FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
The following principles may be regarded as fundamental in the
development of psychopathic or nervous ills:
I. _The Principle of Embryonic Psychogenesis_
The mental states of psychopathic or nervous ills are of an
infantile, child type. In this respect the mental states simulate
cancerous and other malignant growths of an embryonic character.
The psychopathic mental states are not only of a childish
character, but they are often associated with child experiences
of early life. The psychopathic condition points to some early
fear-producing experience, or fear awakening shock.
II. _The Principle of Recurrence_
Fear experiences tend to repeat themselves in consciousness,
and especially in the subconscious states of the child. This
repetition or recurrence keeps alive the psychopathic fear nucleus,
and _fixes_ it in the mind. Fixed fear systems become further
developed by the subsequent experiences of life. The aroused
fear instinct may either become weakened or strengthened. When
the conditions of life are unfavorable and adverse, tending to
further cultivation of the impulse of self-preservation and the
fear instinct, the outcome is a psychopathic disposition, ending
in a nervous state with typical symptoms of some definite nervous
trouble, formed by the _latest_ or _ultimate_ fear experiences.
III. _The Principle of Proliferation and Complication_
With the growth of the child the fear experiences increase and
multiply. These experiences become associated with the original
child nucleus of fear and thus a complexity of fear systems is
built up. Worries, depressions, and anxieties help to increase and
develop the psychopathic system of groups of fear experiences. The
morbid state grows like an avalanche in its progress downwards.
IV. _The Principle of Fusion or of Synthesis_
All the fear experiences become associated and grouped gradually
around the original child fear experience which is often of a
subconscious character. The long series of fear experiences becomes
fused and synthesized by the central fear instinct and impulse
of self-preservation, which are fundamental in every being, but
which have been specially cultivated by the course of events and
experiences in the neurotic patient. The experiences become fused,
synthesized, and systematized, forming one complex network of
closely interrelated fear obsessions with the fear instinct and
impulse of self preservation in the background.
V. _The Principle of Contrast_
Feelings and emotions follow by contrast. Excitement is followed by
depression, enjoyment by disgust, exhilaration by disappointment.
This is well brought out in the changes observed in the
psychopathic self and fear states.
Fear may be followed by _anger_, especially against those who
are sure to show no opposition, or may even manifest fear. The
excitement of fear in others is a way which diminishes fear in the
patient and helps him to have confidence in himself, strengthening
his impulse of self preservation.
The fear of the psychopathic may even resort to love so as to gain
safety and protection from the tantalizing agonies of the fear
instinct. _That is why some physicians are deceived, and ascribe
psychopathic troubles to love instead of to the real fundamental
cause of all psychopathic disorders, namely self-preservation and
the fear instinct._
Similarly mysticism, a psychopathic malady of a social character,
has its origin in the impulse of self-preservation and the fear
instinct, and takes refuge in “love” or in “union” with the
Infinite which serves as a rock of protection, security, and
salvation from all terrors of life. _Psychopathic love is a
neurotic fear delusion._ There is nothing more deceptive and
delusive than psychopathic love,--for it takes its origin in self
and fear.
VI. _The Principle of Recession_
Experiences are blotted out from memory in the course of time. A
very small percentage of impressions is registered by the brain,
a still smaller percentage can be reproduced, and out of them a
very small percentage carries _recognition_ as memory, that is,
of impressions experienced before. _Forgetfulness is therefore a
normal physiological function characteristic of the brain and mind._
Forgetfulness depends on at least three conditions, lack of
registration, lack of reproduction, and lack of recognition.
There will correspondingly be at least three forms of amnesia or
forgetfulness, _amnesia of registration, amnesia of reproduction,
and amnesia of recognition_. The real problem of Psychology is not
so much the lapses of memory, but the _why_ and _how_ of memory,
and especially of recognitive memory.
This, however, we may establish as a law that when memory in
regard to definite experiences weakens in the course of time, the
lapse follows _from recognition to reproduction, and finally to
registration_. Recognition fails first, then comes the failure of
memory reproduction, and finally memory registration of the special
experience becomes blurred and wiped out. This may be termed
_the law of memory decay, or of memory regression_. This is the
principle of memory recession.
