Freud - Complete Works (400 page)

A Special Type Of Choice Of Object Made By Men

2332

   As an almost invariable corollary
to this sexual enlightenment, the boy at the same time gains a
knowledge of the existence of certain women who practise sexual
intercourse as a means of livelihood, and who are for this reason
held in general contempt. The boy himself is necessarily far from
feeling this contempt: as soon as he learns that he too can be
initiated by these unfortunates into sexual life, which till then
he accepted as being reserved exclusively for
‘grown-ups’, he regards them only with a mixture of
longing and horror. When after this he can no longer maintain the
doubt which makes his parents an exception to the universal and
odious norms of sexual activity, he tells himself with cynical
logic that the difference between his mother and a whore is not
after all so very great, since basically they do the same thing.
The enlightening information he has received has in fact awakened
the memory-traces of the impressions and wishes of his early
infancy, and these have led to a reactivation in him of certain
mental impulses. He begins to desire his mother herself in the
sense with which he has recently become acquainted, and to hate his
father anew as a rival who stands in the way of this wish; he
comes, as we say, under the dominance of the Oedipus complex. He
does not forgive his mother for having granted the favour of sexual
intercourse not to himself but to his father, and he regards it as
an act of unfaithfulness. If these impulses do not quickly pass,
there is no outlet for them other than to run their course in
phantasies which have as their subject his mother’s sexual
activities under the most diverse circumstances; and the consequent
tension leads particularly readily to his finding relief in
masturbation. As a result of the constant combined operation of the
two driving forces, desire and thirst for revenge, phantasies of
his mother’s unfaithfulness are by far the most preferred;
the lover with whom she commits her act of infidelity almost always
exhibits the features of the boy’s own ego, or more
accurately, of his own idealized personality, grown up and so
raised to a level with his father. What I have elsewhere¹
described as the ‘family romance’ comprises the
manifold ramifications of this imaginative activity and the way in
which they are interwoven with various egoistic interests of this
period of life.

  
¹
In Rank’s
The Myth of the Birth of
the Hero
(1909).

A Special Type Of Choice Of Object Made By Men

2333

   Now that we have gained an
insight into this piece of mental development we can no longer
regard it as contradictory and incomprehensible that the
precondition of the loved one’s being like a prostitute
should derive directly from the mother complex. The type of male
love which we have described bears the traces of this evolution and
is simple to understand as a fixation on the phantasies formed by
the boy in puberty - phantasies which have later after all found a
way out into real life. There is no difficulty in assuming that the
masturbation assiduously practised in the years of puberty has
played its part in the fixation of the phantasies.

   To these phantasies which have
succeeded in dominating the man’s love in real life, the urge
to
rescue
the loved one seems to bear merely a loose and
superficial relation, and one that is fully accounted for by
conscious reasons. By her propensity to be fickle and unfaithful
the loved one brings herself into dangerous situations, and thus it
is understandable that the lover should be at pains to protect her
from these dangers by watching over her virtue and counteracting
her bad inclinations. However, the study of people’s
screen-memories, phantasies and nocturnal dreams shows that we have
here a particularly felicitous ‘rationalization’ of an
unconscious motive, a process which may be compared to a successful
secondary revision of a dream. In actual fact the
‘rescue-
motif
’ has a meaning and history of its
own, and is an independent derivative of the mother-complex, or
more accurately, of the parental complex. When a child hears that
he
owes his life
to his parents, or that his mother
gave
him life
, his feelings of tenderness unite with impulses which
strive at power and independence, and they generate the wish to
return this gift to the parents and to repay them with one of equal
value. It is as though the boy’s defiance were to make him
say: ‘I want nothing from my father; I will give him back all
I have cost him.’ He then forms the phantasy of
rescuing
his father from danger and saving his life
; in this way he puts
his account square with him. This phantasy is commonly enough
displaced on to the emperor, king or some other great man; after
being thus distorted it becomes admissible to consciousness, and
may even be made use of by creative writers. In its application to
a boy’s father it is the defiant meaning in the idea of
rescuing which is by far the most important; where his mother is
concerned it is usually its tender meaning. The mother gave the
child life, and it is not easy to find a substitute, of equal value
for this unique gift. With a slight change of meaning, such as is
easily effected in the unconscious and is comparable to the way in
which in consciousness concepts shade into one another, rescuing
his mother takes on the significance of giving her a child or
making a child for her - needless to say, one like himself. This is
not too remote from the original sense of rescuing, and the change
in meaning is not an arbitrary one. His mother gave him a life -
his own life - and in exchange he gives her another life, that of a
child which has the greatest resemblance to himself. The son shows
his gratitude by wishing to have by his mother a son who is like
himself: in other words, in the rescue-phantasy he is completely
identifying himself with his father. All his instincts, those of
tenderness, gratitude, lustfulness, defiance and independence, find
satisfaction in the single wish
to be his own father
. Even
the element of danger has not been lost in the change of meaning;
for the act of birth itself is the danger from which he was saved
by his mother’s efforts. Birth is both the first of all
dangers to life and the prototype of all the later ones that cause
us to feel anxiety, and the experience of birth has probably left
behind in us the expression of affect which we call anxiety.
Macduff of the Scottish legend, who was not born of his mother but
ripped from her womb, was for that reason unacquainted with
anxiety.

