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

to be qualitatively the same and to be differentiated only by these
quantitative conditions. The quantitative factor is no less important for the
power of resistance against neurotic ailments. It depends upon what amount
of unused libido a person can hold freely suspended, and upon how large a
fraction of the libido he is able to direct from the sexual path to the goal of
sublimation. The final goal of psychological activity, which may be described
qualitatively as striving towards pleasure-acquisition and avoidance of
unpleasantness, presents itself in the light of economic considerations as the
task of overcoming the gigantic stimuli at work in the psychological apparatus,
and to prevent those obstructions which cause unpleasantness.
So much I wanted to tell you about symptom development in the neuroses.
Yes, but do not let me neglect to emphasize this especially: everything I have
said here relates to the symptom development in hysteria. Even in compulsion
neuroses, which retain the same fundamentals, much is found that is
different. The counter-siege directed against the claims of the instincts, of
which we have spoken in connection with hysteria, press to the fore in
compulsion neuroses, and control the clinical picture by means of so-called
"reaction-formations." The same kind and more far-reaching variations are
discoverable among the other neuroses, where the investigations as to the
mechanism of symptom development have in no way been completed.
Before I leave you today I should like to have your attention for a while for an
aspect of imaginative life which is worthy of the most general interest. For
there is a way back from imagination to reality and that is—art. The artist is
an incipient introvert who is not far from being a neurotic. He is impelled by
too powerful instinctive needs. He wants to achieve honor, power, riches,
fame and the love of women. But he lacks the means of achieving these
satisfactions. So like any other unsatisfied person, he turns away from reality,
and transfers all his interests, his libido, too, to the elaboration of his
imaginary wishes, all of which might easily point the way to neurosis. A great
many factors must combine to present this termination of his development; it
is well known how often artists especially suffer from a partial inhibition of
their capacities through neurosis. Apparently their constitutions are strongly
endowed with an ability to sublimize and to shift the suppression determining
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