Volume 10, No.3 - Journal of the Indian Psychoanalytic

Transcription

SAMIKSA
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 3, 1956,
pp 110-168.
THREE UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS CONNECTED
WITH THE BREAST
EDMUND BERGLER
The vatiety of unconscious elaborations executed by the
unconscious ege is inexhaustible. As a result, even the experienced
psychoanalyst will from time to time encounter an entirely 'new'
defense mechanism within the framework of the already known,
already described. Most often, however, the 'new' mechanism
proves to be no more than a specific, slightly modified, variety of
the familiar.
I. "Tits or Falsies ?"
The bearer of the first symptom to be described was a man
in his late thirties, a successful manufacturer dedicated to the
proposition, "Tits or falsies ?" With unrelenting energy he scrutinized
every woman he saw in order to determine whether he curves were
genuine, artificially shaped, or enhanced by foam rubber. Since his
special interest pertained to a tabooed topic, he could pursue his
research only through ocular inspection of external evidence. Despite
this limitation, he habitually communicated authoritative conclusions
on this vital question to whatever people he happened to be with.
Although men were generally amused, and women embarrassed by
this routine, the only person who openly objected to it was his
wife. -She hated his use of the slang word, and considered his
'preoccupation' to be at the very least 'tactless', if not 'morbid'.
A seemingly unrelated conflict had brought him into analysis.
He had attempted to force his wife to bring suit against her mother
in order to adjust 'unfairnesses' in her father's will. Although
there was some justification for his suspicion that all was not right
in the wording of the paralyzed father's will, and in the subsequent
distribution of the estate, he had not been able to convince his wife
to take legal steps. She merely found his attitude infuriating,
especially because she felt that he, a wealthy man, should never have
EDMUND BERGLER
[ SAMIKSA
Vol. 10, No, 3 J THREE UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS CONNECTED
attempted to "influence her in the legal department, even if that
meant the less of a few dollars". Clearly, he had gone too far in
his attacks on "the old hypocrite" and had misjudged his wife's
attachment to her allegedly hypocritical mother. As a result of this
conflict, the wife "nearly insisted" on a divorce, while shifting the
whole problem to his "bosom tactlessness". In desperation, then, the
husband consented to enter analysis. His purpose was only to
appease, and keep, his 'raving' wife.
The comedy of quid-pro-quo permeated even their choice of
an analyst. The patient's wife chose me on the basis of a footnote
in one of my books : it referred to a study I had published (in
collaboration with a colleague) in 1933, entitled "The Breast Complex
in the Male." Although the lady had no idea of the contents of
this study (she had never read an analytic book, and she was indebted
to a girl friend for her 'knowledge' of this footnete), she knew that
'breast' was the cue, and that I must therefore be* the right man.
The analysis began with all portents negative. The patient
did not feel sick. He had no confidence in me ; I was merely his
wife's choice. Even he saw the irony in this factor at last, and
conceded that I was an entirely innocent bystander in this quarrel.
Hesitantly, he hinted that he could pay his fee for a few months
without keeping any appointments, and thus prepare an alibi of
having "completed an analysis" for presentation to his wife. When
this fantasy was disallowed, he decided to "stick it out," and advanced
another proposition : "I hear you're writing a book on laughter ;
that's fine, amuse me for my money !" Regretfully he listened as
I told him that analysis was neither a circus nor a cabaret, and that
my book* was not a joke book but a scientific investigation into the
psychology of wit. He then settled down to a "long siege of
doing nothing." I suggested that he had better use his time to
analyze what his wife designated as his 'tactlessness'..
At this the patient demurred. In his opinion,
who "always think below the belt" could objcet to
ocular inspection he directed at the region above the
him why he was so absorbed in the question of "tits or
replied that he hated hypocrisy in any form or fashion.
only Puritans
the harmless
belt. I asked
falsies". He
Laughter and the Sense of Humour. Giune & Stratton, New york 1956.
113
"Why do you specialize in breasts ?"
"I don't. I specialize in false breasts."
"What kind of business is this of yours ?"
"I'm an unmasker of hypocrisy."
"But didn't this very trait get you into a conflict with your
wife when you raved against the "old hypocrite,'® as you tactfully
called her mother ?"
This was news to the patient. He had never connected the two
facts. Excitedly, he exclaimed :
"But isn't it only natural to unmask hypocrisy ?"
"For a reasonable purpose, yes. But you applied your dubious
precepts to situations which only got you into hot water. Correct
me, please, if I'm wrong".
• Instead of saying 'touche', the patient retired behind a sullen
silence. By the time of his next appointment, he had recovered his
composure. "I must hand it to you", he said with a laugh, "in your
desperate attempt to justify your existence, at least with me, you
found a topic of conversation."
"Thanks for nothing. I'm afraid the suggested topic is more
than a stopgap and time-filler. It is a dangerous trait for you."
The 'trick' of connecting "disparate topics" had sufficiently
impressed the patient, however, and he was willing to discuss his
selfdamaging tendencies. His provocative masochistic • technique
proved to be quite extensive, pertaining to a number of fields. He
used an amusing counter-argument :
"According to you, I should change into a hypocrite myself,
and condone the hypocrisy of others by keeping silent /"
"Many men wear toupees, why don't you pick on them ?"
"Who cares about those poor devils ?"
"Why are female wearers of breast falsies 'hypocrites' and male
wearers of wigs 'poor devils' ? What is sauce for the goose is sauce
for the gander."
"O.K. You caught me in a contradiction."
"Explain the contradiction, please.1'
"Why do you have to make me furious for my money ? Is that
joke really true—the one that says the only place where the customer
is always wrong is at the psychiatrist's ?"
"Let's talk sense, and dispense with imaginary grievances.
I
114
EDMUND BERGLER
f SAMIKSA
believe that your silly campaign of 'tits or falsies'—-even the choice
of the slang word for breasts is derogatory—is a cover-up for some
important unconscious problem in you."
The analytically foreseeable proved to apply in this patient's
case ; breast engy coupled with the "complex of the small penis,"
the latter derived from comparisons between his own miniature
penis, as a child, and his mother's giant breast. As elaborated
on in my books, Fashion and the Unconscious and Neurotic
Counterfeit-Sex* this discrapancy is both a source of self-deprecation
and the starting point for a totally incorrect yardstick. These
two typical infantile fallacies have, unfortunately, farreaching
consequences. In the patient's case, they led to a frantic campaing
to prove that woman's breast isn't so big in the first place.
An amusing projection occurred ; instead of the little Johnny-comelately hypocritically enlarging on a small, imaginary breast-substitute,
his miniature penis, and making it a one hundred per cent
equivalent' to the mother's enormous breast, the exact opposite
view was installed—mother-substitutes were hypocritically enlarging,
through artificial means, their own small breasts.
• " -It'would have been logical to suspect that a man whose external
actions were those of a breast fetishist, and specialized in large
breasts, would have a reasonable grievance when deprived of them.
Nothing of the kind was actually the case. When confronted with
large breasts in bed, he would make derogatory remarks about, and
even feel some revelsion at the sight of these "ugly udders". He
was interested only in exposing woman's "breast hypocrisy".
Needless to say, his sex life was by no means as 'normal' as
his description of it claimed ; he suffered from prematurity. This
symptom he scotomized, with a peculiar rationalization. The length
of time during which he could continue to make thrusts during
intercourse without ejaculating was of no importance, he maintained :
"Since the erection does not disapear immediately after ejaculation,
the woman can, by taking over active movements, achieve an
orgasm". This consoling fantasy was punctured, and the patient
became 'interested' in the analysis which had previously seemed to
him like a caricature, not to mention "a waste of time and money".
* Bmiuier's Paychiatric Books, New York, 1952, and Grime &. Stratton, New
York, 1951, respectively.
Vol. 10, No. 3 ]
TREE UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS CONNECTED
115
As is usual with neurotic difficulties, the radius increased, and
the patient widened his attacks to include all types of hypocrisy.*
There was of course unconscious direction in the attacks he made
on his mother-in-law—a woman.
The question, "tits or falsies", found a rather unheroic
explanation in analysis ; it derived from the patient's undigested
baby fears. How the sometimes sarcastic patient took this explanation
can be imagined from the fact that he habitually put his question on
a par with the generous stock of familiar quetations with which he
leavened his semi-literacy, and classed it with Hamlet's ' T o be or
not to be" and Melville's "Typee or Hapar ?" To increase the
irony of the situation, he did not really know what the "Typee
or Hapar ?" quotation from Nelville's Typee referred to, and was
rather shaken when told that the words were the names of two
tribes inhabiting an island in the Marquesas, and that one tribe
was cannibalistic, the other partially so. "These
fears" was his grudging comment.
II. The Perversion of Pain-pleasure in "Squeezing O
on Breast with Consecutive Wounds, Infections,
A woman of thirty-five, an editor, entered analysis after a
dieappointment dealt her by an impostor. He promised marriage,
swindled her out of some of her savings, proved to be "totally
unreliable'', and left her. This'incident', plus previous disappointments
with equally 'unreliable' men, made the woman realize that "there
was something wrong with her".
She turned out to be a diligent injustice collector, always avid
for unconsciously self-created wrongs. Her psychic masochism
permeated every facet of her personality.
For our purposes, one segment suffices : Among other
'difficulties,' the patient had an unusual subdivision of perversion.
* These short excerpts from a complicated case history have been deliberately
chosen to bypass the ramifications of hypocrisy. The topic has been dealt with in
"Hypocrisy : Its Implications in Neurosis and Criminal Paychopathology". Journal
of Criminal Psychopathology 4 : 605-627, 1943 ; reprinted in The Battle of the Conscience,
pp. 153-172, Washington Institute of Medicine, 1948.
116
EDMUND BERGLER
[ SAMIKSA
.
Frequently she felt (and gave in to) an "irresistible impulse" to
squeeze out blackheads on her breast. She freely admitted that the
rational purpose was camouflage. What she really wanted was the"partly painful, partly pleasurable excitment" accompanying the
procedure. She was quite aware of the dre*ary results. While
standing in front of the mirrcr and squeezing, it -was impossible to
ignore her breasts' many wounds, in their various stages of healing,
infection, or scar tissue. Ironically, she described her breasts as
resembling a "bloody battlefield" or a "pockmarked face". Regretfully, she remarked that she had tried to increase clitoric masturbation,
only to find out that the substitute did not work. "The pleasures
did not match ; that's all there is to it."
In analyzing the patient's relationship to her mother, the familiar
complaints were brought forth : mother was a hysterical termagent
who, though superficially over-solicitous toward the girl, had tortured
her soundly.
One important detail was—rather parentheticallymentioned.
