libidinal [see next foot-note] structure of an army on the ground that
no place has been found in it for such ideas as those of one's country,
of national glory, etc., which are of such importance in holding an army
together. The answer is that that is a different instance of a group
tie, and no longer such a simple one; for the examples of great
generals, like Caesar, Wallenstein, or Napoleon, show that such ideas
are not indispensable to the existence of an army. We shall presently
touch upon the possibility of a leading idea being substituted for a
leader and upon the relations between the two. The neglect of this
libidinal factor in an army, even when it is not the only factor
operative, seems to be not merely a theoretical omission but also a
practical danger. Prussian militarism, which was just as unpsychological
as German science, may have had to suffer the consequences of this in
the great war. We know that the war neuroses which ravaged the German
army have been recognized as being a protest of the individual against
the part he was expected to play in the army; and according to the
communication of E. Simmel (_Kriegsneurosen and 'Psychisches Trauma'._
Munich, 1918), the hard treatment of the men by their superiors may be
considered as foremost among the motive forces of the disease. If the
importance of the libido's claims on this score had been better
appreciated, the fantastic promises of the American President's fourteen
points would probably not have been believed so easily, and the splendid
instrument would not have broken in the hands of the German leaders.
[29] [Here and elsewhere the German 'libidinös' is used simply as an
adjectival derivative from the technical term '_Libido_'; 'libidinal' is
accordingly introduced in the translation in order to avoid the
highly-coloured connotation of the English 'libidinous'.--_Translator._]
[30] ['Cathexis', from the Greek 'κατἑχω', 'I occupy'. The German word
'_Besetzung_' has become of fundamental importance in the exposition of
psycho-analytical theory. Any attempt at a short definition or
description is likely to be misleading, but speaking very loosely, we
may say that 'cathexis' is used on the analogy of an electric charge,
and that it means the concentration or accumulation of mental energy in
some particular channel. Thus, when we speak of the existence in someone
of a libidinal cathexis of an object, or, more shortly, of an
object-cathexis, we mean that the libidinal energy is directed towards,
or rather infused into, the idea (_Vorstellung_) of some object in the
outer world. Readers who desire to obtain a more precise knowledge of
the term are referred to the discussions in 'Zur Einführung des
Narzissmus' and the essays on metapsychology in _Kleine Schriften zur
Neurosenlehre_, Vierte Folge.--_Translator._]
[31] See _Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse_. XXV, 3.
Auflage, 1920. [_Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis._ Lecture XXV.
George Allen and Unwin, 1922.]
[32] Compare Bela v. Felszeghy's interesting though somewhat fantastic
paper 'Panik und Pankomplex'. _Imago_, 1920, Bd. VI.
[33] Compare the explanation of similar phenomena after the abolition of
the paternal authority of the sovereign given in P. Federn's _Die
vaterlose Gesellschaft_. Vienna, Anzengruber-Verlag, 1919.
[34] 'A company of porcupines crowded themselves very close together one
cold winter's day so as to profit by one another's warmth and so save
themselves from being frozen to death. But soon they felt one another's
quills, which induced them to separate again. And now, when the need for
warmth brought them nearer together again, the second evil arose once
more. So that they were driven backwards and forwards from one trouble
to the other, until they had discovered a mean distance at which they
could most tolerably exist.' (_Parerga und Paralipomena_, II. Teil,
XXXI., 'Gleichnisse und Parabeln'.)
[35] Perhaps with the solitary exception of the relation of a mother to
her son, which is based upon narcissism, is not disturbed by subsequent
rivalry, and is reinforced by a rudimentary attempt at sexual
object-choice.
[36] In a recently published study, _Jenseits des Lustprinzips_ (1920)
[_Beyond the Pleasure Principle_, International Psycho-Analytical
Library, No. 4], I have attempted to connect the polarity of love and
hatred with a hypothetical opposition between instincts of life and
death, and to establish the sexual instincts as the purest examples of
the former, the instincts of life.
