Freud, Sigmund The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Pre-Psychoanalytical Works and Unpublished Drafts. Vol. 1. Translated by James Strachey. London: the Hogarth Press, 1966.

Vol. 1\1886-1899\Pre-psychoanalytic\Hysteria\Suggestion\Hypnosis\ Anxiety Neurosis\Fliess\Paranoia\`Defense`\Letters\

One feature of notice is the `General Preface for the Standard Edition`, written by Strachey, which outlines the organizational plan etc. of the Standard Edition (S.E.).

The `General Preface for the Standard Edition` includes comments on the following:

1. scope of the S.E.;
2. plan of the S.E. (which is more or less chronological);
3. on the German sources;
4. commentaries;
5. cross references;
6. notes which explain Freud`s remarks; and,
7. the translations.

The contents of volume 1 are as follows:

• I.) `Report on my Studies in Paris and Berlin.`(pp. 5ff).

• II.) `Preface to the Translation of Charcot's Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System.`(pp. 21ff).

• III.) `Observation of a severe case of hemianaestheis in a hysterical male`(pp. 25ff)--a purely physical examination of the case, although the concern evidenced for the aetiological and familial history indicate his later shift in emphasis on psychological causation.

• IV.) `Two short reviews.`(pp. 35ff).

• V.) Hysteria. This paper appears in five sections (pp. 41ff).
  • A.) History -- related to the woman's `sexual apparatus` and the `physiological modifications` of the nervous system.
  • B.) Definition -- the definition offered follows the thinking of Charcot which establishes an understanding of hysteria in terms of a gradient from the intense to the mild forms of the illness.
  • C.) Symptomatology
    1. Adescription of the compulsive attacks and the various stages (physiological) that accompany this disease.
    2. A note on the `hysterogenic zones`.
    3. Disturbance of sensibility.
    4. Paralysis.
    5. Contractures.
    6. General characteristics.

  • D.) The course taken by Hysteria.
  • E.) Treatment of the Neurosis.
  • F.) A summary.

• VI.) `Papers on Hypnotism and Suggestion`(pp. 63ff)--Freud outlines his distaste of hypnosis, while indicating a preference for investigation into aetiology and catharsis as opposed to hypnotic suggestion (he, however, retained an interest in the theory of hypnosis for some time afterwards).

• VII.) `Preface to Berheim's Suggestion.`(pp. 75ff)--Freud asks the question `what does suggestion mean?` He then distinguishes between two forms of suggestion: a) internal & b) external. He concludes that as of 1896 the whole phenomenon of suggestion remains unexplained.

• VIII.) `Review of August Forel`s Hypnotism.`(pp. 91ff)--here Freud does not critique the technique per se but the type of therapy in general, its practices and procedures. He also questions the notion of 'suggestion.`

• IX.) `Hypnosis` (pp. 105ff)--Freud again criticizes hypnosis in terms of the difficulties of the technique and he then warns of overuse of this method of treatment.

• X.) `A case of successful treatment by hypnotism` (pp. 117ff)--Freud indicates successful usage of hypnotism occurs if the technique is used for investigation into the aetiological factors of the neurosis. In this paper is possibly the first reference in Freud`s writings of the displacement of the affect, from its original idea, into somatic reactions.

• XI.) `Preface and footnotes to the translation of Charcot`s Leçons du mardi de la salêtrière.`(Pp. 131-144)--In the footnotes, Freud writes that the core of any hysterical attraction is in a memory (the hallucinatory re-living of a scene which is significant to the outset of the illness). The content of such memories consists of the following: (1) a physical trauma, or (2) an event which has become traumatic.

• XII.) `Sketches for the Preliminary Communication of 1893.` These `sketches` form the basis of what is to be the first chapter of Breuer and Freud`s Studies in Hysteria. In here Freud outlines that constant and essential recurrent hysterical attacks are a return of memories to the psychical state (`return of the repressed`). Thus, this text describes, for the first time (?), Freud`s notion of repressed memories and their effect upon the neurosis.

