Freud - Complete Works (481 page)

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2888

   I need say little about the
interpretation of dreams. It came as the first fruits of the
technical innovation I had adopted when, following a dim
presentiment, I decided to replace hypnosis by free association. My
desire for knowledge had not at the start been directed towards
understanding dreams. I do not know of any outside influence which
drew my interest to them or inspired me with any helpful
expectations. Before Breuer and I ceased to meet I only just had
time to tell him in a single sentence that I now understood how to
translate dreams. Since this was how the discovery came about, it
followed that the
symbolism
in the language of dreams was
almost the last thing to become accessible to me, for the
dreamer’s associations help very little towards understanding
symbols. I have held fast to the habit of always studying things
themselves before looking for information about them in books, and
therefore I was able to establish the symbolism of dreams for
myself before I was led to it by Scherner’s work on the
subject. It was only later that I came to appreciate to its full
extent this mode of expression of dreams. This was partly through
the influence of the works of Stekel, who at first did such very
creditable work but afterwards went totally astray. The close
connection between psycho-analytic dream-interpretation and the art
of interpreting dreams as practised and held in such high esteem in
antiquity only became clear to me much later. Later on I found the
essential characteristic and most important part of my dream theory
- the derivation of dream-distortion from an internal conflict, a
kind of inner dishonesty - in a writer who was ignorant, it is
true, of medicine, though not of philosophy, the famous engineer J.
Popper, who published his
Phantasien eines Realisten
under
the name of Lynkeus.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2889

   The interpretation of dreams
became a solace and a support to me in those arduous first years of
analysis, when I had to master the technique, clinical phenomena
and therapy of the neuroses all at the same time. At that period I
was completely isolated and in the network of problems and
accumulation of difficulties I often dreaded losing my bearings and
also my confidence. There were often patients with whom an
unaccountably long time elapsed before my hypothesis, that a
neurosis was bound to become intelligible through analysis, proved
true; but these patients’ dreams, which might be regarded as
analogues of their symptoms, almost always confirmed the
hypothesis.

   It was only my success in this
direction that enabled me to persevere. The result is that I have
acquired a habit of gauging the measure of a psychologist’s
understanding by his attitude to dream-interpretation; and I have
observed with satisfaction that most of the opponents of
psycho-analysis avoid this field altogether or else display
remarkable clumsiness if they attempt to deal with it. Moreover, I
soon saw the necessity of carrying out a self-analysis, and this I
did with the help of a series of my own dreams which led me back
through all the events of my childhood; and I am still of the
opinion to-day that this kind of analysis may suffice for anyone
who is a good dreamer and not too abnormal.

   I think that by thus unrolling
the story of the development of psycho-analysis I have shown what
it is, better than by a systematic description of it. I did not at
first perceive the peculiar nature of what I had discovered. I
unhesitatingly sacrificed my growing popularity as a doctor, and
the increase in attendance during my consulting hours, by making a
systematic enquiry into the sexual factors involved in the
causation of my patients’ neuroses; and this brought me a
great many new facts which finally confirmed my conviction of the
practical importance of the sexual factor. I innocently addressed a
meeting of the Vienna Society for Psychiatry and Neurology with
Krafft-Ebing in the chair, expecting that the material losses I had
willingly undergone would be made up for by the interest and
recognition of my colleagues. I treated my discoveries as ordinary
contributions to science and hoped they would be received in the
same spirit. But the silence which my communications met with, the
void which formed itself about me, the hints that were conveyed to
me, gradually made me realize that assertions on the part played by
sexuality in the aetiology of the neuroses cannot count upon
meeting with the same kind of treatment as other communications. I
understood that from now onwards I was one of those who have
‘disturbed the sleep of the world’, as Hebbel says, and
that I could not reckon upon objectivity and tolerance. Since,
however, my conviction of the general accuracy of my observations
and conclusions grew even stronger, and since neither my confidence
in my own judgement nor my moral courage were precisely small, the
outcome of the situation could not be in doubt. I made up my mind
to believe that it had been my fortune to discover some
particularly important facts and connections, and I was prepared to
accept the fate that sometimes accompanies such discoveries.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2890

   I pictured the future as follows:
- I should probably succeed in maintaining myself by means of the
therapeutic success of the new procedure, but science would ignore
me entirely during my lifetime; some decades later, someone else
would infallibly come upon the same things - for which the time was
not now ripe - would achieve recognition for them and bring me
honour as a forerunner whose failure had been inevitable.
Meanwhile, like Robinson Crusoe, I settled down as comfortably as
possible on my desert island. When I look back to those lonely
years, away from the pressures and confusions of to-day, it seems
like a glorious heroic age. My ‘splendid
isolation’¹ was not without its advantages and charms. I
did not have to read any publications, nor listen to any
ill-informed opponents; I was not subject to influence from any
quarter; there was nothing to hustle me. I learnt to restrain
speculative tendencies and to follow the unforgotten advice of my
master, Charcot: to look at the same things again and again until
they themselves begin to speak. My publications, which I was able
to place with a little trouble, could always lag far behind my
knowledge, and could be postponed as long as I pleased, since there
was no doubtful ‘priority’ to be defended.
The
Interpretation of Dreams
, for instance, was finished in all
essentials at the beginning of 1896 but was not written out until
the summer of 1899. The analysis of ‘Dora’ was over at
the end of 1899; the case history was written in the next two
weeks, but was not published until 1905. Meanwhile my writings were
not reviewed in the medical journals, or, if as an exception they
were
reviewed, they were dismissed with expressions of
scornful or pitying superiority. Occasionally a colleague would
make some reference to me in one of his publications; it would be
very short and not at all flattering - words such as
‘eccentric’, ‘extreme’, or ‘very
peculiar’ would be used. It once happened that an assistant
at the clinic in Vienna where I gave my University lectures asked
me for permission to attend the course. He listened very
attentively and said nothing; after the last lecture was over he
offered to join me outside. As we walked away, he told me that with
his chief’s knowledge he had written a book combating my
views; he regretted very much, however, that he had not first
learnt more about them from my lectures, for in that case he would
have written much of it differently. He had indeed enquired at the
clinic whether he had not better first read
The Interpretation
of Dreams
, but had been advised against doing so - it was not
worth the trouble. He then himself compared the structure of my
theory, so far as he now understood it, with that of the Catholic
Church as regards its internal solidity. In the interests of the
salvation of his soul, I shall assume that this remark implied a
certain amount of appreciation. But he concluded by saying that it
was too late to alter anything in his book, since it was already in
print. Nor did my colleague think it necessary later to make any
public avowal of his change of views on the subject of
psycho-analysis; but preferred, in his capacity as a regular
reviewer for a medical journal, to follow its development with
flippant comments.

