a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

as to the structure of the psychic apparatus which covers the development of
both the dream and the neurotic symptom has also an undeniable claim to be
taken into consideration in any theory of normal psychic life.
So much, then, for suppression. It is, however, only a prerequisite for the
evolution of the symptom. We know that the symptom serves as a substitute
for a process kept back by suppression. Yet it is no simple matter to bridge
this gap between the suppression and the evolution of the substitute. We
have first to answer several questions on other aspects of the problem
concerning the suppression and its substantiation: What kind of psychological
stimuli are at the basis of the suppression; by what forces is it achieved; for
what motives? On these matters we have only one insight that we can go by.
We learned in the investigation of resistance that it grows out of the forces of
the "I," in other words from obvious and latent traits of character. It must be
from the same traits also that suppression derived support; at least they
played a part in its development. All further knowledge is still withheld from
us.
A second observation, for which I have already prepared, will help us further
at this point. By means of analysis we can assign one very general purpose to
the neurotic symptom. This is of course nothing new to you. I have already
shown it to you in the two cases of neuroses. But, to be sure, what is the
significance of two cases! You have the right to demand that it be shown to
you innumerable times. But I am unable to do this. Here again your own
experience must step in, or your belief, which may in this matter rely upon
the unanimous account of all psychoanalysts.
You will remember that in these two cases, whose symptoms we subjected to
searching investigation, the analysis introduced us to the most intimate sexual
life of these patients. In the first case, moreover, we could identify with
unusual clearness the purpose or tendency of the symptoms under
investigation. Perhaps in the second case it was slightly covered by another
factor—one we will consider later. Now, the same thing that we saw in these
two examples we would see in all other cases that we subjected to analysis.
Each time, through analysis, we would be introduced to the sexual wishes and
experiences of the patient, and every time we would have to conclude that
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