A Special Type Of Choice Of Object Made By Men

2334

   Artemidorus, the
dream-interpreter of antiquity, was certainly right in maintaining
that the meaning of a dream depends on who the dreamer happens to
be. Under the laws governing the expression of unconscious
thoughts, the meaning of rescuing may vary, depending on whether
the author of the phantasy is a man or a woman. It can equally mean
(in a man) making a child, i.e. causing it to be born, or (in a
woman) giving birth oneself to a child. These various meanings of
rescuing in dreams and phantasies can be recognized particularly
clearly when they are found in connection with water. A man
rescuing a woman from the water in a dream means that he makes her
a mother, which in the light of the preceding discussion amounts to
making her his own mother. A woman rescuing someone else (a child)
from the water acknowledges herself in this way as the mother who
bore him, like Pharoah’s daughter in the legend of Moses
(Rank, 1909). At times there is also a tender meaning contained in
rescue-phantasies directed towards the father. In such cases they
aim at expressing the subject’s wish to have his father as a
son - that is, to have a son who is like his father.

   It is on account of all these
connections between the rescue-
motif
and the parental
complex that the urge to rescue the loved one forms an important
feature of the type of loving which I have been discussing.

   I do not feel that it is
necessary for me to justify my method of work on this subject; as
in my presentation of anal erotism, so here too I have in the first
place aimed at singling out from the observational material extreme
and sharply defined types. In both cases we find a far greater
number of individuals in whom only a few features of the type can
be recognized, or only features which are not distinctly marked,
and it is obvious that a proper appreciation of these types will
not be possible until the whole context to which they belong has
been explored.

2335

ON THE UNIVERSAL TENDENCY TO DEBASEMENT IN THE SPHERE OF LOVE

(CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE II)

(1912)

2336

Intentionally left blank

2337

ON THE UNIVERSAL TENDENCY TO DEBASEMENT IN THE SPHERE OF LOVE

(CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE II)

I

If the practising psycho-analyst asks himself
on account of what disorder people most often come to him for help,
he is bound to reply - disregarding the many forms of anxiety -
that it is psychical impotence. This singular disturbance affects
men of strongly libidinous natures, and manifests itself in a
refusal by the executive organs of sexuality to carry out the
sexual act, although before and after they may show themselves to
be intact and capable of performing the act, and although a strong
psychical inclination to carry it out is present. The first clue to
understanding his condition is obtained by the sufferer himself on
making the discovery that a failure of this kind only arises when
the attempt is made with certain individuals; whereas with others
there is never any question of such a failure. He now becomes aware
that it is some feature of the sexual object which gives rise to
the inhibition of his male potency, and sometimes he reports that
he has a feeling of an obstacle inside him, the sensation of a
counter-will which successfully interferes with his conscious
intention. However, he is unable to guess what this internal
obstacle is and what feature of the sexual object brings it into
operation. If he has had repeated experience of a failure of this
kind, he is likely, by the familiar process of ‘erroneous
connection’, to decide that the recollection of the first
occasion evoked the disturbing anxiety-idea and so caused the
failure to be repeated each time; while he derives the first
occasion itself from some ‘accidental’ impression.

