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nt% mind. Since then, however, Janet has taken up an atdue reserve, as if he meant to imply that the d been nothing more to him than a manner Of ahshift, une f a ~ o n parler, and that he had de in mind, Since then I have not understood ut I believe that he has gratuitously

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itself has a meaning and is comected experithe life of the patient. The meaning of neurotic $ v p t o m s was first discovered by J, Breuer in the and " suocessful cure of a case of hysteria ( 1 8 8 ~ 2 )which has since , then bmome famous. ~t is h e that p. Janet independently -" the same result; in fact, priaity ,in must be Branted to the investigator, for Breuer did not publish observatiom until more than a decade later (1893495)~ during the period of our work together. hcidentdyy it is of no ' pat to us who made the discovery, for you know that eveyj s c ~ v e v made more d is once, and none is made : at Once* is success meted out according to deserts, A ~ ' ica is not after Columbus. Before Breuer and lanet, the : psychiahist Leuret expressed opinion that even the delusions Of the insane would prove to have some if '"ly we lmew how to banslate them. I confess that for a long I was to accord Janet very high recognition for his explanation Of symptoms, because he regarded .hem as'exPressions of " a e s incoMenteSs' possessing hepa-

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Neurotic symptoms then, just like errors and dreams* have the their meaning and, like these, are related to the life in whom heyappear. his is an important matter which 1 should like to demonstrate to you by some exam~les' I can merely assert, 1 cannot prove, that it is So in case; myone obsenring for himself will be convinced of it. For cerwn pasons though, I shall not take these examples from form o f . cases of hysteria, but from another very neurosis, closely allied in origin to the latter, about which must say a few preliminary words. This, which we call the obsessional neurosis, is not SO popular as the hysterk; it is, if 1 may so express myself, not so noisily Ostentatious, behaves more as if it Were a private affair Of the dispenses almost entirely with bodily manifestations creates all its symptoms in the mental sphere. The Obsessional neurosis and hysteria are the two forms of neurotic disease upon the s h d y of which psychoanalysis was first up, and in the h e a b e n t of which also our,therapy its Humphs. In the obsessional neurosis, however, that mystedous leap from the mental to the physical is absent, and it has really become more intimately comprehensible and transparent to us through Psychoanalytic research than hysteria; . we have come to understand that it displays far more mark~ =dly certain extreme features of the neurotic constitution. The obsessional neurosis1 takes this form: the patientPs mind is occupied with thoughts that do not really interest he feels impulses which seem alien t0 him, and he is to perform actions which not only afford him no Pleasure but from which he is powerless to desist. The thoughts l[Zwang-ro~e, sometimes called in Enghh mrnpulsion-

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most u n m n g l ~ * A g h t will he ha to worry and specua as if it were a matter of life or death to him. ~h~ i m p d m which he perceives him may seem to be of an equaY and Character; mostly, however, thq. " mnsist Of tarifying, such as temptations to commit % ~ " 0 ~ s ekes, so that the patient not o+ repudiates,fim ir but flees h.om them in honor, and guards himself by fie .. ,. prohibitions, precautions, and restdtiom agahst passibiliq Of c v g them out. AS a matter fact he never, Sterall~ even once, carries these impulses into effect; fight not f are Prwautions invariably win What he daes r e a h cohmit harmless, certainly trivial acb-what are termed fie k4'obses~ive actions-which are mostly repetitions and ceremonial 6 I&< elabo*tions of ordinary every-day perfOmanm, making cDmmon actions-going to bed washing, dressing , going walks, etce-into highly laborious tasks of insuperab1e *cd?.. The morbid idea, impulses, and actions -trme not by any means combined in the same proportions in c ' I:mdividual and c a m of the o b s e ~ j i ~neurosis; on the n~l :contraI'Ys the rule i that one or another s these manifesta$ - dominates the picture a6d gives the &ehse it- name; but what common to f0mS of it is unmistakable enough, A . 9 This is a mad disease, purely. 1 don't the wildest ! P S Y C phantasy ~ ~ have invented $ ~ ~ ~ could like it, and %-P did not see it every day with our own eyes we could we bring ourselves to believe in it. do not imagine you can do a n y w g for such a patient by advising him to himself, to pay no attention to these silly ideas, and to ' do something sensible instead of his nonsensical practices. what he would like himself; for he is perfectly aware , his condition, he shares your opinion about his obessional he even volunteers it quite readily. Only he simply himself; the actions performed in an obsessional 'Ondition are supported by a kind of energy which probably

