have the pleasure of seeing a half…dozen schools that have split off from his own;followers of Bleuler; Jung; Adler and others。 There IS a subconsciousness in that much of the nervous activity of the organism has but little or no relation to consciousness。 There are mechanisms laid down by heredity and by the racial structure that accomplish great functions without any but the most indirect effect on consciousness and without any control by the conscious personality。 We are spurred on to sex life; to marriage; to the care of our children by instinct; but the instinct is not a personality any more than the automatic heartbeat is。 We repress a forbidden desire; if we are successful and really overcome the desire by setting up new desires or in some other way; the inhibited desire is not locked up in a subterranean limbo。 There is nothing pathological about inhibition; for inhibition is as normal a part of character as desire; and the social instinct which bids us inhibit is as fundamental as the sex instinct。 Most conflicts are on a conscious plane; but most people will not admit to any one else their deeply abhorrent desires。 To all of us; or nearly all; come desires and temptations that we would not acknowledge for the world。 If a wise examiner succeeds in getting us to admit them; it is very agreeable to find a scapegoat in the form of the subconsciousness。 I have often said this to students: if all our thoughts and conscious desires could be exposed; the most of us would almost die of shame。 True; we do not clearly understand ourselves and our conflicts and explanation is often necessary; but that is not equivalent to the subconsciousness; it merely means that introspection is not sagacious。 Nor is it true; in my belief; that dreams are important psychical events; nor that the subconsciousness evades a censor in elaborating them。 To what end would that be done? What would be the use of it? Suppose that Freud and his school had never been; then dreams would always be useless; for they would have no interpreter。 Men have dreamed in the countless ages before Freud was born;in vain。 Think how the poor; misguided subconsciousness has labored for nothing;and how grateful it should be to Freud! Dreams are results and have the same kind of function that a stomach…ache has。 Things; experiences are forgotten; and whether they are remembered or not depends upon the number of times they are experienced; the attention they are given; the use they are put to and the quality of the brain experiencing them。 Disease and old age may lower the recording power of the brain so that experiences and sensations do not stick; and now and then the brain is hypermnesic so that things are remembered with surprising ease。 The conflicts of life are generally conscious conflicts; in my experience。 Desires and lusts that one does not know of do no harm; it is the conflict which we cannot settle; the choice we cannot make; the doubt we cannot resolve; that injures。 It is not those who find it easy to inhibit a desire or any impulse that are troubled; though they may and do grow narrow。 It is those whose unlawful or discordant desires are not easily inhibited who find themselves the theater of a constant struggle that breaks them down。 The uneasiness of a desire that arises from the activity of the sex organs is not a manifestation of a subconscious personality; unless we include in our personality our livers; spleen and internal organs of all kinds。 Such an uneasiness may not be clearly understood by the individual merely because the uneasiness is diffuse and not localized。 But there is no personality; Do will; wish or desire in that uneasiness; it may and does cause to arise in the conscious personality wills and wishes and desires against which there is rebellion and because of which there is conflict。 Upon the issue of the conflicts within the personality hangs the fate of the individual。 Race…old lines of conduct are inhibited by custom; tradition; teaching; conformity and the social instinct and its allies。 Here is a subject worthy of extended consideration。 Freud has done the thought of our times a great service in emphasizing conflict。 From the earliest restriction laid by men on his own conduct; wrestling with desire and temptation has been the greatest of man's struggles。 Internal warfare between opposing purposes and desires may proceed to a disruption of the personality; to failure and unhappiness; or else to a solidified personality; efficient; single…minded and successful。 Freud's work has directed our attention to the thousand and one aberrant desires that we will hardly acknowledge to ourselves; and he has forced the professional worker in abnormal and normal mental life to disregard his own prejudices; to strip away the camouflage that we put over our motives and our struggles。 Together with Jung and Bleuler; he has helped our science of character a great deal through no other method than by arousing it to action against him。 In order to fight him; our thought has been forced to arm itself with the weapons that he has used。
CHAPTER VI。 EMOTION; INSTINCT; INTELLIGENCE AND WILL In a preceding chapter we discussed man as an organism reacting against an outside world and spurred on by internal activities and needs。 We discussed stimulation; reflexes; inhibition; choice and the organizing activity; memory and habit; consciousness and subconsciousness; all of which are primary activities of the organism。 But these are mere theories of function; for the activities we are interested in reside in more definite reactions; of which the foregoing are parts。 We see a dreaded object on the horizon or foresee a calamity;and we fear。 That state of the organism (note I do not say that STATE OF MIND) resulting from the vision is an emotion。 We fly at once; we hide; and the action is in obedience to an instinct。 But ordinarily we do not fly or hide haphazard; we think of ways and means; if only in a rudimentary fashion; we shape plans; perhaps as we fly; we pick up a stick on the run; hoping to escape but preparing for the reaction of fight if cornered。 〃What shall I dowhat shall I do? finds no conscious answer if the emotion is overwhelming or the instinctive flight a pell…mell affair; but ordinarily memories of other experiences or of teaching come into the mind and some effort is made to meet the situation in an 〃intelligent〃 manner。 Here; then; is a response in which three cardinal reactions have occurred and are blended;the emotion; the instinctive action; and the intelligent action; or to make abstractions; emotion; instinct and intelligence。 (Personally; I think half the trouble with our thought is that; we abstract from our experiences a common group of associations and believe that the abstraction has some existence outside our thoughts。) Thus there arise in us; as a result of things experienced; curious feelings and we speak of the feelings as emotions; we make a race…old response to a situation;an instinctive reaction; our memories; past experiences and present purposes are stirred into activity; and we plan and scheme; and this is an intelligent reaction; but there is in reality no metaphysical entity Emotion; Instinct; Intelligence。 I believe that here the philosophers whose mental activities are essentially in the direction of forming abstract ideas have misled us。 What I wish to point out is this: that to any situation all three reactions may take place and modify one another。 We are insultedsome one slaps our facethe fierce emotion of anger arises and through us surge waves of feeling manifested on the motor side by tensed muscles; rapid heart; harsh breathing; perhaps a general reddening of face and eyes。 Instinctively our fists are clenched; a part of the reaction of fight; and it needs but the slightest increase of anger to send us leaping on the aggressor; to fight him perhaps to the death。 But no;the situation has aroused certain memories and certain inhibitions: the one who struck us has been our friend and we can see that he is acting under a mistaken impression; or else we perceive that he is right; that we have done him a wrong for which his blow is a sort of just reaction。 We are checked by these cerebral activities; we choose some other reaction than fight; perhaps we prevent him from further assault; or we turn and walk