• XIII.) `Some points for a comparative study of organic and hysterical motor paralyses,` 1893 (Pp. 157-174). This paper is purely of a medical nature and deals more with lesions on the spinal cord than with psychological factors.

• XIV.) `Extracts from the Fliess Papers` (Pp. 175-282?).
  • i) Draft A -- anxiety neurosis.
  • ii) Draft B -- aetiology of the neurosis.
    1. Neurasthenia is investigated.
    2. Anxiety neurosis.
    3. Conclusion -- Freud concludes that neurosis is entirely preventable as well as being entirely incurable.
  • iii) Letter 14 -- proofs of the above are given through various examples.
  • iv.) Draft D -- on the aetiology and theory of major neuroses.
  • v.) Letter 18.
  • vi.) Draft E -- how anxiety originates. Freud states that all anxiety has a sexual origin, i.e., it is through an acclimation of physical sexual tension whose discharge is prevented.
  • vii.) Draft F: Collection II. -- here we find references to two cases, one of anxiety neurosis and the other describes a case of melancholia.
  • viii.) Letter 21.
  • ix.) Draft G: Melancholia -- here Freud demonstrates a connection between melancholia and sexual anaesthesia.
  • x.) Draft H: Paranoia -- "The purpose of paranoia is thus to fend off an idea that is incompatible with the ego by projecting its substance into the external world." To this end the paranoiac develops 1) delusions and 2) megalomania.
  • xi.) Draft I -- Migraine: established Points.
  • xii.) Draft J -- Frau P.J. -- a `sexual neurotic` suffering from hysteria.
  • xiii.) Draft K -- The Neurosis of Defense (repression). Four types of `defense` are enumerated: 1) conflict (hysteria), 2) self- repproach (obsessional neurosis), 3) mortification (paranoia), and, 4) mourning (acute hallucinatory amentia).
  • xiv.) Letter 46 -- offers a classification of ages and aetiologies of such defenses as are described in Draft K.
  • xv.) Letter 50 -- description of a dream that Freud had.
  • xvi.) Letter 52 -- the stratification or return of memories.
  • xvii.) Letter 55 -- sexual abuse in the first intellectual phase of the individual (1-4 years old).
  • xviii.) Letter 56 -- here Freud writes about depression and the literary aspects of the mythological genre.
  • xix.) Letter 57 -- discussed are: witches, faces, penises(?) and hysteria.
  • xx.) Letter 59 -- hysterical phantasies are discussed.
  • xxi.) Letter 60 -- another of Freud`s dreams is described (see: Letter 50).
  • xxii.) Letter 61 -- in reference to Draft L. Freud writes that he has found a sure notion of the structure of hysteria, i.e., that it refers to a reproduction of phantasies. `The phantasies are derived from things that have been heard but understood subsequently and their material is, of course, genuine.` The psychological structures in hysteria are affected by repression, not by memories but by impulses.
  • xxiii.) Draft L.
  • xxiv.) Draft M
    1. The architecture of hysteria.
    2. Repression -- the repressed element is described as being
    3. Essential to what is always a woman.
    4. Kinds of compromise -- displacement.
    5. Typical passages of events.
    6. Differences in phantasies of paranoia and hysteria
    7. Repression in the unconscious.
  • xxv.) Letter 64 -- here Freud announces: `...I shall very soon discover the source of morality....`
  • xxvi.) Draft N
    1. Impulses -- destructive impulses against the parents come to the consciousness as obsessional ideas; paranoid delusions correspond to such impulses.
    2. Relation beetween Impulses and Phantasies.
    3. Transposition of Belief -- belief and doubt belong wholly to the consciousness -- there is no counterpart in the unconscious.
    4. Poetry and Fine Frenzy -- Freud suggests that the mechanisms of hysteria and creative writing are similiar -- i.e., they are a combination of something experienced and something heard and it is through phantasy that people can protect themselves from the consequences of the experience.
    5. Motives for the Construction of Symptoms - described here mainly in term of wish fulfillment.
  • xxvii.) Letter 66.
  • xxviii.) Letter 67 -- Freud doubts his theory of neurosis.
  • xxix.) Letter 69 -- Freud no longer believes his theory of neurosis. due to: 1) an absence of complete success, disappointment in his attempts of bring analysis to a conclusion, etc. 2) He speculates that the father (in general) must be perverse. 3) his discovery that there is no indications of `reality` in the unconscious, such that one cannot distinguish between whether it is fact or fiction which is cathected with the affect; 4) his fear that the unconscious can never overcome the resistances of the conscious.
  • xxx.) Letter 70 - (during Freud`s self-analysis!!) references to his younger brother's death and to his cousin from Manchester who Freud considered to be his `evil companion` as a child.
  • xxxi.) Letter 71 - again part of his self-analysis. Here Freud refers once more to the dream discussed in the previous letter. This letter also witnesses Freud`s first reference to his notion of the Oedipal conflict: "I now regard it as a universal event of early childhood." & "The Greek legend seizes on a compulsion which everyone recognizes because he feels its existence within himself."
  • xxxi.) Letter 72.
  • xxxii.) Letter 73.
  • xxxiii.) letter 75 - a) this letter evidences some of Freud`s early thoughts about the anal and oral stages in psychological development as initial sexual stages. b) "Genuine self-analysis is impossible; otherwise there would be no (neurotic) illness."
  • xxxiv.) Letter 79 - masturbation as the `primal addiction` and other addictions are seen as mere substitutes of this.
  • xxxv.) Letter 84 - Biologically, dream life is described as deriving entirely from the "residues of the pre-historic period of life" and that the repetition of the experience of them is 'Wish fulfillment`, i.e., a recent wish can only find expression in a dream if it can put itself into connection with some material from one's prehistory (Tagesreste ?).
  • xxxvi.) Letter 101.
  • xxxvii.) Letter 102.
  • xxxviii.) Letter 105 - hysteric attacks as wish fulfillments.
  • xxxix.) Letter 125.