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as no ,outerpart in normal mental life. Only one to him-he can displace and he can exchange; instead Of charone silly idea he can adopt another of a slightly acter, from one precaution or prohibition he can proceed t' instead of one ceremonial rite he can pedom anHe can displace his sense of Compulsion, but he 'mot dispel it, hi^ capacity for displacing all the s ~ m ~ t o m s , involving radical alteration of their Original forms, is a main characteristic of the disease; it is, moreover, shiking that in the ~oppo~te-uaZue~' (polarities) pervading this mental ]ife appear to be exceptionally sharply In to of both positive and negative chardoubt appears in the intellectual sphere, gradually spreading until it gnaws even at what usually held to be certain. ~ 1 these things combine to bring about an ever1 increasing indecisiveness, loss Of energy, and curtailment Of heedom; and fiat although the obsessional neurotic is or@nally always a person of a very energetic disposition, Often highly opinionated, and as a rule intellectually $ted above fie average. He has usually attained to an agreeably high standard of ethical development, is over-conscientious, and more than usually correct. YOU may imagine that it a suftask to find one's bearings in this maze Of ficiently conmdictory chara&er-trait~and morbid manifestations At fie moment our aim is merely to interpret Some symptom Of

perhaps in view our discussions you would like , to bow present-day psychiatry has to offer concerning what fie obsessional neurosis; it is but a miserable contribution, however. psychiatry has given names to the various pdsions; and has nothing more to say about them. It k t e a d fiat persons exhibiting these symptoms are "deThat is not much satisfaction to us; it is no more than an estimate of their value, a condemnation instead of an explanation. w e are intended, I suppose, to conclude that deterioration from type would naturally produce all kinds Of in people. Now, we do ,believe that people who d* symptoms must be somewhat different in q P e velop

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could even have suspected the mea&g of this uld possibly have suggested an interpretation it. Every time I had asked the patient, ' m y do you do this? w h a t is the rneadng of it?" she had answered '1 don't how." u one day, after 1 had succeeded in overcoming a ~ t g e a t hesitation on her part, involving a matter of principles ahe suddenly &d know, for she related the history of the ob=ssive act. More than ten years previously she had a man very older than herself, who had proved impotent on the wed&ng-night. Innumerable times on that night he had out of his room into hers in order to make the attempt, but had failed every time. In the morning he had said angrily: u~t's enough to &grace one in the eyes of the maid does the beds," and seizing a bottle of red ink which happened to be at hand he in on the sheet, but not exactly in the place where such a mark might have been. At first I did not understand what &is recollection could have to do with obsessive act in question; for I could See no similariV the two situations, except in the running from one room the other, and perhaps also in the appearance of the on the scene. The patient then led me to the table in the adjoining room, where I found a great mark on the table-cover0 She explained further that she stood by the table in such a way that when the maid came in she could not miss seeing &is mark. After &is, there could no longer be any doubt between the current obsessive act and about the fie scene of the wedding-night, though there was still a great deal to learn about it. ~t was clear, first of all, that the patient identified herself with her husband; in imitating his running from one room acted his part. TOkeep up the similarity we must another assume that she has substituted the table and table-cover for the bed and sheet. This might seem too arbitrary; but then we &eam-symboIism in vain. In dreams a table have not is very often found to represent a bed. ''Bed and board" together mean marriage, so that the one easily stands for other. & would be proof enough that the obsessive act is full

1896.

an account of & h d must be very explicit and go into great detail. A lady thirty years of age M e r e d from very Obsm~ional symptoms. I might perhaps have been able her if my work had not been destroyed by the caprice fab~erha~~ I shall tell YOU about it later. 1x1 the c ~ s of e a day she would perfom the following peculiar obsessive act, several times Over. She would run out of her into the adjoining one, there take up a certain position at the the centre of the room, ring for her maid, give her a eivial order or send her away without, and then back again. There was certainly nothing very dreadful about this, but it might well arouse curiosity. The explanation presented itself in the simplest and most unexceptionable manner, without any assistance on the part of the analyst. I cannot l. E Todouse, lbnfkZdn. Enquete medicqqchag(qus. p&,