Some, though by no means all, child memories or infantile
experiences follow this law of regression or recession. Child
experiences, like all old experiences, tend to recede in
their course of decay or of regression below the threshold of
consciousness. The experiences are not recognized on reproduction,
or are reproduced with great difficulty, or have even lost the
function of being reproduced. When under such conditions, the
experiences are said to have become subconscious, or have receded
into the subconscious.
On the other hand some of those subconscious experiences, or
subconscious memories may, under favorable conditions, once more
regain their functions of reproduction and recognition, and
become fully conscious. This may occur in various trance states,
subconscious states, and in various psychopathic conditions.
Such states, however, rarely fix the experiences in memory, because
the states are instable, temporary, and the memories lapse with the
disappearance of the states. This principle of recession may be
regarded as one of the fundamental facts of the Psychopathology of
the Subconscious. In fact, _subconscious states may also be termed
Recessive States_.
VII. _The Principle of Dissociation_
Recessive states, becoming marginal and subconscious, lapse
from voluntary control, they cannot be recalled deliberately
and consciously by the activities of voluntary, recognitive,
associative memories, constituting the mental life of personality,
and hence may be regarded as mental systems in a state of
_dissociation_. The lapsed states are present subconsciously when
not completely blurred and obliterated by the process of decay or
regression.
Dissociated, subconscious states, when affected by the impulse of
self-preservation and the fear instinct, tend to become parasitic,
and like malignant growths may suck the life energy of the
affected individual. Under such conditions we have psychopathic,
subconscious, dissociated states.
VIII. _The Principle of Irradiation and Diffusion_
In the dormant, subconscious states the fear instinct gradually
extends to other subconscious states. The fear instinct acts like a
malignant growth, like a fermenting enzyme. The subconscious fear
instinct gradually infiltrates, diffuses, irradiates its affective
state throughout the subconscious life of the patient, finally
giving rise to a psychopathic disposition with its selfishness,
apparent repressions, apprehension, anxiety, anguish, terror,
and panic. This may also give rise to the general psychopathic
character of doubt, indecision, and _conflicting_ states, all being
determined by the underlying fear instinct.
IX. _The Principle of Differentiation_
With the growth of the impulse of self preservation and with the
development of an exaggerated fear instinct, the individual becomes
more and more neurotic and psychopathic. This general, neurotic,
mental state attaches itself to various events in the life of the
individual. The psychopathic disposition keeps on progressing from
one event to another. Each one may be regarded as a separate fear
state, or phobia. Finally the disposition may settle on the last
event in the patient’s life experience. This last event may often
become the nucleus, or rather the apparent nucleus of the neurosis.
The last experience appears to be central. _As a matter of fact
there is a great number of fear states or of phobias in the
neurotic patient._ A few only appear to predominate in the network
of fear events. The network of fears is woven into an incongruous
whole by the impulse of self-preservation and the fear instinct.
This network becomes differentiated into a tangle of numerous fear
states.
X. _The Principle of Dominance_
The last fear states or _Ultimate Fear States_ which stand out
clearly and distinctly in the patient’s mind become the leading,
the dominant abnormal, pathological states. The patient thinks
that they are the real source of all his troubles, and if they
were removed he would be cured. As a matter of fact the ultimate
states are not _causes_, but _occasions. The real causes of
the psychopathic constitution are the exaggerated impulse of
self-preservation and the intensified fear instinct._
XI. _The Principle of Dynamogenesis_
Recessive, and especially dissociated systems, being dormant
subconsciously, may become envigorated, may accumulate emotion,
and when the opportunity comes, may react to external stimuli
with vigor and energy. The attacks may occur like epileptic fits.
They often so well simulate epileptic maladies that even good
clinicians have classed such attacks under the term of larval
epilepsy, psychic epilepsy, hystero-epilepsy, or psychic equivalent
of epilepsy. This subconscious energy manifestation may be termed
_Dynamogenesis_.