[37] See 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus', 1914. _Kleine Schriften zur
Neurosenlehre_, Vierte Folge, 1918.
[38] [Literally, 'leaning-up-against type'; from the Greek 'ἁνακλἱνω' 'I
lean up against'. In the first phase of their development the sexual
instincts have no independent means of finding satisfaction; they do so
by propping themselves upon or 'leaning up against' the
self-preservative instincts. The individual's first choice of a sexual
object is said to be of the 'anaclitic type' when it follows this path;
that is, when he choses as his first sexual object the same person who
has satisfied his early non-sexual needs. For a full discussion of the
anaclitic and narcissistic types of object-choice compare 'Zur
Einführung des Narzissmus.--_Translator._]
[39] See _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_, and Abraham's
'Untersuchungen über die früheste prägenitale Entwicklungsstufe der
Libido', _Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse_, 1916, Bd, IV;
also included in his _Klinische Beiträge zur Psychoanalyse_
(Internationale psychoanalytische Bibliothek. Nr. 10, 1921).
[40] [_Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre._ Zweite Folge.]
[41] Marcuszewicz: 'Beitrag zum autistischen Denken bei Kindern.'
_Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse_, 1920, Bd. VI.
[42] ['Trauer und Melancholie.' _Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre_,
Vierte Folge, 1918.]
[43] ['_Instanz_'--like 'instance' in the phrase 'court of first
instance'--was originally a legal term. It is now used in the sense of
one of a hierarchy of authorities or functions.--_Translator._]
[44] 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus', 'Trauer und Melancholie.'
[45] 'Zur Einführung des Narzissmus.'
[46] We are very well aware that we have not exhausted the nature of
identification with these samples taken from pathology, and that we have
consequently left part of the riddle of group formations untouched. A
far more fundamental and comprehensive psychological analysis would have
to intervene at this point. A path leads from identification by way of
imitation to empathy, that is, to the comprehension of the mechanism by
means of which we are enabled to take up any attitude at all towards
another mental life. Moreover there is still much to be explained in the
manifestations of existing identifications. These result among other
things in a person limiting his aggressiveness towards those with whom
he has identified himself, and in his sparing them and giving them help.
The study of such identifications, like those, for instance, which lie
at the root of clan feeling, led Robertson Smith to the surprising
result that they rest upon the recognition of a common substance
(_Kinship and Marriage_, 1885), and may even therefore be brought about
by a meal eaten in common. This feature makes it possible to connect
this kind of identification with the early history of the human family
which I constructed in _Totem und Tabu_.
[47] Cf. _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_, l.c.
[48] 'Über die allgemeinste Erniedrigung des Liebeslebens.' _Kleine
Schriften zur Neurosenlehre_, Vierte Folge, 1918.
[49] Cf. 'Metapsychologische Ergänzung zur Traumlehre.' _Kleine
Schriften zur Neurosenlehre_, Vierte Folge, 1918.
[50] W. Trotter: _Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War._ Fisher Unwin,
1916.
[51] See my essay _Jenseits des Lustprinzips_.
[52] See the remarks upon Dread in _Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die
Psychoanalyse_. XXV.
[53] _Totem und Tabu._
[54] What we have just described in our general characterisation of
mankind must apply especially to the primal horde. The will of the
individual was too weak; he did not venture upon action. No impulses
whatever came into play except collective ones; there was only a common
will, there were no single ones. An idea did not dare to turn itself
into a volition unless it felt itself reinforced by a perception of its
general diffusion. This weakness of the idea is to be explained by the
strength of the emotional tie which is shared by all the members of the
horde; but the similarity in the circumstances of their life and the
absence of any private property assist in determining the uniformity of
their individual mental acts. As we may observe with children and
soldiers, common activity is not excluded even in the excremental
functions. The one great exception is provided by the sexual act, in
which a third person is at the best superfluous and in the extreme case
is condemned to a state of painful expectancy. As to the reaction of the
sexual need (for genital gratification) towards gregariousness, see
below.