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all cases. The interpretation of the d by the patient herself in a h s 4 ce or interference from the analyst, and it had an event which did not belong3 as it commonly does, to a forgotten period in chil*ood but which had occwed in the patient's adult life and was clear in her those o b j e c t i o ~which critics habitually raise memory. against our intevretations of symptoms are quite out of plam here. To be sure, we cannot always be so fortunate. inb d one thing morel Has it ,not smck you that nooent obsessive act leads directly to t lad$ most private b rdly have anything more intimate to chanoe relate than the story of her wedding-night; and is it and without special si@cance that we are led shaight to the innermost secrets of her sexual life? It might certainly be due to the choice I made of this example. Let US not decide this point too quicdy; but let us turn to the second ernple, is of a totally m e r e n t nature, and belongs to a vV common type, that of rituals preparatory to A well-grown clever girl of 19, the only child of her pSenB, superior to them in education and intellectual activity*was a wild, high-spirited child, but of late years had become very nervous without any apparent Cause. She was very her mother, was discontented and depress& particularly inclined to indecision and doubt, finally mnfffsing that she ' muld no longer walk alone through squares and wide We will not go very closely into her complicated condition, at least two diagnoses: agoraphobia and Obseswhich sional neurosis; but will turn our attention to the ritual elaborated by this young girl preparatory to going to bed* as a result Of which she caused her parents great distress. In a certain sense, every normal person may be said to caq a Out ritual before going to sleep, or at least, he requires certzin which he is hindered in going to sleep; the conditions bansition from waking life to sleep has been made into a regular formula which is repeated every night in the same manner. ~ u everything that a healthy person requires as a t condition of sleep can be rationally explained, and if the ex-

made that night so distressing, and which made the red ink namely, the husband's impotence. The obsessive act thus says: "No, it is not true, he was not disgraced before the he was not impotent." As in a dream she reprethis wish as fumed, in a current act, serves the Purpose of restoring her husband's credit after that unfortunate incident. Eve~tbingelse which I could tell you about this lady fits with this* or* more coriectly stated, everything else that we lmow her points to this interpretation of he obsessive in ibelf so incomprehensible. She had been separated her husband for years and was trying to up her miad to divorce him legally. But there would have been no Pmspect being free from him in her mind; she forced herself to be true to him. She withdrew from the world and from everyone so that she might not be tempted, and in her phantasies she excused and idealized him. The deepest of her was that it enabled her to shield him from malicious gossip, to j u s q her'separation from him, and to make a ed~tenceapart from her possible for him. The ana l ~ s i of a harmless obsessive act thus leads shaight to the ins most core of the patient's disease, and at the same tirne , a great deal of the secret of the obsessional neurosis in genera'. I am quite willing that YOU should spend some time Wer this example, for it unites conditions which cannot rea-

they wodd ' ver other bivial details of her ng new and lead US too far from our Purpose* e, though, that all this is carried out with perg is accompanied by the anxiety one properly; it must be tested and Erst upon one, then another, Of the be-o d the result is that one or two hours can sleep, or lets the intimidated ppannts

that fie ritual includes observances which go far beyond wht reason can ius+ and even some which directly contravene - this' the motive of her nightly precautions, our patient db ' 'Iarfs that she must h v e silence at night and must exclude gdllp o h b a ~ noise. She does mo things for this purpose; of ' She the large clock in her room and removes all otha 'Iwks Out of the room, including even the by wrist-watch on her bed-tab1e. Hower-pots and vases are placed carefully to. - gethsr On the Whg-table, SO that they cannot fall down in 'the night and break, and SO disturb her sleep. she knows that these precautions have only an illusory jusacation in the demand for quiet; the ticking of the little watch muid not be heard even if it lay on the table by the bed; and we all hdw that the t i c h g of a pendulum-clock never dishrbs but is more likely to induce it. She a]so admits fiat her fear that the flowerpots and vases, if left in their places at ;%ht, might fau of themselves and break is utterly hpobable*For some other practices fn her dwal &is insistence upon as a motive is dropped; indeed, by that door bemeen h a bedroom and that of her parents shall half-o~en (a condition which she ensures by placing *Ous i the doorway) she seems, 0 the conkarY, to n . 'pen the to sources of noise. The most important observare with the bed itself, however, The bolster at the head the bed must not touch h e back the wooden bedstead The pillow must lie across the bolster exactly in a position and in no other; she then places her head in the middle of this diamond, lengthways. T - , ~ eidermust be shaken before she puts it over her, so that all the feathers sink to the foot-end; she never fails, however, to Press this out and redistribute them all over it again.