• XV.) Project for a Scientific Psychology. 1895 (Pp. 283-360). This `project` is Freud`s first (and perhaps only) attempt at a scientifically based psychology. His approach is one of psychology as science of brain physiology or neuron theory. Although this text concerns itself with a scientific basis of psychology, as opposed to the analytical, we can find in it the precursors (sic) of many of Freud`s later ideas.

  The paper is divided into twenty-one points (called `principle theorems`), which I will enumerate in order.

  1. Quantitative Conception (pp. 295-297): primary function of the nervous system is to discharge intense affects into the muscular system; the secondary function of the nervous system is the `flight from stimulus.`
  2. Neuron theory (pp. 297-298): nervous system is here seen as consisting of distinct yet similarly constructed neurons which have contact through a foreign substance.
  3. Contact barriers (pp. 298-301): suggests that neurons are permanently altered by the passage of excitations (this is Freud`s understanding at this time of the relationship between memory and neurons). Freud indicates that there are two kinds of neurons a) permeable and b) impermeable and notes that each neuron has several contact barriers (paths of connection).
  4. The biological stand point (p. 301-305).
  5. The problem of Quantity (p. 305): N.B. conscious quantity.
  6. Pain (p. 306).
  7. The problem of quality (pp. 306-311): that is consciousness gives quality.
  8. Consciousness (pp. 311ff): described as the subjective side of the psychical process in the nervous system - and, since life tends to psychically avoid unpleasure, unpleasure is thus seen as the quantitative pressure and pleasure is considered to be the discharge of this sensation.
  9. The functioning of the apparatus (pp. 312-315).
  10. The `psi` paths of conduction (pp. 315-317).
  11. The experience of satisfaction (pp. 317-320): the event of the discharge of excitations constitutes an experience of satisfaction.
  12. The experience of pain (pp. 320-321).
  13. Affects and wishful states (pp. 321-322): the two are deemed as being related and affects are said to be residues of pain and satisfaction.
  14. Introduction of the Ego (pp. 322-325): Ego is seen as the totality of all memory cathexes which relieves itself of the cathexes through the methods of satisfaction which are subject to inhibitions which can cause unpleasure.
  15. Primary and Secondary processes in `psi` (memory) (pp. 325-327): in the wishful state satisfaction must fail to occur as objectively un-real, but only as an imaginary idea, hence, inhibitions come into play.
  16. Cognition and reproductive thought (pp. 327-330): during state of wishing, inhibitions by the ego cause a moderated cathexis of the wished for object, which allows it to be cognized as not real.
  17. Remembering and judging (pp.330-332).
  18. Thought and reality (pp. 322-335): the aim and end of thought processes is to bring about a state of identity.
  19. Primary process - sleep and dreams (pp. 335-338): as a characteristic of sleep and the unloading of ego determinants.
  20. The analysis of dreams (pp. 338-341):
      • Dreams are devoid of motor discharge;
      • Dreams are particularly non-sensical (with the compulsion to associate;
      • Dream ideas are of a hallucinatory order, they awaken consciousness and meet with belief;
      • Dreams are wish fulfillments - primary processes follow upon experiences of satisfaction;
      • Dreams are hard to remember because they follow old faciliations (in neurons) and, therefore, make no changes in the perception system;