On The Universal Tendency To Debasement In The Sphere Of Love

2338

   Psycho-analytic studies of
psychical impotence have already been carried out and published by
several writers.¹ Every analyst can confirm the explanations
provided by them from his own clinical experience. It is in fact a
question of the inhibitory influence of certain psychical complexes
which are withdrawn from the subject’s knowledge. An
incestuous fixation on mother or sister, which has never been
surmounted, plays a prominent part in this pathogenic material and
is its most universal content. In addition there is the influence
to be considered of accidental distressing impressions connected
with infantile sexual activity, and also those factors which in a
general way reduce the libido that is to be directed on to the
female sexual object.²

   When striking cases of psychical
impotence are exhaustively investigated by means of
psycho-analysis, the following information is obtained about the
psychosexual processes at work in them. Here again - as very
probably in all neurotic disturbances - the foundation of the
disorder is provided by an inhibition in the developmental history
of the libido before it assumes the form which we take to be its
normal termination. Two currents whose union is necessary to ensure
a completely normal attitude in love have, in the cases we are
considering, failed to combine. These two may be distinguished as
the
affectionate
and the
sensual
current.

   The affectionate current is the
older of the two. It springs from the earliest years of childhood;
it is formed on the basis of the interests of the self-preservative
instinct and is directed to the members of the family and those who
look after the child. From the very beginning it carries along with
it contributions from the sexual instincts - components of erotic
interest - which can already be seen more or less clearly even in
childhood and in any event are uncovered in neurotics by
psycho-analysis later on. It corresponds to
the child’s
primary object-choice
. We learn in this way that the sexual
instincts find their first objects by attaching themselves to the
valuations made by the ego-instincts, precisely in the way in which
the first sexual satisfactions are experienced in attachment to the
bodily functions necessary for the preservation of life. The
‘affection’ shown by the child’s parents and
those who look after him, which seldom fails to betray its erotic
nature (‘the child is an erotic plaything’), does a
very great deal to raise the contributions made by erotism to the
cathexes of his ego-instincts, and to increase them to an amount
which is bound to play a part in his later development, especially
when certain other circumstances lend their support.

  
¹
Steiner (1907), Stekel (1908), Ferenczi
(1908).

  
²
Stekel (1908, 191 ff.).

On The Universal Tendency To Debasement In The Sphere Of Love

2339

   These affectionate fixations of
the child persist throughout childhood, and continually carry along
with them erotism, which is consequently diverted from its sexual
aims. Then at the age of puberty they are joined by the powerful
‘sensual’ current which no longer mistakes its aims. It
never fails, apparently, to follow the earlier paths and to cathect
the objects of the primary infantile choice with quotas of libido
that are now far stronger. Here, however, it runs up against the
obstacles that have been erected in the meantime by the barrier
against incest; consequently it will make efforts to pass on from
these objects which are unsuitable in reality, and find a way as
soon as possible to other, extraneous objects with which a real
sexual life may be carried on. These new objects will still be
chosen on the model (imago) of the infantile ones, but in the
course of time they will attract to themselves the affection that
was tied to the earlier ones. A man shall leave his father and his
mother - according to the biblical command - and shall cleave unto
his wife; affection and sensuality are then united. The greatest
intensity of sensual passion will bring with it the highest
psychical valuation of the object - this being the normal
overvaluation of the sexual object on the part of a man.

   Two factors will decide whether
this advance in the developmental path of the libido is to fail.
First, there is the amount of
frustration in reality
, which
opposes the new object-choice and reduces its value for the person
concerned. There is after all no point in embarking upon an
object-choice if no choice is to be allowed at all or if there is
no prospect of being able to choose anything suitable. Secondly,
there is the amount of
attraction
which the infantile
objects that have to be relinquished are able to exercise, and
which is in proportion to the erotic cathexis attaching to them in
childhood. If these two factors are sufficiently strong, the
general mechanism by which the neuroses are formed comes into
operation. The libido turns away from reality, is taken over by
imaginative activity (the process of introversion), strengthens the
images of the first sexual objects and becomes fixated to them. The
obstacle raised against incest, however, compels the libido that
has turned to these objects to remain in the unconscious. The
masturbatory activity carried out by the sensual current, which is
now part of the unconscious, makes its own contribution in
strengthening this fixation. Nothing is altered in this state of
affairs if the advance which has miscarried in reality is now
completed in phantasy, and if in the phantasy-situations that lead
to masturbatory satisfaction the original sexual objects are
replaced by different ones. As a result of this substitution the
phantasies become admissible to consciousness, but no progress is
made in the allocation of the libido in reality. In this way it can
happen that the whole of a young man’s sensuality becomes
tied to incestuous objects in the unconscious, or to put it another
way, becomes fixated to unconscious incestuous phantasies. The
result is then total impotence, which is perhaps further ensured by
the simultaneous onset of an actual weakening of the organs that
perform the sexual act.