analysis of these torments did not proceed so fiat of the former patient's obsessive act. I had to Offer of its interpretation which were rmived by her witha positive denial or with Sc0mful doubt merthis first reaction of rejection, however, t h "llowed a period ifi which she herself took up the possibiLities =gproduced gested to her, noted the associations the)' had memories, and established connections until she accepted all the interpretations in w o r b g them Out for herperln proportion as she did this she began to re1ax formanee of her obsessive precautions and before the end of I must he heament she had given UP the whole tell you that analytic work, as we conduct it nowadays, defiany uninterrupted concentration On a sing1e nitely vptom until its meaning becomes fully clear. It is nePssarb on the conbary, to abandon a given theme again and again, in fie assurance that one will come upon it anew in cnr teat. The interpretation of the ~ymptom, which I am now going to tell you, is &erefore a synthesis of the resultswhidq amid the intemptions of work on other points* took weeh and months to procure. ~h~ patient gradually learnt to understand that she banished clocks and watches from her room at night because t* were symbob of the female genitals. Clocks, which we meanings besides this, acquire thLI may have other significance of a genital organ by their relation to Pe*odical processes and regular intervals. A woman may be heard to boast that men,qmation occurs in her as regularly as 'lockwork, N~~ tbip patient$ special fear was that the ticldng of

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"she up and learnt the facts about sexual intercourse* she the apprehension h t on her weddingnight she would not bleed and SO would prove not to be a *gio' Her precautions against the vases breaking siwed rejection of the whole mmplex mncemed with virginity and With tho question of bleeding during the act of intercourse; a rejection of the anxiety both that she would bleed and that'she would not bleed. These precautions were in fact m n n f ~ t e dwith t6s prevention of noise. Oneday she dihed the central idea of her d h a l when she "ddedJ' understood her rule not to let the bolster touch the back Of The bolster had always seemed a to hm' she and the upright back of the bedstead a man. She fihed &refore* by a magic ceremony, as it were, to keep man and Woman apart; tbat is to say, to separate fie een' and prevent intercourse from o w n i n g . yean before 'm the institution of her ritual, she had attempted to achieve this 'nd by a more direct method. She had simulated fear, or had "pJoited a tendency to fear, so that the door bemeen her 'edroOm and that Of her parents shodd not be closed. ~h~~

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included in her present ritual; in * to make it possible to overhear her which at one time had caused her Not content with disturbing her psfis of fiat time even succeeded occasionauy e father and mother in their bed " were then really prevented from ng AS she finally grew too big be fie parents, she achieved the same thing same bed g fear and getting her mother to d to give up to her her place by the undoubtedly the starting-point of ch was evident in the If he bolster was a woman, then the shaking of the eiderdown till all fie feathers were at the bottom, making a proeaning. It meant impregnating a though, to obliterate the pregyears been terrified that interight result in another and ! other hand, if & large bolster represent meant the mother hen small pillow could the the daughter. why had this pillow to be placed diamond.wise upon the bolster and her head be laid exadly in its lengthways? She was easily reminded fiat a diamond ' * peatedly used fn drawings on w a h to si& the 'pen the man (fie father) she thus played genitals. The p a t her Own head ("* herself and replaced the male organ Symbolism of beheading for casbatim.) ~ ~ d thoughts, ~ b l you will say, to run in fie mind Of a \irgin gid admit that; but do not forget that I have not inI of thir ldnd vented these ideas, only exposed them. A deny the before sleep is alsopeculiar enough, and You correspondence, revealed by the interpretation, to me' ceremonies and the phantasies. It is more however, fiat you should notice that the litualwas the Outcome, not of one single phantasy, but of several together which must have had a nodal point somewhere Note, of that the de& of the ritual resect the sexual wishes both
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erotic attachment to the father, originating very early in .hood which had enslaved this girl. ~ t perhaps for . ~ ~ 'reason that she was SO unfriendly towards her we cannot overlook the fact that the analysis of this symptom