XII. _The Principle of Inhibition_
Self-preservation and the fear instinct inhibit associated mental
systems, producing morbid states. _Morbid mental states, however,
are not produced by inhibitions, or repressions._ It is only
when the inhibitive factors are self and fear that a true morbid
mental state, or neurosis arises. To regard self repression as
a bad condition and leading to diseases is to misapprehend the
nature of man, to falsify psychology, and to misrepresent the
development of humanity. The self should not become hypertrophied.
Self-preservation should not become overgrown. The self must be
kept within limits. The self impulse should be kept under control
by the individual. For true happiness is to be a law unto oneself.
As the great Greek thinkers put it: Happiness is in self rule. The
unruly are miserable. In fact, self-control is absolutely requisite
to mental health, to sanity. _Self-repression is requisite for
happiness. Self-repression never leads to disease._ It is only when
self-repression is produced and dominated by selfishness and fear
that morbid states of a psychopathic, neurotic character are sure
to arise. It is not inhibitions that produce fear, but _it is fear
that produces inhibitions_. To ascribe neurosis to self-repression
and to conflict is like attributing malaria or tuberculosis to air
and light.
XIII. _The Principle of Mental Contest and Discord_
Mental states associated with intense emotions tend to take a
dominant lead in consciousness. This, however, may be totally
opposed by the general character of the individual. In such
cases the whole mental set, being in opposition to the total
individuality, is in contest with the character of the person who
is then in state of discord. A mental set in contest with the
make-up of the person is usually inhibited, becomes subconscious,
and as a rule fades away from the mind, often leaving no trace
even in memory, conscious or subconscious. In some cases where a
compromise is possible, a reconciliation is effected. The mental
set is assimilated, and disappears from consciousness as an
independent, functioning state.
When, however, the opposing or contesting mental set is based on a
fundamental impulse and accompanying instinct, such as the impulse
of self-preservation and the fear instinct, a total inhibition
is not always possible, even a compromise may not be successful,
because the mental set is in association with the core of the
individual,--namely self-preservation. The contesting mental set
remains, in what Galton terms, “the antechamber of consciousness.”
The mind is in a state of tension, in a state of anxiety, in
restless, uneasy discord, due to the fear instinct, the companion
of the impulse of self-preservation. The contesting mental set,
charged with intense fear emotion, presses into the foreground of
consciousness, and a contest, a discord, ensues in the mind of the
individual, a contest, a discord, a conflict which keeps the person
in a state of indecision and lack of will power.
The partly inhibited, contesting mental set, when not fading away,
may thus remain in the mind, and act like a splinter in the flesh,
giving rise to a state of discomfort. This is just what happens
when the individual has not been trained to assimilate fear states,
and is unable to adjust fear reactions to the welfare of total
psycho-physiological life activity.
In cases where the impulse of self-preservation and the fear
instinct have become aroused, the contesting fear set of mental
states presses again and again to the foreground of consciousness.
When no compromise of the contesting states can be brought about,
when the fear set cannot be assimilated, the mind is in a state of
restless discord. _It is not, however, the discord that produces
the neurosis, it is the impulse of self-preservation and the fear
instinct that constitute the cause of the psychopathic, neurotic
condition._
XIV. _The Principle of Diminishing Resistance_
In proportion as the neurotic attacks keep on recurring the
formed pathological system is gaining in energy and in ease of
manifestation. The psychopathic attacks with their symptoms emerge
at an ever diminishing intensity of stimulation. The resistance of
healthy normal associations is ever on the decrease until a point
is reached when all power of resistance is lost. The conscious
and subconscious groups which enter into the psychopathic system,
forming the neurosis, get control over the patient’s life, and
become an uncontrollable, psychopathic obsession.
XV. _The Principle of Modification_
The patient attempts to control or alleviate his fear state
by a totally different fear state. In the long run this is a
losing game. For the general fear disposition becomes ultimately
reinforced. Finally he may land in the mystic regions of love or of
an Infinite Love in which he expects to find safety, protection,
and salvation from the miseries of exaggerated self impulse and
intensified fear instinct. Such a course, however, leads to a
swamp in which the patient’s individuality becomes engulfed and
obliterated. The end is mental suicide.
These fundamental principles of neurosis-development should be
kept in mind in the examination and study of psychopathic cases.
The cases adduced in this volume will help one to understand the
mechanism of the main factors and principles of neurosis.