  
¹
[In English in the original.]

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2891

   Whatever personal sensitiveness I
possessed became blunted during those years, to my advantage. I was
saved from becoming embittered, however, by a circumstance which is
not always present to help lonely discoverers. Such people are as a
rule tormented by the need to account for the lack of sympathy or
the aversion of their contemporaries, and feel this attitude as a
distressing contradiction of the security of their own sense of
conviction. There was no need for me to feel so; for
psycho-analytic theory enabled me to understand this attitude in my
contemporaries and to see it as a necessary consequence of
fundamental analytic premisses. If it was true that the set of
facts I had discovered were kept from the knowledge of patients
themselves by internal resistances of an affective kind, then these
resistances would be bound to appear in healthy people too, as soon
as some external source confronted them with what was repressed. It
was not surprising that they should be able to justify this
rejection of my ideas on intellectual grounds though it was
actually affective in origin. The same thing happened equally often
with patients; the arguments they advanced were the same and were
not precisely brilliant. In Falstaff’s words, reasons are
‘as plenty as blackberries’. The only difference was
that with patients one was in a position to bring pressure to bear
on them so as to induce them to get insight into their resistances
and overcome them, whereas one had to do without this advantage in
dealing with people who were ostensibly healthy. How to compel
these healthy people to examine the matter in a cool and
scientifically objective spirit was an unsolved problem which was
best left to time to clear up. In the history of science one can
clearly see that often the very proposition which has at first
called out nothing but contradiction has later come to be accepted,
although no new proofs in support of it have been brought
forward.

   It was hardly to be expected,
however, that during the years when I alone represented
psycho-analysis I should develop any particular respect for the
world’s opinion or any bias towards intellectual
appeasement.

On The History Of The Psycho-Analytic Movement

2892

II

   From the year 1902 onwards, a
number of young doctors gathered round me with the express
intention of learning, practising and spreading the knowledge of
psycho-analysis. The stimulus came from a colleague who had himself
experienced the beneficial effects of analytic therapy. Regular
meetings took place on certain evenings at my house, discussions
were held according to certain rules and the participants
endeavoured to find their bearings in this new and strange field of
research and to interest others in it. One day a young man who had
passed through a technical training college introduced himself with
a manuscript which showed very unusual comprehension. We persuaded
him to go through the
Gymnasium
[Secondary School] and the
University and to devote himself to the non-medical side of
psycho-analysis. The little society acquired in him a zealous and
dependable secretary and I gained in Otto Rank a most loyal helper
and co-worker.¹

   The small circle soon expanded,
and in the course of the next few years often changed its
composition. On the whole I could tell myself that it was hardly
inferior, in wealth and variety of talent, to the staff of any
clinical teacher one could think of. It included from the beginning
the men who were later to play such a considerable, if not always a
welcome, part in the history of the psycho-analytic movement. At
that time, however, one could not yet guess at these developments.
I had every reason to be satisfied, and I think I did everything
possible to impart my own knowledge and experience to the others.
There were only two inauspicious circumstances which at last
estranged me inwardly from the group. I could not succeed in
establishing among its members the friendly relations that ought to
obtain between men who are all engaged upon the same difficult
work; nor was I able to stifle the disputes about priority for
which there were so many opportunities under these conditions of
work in common. The difficulties in the way of giving instruction
in the practice of psycho-analysis, which are quite particularly
great and are responsible for much in the present dissensions, were
evident already in this private Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society. I
myself did not venture to put forward a still unfinished technique
and a theory still in the making with an authority which would
probably have enabled the others to avoid some wrong turnings and
ultimate disasters. The self-reliance of intellectual workers,
their early independence of their teacher, is always gratifying
from a psychological point of view; but it is only of advantage to
science if those workers fulfil certain personal conditions which
are none too common. For psycho-analysis in particular a long and
severe discipline and training in self-discipline would have been
required. In view of the courage displayed by their devotion to a
subject so much frowned upon and so poor in prospects, I was
disposed to tolerate much among the members to which I should
otherwise have made objection. Besides doctors, the circle included
others - men of education who had recognized something important in
psycho-analysis: writers, painters and so on. My
Interpretation
of Dreams
and my book on jokes, among others, had shown from
the beginning that the theories of psycho-analysis cannot be
restricted to the medical field, but are capable of application to
a variety of other mental sciences.