Mother had the habit of "pinching the cheeks (and- sometimes even the
chest) of fat children' as a caress. The patient had never been
caressed in this way by her mother, she declared in answer to my
question, adding ironically that her mother may have pinched her
buttocks as punishment, though this too was very vague in her
recollections.
It was interesting that the intelligent patient had never
connected the obvious facts : while squeezing herself, she unconsciously
acted two roles : that of the "bad mother" who pinched, and the
"victimized child" who suffered. So much cruelty was projected onto
the image of mother'that torture substituted for a caress.
This last stage had been preceded by a complex chain of inner
transformations. Originally, the child's aggression had been directed
against the mother's nutritional apparatus (sibling rivalry ; all children
were breast-fed) ; this aggression was guilt-laden, turned against the
child, and secondarily libidinized. This explains the "strange cruelty"
the patient herself had observed when engaged in her squeezing
procedures. "Strange that I should be so cruel to myself," she
commented. Of course, in her perversion as an adult the cruelty
towards the mother's breast was no longer identical with the original
.aggression she had felt as a child. It was equally convenient as
Vol. 10, No. 3 ] THREE UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS CONNECTED
117-
pseudo-aggressive camouflage for her own masochistic stabilization ;
unconsciously, she found it preferable to be aggressive in fantasy,
rather than masochistic in reality. In the deepest layer, it was her
own breast she was torturing, not 'her mother's.
The patient's frantic unconscious attempt to convince herself
of her own aggression was later counteracted by the masochistic
elaboration. Even at that point, she could not accept the inner
responsibility for the "pleasure-in-displeasure" pattern. Inwardly,
she saw herself as the victim of mother's cruelty : she changed her
mother's habitual caress into victimization.
None of these unconscious connections, including the stratification between more superficial and deeper defenses, both
unconscious, was known to the patient before analysis. She had
simply considered herself "half-crazy" in the "breast department."
A few confirming details came to the fore.
The patient devoted a good deal of her spare time to cretive
writing. She observed that in times of unproductivity (and she was
frequently blocked), what she called her "breast obsession" rsgularly
"got out of hand". At these times it would increase disproportionately,
diminishing as soon as she started to write again. In previous
publications, summarized in The writer and Psychoanalysis*. I have
pointed out that every writer fights an unresolved masochistic
conflict with the pre-Oedipal mother. In this conflict he uses
autarchic means, amounting to a denial of the dual situation ('bad'
mother—masochistic child). By creating the fiction that "mother
does not even exist", for out of himself, for himself, through
himself, the writer givea- to himself beautiful words and ideas, the
writer unconsciously acts both roles: that of the 'corrected',
giving mother and that of the recipient child. This grandiose
denial of psychic masochism by means of negting its prerequisite
(the 'torturer' and the 'tortured') is, in my opinion, the indispensible
preamble to artistic productivity ("unification tendency"). The
moment the writer descends from the autarchic position to the
duality position, he is blocked. The "so imprebable" nexus between
warding off masochistic vicissitudes (based on regression to the
Books, New York, 1953.
118
EDMUND BERGLER
I SAM1K.5A
oral phase) and productivity was confirmed in the case of this
patient, who fought her battle on undisguised "breast territory." *
In her symptom of mutilating the breast, the patient used an
important subterfuge, present in all neurotic and perverse symptoms :
the "pseudo-moral connotation." The latter consists of misuse of
educational precepts actually communicated to the child, or of
parental actions meant to be 'good examples.'' The neurotic applies
these precepts at the wrong time, with the wrong intention. He
perverts the meaning of the precept, but faithfully adheres to the
original wording, thus inwardly making a mockery of the reasonable.
The purpose of the unconscious ego's defensive procedure, as pointed
out in The Superego, f is to gain new ammunition for use when
the inner conscience levels a reproach. Since the superego toitures
the ego by presenting for comparison its self-created ego ideal, and
imposing punishment for every discrepancy between the-ego's actual
achievements and the ambitions enshrined in the ego ideal, use of
the "pseudo-moral connotation" enables the ego to turn the tables.
The ego has discovered that ego ideal precepts are the court of the
last resort; infractions of these precepts are indefensible. Now,
when the ego. uses defenses corresponding to ego ideal precepts, the
superego is stopped cold. The ego ideal thus seems to be accepted
as yardstick by both ego and superego, and serves as a "double
immobilization trick." Unfortunately, the ego finds more "positively
forbidden" than "absolutely approved" items within the ego ideal.
As a result, the ego must stretch the point by resorting to ironic
sophistry.
* An interesting problem arose : why did the patient not shift the territory,
how could she fight the inner oral battle—at the bieast ? The intermediary phases
have not been worked out in these shortened excerpts, but they were discernible :
checks (see the remark quoted above—"Like a pock-marked face"), buttocks, breasts.
Since the patient as a child could not brag of breasts, the breast territory was 'new,'
hence shifted. A contributory factor -was pseudoaggressive spitefulness directed at
mother / "Now, I have breasts I" It became obvious that her own breast. envy was
protectively shifted to mother's alleged envy cj: the breasts eventually developed by
the child: "If I had breasts as a child, mother would have. mutilated them!"
Mother's friendly squeezing technique was unconsciusly misunderstood by the child
as an act of aggression, cruelty, malice,
t
Giune & Stratton, New York, 1952.
vol. ID, JNo. 3 ] THREE UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS CONNECTED
119
This was actually the case with the patient. Her mother did
use the pinching technique, though as a caress. By 'verbatim'
repetition of the technique—at the wrong place, at the wrong time,
for the wrong purpose—the patient could prove that she acted in
accordance with her mother's actions. The ironic undertone is
unmistakeable : "See what one can get from mother—pain, bloody
wounds, infection !"
III.
Use of the Breast as Masochistic Weaning Experience,
Plus Denial of the Latter, Producing Vaginal Orgasm
The patient was a woman of forty, and a writer of distinction.
She came into analysis because of protracted writer's block. She had
never experienced vaginal orgasm in her marriage or in her extramarital affairs, although (especially in' 'disappointing' relationship)
she did reach clitoridean orgasm. However, she was capable of
producing vaginal orgasm during masturbation, using a very special
technique. * She would kneel naked on the bed, holding herself up
on her knees and left hand, and use the fingers of her right hand to
stimulate the nipple. The genitals were not included in the stimulation
either directly, or by movements of the pelvis or legs. All that was
needed was stimulation of the nipple while watching the pendulous
breast* After some time, vaginal orgasm was reached.
This rather fantastic routine could be clarified by analyzing the
patient's oral-masochistic regression : the wish to be refused, in
faulty elaboration of early nutritional disappointments, fancied of real.
The (breast-fed) patient had been weaned as soon as she reached the
age of six months. Since the family was sure that the new regime
would be stormily received, and wished to remain undisturbed, the
child was taken to her aunt's apartment, which was adjacent to her
own family's. The great moment of feeding time came, and the bottle
was given for the first time. Instead of crying, the infant pushed the
bottle aside with her chin, and after a moment of hesitation turned
her head to the wall and—went to sleep. The hunger-strike lasted
* This .case is cursorily mentioned in the author's study, "Some A-Typical
Forms of Impotence and Frigidity, "The Psychoanalytic Rev., 41 ;29-47,1954.
2
EDMUND BERGLER
120
[ SAMIKSA
for no more than a day ; a gradual adjustment to the bottle took
place.
•
.
What the patient unconsciously did in her masturbation routine
(the only one she used) consisted of three acts :
_
1. It was a denial of the weaning experience with autarchic
improvements ;
, , . .
2 It was a pseudo-aggressive nullification of mother s giving,
also by means of proving that the latter fed the child for her own
excitement (nipple stimulation) ;.
3 It represented a "magic gesture" ("I dramatize how mother
should have acted, but didn't"), but unconsciously included, as all
magic gestures do, a masochistic whimpering, more deeply reprassed.
The most amazing part of the procedure was the vaginal orgasm:
unconsciously the patient identified mouth with vagina. The contractions represented—sucking and swallowing, f
It was probably not by chance that the patient was a writer, a
person who habitually uses autarchic means (see case II).
The patient's orgasm was probably both a triumph over the
refusing mother image and an accepted (though somewhat eradicated)
masochistic defeat administered by the very same image. %
*
To adduce an example from another field : Chemical science
can analyze the sand in the desert, but cannot foresee what forms the
desert sand will assume under the influence of the desert wind. Our
business is to concentrate on the essentials in psychodynamics : the
details of psychic phenomena are limitless, and have to be scrutinized
in each specific case.
#
For elaboration, see The Basic Neurosis, pp. 301-304; Grune & Stratton,
New York, 1949.
f For details, see Neurotic Counterfeit-Sex, 1. c,
1 The problematic of "masochistic female orgasm" is discussed in "Some
A-Typical Fronts of Impotence and Frigidity," I.e.
NOTES ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
APPLIED TO THE RORSCHACH TEST
MARGARET THALER*
Studies utilizing Rorschach Test interpretations and psychiatric
observations often achieve little conceptual integration, because
rationale is assigned to Rorschach data from several personality
theories and the clinical observations are stated within even other
conceptual frameworks. This paper presents excerpts from a study
in which a consistent rationale was assigned to Rorschach scorings so
that a single set of definitions might be used to state hypotheses and
to integrate psychiatric observations and protective data. An actual
application of the ideas to a group of records will appear in a
later paper.
Logically one may systematically re-define the meanings now
assigned various Rorschach scorings within the constructs of each of
various personality theories. Here three personality theories were
selected because of their wide familiarity and general breadth of
viewing personality. These were the major constructs of basic
psychoanalytic theory 2 , 4 , 1 0 particularly as it has been extended by
ego psychology
W 8 and the theories of Kurt Goldstein s 6 r 8 and
1S 14 15
KurtLewin , , .
Each of these attempts a global conceptualization of the "total
person," i.e., the physical, emotional, environmental, and historical
aspects, but at the same time, each gives relatively more emphasis to
certain factors. Goldstein emphasizes the somatic aspects of the
perceiving organism. Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the psychic
aspects of functioning. Lewin gave greater weighting to the influence
of the current environment on functioning.
As a starting point, the Rorschach scorings 1 , 1 1 , 1 S 17 a o 2 l *2 as
were uniformly assigned meanings within a perceptual-associative
conceptualization of the test. This starting point was compatible
wjth all three theories. .A subject is asked to look at the blot and
*Dept. of Psychology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington 12,D.C.
122
MARGARET THALER
SAMIKSA
Vol. 10, No. 3 j
tell what it might resemble. The perceptual impressions call forth a
series of associations from which the subject selects those he deems
appropriate. At the end of this article appear these basic perceptualassociative definitions of the Rorschach scorings along with the
rationale assigned each of them within the three personality theories.