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of investigation is plentiful. Analysis, interpretation, and translation of neurotic symptoms has proved so attractive to psycho-analysts that in comparison they have temporarily neglected the other problems of the neuroses. Any one of you who makes the necessary effort to look up this question will certainly be strongly impressed by

of a symptom lies, as we have see% -..: e life of the patient. The more in- -. . .*. d has been formed, the more clearly ; ,i'-j !baywe expect to establish this connection. Then the m k . : i. .resolves itself specifically into a discovery, for every non- .. ...4 .': hensical idea and every uselea action, of the past situation in ~ which the idea was justified and the action served a useful . ! ..3 purpose^ The obsessive act of the patient who ran to the .- and rang for the maid is a perfect model of this kind of ' . . ,vptom. B U ~ symptoms of quite a different type are .=: hepuently seen. They are what we call typical symptoms >-' a disease, in each case they are practically identical, the in-' ,avidual differences in them vanish or at least fade away* so fiat it is difficult to connect them with the patient's life or to ituations in his past. Let us Consider' - 2 s again. The second patient's ceretf monies preparatory to sleep are in many w a y quite V P ~ ~ ~ showing enough individual features as well to make , ~. an "historica~intevretation, SO to speak, possible. But . obsessional patients are given to repetitions, to isolating tain of their actions and to rhythmic performances. Most of .\ them wash too much. Those patients who suffer from agora- .- 1"' ar of space), no longer xeckoned as '4 an obsessional neurosis but now classified as anxiety-hysteria, ,; reproduce the same features of the pathological p i c b e often : with fatiguing monotony. They fear enclosed spaws, wide9 4 open squares, long stretches of road, and avenues; they fee1 protected if accompanied, or if a vehicle drives behind them, and so on. Nevertheless, on this groundwork of similarity the various patients construct individual conditions of their o m , moods, one might call them, which directly contrast with other cases. One fears narrow streets only, another wide streets only, one can walk only when few people are about others only when surrounded with people. Similarly in hysteria, beside the wealth of individual features there are always plenty of common typical symptoms which appear to resist an easy interpretation on historical lines. Do not let US forget that it
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ihgs in forming a diagnosis. Supposing we do trace back a typical symptom in a case of hysteria to.an experience or to a chaih of similar experiences (for instance, an hysterical vomiting to a series of impressions of a disgusting nature), it will be confusing to discover in another case of vomiting an entirely dissimilar series of apparently causative experiences. J t almost looks as though hysterical patients must vomit, for \: some unknown reason, and as though the historical factors revealed by analysis were but .pretexts, seized upon by an h e r necessity, when opportunity offered, to serve its purpose. : This brings us to the discouraging conclusion that although . individual forms of neurotic symptoms can certainly be satisfactorily explained by their relation to the patient's experi@~ces, our science fails us for the far more frequent typical yet symptoms in the same cases. In addition to this, I have not nearly explained to you all the difficulties that arise during k resolute pursuit of the historical meaning of a symptom. Nor &all I do so; for although my intention is to conceal nothing 'from you and to gloss over nothing, I do not need to confuse you and stupefy you at the outset of our studies together. It . 5 true that our understanding of symptom-interpretation has only.just begun, but we will hold fast to the knowledge gained : .* ' and proceed to overcome step .bystep the cUBculties of the unknown. I will try to cheer you with the .thought that it is hardly possible to presume a fundamental difference between &e one kind of symptom and the other. I the individual form . f .of symptom is so unmistakably connected with the patient's experiences, it is possible that the typical symptom relates to an experience which is itself typical and common to all humanity. Other regularly recurring features of a neurosis, such as the repetition and doubt of the obsessional neurosis, may be universal reactions which the patient is compelled to exaggerate by the nature of the morbid change. In short, there is no reason to give up hastily in despair; let us see what more we can find out. There is a very similar difficulty met with in the theory of dreams, one which I could not deal with in the course of our

previous discussions of dreams. The manifest content of dreams is multifarious and highly Werentiated individually, and we have shown exhaustively what can be obtained by analysis from this content. But there are also dreams which may in the same way be called typical and occur in everybody, dreams with an identical content, which present the same difficulties to analysis. These are the dreams of falling, flying, floating, swimming, of being hindered, of being naked, and certain other anxiety-dreams; which yield first this, then .that, interpretation, according to the person concerned, without any explanation of their monotonous and typical recurrence. But we notice that in these dreams also the common groundwork is embroidered with additions of an individually varying character. Most probably they too will prove to fit in with other knowledge about the dream-life, gained from a study of other kinds of dreams-not by any forcible twist, but by a gradual widening of our comprehension of these things.

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