      • consciousness in dreams furnishes quality with as little trouble as in waking life. Therefore, the conscious does not cling to the ego but can become an addition to any `psi` (memory) process. This also warns us against identifying the primary processes with unconscious ones;
  21. Dream consciousness (pp. 341-344): the consciousness of dream ideas are discontinuous and what becomes conscious is not a whole chain of associations.
• Appendix A: Regression (pp. 344):
  1. Topographical regression: excitations are conceived of as moving backwards toward the perceptible end (see: Breuer's usage of regression in Project and chapter 7 of Interpretation).
  2. Temporal regression: this notion first emerges in the `Dora` case history in connection with the discussion on perversions. A description involves an analogy of a dammed river, i.e., if some event in later life inhibits the normal development of sexuality the consequence may be the reappearance of the `undifferentiated sexuality of childhood.` N.B. this kind of regression may also be found in Three Essays.
  3. Formal regression: occurs `where primitive methods of expression and representation take place of the usual ones` (Interpretation of Dreams.).

Part II: Psychopathology (P. 347):

Psychopathy of Hysteria: is a compulsion exercised by excessively intense excitations. Thus a hysterical compulsion is:
1. unintelligible,
2. ii)incapable of being resolved by the activity of thought and
3. incongruous in its structures. Analyses, however, show that hysterical compulsions are resolved immediately as they are made to be intelligible. The unintelligibility of such ideas are said to be a result of displacement of the affect from the original idea. Thus the first idea is repressed and the second (a symbolic representation of the first) becomes compulsive. AXIOM: "For every compulsion there is a corresponding repression...."
• The Genesis of Hysterical Compulsion: Conditions that give rise to hysterical compulsions are: (a) repression of an idea that causes the ego discomfort, and (b) repression of ideas from the sexual life.
• Pathological Defense: Here, Freud indicates that the idea is repressed so vehemently that it almost never enters consciousness as it is, but can only do so by means of the displaced symbol.
• Hysterical Proton Pseudo (false conclusions): Symbol formation is the work of the primary process and the operative force of this process is defense on the part of the ego (N.B. Freud states that this occurs only in the sexual sphere). It is typical of hysteria to find that a memory which are repressed have only become traumatic through deferred action.
• Sexual traumas: What is disturbing in such traumas is the release of the affect.
• Disturbance of Thought by Affect: There are two determinants:
  1. that sexual release is attached to a memory rather that an experience,
  2. that such sexual releases took place prematurely.

When the generation of affect inhibits a thought, it does so through the facts that (a) many paths of thought are forgotten which would ordinarily come into account and (b) in the affect pathways of thought, which lead to the discharge of the affect, are normally avoided. Therefore, 1) when there is a releases of the affect there is an accompanying increase in the intensity of the idea, and (2) the main function of the ego is avoiding fresh affective processes and in the reduction of the old affective facilitations. That is, the ego permits the release of unpleasure through memory (the primary process) and not through perception (as is usually the case) because is arousal was unexpected.

Part III: Attempt to Represent Normal Perceptual Processes:

This section attempts to do as the title suggests but does it purely along mechanistic lines. Also, this section is left incomplete.