The construct language of each theory has been utilized wherever
possible.
1. Reaction time : reflects the ego's role in controlling the
time involved between the perception of a stimulus and
the discharge of a verbal-motor impulse as a response.
2. Variety of determinants : reflects the degree to which the
ego functions . as a flexible controller of which affective
nuances of behaviour are allowed verbal expression.
3. M-responses: suggest the availability of fantasy which
can be used to delay action and plan for longer term
satisfactions according to the reality-pleasure principle.
4. Colour responses : reflect the ego's ability to synthesize
ideas and affective states and to control the discharge of
impulsive motor responses.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
FC:
C.
ability to synthesize affective components and
ideational material; and an ability to satisfy
impulses according to the realitygajJiiStere principle,
CF the above synthesis is not J^P?m"piete and the
motoric aspects may appear ifPPpJj^îpent.
C : the ego is not in control of c e r t p s âffective,, impulses
and they are discharged impulsively ^ttrsfimotor basis
with little or no delay (extreme pleasure principle).
The ego controls the functioning of memory processes.
1. Number of responses : reflects the ego's capacity to utilize
memories, to allow past experiences and ideas to emerge.
A paucity of associations' reflects marked repression of
associations.
A. The ego functions as the regulator of perceptual activity*
1. Manner of approach : reflects the style in which the
ego delineates perceptual impressions.
2. Sequence of areas : reflects the ego's capacity to
selectively focus and direct attention on various aspects
of the situation.
3. Perseveration of responses : indicates that the ego has
little or no control over the repetitive occurence of an
association. Marked pathology of a psychic or organic
nature is suggested.
123
B. The ego functions to regulate ana' confrol the discharge of
motor impulses.
RORSCHACH SCORINGS DEFINED WITHIN EGO FUNCTION CONCEPTS:
The Rorschach is considered to be a technique for tapping
some aspects of a person's perceptual-associative processes. These
processes are en-compassed within the ego construct. The ego of
an individual is inferred to develop from the interaction of three
sets of factors : inherited ego characteristics and their interactions,
influences of the instinctual drives, and influences of outer reality.
The ego organizes and controls motility, in integrates and regulates
perceptions of the'oiiter world and the self. It tests reality, controls
actions and thinking ; it inhibits and delays the discharge of impulses;
it has anticipatory functions, synthesizing and differentiating
functions, and is the point of integration among inner drives, the
rules of society, and the requirements and demands of the immediate
environment. The criteria by which the above ego functions may
be judged can be classed under five headings : regulation of perceptual
activity, cDntrol of motor discharges, the functioning of memoryprocesses, reality testing, and various inferred synthesizing functions.
NOTES ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
..^xx
2. Categories of responses : reflects the ego's capacity to
allow a breadth or narrowness of realms of past experiences
and ideas to come into awareness.
3. Stereotypy of content-, suggests the ego has restricted
associative spontaneity to one or two 'safe' realms of
associations (secondary repressions may have limited the
possible'realms'of associations).
0.
The ego acts as the focus of reality testing
individual :
within
the
124
MARGARET THALER
[ SAMIKSA
voi. w, IMO.3 J JNOTiSS ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY^
discharge of a motor impulse as a response. The quality
of the response then reveals the capacity of the ego to select
which associations will be given in terms of reality or
pleasure adjustments.
1. Populars: reflect the ego's propensity for response to
community thinking patterns, and an awareness of the
conventional, socially compelling aspects to which most
persons respond in a situation.
2. Present of form responses:
represents the relative
quantity of associations which emerge as products primarily
of formal reasoning compared with associations that emerge
more obviously tinged with affective components (non-form
responses).
3. Well-seen responses : the continuum of form responses
from plus to minus can be inspected to determine the ego's
ability to maintain a reality oriented level in formal
reasoning processes and its capacity to prevent unconscious
factors from encroaching upon the formal reasoning
processes. This represents the ego's capacity to control
reasoning at conflict-free level.
4. Total form : Total form level of all responses (including
FC, M, FK, etc.) can be inspected to evaluate the ego's
over-all reality orientation, be it in dealing with formal
conceptualization processes or with the integration of affects
and logic processes.
5. Relation of F plus to M : can be regarded as an indication
of the ego's check against autistic fantasy.
6. Relation of F plus to colour: indicates the ego's check
against the pressure of discharging affects on a motor level.
7. F plus and Z : F plus in conjunction with Z reveals the
level of reality testing the ego maintains when several
associations are combined. Does the ego allow autistic
combinations to occur, or does it maintain a reality testing
level. Are creative productions or delusional thinking the
end result of the associations.
8. Presence of M responses: reveals the availability of
fantasy which can be used to delay actions and plan for
longer term satisfactions.
9. Reaction time : reflects the ego's role in controlling the
time involved between the perception of the stimuli and the
125
£.
The ego has various inferred! synthesizing functions.
1. Z score : reflects the tendency or ability of the ego to
relate several associations into a unified concept.
2. Colour responses : The type given reflects the ego's relative
ability to synthesize affects and ideas and to control
the discharge of impulsive motor responses. FC responses
suggest a capacity to synthesize ideational and affective
content. CF responses suggest the synthesis is not complete
and the motor impulses appear more prominently. G
responses reveal a lack of this synthesizing capacity.
3. Defense mechanisms : The ego sets up defense mechanisms
to defend itself against anxieties which arise because of
conflicting pressure from external reality, drives, and the
conscience. The ego must act to integrate and handle these
pressures. The presence of anxiety acts as a warning that
the degree of pressure is reaching a point where something
has to be done. The various defense mechanisms are set
up to handle anxieties. The amount and types of anxiety
can be noted.
•
. '
Two clusters of defense mechanisms appear to be found in
individuals, the repression-avoidance and the isolation-intellectualization constellations.
The repression-avoidance constellation vfill be likely to produce
the following Rorschach features :
a. A low number of responses
b. Restricted elaboration in the inquiry
c. Few M
d. Few differentiations of determinants
e. Narrow range of content
f. Rejection of cards
g. Emphasis on W and D
The isolation-intellectualization set of defenses will Be likely
to produce these Rorschach features :
126
MARGARET THALER
[ SAMIKSA
a. Large numcer of responses
b. Considerable elaboration in inquiry, many words and ideas
c. A relatively large number of M
d. A variety of determinants
e. Varied content
f. Emphasis on D and d
F. Content analysis.
Analysis of Rorschach content may give .clues to conscious and
unconscious attitudes and motivations. What are the identification
patterns of this person. What attitudes, sets, sexual roles, and body
image patterns can be inferred from the Rorschach content.
RORSCHACH SCORINGS DEFINED WITHIN GOLDSTEIN'S CONCEPTS
Goldstein's concepts offer the ordering of Rorschach data three
jnajor questions : What can be inferred about the internal and
external figure-ground relationships of the organism ? What is the
relative status of concrete and abstract attitudes within the person ?
What can be said about the continuum of ordered to catastrophic
behaviour inferred to be present ?
A. What are the ways by which catastrophic conditions are
avoided ?
1. When individuals have felt inadequate to meeting the
environment as it is and have shrunken the world and their
own responsiveness as a means of coping With the situation,
the following would be expected :
a. Less than the average number of responses expected for
the age group.
b. High A% and other stereotypy indicates the effects
of limiting the kind and range of stimuli to which a
response is given.
c. The rejection of cards is a rufusal to enter a threatening
situation.
d. The expression, "this is hard," and so forth, indicates
the person is reacting with feelings of inadequacy when
" the environment is difficult to handle and the individual
notes his own defense of withdrawing.
Vol. 10, No. 3 ] NOTES ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
127
e. The lowering of P's suggests the person has given up
responding to even the most conventional, non-threatening
associations to which most persons in our culture
respond on this test.
f. Some may resort to compulsive activity by giving overproductive records. Occasionally a person may begin
by giving several responses on Card I and then dropping
the effort. This can indicate these persons try to meet
the threats from their environment by an initial burst
of compulsive activity and then resort to withdrawal of
response as their more prominent defense.
2. Perseverations can be regarded as indicative of abnormal
after-effect. The organism is reacting catastrophically when
a response continues.
3. The wider the variety of determinants, the wider the
suggested range of behavorial responses available to the
organism. Thus a small variety of determinants will suggest
the organism has shruken its affect response variation.
4. The presence of many responses scored 'F' with neither
plus nor minus variations, such as sticks and rocks, will
be regarded as behaviour reflecting some reduction in
responding to clearly differentiated and specific objects
and associations as a means of limiting responding to anxiety
producing elements of the world.
5. The sequence of areas represents the capacity of the
organism to selectively choose which elements in presenting
stimuli will be given attention. Extreme rigidity is the result
of a marked attempt to constrict attention to avoid catastrophic states. Too much fluidity in attention reveals the
organism is at the mercy of presenting stimuli and is responding without active control over direction of attention.
B. What are the relative proportions
attitudes within the record ?
of concrete and abstract
1. Records can be inspected to note the number of individuals
who at any time treat the cards as if they were actual things
to recognize. This can be indicative of a concrete attitude
toward the task and to examplify Goldstein's idea that the
3
128
MARGARET THALER
[ SAMIKSA
abstract attitude is a prerequisite for assuming a mental
set toward the "mere possible". In tHe Rorschach the
subject is asked to assume an abstract attitude. He is asked,
"what might this resemble ?" He is asked to think conceptually along this line : This blot has features that allow
it to be regarded as a vague representative of a category.
What category does it resemble and specifically what
particular objects in that category ?
2. Z scores reveal a capacity for an abstract attitude and may
reflect also the capacity to voluntarily shift attention. The
person is able to abstract certain qualities from several
parts of the card and relate them. However, Z can result
from a concrete reaction to the entire card and in these
instances indicates a concrete attitude.
3. The giving of M responses reflects the capacity to plan
ahead idationally, to assume an attitude toward the "mere
possible," toward things to come.
4. W associated with fairly high form level reflects an abstract
attitude. The person can make a response based on reacting
to the over-all blot and abstracting from it essential qualities.
An over-emphasis on D reflects a concrete attitude. An
over-emphasis on any area may reflect the 'forced' responsiveness engendered by a concrete attitude. Such an
individual keeps responding to a certain type figure-ground
pattern.
5. Inspection can be made of those records where the subjects
seemed to refer to the generic and not the specific term.
This may reflect an inability to differentiate and shift from
an abstract category to a necessary concrete one.
6. Rejecting a card may be due to a concrete attitude that
the card really should represent "some thing".
