DISSOCIATION
While the device of repression may adequately deal with many of the
unwelcome thoughts that intrude themselves upon us, it is not capable
of doing so in every case, and then the process is carried a stage
further, and DISSOCIATION takes place.
Dissociation is pathological forgetting. Emotion is the life of an
idea. In ordinary forgetting a memory sinks into the subconscious
because insufficient interest is attached to it to enable it to remain
in consciousness; if, however, an idea associated with some strong
emotion is repressed into the subconscious, that emotion will, as it
were, vivify it, and cause it to have an independent life of its own;
it splits off from the personality and is said to be dissociated.
It will be noted that in our study of memory we saw that ideas never
remain solitary, but tend to form associations among themselves, or,
as they are technically termed, complexes. The dissociated idea is
no exception to this rule; not only does it form alliances with its
fellow prisoners, but its chains of associations manage to evade
the censor and ramify through the other levels of the mind with
far-reaching consequences, giving rise to much of the illogicality and
unreasonableness which disturb our attempts at rational thinking.
We have already noted that a complex is a group of ideas held together
by some emotionally toned interest; and as all emotion has its root
in an instinct, it follows that all complexes must be affiliated to
one or other of the instincts; as they sink into the subconscious they
therefore go down the channel of the instinct to which they belong, and
as they are swimming against the current they tend to block the flow of
that particular instinct and to cause it to express itself through the
subsidiary channel which they are endeavouring to open up.
It can readily be seen that serious consequences must arise from an
obstacle lodged in the fairway of so great a force and drawing to
itself, under the law of association of ideas, all thoughts that may
enter the mind on the same subject, or that have a real or symbolic
resemblance to it. As has been truly said, the subconscious grows at
the expense of the conscious, and the balance of the mind is upset;
the thrust of life, the source of all energy, instead of flowing
freely from level to level, is blocked by the complex and held up
in the subconscious, causing the pressure on that level to rise to
danger-point, while the conscious mind is sapped of its vitality,
producing an individual of imperative and chaotic needs, which he is
unable to formulate, even to himself, and with no power to give them
expression or obtain their satisfaction.