On The Universal Tendency To Debasement In The Sphere Of Love

2340

   Less severe conditions are
required to bring about the state known specifically as psychical
impotence. Here the fate of the sensual current must not be that
its whole charge has to conceal itself behind the affectionate
current; it must have remained sufficiently strong or uninhibited
to secure a partial outlet into reality. The sexual activity of
such people shows the clearest signs, however, that it has not the
whole psychical driving force of the instinct behind it. It is
capricious, easily disturbed, often not properly carried out, and
not accompanied by much pleasure. But above all it is forced to
avoid the affectionate current. A restriction has thus been placed
on object-choice. The sensual current that has remained active
seeks only objects which do not recall the incestuous figures
forbidden to it;  if someone makes an impression that might
lead to a high psychical estimation of her, this impression does
not find an issue in any sensual excitation but in affection which
has no erotic effect. The whole sphere of love in such people
remains divided in the two directions personified in art as sacred
and profane (or animal) love. Where they love they do not desire
and where they desire they cannot love. They seek objects which
they do not need to love, in order to keep their sensuality away
from the objects they love; and, in accordance with the laws of
‘complexive sensitiveness’ and of the return of the
repressed, the strange failure shown in psychical impotence makes
its appearance whenever an object which has been chosen with the
aim of avoiding incest recalls the prohibited object through some
feature, often an inconspicuous one.

   The main protective measure
against such a disturbance which men have recourse to in this split
in their love consists in a psychical
debasement
of the
sexual object, the overvaluation that normally attaches to the
sexual object being reserved for the incestuous object and its
representatives. As soon as the condition of debasement is
fulfilled, sensuality can be freely expressed, and important sexual
capacities and a high degree of pleasure can develop. There is a
further factor which contributes to this result. People in whom
there has not been a proper confluence of the affectionate and the
sensual currents do not usually show much refinement in their modes
of behaviour in love; they have retained perverse sexual aims whose
non-fulfilment is felt as a serious loss of pleasure, and whose
fulfilment on the other hand seems possible only with a debased and
despised sexual object.

   We can now understand the motives
behind the boy’s phantasies mentioned in the first of these
‘Contributions’ (above,
p. 2331
), which degrade the
mother to the level of a prostitute. They are efforts to bridge the
gulf between the two currents in love, at any rate in phantasy, and
by debasing the mother to acquire her as an object of
sensuality.

On The Universal Tendency To Debasement In The Sphere Of Love

2341

2

   In the preceding section we have
approached the study of psychical impotence from a
medico-psychological angle of which the title of this paper gives
no indication. It will how ever become clear that this introduction
was required by us to provide an approach to our proper
subject.

   We have reduced psychical
impotence to the failure of the affectionate and the sensual
currents in love to combine, and this developmental inhibition has
in turn been explained as being due to the influences of strong
childhood fixations and of later frustration in reality through the
intervention of the barrier against incest. There is one principal
objection to the theory we advance; it does too much. It explains
why certain people suffer from psychical impotence, but it leaves
us with the apparent mystery of how others have been able to escape
this disorder. Since we must recognize that all the relevant
factors known to us - the strong childhood fixation, the
incest-barrier and the frustration in the years of development
after puberty - are to be found in practically all civilized human
beings, we should be justified in expecting psychical impotence to
be a universal affliction under civilization and not a disorder
confined to some individuals.

   It would be easy to escape from
this conclusion by pointing to the quantitative factor in the
causation of illness - to the greater or lesser extent of the
contribution made by the various elements which determine whether a
recognizable illness results or not. But although I accept this
answer as correct, it is not my intention to make it a reason for
rejecting the conclusion itself. On the contrary, I shall put
forward the view that psychical impotence is much more widespread
than is supposed, and that a certain amount of this behaviour does
in fact characterize the love of civilized man.

   If the concept of psychical
impotence is broadened and is not restricted to failure to perform
the act of coitus in circumstances where a desire to obtain
pleasure is present and the genital apparatus is intact, we may in
the first place add all those men who are described as
psychanaesthetic: men who never fail in the act but who carry it
out without getting any particular pleasure from it - a state of
affairs that is more common than one would think. Psycho-analytic
examination of such cases discloses the same aetiological factors
as we found in psychical impotence in the narrower sense, without
at first arriving at any explanation of the difference between
their symptoms. An easily justifiable analogy takes one from these
anaesthetic men to the immense number of frigid women; and there is
no better way to describe or understand their behaviour in love
than by comparing it with the more conspicuous disorder of
psychical impotence in men.¹