7. A relatively poor capacity to verbally account for responses
in the enquiry can be indicative of a concrete attitude.
The individual is not able to remove himself from the
bond of the impression and verbally describe the response
as simply one of a category or to abstract those features
of the blot which relate to the categorical similarities
necessary to reason actively.
129
8. Those dr responses reflecting an concrete response to two
or more areas of the blots as parts of a whole (Adx
or Hdx), but without seeing the larger usuaL response,
can indicate a concrete attitude. The subject can be
displaying an inability to shift from concrete parts to a
more concept.
C. What can be said about the figure-ground relationships implied
by the findings ?
1- The amount of F plus from responses as well as the
total from level of all responses reflect relative proportions
of clearly differentiated perception of figure-ground relationships compared with those in which differentiation of
figure-ground is not clear.
2. Perseveration of a response indicates a breakdown in the
equalization process. A response is being perseverated
because a part of the organism has been isolated and
the response continues. The organism has not been able
to return to an equalized state. A response remains figure
longer than it should.
3. Highly individual content will be likely to affect those
objects whose values have become outstandingly significant
to the subject.
4. The presence of many responses scored 'F' without plus
or minus such as sticks and rocks reflects some turning from
clearly differentiated to less differentiated figure-ground
perceptions.
5. The influence of brain damage upon the internal figureground relationship within a person can be evaluated when
Rorschach indicators of brain damage are noted.
RORSCHACH SCORINGS DEFINED WITHIN. LEWiN'S CONCEPTS :
Lewin's theory offers the ordering of Rorschach data under
the concepts of regions, barriers and locomotion ; level of aspiration ;
regression, and the concept of the 'person,'
1. Barriers, regions, and locomotion within the life space are
major constructs in Lewiriian theory. Inferences regarding
130
MARGARET THALER
t SAMIKSA
them can be made from Rorschach data in the following
way :
a. Reaction time : In slow reaction times a barrier surrounds
the region of verbal expression interferring with locomotion toward expressive behaviour.
b. Rejection of cards : The barriers surnunding the region
of differentiating a particular card into a figure-ground
are insurmountable.
c. The number of responses tells something of the barriers
surrounding locomotion toward the verbal expression
of ideas,
d. Perseveration : Insurmountable barriers arise around one
figure-ground pattern and the subject can not locomote
but within the narrow confine of one associational region
of the field. An internal barrier region prevents ideational locomotion from region to region internally.
e. Sequence of areas: Moving attention from one to
another of the blot areas may be regarded as visual
locomotion from region to legion and inferences regarding
the flexibility or rigidity of barriers surrounding the
visual locomotion regions of the person may be inferred.
The succession of areas reveals how this suject surveys
the field by visual locomotion. Inferences can also be
drawn regarding types of perceptual organization so
revealed.
f. Categories of content : These reflect the differentiation
of regions in the life space into which locomotion can be
made on a thought (irreality-reality) level.
g. Stereotypy: Rigid barriers have been erected around
most regions of the life space except this one. Locomotion
into other regions is prevented by strong tensional states
arising when locomotion is attempted.
h. F% : If F responses are regarded as the products of
formal reasoning and the other determinants as primarily
responses to external stimuli, low F% may reveal the
barriers between the environment and the self are weak
and the person may be too responsive to external stimuli.
High F% suggests the region of formal reasoning has
Vol. 10, No. 3 3 NOTES ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
131
strong barriers and ideational locomotion is limited to
this region,
i. FK : The outer regions of the life space are seen as large
and hard to handle.
j . K : The outer regions of the life space are seen as
threatening and clear figure-ground perception is not
occurring.
k. Fk : Some degree of differentiation of threat regions in
the life space is being made.
1. Colour responses : FC responses suggest a permeable wall
between motor and ideational regions, but with a good
differentiation of self and field. CF responses reveal
motoric tensions have a higher valence than ideational
tensions. C responses reveal a strong barrier between
motor and ideational regions, but little or no barrier
around the motor region, i.e., a strong barrier between
peripheral and central layers of the personality, but little
or none between
environmental impingement and
peripheral motor layers.
m. Variety of determinants : A wide variety of determinants
reflects the degree of differentiation of emotionally-toned
responses available or the degree of differentiation of
affective regions within the person.
n. Space responses : The person has perceptually locomoted
away from the stimuli presented. The subject leaves the
field, he does not confirm, he moves against confirming.
o. Z score : The higher the Z score the greater the tendency
to relate elements in the life space into larger units. A
high Z score suggests elements in the life space may be
highly organized. Also barriers between inner regions
of the person are permeable and intellectual locomotion
from region to region is possible.
2, The number of responses and the ratio of W to M can
be regarded as behaviour reflecting the level of aspiration
revealed in the records.
3. The data from the subjects can be evaluated for indications
of regression. Regression fron the expected performance
patterns of set groups, such as the current criteria for young
132
MARGARET THALER
ISAMIKSA
adult records, etc., can be inferred when primitivation is
seen in the following features :
a. A decrease in the variety of behaviour will be inferred
when a relatively limited number of determinants is
present. The variety of determinants reflects the
differentiation of emotionally toned responses available.
b, Z score reflects a level of perceptual organization in which
the individual tends to organize and relate some of his
perceptions into larger units.
The number of categories of content represents the areas
C.
of interest the person reveals.
When the sum of FM and m is more than 1J times M,
regression on a fantasy level can be inferred.
Decreases in realism can be inferred from F ' minus
e.
responses and few populars.
4. Features of the 'person' aspect of the life space can be
inferred from M and human content.
5. The sum of the colour responses and their relative values
reveal tendencies to over-or under-react on a motor level
when feeling expression is involved.
6. The presence of anatomy responses reflects concern over
body processes. For example, with a group of elderly
subjects the aging process can be postulated to cause one
to react to the body as an unknown region that appears
strange and unreliable to the person. Bone structure
responses can be regarded to reflect attention given to the
structural support these body parts provide. Visceral
content can be regarded as concern over the status of more
obscure regions of the functioning body.
7. M and FK can be regarded as responses revealing something
about the irreality level of the personality and attitudes
toward the psychological past and future.
IMPRESSION FROM THE STUDY
The main purpose of this work was to explore the feasibility
of consistently assigning meaning to Rorschach scores from three
personality theories.
133
After defining Rorschach scores within a perceptual-associative
framework, the next step was to select those concepts which were
pertinent to the Rorschach items from the theories of ego psychology,
Goldstein and Lewin. From among the many constructs, those
chosen appeared to be the most applicable among the major concepts
of each theory.
The over-all impression was that this offered an excellent step
toward stating hypotheses within one personality theory so that an
integration could be made among psychiatric observations, perception
studies, and projective test findings.
An application of these sets of definitions was made to the
Rorschach records of two groups of aged subjects, one a normal
group living independently in the community, the other a group of
recently institutionalized seniles. These findings appear in a later
paper and illustrate the types of interpretations the three theories
provide.
Increasing familiarity with each theory and experience in
formulating hypotheses about Rorschach and other behaviour within
a single framework permitted the formulation of observations and
inferences about behaviour at equivalent levels of inference.
The following section presents comparisons of the definitions
discussed earlier.
Perceptual-associative
rationale
Reaction Time
This indicates the speed with
which an association is voiced
in response to the task
instructions.
Goldstein
Psychoanalytic
Control of motor
discharges
The reaction time reflects the ego's role in
controlling the time
involved between the
perception of a stimuli
and the discharge of
a motor impulse as a
response.
Slow reaction time may reflect caution, psychomotor
retardation, pathological inhibition, etc.
Brief reaction times frequ- Selectivity
ently indicate extensive idea- The quality of the
tional productivity, an uncri- response given then
tical attitude, an inability to reveals the capacity
delay and consider before of the ego to select
expressing ideas, or that •which associations will
aspects of the blot offer be given in terms of the
support for an over-valent reality-pleasure princiidea to the subject.
ple.
Foualization
Each change produced
by a stimulus is equalized within a certain
period in order to return
the organism to its
adequate, average state.
The reaction
times
should indicate
the
speed or slowness of this
process.
Slow reaction times reflect a relative lag in
noting or verbally expressing a perceived
change in outer figureground relationships. It
may reflect inner states
which prevent normally
rapid shifts in mental
processes.
Lewin
Barriers and Locomotion
In slow reaction times a
barrier surrounds the
region of verbal expression, interfering with
locomotion toward expressive behaviour.
In fast reaction times
barriers to the expression of an idea are easily
surmounted.
a
t>
{*>
M
H
H
X
>
r
m
73
CO
>
in
>
Psychoanalytic
Goldstein
Number of rosponses
This reflects the quantitative
ideational productivity of the
subject.
Memory and repression
The number of
responses reflects the
ego's capacity to utilize
memories, to allow past
experiences and ideas
to emerge. A paucity
of associations reflects
marked repression of
associations, low IQ,
etc.
An exceptionally high
number of rosponses
may reflect the effects
of the isolation-intellectualization constellation
of defense mechanismsMotivation
The number of responses
may reflect the ego's
response to motivation
to interact with in a
task situation.
Avoidance of
catastrophic conditions
Low pioductivity
reflects the organism is
shrinking the world and
its own responses to
avoid catastrophic
condions.
Memory
Low productivity may
reflect
memory loss.
Concepts have been
passively lost because
they are not
used
currently.
Concreteness
Low productivity may
reflect concreteness.
The organism may react
to the blot as if only
one or two responses
could be possible
because the card can't
'be' anything else.
Compulsive activity
Over-productivity may
reflect compulsive
activity as a' defense
against catastrophic
conditions.
depends upon the flexibility
of the perceptual processes
and the wealth and pliancy
of the associative processes.
Not only the number of
responses but the quality
must be judged.
Lewin
Level of aspiration
<
2.
S
9
plus W : M will reflect CO
the level of aspiration.
Barriers
z
o
H
o
indicates the strength
of barriers surrounding
locomotion toward the
verbal expression of
ideas.
3
g
High productivity suggests intellectual output to
is an over-valent drive. O
O
Porceptual-associative
Rejection of a Card
Failures to respond on a
card correlate negatively with
the number of responses and
indicate a paucity of
ideomotor activity.
The subject fails to organize
perceptual material so that
it initiates and guides the
associative processes, and
the latter fail to supply a
sufficient variety of possibilities to further perceptual
organization.
Psychoanalytic
Goldstein
Lewin
Repression
The mechanisms of repression and avoidance
are sufficiently strong to
prohibit any associations
from emerging to the
level of verbal
expression.
The proportion of pure
form responses in contrast to other determinants reveals
the
amount of ego control
ranging from a pervasive inhibition of affects
to a relative lack of
control
over
their
influence upon associations.
