8. Unsatisfied Wishes and Sublimation - Square Circles Publishing

SOURCE 8: THE MIND AT MISCHIEF
[See 27:6.1.]
8:5.5 While I am very favorably
disposed toward Freud’s theory of
repression and conflicts, I am not able to
go so far as to accept his hypothesis that
everything undesirable in human nervous
behavior is due to conflict between a
hypothetical libido and the more
generally accepted group of ego
complexes. I find that when I postulate
five groups of possibly dominant
complexes in the psychic life, I am able to
utilize much more of the Freudian
philosophy in an effort to understand the
symptoms and vagaries of neurotic
patients.
There is no doubt that when one psychic
complex becomes dominant over its
fellows, these subordinate urges begin to
utter protest in the form of certain
nervous symptoms; and it is highly
probable that
Freud says: “The purpose of the symptom
is either a sexual gratification or a
defence against it; in hysteria the positive,
wish-fulfilling character predominates on
the whole,
and in the obsessional neurosis the
negative ascetic character... (M 128).
when they temporarily gain the upper
hand of the tyrannically overlording urge,
they seek gratification along hysterical
lines;
and that when they fail thus to assert their
individuality to the point of gratification,
they set up a continuous protest as
manifested in various obsessions, fears,
and even generalized anxiety.
8:5.6 We must not forget, in this
connection, the rôle of buried or latent
childhood fantasy.
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