[55] It may perhaps also be assumed that the sons, when they were driven
out and separated from their father, advanced from identification with
one another to homosexual object love, and in this way won freedom to
kill their father.
[56] 'Das Unheimliche.' _Imago_, 1919, Bd. V.
[57] See _Totem und Tabu_ and the sources there quoted.
[58] This situation, in which the subject's attitude is unconsciously
directed towards the hypnotist, while he is consciously occupied with
the monotonous and uninteresting perceptions, finds a parallel among the
events of psycho-analytic treatment, which deserves to be mentioned
here. At least once in the course of every analysis a moment comes when
the patient obstinately maintains that just now positively nothing
whatever occurs to his mind. His free associations come to a stop and
the usual incentives for putting them in motion fail in their effect. As
a result of pressure the patient is at last induced to admit that he is
thinking of the view from the consulting-room window, of the wall-paper
that he sees before him, or of the gas-lamp hanging from the ceiling.
Then one knows at once that he has gone off into the transference and
that he is engaged upon what are still unconscious thoughts relating to
the physician; and one sees the stoppage in the patient's associations
disappear, as soon as he has been given this explanation.
[59] Ferenczi: 'Introjektion und Übertragung.' _Jahrbuch der
Psychoanalyse_, 1909, Bd. I [_Contributions to Psycho-Analysis._ Boston,
Badger, 1916, Chapter II.]
[60] It seems to me worth emphasizing the fact that the discussions in
this section have induced us to give up Bernheim's conception of
hypnosis and go back to the _naïf_ earlier one. According to Bernheim
all hypnotic phenomena are to be traced to the factor of suggestion,
which is not itself capable of further explanation. We have come to the
conclusion that suggestion is a partial manifestation of the state of
hypnosis, and that hypnosis is solidly founded upon a predisposition
which has survived in the unconscious from the early history of the
human family.
[61] 'Trauer und Melancholie.'
[62] _Totem und Tabu._
[63] Trotter traces repression back to the herd instinct. It is a
translation of this into another form of expression rather than a
contradiction when I say in my 'Einführung des Narzissmus' that on the
part of the ego the construction of an ideal is the condition of
repression.
[64] Cf. Abraham: 'Ansätze zur psychoanalytischen Erforschung und
Behandlung des manisch-depressiven Irreseins', 1912, in _Klinische
Beiträge zur Psychoanalyse_, 1921.
[65] To speak more accurately, they conceal themselves behind the
reproaches directed towards the person's own ego, and lend them the
fixity, tenacity, and imperativeness which characterize the
self-reproaches of a melancholiac.
[66] [Literally: 'How he clears his throat and how he spits, that you
have cleverly copied from him.']
[67] What follows at this point was written under the influence of an
exchange of ideas with Otto Rank.
[68] Cf. Hanns Sachs: 'Gemeinsame Tagträume', a summary made by the
lecturer himself of a paper read at the Sixth Psycho-analytical
Congress, held at the Hague in 1920. _Internationale Zeitschrift für
Psychoanalyse_, 1920, Bd. VI. ['Day-Dreams in Common'. _International
Journal of Psycho-Analysis_, 1920, Vol. I.]
[69] In this brief exposition I have made no attempt to bring forward
any of the material existing in legends, myths, fairy tales, the history
of manners, etc., in support of the construction.
[70] Cf. _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_.
[71] Hostile feelings, which are a little more complicated in their
construction, offer no exception to this rule.
[72] [_Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde._ Heft 8. Vienna, Deuticke,
1910.]
[73] See 'Über die allgemeinste Erniedrigung des Liebeslebens.'
[74] See _Totem und Tabu_, towards the end of Part II, 'Das Tabu und die
Ambivalenz'.
[75] See _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_, 4. Auflage, 1920, S. 96.