Avoidance of catastrophic conditions
The rejection of a card
is an indication that the
organism is refusing to
enter a threatening situation. This is a defense
against the occurence
of a catastrophic condition.
Concrete attitude
The rejection of a card
may reflect a concrete
attitude on the subject's
part that he should
'recognize' the card
and is unable to do so.
Barriers
The barrier surrounding
the region of differentiating a particular card
into figure and ground
is insurmountable.
Psychoanalytic
Goldstein
Lewin
Form responses
Only the form characteristics
of the area are used as the
associative processes search
for and select a content.
The ratio between F
and other determinants
reflects the quantity of
associations that emerge
as products primarily of
reasoning
compared
with associations that
emerge more obviously
tinged with affective
components.
A high F percent may
reflect a concrete attitude in which the subject
takes the set "what is
this ?" when viewing
the card and thus limits
himself to attempts at
recognition.
The use of form as a determinant appears to relate to
the subject's formal reasoning
and adherence to the demands of logic.
The relative ratio between
F and other determinants
reflects the relative quantity
of associations
primarily
'intellectually'
determined
contrasted with those influenced by affect.
A continuum of ego
control is implied. The
ego may pervasively
inhibit or repress the
experiencing or expression of obviously affectladen associations (high
F%).
The opposite
extreme is that the ego
may be unable to limit
the influence of the
unconscious affects upon
the associations.
>
7*
Low F% may reveal the p
barriers between the %
p
environment and the to
self are weak and the
persons may be too O
responsive to external H
w
stimuli.
•
O
%
A high F% suggests the
regions of intellectual
control have strong pa
barriers and ideational H
locomotion is limited to W
o
this region.
3
t-4
M
3
8
Psychoanalytic
Goldstein
Lew in
Form level
F plus responses reveal that
from the wealth of past
experiences which supply
associative possibilities to
match the perceptual impressions, a critical assessment
is being made of the degree
of congruence between the
possibilities offered by the
associative processes and the
formal characteristics of the
blot.
F reflects a deviation in the
associative processes toward
accepting a less congruent
response.
l
F' responses indicate only
a minimum critical integration has been effected between the perceptual impressions and the associations
which could support a
response.
F responses suggest a serious discrepancy between the
content of the response and
the perceptual configuration
to which it refers.
F reflects the ego's
ability to maintain a
reality oriented level in
formal reasoning processes and to prevent
unconscious
factors
from encroaching upon
the formal reasoning
processes, i. e., to maintain reasoning at a conflict-free level.
Figure-ground
Degree of Realism
The form level reflects
the degree of differentiation of figure-ground
patterns.
The giving of good form
responses reveals a flexibility within the organism to sort through a
number of concepts and
to come to an accurate
conclusion.
The mature individual
is able to clearly distinguish between irreality
and reality.
F reveals some attempt in
the associative process to
decrease the discrepancy.
Manner of Approach
The W, D, d ratios reflect
how the individual perceptually articulates situations.
The subject's approach to
the blots has a fundamental
continuity with his manner
of approaching everyday
situations.
Total form level
This reflects the ego's
ability to maintain overall reality orientation be
it in dealing with formal
conceptualization
or
with the integration of
affects and
thought
processes.
The relation of F to M
indicates the ego's check
against the pressure of
discharging affects on a
motor basis.
' Psychoanalytic
The manner of approach
reflects the style in
which the ego organizes
perceptual impressions.
The ratio of 20% W, 67%
D, and 13% d will be
assumed to reflect the
probable influence of
the Gestalt qualities of
the cards and group
tendencies to respond
to these perceptual
articulations.
Deviations from this pattern
reflect the ego's role in
organizing perceptions
for need-d i c t a t e d
reasons.
W The abstracting, integrating and generalizing capacities are inferred from W's.
D An emphasis on D suggests
that articulation of perceptual
impressions follows easy, The manner of approach
common delineations. Atten- suggests indirectly the
tion to the obvious details in style of defenses used
life situations is represented by the ego to ward off
anxiety by controlling
by this area.
the "perceptual focus"
The presence of many dr, de, taken toward situations,
and S responses suggests i. e., over-generalizing,
disorders with ideational attention to only minute
symptoms are present. The aspects of situations, etc.
>
>
w
Goldstein
W reflects an abstract
attitude.
An over-emphasis on D
represents a concrete
attitude.
An over-emphasis on
any
one type
of
approach may reflect the
'forced' responsiveness
engendered by a concrete attitude. T h e
organism keeps responding to a certain type
figure-ground relationship or pattern.
Lewin
The area of the blots
represents the types of
regions into which locomotion can be made.
Too many W's suggest
the barriers surrounding
a whole blot may be so
strong that locomotion
on a perceptual and
ideational basis into the
component regions is
precluded.
<
o
•Z
o
V
z.
O
H
W
CO
O
x
po
M
Pi
H
X
Too many D's indicate
that strong barriers are O
surrounding
e i t h e r •xl
*ri
W
generalizations and/or ?0
en
more minute inspection
o
of the. field.
perceptual-associative
Manner of Approach (cont'd)
absence of such responses
point to inhibition,
m ay
depression, and apathy.
d reflects attention to
small details in situations.
de reflects an escape reaction to anxiety arousing
situations.
9
Q
>
do reflects fragmentary
perceptual
organization
or a failure of the associative processes to supply
connections or elaborations.
dr reflects attention to
the minutiae, an overalert, restless perceptual
process.
The grouping of rarely-combined areas reveals an associative process that may
allow
peculiarities o f
associational reasoning.
H
X
>
w
Psychoanalytic
Goldstein
Lewin
Space Responses
Perceptually a response has
been made to the ground and
not to the figure.
This reveals some tendency
to oppositionality. This may
vary from normal self-will to
negativism.
Space responses associated
with an intratensive experience balance indicate the
oppositionality is
turned
against the self.
In an ambi-equal experience
balance, the oppositionality
is shown as doubt and
indecision.
In an extratensive experience
balance, the oppositionality
is directed toward
the
environment.
This may reflect the
introjection of hostility.
It may reflect rather
obvious resistances toward expressing feelings.
Ambivalent attitudes of
various types are likely
to be present.
There is a breakdown
in figure-ground differentiation and the ground
emerges dominant.
The presented stimulus
causes the individual to
perceptually locomote
away from the region.
The ground has high
positive valence.
The figure has high
negative valence.
The subject leaves the
field, he
does not
confirm.
This pattern reveals a
tendency toward "acting
out" oppositional drives
toward the world.
w
w
O
w
in
O
%
Sequence of Areas
The succession of blot areas
t o which responses are given
may be rigid, orderly, or confused. This reveals how the
person shifts attention from
a s p e c t to aspect of a
situation.
Psychoanalytic
capacity to selectively
focus and direct attention on various aspects
of situations.
Goldstein
Ordered behaviour
Ordered behaviour may
be inferred from orderly
but flexible succession
from area t o area.
Ability to shift figureground focus
The organism's capacity
to voluntarily shift from
one figure-ground relationship to another can
be evaluated from the
succession of blot areas.
There may be a rigid,
forced responsiveness to
compelling figure-ground
* patterns, or there may
be extreme
lability.
Either suggests a catastrophic condition.
Veriety of Determinants
What perceptual qualities of
the ink blots initiate and
influence the
associative
processes ?
What associative processes
are available to cope with
the perceptual impressions
that initiate them ?
Lewin
Locomotion
Moving attention from
one t o another of the
blot areas may be regarded as visual locomotion from region to
region and inferences
regarding the flexibility
or rigidity of barriers
surrounding the style of
visual locomotion of the
person may be inferred.
The succession of areas
m
reveals how the subject to
surveys the field by
visual locomotion. Inferences can be made
regarding the flexibilityrigidity of perceiving
certain types of figureground patterns in the
life space.
Psycheanalytic
Pervasive ego control
Goldstein
Lewin
Avoidance of catas- Regression
trophic conditions
Few determinants other
Regression is inferred
than form suggests that Asmall variety of deter- when a decrease in the
ego
processes
have minants is an indication variety of behaviour is
pervasively
controlled that the organism has seen.
the discharge of all but shrunken the possible
a few types of behaviour number of response Differentiation
with the result that variations that it will A wide variety of
reflects
nuances of behaviour are allow to come into determinants
limited.
behaviour as a means of the degree of differenticatastrophic ation of emotionally
Lack of ego executive avoiding
toned responses avai- ft
conditions.
functions
lable, or the degree of
However, a variety of Dedifferentiation
differentiation of affecdeterminants and few A limited number of tive regions within the
pure form responses may determinants also
person.
reveal an ego that has suggests a dedifferenlost its executive control tiated state of internal
O
over what impulses will figure-ground rosponses
be discharged.
is available to the
organism.
I
5
Movement Responses
The
perceptual-associative
processes are guided by
visual memories of movements observed, imagined,
or
executed
previously.
These have a strong determining influence in addition
to the form of the blot.
When the subject associates
kinesthetic qualities with
the blots, he is selecting
memories of movements
with which he could be and
is, empathizing.
The M responses reflect selfattitudes and creativity.
Porceptual-associative
Colour Responses
These reveal the degree of
impulsivity shown in responding to emotionally charged
environmental stimuli.
FC suggests a delayed response is made permitting affect
and ideational content to be
integrated.
Psychoanalytic
M reflects the ego's
capacity for anticipatory
fantasy, i.e., fantasy
about actions the person
could carry out.
M-reflects fantasy that
substitutes for realistic
planning.
M's represent projected
attitudes.
Goldstein
Abstract Attitude
•M responses reflect that
aspect of the abstract
attitude involved in
planning ahead ideationally, assuming an atti
tude toward the "mere
possible," toward things
to come.
M's reveal the availability of fantasy which
can be used to delay
actions and plan for
longer term satisfactions according to the
reality-pleasure principle.
Psychoanalytic
These reflect the ego's
relative ability to synthesize affects and ideas
and its control over the
discharge of impulsive
motor components of
affect.
FC The ego is synthesizing the ideational
content and affect set
off by a stimulus and is
able to satisfy needs
comfortably within a
balance between realitypleasure pressures.
GF may reveal emotional
spontaneity or a degree of
impulsiveness in responding.
C reveals an inclination to CF The above synthesis
• is not as complete and
marked impulsivity in expre- the motor impulses and
ssing affect.
pleasure drives may
appear more prominent.
C The ego is not in
control of certain impulses and they are
discharged impulsively
on a motor basis with
little or no delay.
Lewin
Self concept
M responses reveal the
self-concept the person
holds.
Psychological Future
M's reveal a capacity
for
differentiating a
region in the psychological future.
Autistic M's suggest
regression and the psychological past has a
more positive valence
than the psychological
present or future.
>
a
Irreality level
M is an idea occuring
at the irreality level in
the present.
Lowin
Goldstein
FG responses indicate
an abstract attitude is
operating to conceptualize relationships between internal and external figure-ground relations, ordered behaviour
results.
The actual sum of the
colour responses and
their relative proportions reflect the tendencies to over-react or
underreact on a motor
basis.
CF responses indicate
concrete and abstract
attitudes may be nearly
equal and behaviour will
be ordered or catastrophic depending upon
the equalization status.
Barriers of motor
regions
FC responses indicate
permeable wall between
motor and ideational
regions, but with a good
differentiation of self
and field.
G responses indicate a
catastrophic condition
exists. A
concrete
attitude is seen. Isolation of parts in the
organism has occurred
and the response is
primitive and dedifferentiated.
GF reveals
motoric
tensions have a higher
valence than ideational
tensions.
G reveals a strong
barrier between motor
and ideational regions,
but little or no barrier
around the motor region
i. e., a strong barrier
between peripheral and
central layers of the
personality, but little
p
O
H
o
5
w
m
3
M
to
O
o
Psychoanalytic
K
Smoke, clouds and other
diffuse phenomena are scored
K.
These responses reveal "freefloating anxiety."
The ego defenses have
not been adequate to
handle anxieties which
are emerging in gross
non-specific forms.
Goldstein
Depending upon the
relative prominence of
the responses, various
degrees of catastrophic
conditions can be inferred.
The ego is partially
coping with the anxieties and they appear
as more definitive and
related
to
specific
conflicts
Psychoanalytic
or none between environmental impingement
and peripheral motor
layers.
The outer regions of
the life space are seen
as threatening
and
clear figure-ground perception is not occuring.
K
In these responses the subject has perceptually noted
the diffuseness but associatively has tried to assign a
specific content so that
topographical maps, x-rays,
etc., are given revealing some
attempts at conscious control
over nebulous anxiety.
Lewin
These responses reflect tendencies toward introspection
and reacting to the distances
between the self and objects
with subsequent feelings of
inadequacy, smallness and
isolation.
The relative amount of FK
responses determines the
degree to which introspection
leads to feelings of inadequacy.
sH
H
X
r
Some degree of differentiation of threat regions
is being made.
Goldstein
Lewin
FK
These responses result from
the shading of the blot
initiating a perceptual experience of seeing depth and
space, and associative processes are thus set off.
!
o
A relative prominence of
these responses suggests
that infantile feelings
of isolation and inadequacy in the face of a
threatening, world may
be one of the major
anxieties with which
the ego defenses must
cope.
The organism which
reacts with feelings of
inadequacy tends to
shrink the world and
its responses to avoid
catastrophic conditions
which would face the
organism with stimuli
with which it could not
cope.
The outer regions of
the life space are seen
as large and hard to
handle.
The irreality level of
the past and present
contains many fears that
cause the person to view
his psychological future
as a region in which he
will not be adequate.
p
2
O
3
JO
w
w
3
s
o
en
O
>
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I—I
H
Categories of Content
The variety of categories of
content indicates the wealth,
availabity and flexibity of
conceptual
realms
from
which the subject can choose
his responses.
Psychoanalytic
capacity to allow a
breadth or narrowness
of realms of past experiences and ideas to
come into awareness.
Repression
A limited number of
categories reflects the
effects of the ego's repressive-inhibiting functions. The ego has
erected strog defenses
of a repressive nature
to preclude
anxiety
arousing topics and
impulses from coming
into awareness.
Stereotypy of Content
High animal percent reveals
the subject is probably
responding to only the
grossest articulations of the
ink blot.
The subject is dependent
upon the most obvious
conventionalities and platitudes in any situation.
Other stereotypies reflect
associative preoccupation, or
that a limited number of
conceptual realms are available to the associative
processes, or that only those
perceptual processes are responded to for which a readily
available meaning is present.
Goldstein
Few categries
may
reveal old
memory
patterns have passively
disappeared
because
they were
not of
current value.
The range of categories
of content reflects the
number of conceptual
realms of memory patterns available for interpreting stimuli.
Lewin
The number of categories of content reflects the narrowness or
breadth of interests and
activities.
As the individual grew
from
childhood
to
maturity his range of
interests and activities
increased.
Regression
In regression there is a
decrease in the range
of activities and interests.
Regions
S
El
I
This also reflects the
differentiation of regions in the life space
into which locomotion
can be made on a thought (irreality) level.
Psychoanalytic
Repression
Goldstein
Equalization
The ego has restricted
associative spontaneity.
Equalization is maintained by avoiding anxiety
producing stimuli. Responses are restricted to
a limited figure-ground
area.
Memory
Old memory patterns
passively
disappear
when they are not of
current value.
Lewin
, <
;
Rigid barriers have been
erected around most
regions of the life space
except this one.
5
I
^
Locomotion
°
Locomotion into other
regions is prevented by
strong tensional states
arising when locomotion
is attempted.
^
5
*
_
£
Barriers
c
c
5
c
C
>
t-
Perce ptual-associativ e
Perseveration
Perseveration of a response
represents extreme stereotypy in the associative
process.
Psychoanalytic
The ego has little or no
control over the repetitive occurence of an
association.
Marked pathology of a
psychic
or
organic
nature is suggested.
Goldstein
Equalization
The equalization process
has broken down.
Isolation
Parts of the nervous
system are isolated and
the stimuli is restricted
to a smaller part of the
organism and consequently is of greater
effect, longer duration,
and the organism is thus
forced to keep reacting
to the stimuli.
After effect
Perseveration reveals a
response has remained
too long as figure in the
nervous system and
reveals an abnormal
after effect. A catastrophic reaction has
occurred and subsequent
activity is modified by
the
issolated
and
abnormally strong after
effect.
Populars
Populars reflect a capacity
for responding to the conventional, stereotyped and
obvious perceptual-associative patterns in the blots.
This is an index of capacity
to note the conventional
aspects of situations.
Psychoanalytic
Reality testing
The populars are oiie of
the criteria of reality
testing by the ego.
This also reflects the
ego's capacity for response to community
thinking patterns and
the awareness of the
conventional,
socially
compelling aspects to
which most persons
respond in a situation.
Goldstein
Common figure-ground
patterns
Lewin
Insurmountable barriers
arise around one figureground pattern and the
subject can not locomote but within the
narrow confine of one
region of the field
(anxiety).
Or an internal barrier
region prevents ideational locomotion . from
region
to
region
internally
(organic
perseveration).
Lewin
Realism
This is one of the
Giving
an ordinary 'tests' of realism in the
number
of populars Rorschach.
reflects attention to Force field.
common figure-ground This capacity to note
pattern.
populars represents a
Few populars suggests a response to a common
lack of perception of force field.
common figure-ground In giving popular respatterns and may reflect: ponses the subject gives
poor
figure-ground positive valence
to
differentiation ; a loss regions to which most
of certain necessary other persons give posiconcrete responses ; the tive valence.
organism is not responding to even the most
non-threatening figures
that persons in our
culture respond to, as
a means of shrinking
the world and avoiding
catastrophic conditions.
<
o
p
Z
o
H
o
z
H
X
W
H
H
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in
oz
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43
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[ SAMIKSA
MARGARET THALER
152
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14. Lewin, K. Behaviour and Development as a Function of the Total
Situation. In L. Carmichael (Ed.), Manual of Child Psychology
New York ; John Wiley and Sons, 1946.
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^
a -S •§
4J
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ft) 4 4
43
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13. Leeper, R. W. Letvirfs Topological and Vector Psychology ; A
Digest and Critique. Eugene, Ore. : Univ. of Oregon, 1943.
ft)
42 .g
-S o
fa.
1. Beck, S. J. Borschach's test. Volumes I, II, and III. New York:
Grune and Stratton 1949, 1945 and 1952.
2. De Vos, G. A, Quantitative Approach to Affective Symbolism in
Rorschach Responses. J. Proj. Tech, 1952,16, 133-150.
3. Fenichel O. The Psychoanlytic Theory of Neurosis. New York :
W. W. Norton and Co., 1945.
4. Freud, S. Collected Papers, Volume I. London : Hogarth press,
1939.
5. Goldstein, K. The Organism : A Holistic Approach to Biology.
New York: American Book Co., 1939.
6. Goldstein, K. Human Nature in the Light of Psychopathology.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1940.
7. Goldstein, K. and Scheerer, M. Abstract and Concrete Behaviour ; An Experimental Study with Special Tests. Psychol.
Mono., No. 239. Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern Univ.
Press. 1941.
8. Goldstein, K. Methodological Approach to the Study of Schizophrenic thought Disorder. In J. S. Kasanin, Language and
thought in Schizophrenia. Berkeley, California: Univ. of
California Press, 1946.
9. Hartmann, H. Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation.
In D. Rapaport, Organization and Pathology of thought.
New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1951,
10. Healy, W. Bronner, A. and Bowers, A, The Structure and
Meaning of Psychoanalysis. New York : Alfred A. Knopf,
1930.
11. Klopfer, B. and Kalley, D. C. The Rorsehach Technique. New
York : World Book Co., 1942.
12. Klopfer, B., Ainsworth, M. D., Klopfer, W. G. and Holt, R. R.
Developments in the Rorschach Technique. New York : World
Book Co., 1954.
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153
References
2 o
« 2
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11
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a)
S
C ft>
«J 4 3
3
O a>
Voi, 10, No. 3 ] NOTES ON THREE THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
co
154
MARGARET THALER
t SAMIKSA
15. Lewin, K. Field Theory in Social Science. New York : Harper
and Bros., 1951.
16. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Vol. 5. New York : International Universities Press, 1950.
17. Rapaport, D., Gill, M. and Schafer, R. Diagnostic Psychological
Testing, Vol. 2. Chicago : Year Book Publishers, 1946.
18. Rapaport, D. Organization and Pathology of Thought. New
York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1951.
19. Rorschach, H. Psychodiagnostics. Berne : Hans Huber, 1942.
20. Schachtel, E. Dynamic Perception and Symbolism of Form, With
Special Reference to the Rorschach Test. Psychiatry, 1941,
4 : 76-96.
21. Schachtel, E. On Colour and Affect. Psychiatry, 1943, 6: 393-409.
22. Schachtel, E. Subjective Definitions of the Rorschach Test
Situation and Their Effect on Test Performance.
Psychiatry,
194?, 8 : 419-448.
23. Schachtel, E. Projection and its Relation to Character Attitudes
and Creativity in the Kinesthetic Responses.
Psychiatry,
1950, 13:69-100."
CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING PSYCHOANALYSIS
Vol. 10, No. 2 (Contd.)
Letter dated 2.1.29 from Prof. Dr. Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Prof. Dr. Freud.
2. 1. 1929
Wien IX., Berggasse 19
Dear Dr. Bose,
I am glad of having got your letter. Since you joined our
Association I regretted that our Indian group did not attain closer
contact with the offers. Any sign of the contrary is pleasant to me.
To be sure I am not surprised by the result of Prof. Haider's
study of Tagore poetry. But it may appear convincing to other
people as well and so I think it ought to be published. May I wait
for your permission to send it to Dr. Jones with my recommendation ?
The part of your own work which you will send to me may be
sure of my infense interest. My health is not strong my mind still
active although not productive.
With kind regards and best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
Freud.
Letter dated 31.1.29 from Dr. G. Bose to Prof. Dr. Freud
14 Parsibagan
Calcutta. 31st January 1929.
Dear Prof. Freud,
Many thanks for your kind letter. A copy of Prof. Haider's
paper on Tagore poetry has already been sent to Dr. Jones and Prof.
Haider will be very grateful if you would kindly recommend it for
publication in the International Journal of Psycho-analysis.
I am sending you under separate cover some of my own papers.
The articles marked 'P' are written on popular lines and are meant
for inclusion along with other papers in a book which is in preparation
for the lay public. The other articles are of a more technical nature
and are meant for another book. When published all the articles
of this series will be supplemented with short clinical records in
support of the contentions put forth in them. A few of the papers
156
CORRESPONDENCE
E SAMIKSA
will be further elaborated. I would draw your particular attention
to my paper on Oedipus wish where I have ventured to differ from
you in some respects. I have indicated the order in which the
articles are to be read.
I also enclose a Bengali book on dreams which I have just
published. Your portrait which appears in the book is from a
pencil drawing by my friend Mr. J. K. Sen the renowned artist from
the photograph you kindly sent me some years ago. Please accept
the book as a token of my deepest regards for the Father of
Psycho-analysis. An abridged English translation of the contents
of this book will appear as a chapter in my popular book.
Wishing you health, and long life.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Sigmund Freud
G. Bose
Wien IX Berggasse 19,
Austria.
ORDER IN WHICH THE ARTICLES ARE TO BE READ
Popular Articles :
1. Free Association Method in Psychoanalysis
2. Sex in Psychoanalysis
3. Psychoanalysis in Business
4. Temper and Psychoanalysis
5. Crime and Psychoanalysis
Technical Articles :
1. Relationship between Psychology and Psychiatry
2. Reliability of psycho-analytical Findings
3. Is perception an Illusion ?
4. Nature of the Wish
5. Analysis of Wish
6. Pleasure in Wish
7. The Genesis of Homosexuality
8. The Genesis and Adjustment of the Oedipus Wish
Vol. 10, No. 3 ]
157
CORRESPONDENCE
Prof. Dr. Freud
March 9th, 1929
Dear Prof. Bose.
Best thanks for your sendings. I have read all of your papers,
the popular ones as well as the more important scientific ones and
I am impatient to see them published in books as you promise.
You directed my attention on the Oedipus wish especially and
you were right in doing so. It made a great impression on me.
In fact I am not convinced by your arguments. Your theory of the
opposite wish appears to me to stress rather a formal element than
a dynamic factor. I still think, you underate the efficiency of the
castration fear. It is interesting to note that the only mistake I
could discover in your popular essays relates to the same points.
There you say that Oedipus kills himself after blinding which he
never did. In the scientific paper you give the story correctly. On
the other side I never denied the connection of the castration wish
with the wish to bz a female nor that of the castration fear with
the horror of becoming a female. In my "Passing of the Oed.
Complex" I tried to introduce a new metapsychological possibility
destroying a complex by robbing it of its cathectic charge which is
led into other channels besides the other idea of repressing it while
its cathesis is left undiminished.
But confess I am by no means more convinced of the validity of
my own assumptions. We have not yet seen through this intricate
Oedipus matter. We need more observations.
Cordially Yours
Freud.
P. S. Thanks for the Bengali book !
14 Parsibagan
Calcutta. 11th April 1929.
Dear Prof. Freud,
Many thanks for your kind letter dated- March 9th 1929. I am
grateful to you for going through my papers and for pointing out
158
CORRESPONDENCE
t SAMIKSA
the mistake in the Oedipus story in my popular article. I shall
correct it when the manuscript goes to press.
Of course I do not expect that you would acept off-hand my
reading of the Oedipus situation. I do not deny the importance of
the castration threat in European cases ; my argument is that the
threat owes its efficiency to/its connection with the wish to be a
female. The real struggle lies between the desire to be a male
and its opposite the desire to be a female. I have already referred
to the fact that castration threat is very common in Indian Society
but my Indian patients do not exhibit castration symptoms to such
a marked degree as my European cases. The desire to be a female
is more easily unearthed in Indian male patients than in European.
In this connection I would refer you to my paper on Homosexuality
where I have discussed this question in greater detail. The Oedipus
mother is very often a combined parental image and this is a fact
of great importance. I have reasons to believe that much of the
motivation of the 'maternal deity' is traceable to this source.
My theory of the opposite wish is not a mere formal philosophical
statement as you suppose it to be. Like any other scientific theory
it is a specific formulation that will explain many facts of mental
life. To cite a few instances if gives the exact dynamics of
repression when a particular wish is pushed into the unconscious ;
it explains in a simple manner the mechanisms of imitation retaliation,
conscience, projection, etc. The facts that have led you to suppose
the existence of the repetition compulsion addition to the pleasure
principle would be more easily explained on the basis of this theory.
When a person receives a shocks certain wishes of a passive type
are satisfied, perforce leading to the release of the opposite type
of wishes—corresponding to the situation of the agency which
brought about the shock. This is an effort at identification with
the offending agent. The repeated bringing up of the shock situation
in dreams is an effort on the part of the unsatisfied opposite wish
to get a satisfaction. This is determined by the pleasure principle.
There is no need to suppose the functioning of the repetition
compulsion.
The theory of the opposite wish will explain the occurence
in pairs in the same individual of such traits as sadism and masochism
observationism and exhibitionism etc. This theory will also explain
Vol. 10, No. 3 ]
159
CORRESPONDENCE
the relationship between the different wishes that emerge from the
unconscious in a definite sequence during analysis.
This theory enables the analyst to predict beforehand the
possibility of emergence in consciousness of a particular repressed
wish from an examination of the grammatical forms of speech.
I have reserved the discussion of the practical points of
applicability of this theory a seperate chapter in my book. Since
the elaboration of this theory in my concept of Repression I have
modified it in some important details in view of new facts that have
come up during analysis. I shall send you a copy when this chapter
is written.
I am sorry I have troubled you with this long letter, my only
excuse is that I want my findings to be tested in the light of your
unique experience.
Trusting this finds you in good health and wishing you a long
life.
Yours sincerely,
G. Bose.
Letter dated 12 5.29 from Prof. Dr. Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Prof. Dr. Freud
May 12th 1929
Dear Prof. Bose,
Thank you for your explanations. I am fully impreessed by
the difference in the castration reaction between Indian and European
patients and I promise to keep my attention fixed on the problem of
the opposite wish which you accentuate. This latter one is too
important for a hasty decision, I am glad I have to expect another
publication of yours. I wonder what the relation of the opposite
wish the phenomena of ambivalence "may be",
I am sorry I have to disappoint Dr. Sarkar who sent me several
interesting letters as a correspondent but my activity is no more what
is used to be before.
With kindest regards.
Yours truly,
Freud.
[ SAMIKSA
CORRESPONDENCE
Letter from Dr. G. Bose to Prof. Dr. Freud
My dear Professor Freud;
I have great pleasure in sending you on behalf of the Indian
Psycho-analytical Society by insured percel post today one ivory
statuette with stand and a roll cont a ining two copies of Sanskrit
address, to you printed on silk and three copies of the same printed
on paper with the translation in type and also three copies of the
proceedings of the meeting of the Society held on 6th May last
to celebrate your 75th bithday Anniversary. The Indian Society will
be very grateful if you will kindly accept these small presents. It
took us sometime to have the statuette specially made for you, hence
the delay. A line in reply informing me of the safe arrival of the
articles will be immensely appreciated.
With best wishes.
Yours sincerely,
G. Bose.
Vol. 10. No. 3 ]
161
CORRESPONDENCE
14 Parsibagan
Calcutta, 4th Oct. 1932.
My dear Prof. Freud,
I am extremely grateful to you for all the kindness you have
shown to my daughter and my son-in-law while they were in Vienna.
They are full of gratitude to yourself, your wife and daughter and
your sister-in-law. My daughter had been hearing about you ever
since she was a little child and she has written to me a glowing
account of her impressions about yourself. I only wish I had the
opportunity of conveying my thanks to you personally.
With best regards.
Yours sincerely,
G. Bose.
Prof. Dr. Freud
Dec. 13th 1931
Dear Dr. Bose,
Now I am in possession of all your, sendings the statue, its
pedespal, the proceedings and the poem I feel gratefully elated and
accept these presents, as a kind of compensation for the sad fact
that I have no chance of ever meeting you or any other member of
your Society. [ The only man among you I know is Dr. Barkeley
Hill.] Please give my hearty thanks to all your members and
accept it especially for yourself.
The Statuette is charming, I gave it the place of honour on my
desk. As long as I can enjoy life it will recall to my mind the
progress of Psychoanalysis the proud conquests it has made in foreign
countries and the kind feelings for me it has aroused in some of my
contemporaries at least.
With'affectionate wishes.
Yours
Sigm. Freud.
Letter dated 8.11 32 from Prof. Dr. Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Prof. Dr. Freud
-
Nov. 8th 1932
Dear Dr. Bose,
I could not read your kind letter without feetings of embarassment. In fact I do not deserve the gratitude of your children owing
to the fact that I and my daughter were full in work, my wife
and her sister not speaking your language and difficulties in your
household making it hard for us to invite them for meals. So I had
to be glad that one of my friends and pupils did it for me. I was
very sorry that your charming daughter did not like our dogs. But
you know in life we often get praised or blamed for no merit of
our own.
With kindest regards
Yours
Freud.
162
CORRESPONDENCE
[ SAMIKSA
Letter dated 1.1,33 from Prof. Dr. Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Prof. Dr. Freud
January 1st 1933
Wien IX. Berggasse 19
Dear Dr. Bose,
The first letter of this new year goes out to you, I did study
the essay you were so kind to send me and am deeply impressed by it.
The contradictions with our current psychoanalytic theory are
many and deep-going and I reproach myself for not having given
attentions to your ideas before. That is not only my case I suspect
that your theory of opposite wishes is practically unknown among
us and never mentioned or discussed. This attitude was to be
abolished, I am eager to see it weighed and considered by English
and German analysts all over. If you will permit me a suggestion :
let us have a paper on the theory written especially for an analytic
public which may appear in the Zeitschrift and Jones' Journal at the
same time. We will do the translation into German here in Vienna.
The essay you sent me is not quite appropriate especially in its '
first parts as it is meant for the Indian Science Congress.
As regards my own judgement which you ask for I can only
give you first impressions which are of no great value. It needs
more time and effort to overcome the feeling of unfamiliarity when
confornted with a theory so "different from the one professed
hetherto and it is not easy to get out of the at customed ways .of
thinking. So don't take it amiss when I say the theory of the
opposite wishes strikes me as something less dynamical than
morphological which could not have been evolved from the study of
our pathological material. It appears to me flat so to say it seems to
lack a third dimension, I don't think it is able to explain anxiety
or the phenomena of repression. Nor could I make the concession
that the biological viewpoints in our psychology are out of place.
But I am not ready yet to stand up for my own objections. I am
still bewildered and undecided. I see that we did neglect the fact
of the existence of opposite wishes from the three sources of
Bisexuality (male and female) ambivalence (love-hate) and the
opposition of active-passive. These phenomena have to be worked
into our system to make us see what modifications of corrections
are necessary and how far we can acquiesce to your ideas. That
Vol. 10. No. 3 ]
CORRESPONDENCE
163
is what I expect to be the result of the discussion after your paper
is presented to the attention of our analyst and I will be the first
to acknowledge our indebtness to the working of your mind.
With affectionate regards to you and family.
Yours
Freud
1st Feb. 33
My dear Prof. Freud,
I am extremely grateful to you for your kind interest in my
work. I shall be'very glad to send you a suitable paper on the theory
of the opposite wish for the consideration of the psycho-analytic
group in Europe. It is really very good of you to say that you will
have it translated in Vienna. I shall expunge the popular portions
of the article that I sent you, and shall add and alter certain
meterials by which I hope the article will meet your requirements.
I shall try to elucidate the points rasied in your latter, such as the
dynamic aspect of the theory, the explanation of repression and of
anxiety. Of course I do not say that my theory will explain all the
different facts of anxiety phenomena as known to us in connection
with normal and abnormal life. But I do hope that I shall be able
to give you a fairly satisfactory explanation on the basis of my
theory. I further hope that I shall be able to show to you that my
explanations of repression are simpler and more satisfactory than
the current views about it. In fact I claim that the theory of the
opposite wish is specially suited to explain repression. (Besides wish
which by my very definition is a dynamic mental element I admit no
other psychic factor capable of bringing about a modification in a
given Psychic constellation. My theory of perception is based on
my theory of wish). I have not been able to follow what you meen
by saying that the theory lacks a third dimension. If you could make
this clearer I might try to meet your objection. I shall be very
thankful if you kindly let me know what other points you require
me to elucidate further.
CORRESPONDENCE
164
[ SAMIKSA
I have 'accidentally' burnt my face and right hand rather badly.
This has incapacitated me for any work for the present. I can barely
sign my name. I hope to be all right within a months' time when I
intend to take up the re-writing of the article. In any case I shall
try to send it to you before the end of March.
Could you suggest any limit to the size of the paper, so that
it may not be too big for the journals.
Thanking you again for the great kindness you have always
shown to me. Trusting this will find you all right.
Yours very sincerely,
G. Bose
Letter dated 2S.10.37 Prof. Dr. Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Prof. Dr. Freud
25/ XI 1937
Wien IX, Berggasse 19
Hochgeehrter Herr College !
Sie theilen mir mit dass Sie zutn Vorsitzenden der Sektion fur
Psychologie auf dem Congress gewalt worden sind der im Januar
1938 in Ihrer Stadt stattfinden soil. Ich begluck-wunsche Sie zu
dieser wolverdienten Ehrung.
Ein wenig spater haben Sie mir einen Aufsatz von S. C. Mitra
zukommen lassen betitelt "Contributions of Abnormal Psychology to
Normal Psychology" zu dem ich vor dem Congress Stellung nehmen
soil. Obwohl der Congress erst in Monaten abgehalten werden wird,
beeile ich mich, Ihrem Wunsch schon heute zu ent-sprechen nicht
nur wegen der Postdifferenz zwischen uns sondern auch wegen der
Lebensunsicherheit die an mein Alter geknupft ist,
Die Ausserungen von Mitra bringen mich in Verlegenheit. Sie
sagen namlich alles was ich selbst sagen konnte so dass ich ihnen
nur wortlich beipflichten kann, und sagen es mit einer Klarheit und
Entschiedenheit wie ich sie sehr selten angetroffen habe. Ich fuhle
mich meinem gewiss noch jugendlichen Anhanger tief verpflichtet
dafur dass er unsere Sache so tapfer vertritt. Gewiss wird auch er
nicht verkennen dass die Psychoanalyse unfertig und in vielen
Vol. 10, No. 3 ]
165
CORRESPONDENCE
Punkten noch ungesichert ist, aber sie ist jung und
unaufhaltsam fortschreiten bis der Wert ihrer Beitrage
logischen Wissenschaft keinem Zweifel mehr unterliegt.
Mit herzlichen Wunschen fur Ihr Wohlbefinden
Erfolg des Congresses.
Ihr
wird gewiss
zur psychound fur den
efgebener
Freud.
English Translation of the above letter
Prof. Dr. Freud
25/X/1937
Honoured Colleague,
You inform me that you had been elected President of the
Section of Psychology in the Congress that is to be held in your city
in January 1938. I congratulate you on this well-earned honour.
A little later you sent me a paper from S. C. Mitra named
"Contributions of Abnormal Psychology to Normal Psychology" and
you asked me to express my observation regarding the same for the
Congress. Although the Congress is to sit a few months later I
hasten to accede to your request to-day not only because of the 'post
difference1 between us, but also because of the uncertainty of life
that is inherent in my age.
Mitra's exposition has made me feel embarassed. He has said
everything that I could have said myself so that at best I can
only support him. He has expressed everything with a clearness and
difiniteness that I have seldom come acress. I feel myself deeply
obliged to my follower, who must certainly be young for his bold
representation of our position. Certainly he has not also failed
to recognise that psycho-analysis is at yet imperfect and in many
points still uncertain, but psychoanalysis is young and will certainly
progress uninterruptedly till no doubt can exist about the value of
its contribution to the Science of Psychology.
With heartly wishes for your good health and for the Congress.
Yours Sincerely,
Freud.
166
CORRESPONDENCE
E SAMIKSA
Letter dated 31.10.37 from Anna Freud to Dr. G. Bose
Anna Freud.
'
October 31, 1937
Dear Dr. Bose,
I have passed on your letter to my father and he has answered
it himself already. . We have both been extremely interested in
reading Dr. S. C. Mitra's excellent exposition of the subject under
discuseion. I wish India were not so far away, so that sometime
I could come and take part in your work there.
With kind regrads,
Very sincerely yours,
Anna Freud.
INDIAN PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL SOCIETY
The 35th Annual General Meeting held on 23. 3.1956.
PROCEEDINGS
Present :
Dr. S. C. Mitra, in the Chair
Dr. N. De :
MrvM. K. Barua
Dr. N. N Chatterjee
Dr. R. Bhaduri
Dr. A. K. Deb
Miss K. Majumdar
Mrs. H. Gupta
Dr. D N. Nandi
Mrs. S. Shome
Mr P R Choubey
Mr. A Datta
•
1 Considered the Annual Report for the -j ear 1956 togethef
with the audited accounts of Ind an Psycho-analytical Society,
Samiksa, Lumbini Park and Lumbini Clinic.
Resolved—That.the Annual Reports be accepted.
2, The next item was to elect the office-bearers* members of
the Council,/Board of the Institute.and different of Committees for the
year 1957-1958.
*
•:
•
'
Resolved—That the office-bearers for the year 1957-58 be
elected as follows :
Dr. S C. Mitra
... President
Dr. T. C. Sinha
...
Secretary
Mr. M K Barua
...
Librarian
Mr- A. Datta
...
Asst. Secretary
Dr. D Nandi
...
„
„
Mrs. H. Gupta
...
Asst. Librarian
Resolved further—That the Council of the Society for the
ye^r 1957-58 be constituted as follows :
Mr. M. V. Amrith, Mr. M. K. Barua, Dr. N. De,
Mr. H. P. Maiti, Dr. S. C. Mitra and Dr. T. C. Sinha.
Resolved also—That the Board of the Institute for the year
1957-58 be constituted as follows :
Dr. N. N. Chatterjee- Dr. N. De, Mr. H. P. Maiti,
Dr. S.C. Mitra, Mr. R. Patel and Dr. T, C. Sinha.
also—That the 0aurrtal Comraitfeeefor the year
1957-53 bi constituted as follows :
Mr. M . •¥». AnHEiA, sGte.- ©.: K. ®ose, IDr. :N; N.
Chatterjee,
Mr. P. N. Choubey, Mr. A. Datta, Dr. N. De,
Dr; A. K. Deb, Dr. S. C. Mrtra, Dr. D. N. Nandi, Mr. R. Patel,
Mn C. V. Ramana and Dr. T. C. Sinha.
Resolved also—That the Hospital Committee for the year
1957-58 tj.<rconstituted as follows :
Dr. S. C. Mitra.
D . T. C, Sinha,
Dr. N. De,
Dr. A. K. Deb, Mr. S. P. Sen, Mr. S- K. Mondol, Mr. B.. K, Ghosh
Miss Mira Datta Gupta, Mr. K. S.Ghosh, Mr. R. N» Majutndari
Dr. S-C. Laha, Mr. A. K. Sarker, Mr. Vivekananda Mukhefjee,
Dr. R. Bhaduri, Dr. G. M^jumdar, a Representative of Calcutta
Corporation and a Representative of Govt of West Bengal.
Resolved also—That trie Bodhayana Committee for the year
1957-58 be constituted as follows :
Dr. B. K. Bose, Mr. B. Bothra. Mr. P. N. Choubey,
Mr. A. Datta, Dr D. Ganguly, Dr. A, Ghosal, Dr. S. C. Micra,
Mr:s. A, Nag, Dr. D. N. Nandi, Mrs. S. Shome and T. C. Sinha.
Resolved also—That Messrs G Basu & Co. be appdinted
Auditors for the year 1957.

Volume 10, No.3 - Journal of the Indian Psychoanalytic

Transcription

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