From
Lipot Szondi, Ich-Analyse [=
Ego
Analysis]
Translated by
Arthur C. Johnston
© 2008
By Arthur C. Johnston, PhD
Please Observe: The copyright of this article (in German or =
in
English) belongs to the Szondi Institute and to Dr. Arthur C. Johnston. Thi=
s means
you may not duplicate this article without their permissions.
Introjection.
Incorporation.
=
Introjection is the unconscious, original
elementary striving of the ego to take possession and to incorporate the va=
lued
objects, valued representations, and all valued contents of the outer and i=
nner
world. The
unconscious final goal of each introjection is the original human's aspirin=
g to have everything.
=
Concept
and Forms of Introjection
=
As with most concepts of psycholog=
y,
introjection also appears first in philosophy.
=
(a)
Introjection as a Philosophical Concept
=
The
word introjection coined originally by the well-known inhabitant of =
=
=
With
Avenarius and also with other philosophers of that time, the word introj=
ection
however possessed still a double sense.&nb=
sp;
On the one hand it means the
"putingt in" as representations within the soul of components from
the external world. On the
other hand “introjection,” according to him, means also the put=
ting
one's own perceptions into other fellow men. "Through introjection&quo=
t; --
writes Avenarius -- "the natural unity of the empirical world becomes =
split
into two directions: Into an external world and an internal world and into =
that
of the object and the subject. Of
both opposition positions, the first term is still always the factual exper=
ience
of humans; and the second term belongs to one's fellow men. The inner
world is the world, as far as it becomes projected into other fellow me=
n; the
subject is the inside of the fe=
llow
man himself.2
=
As a result of introjection the individual finds himself first=
on one
side as “objects”[or
“things”] of the “environment components” and
second on the other side as individ=
uals
“who perceive the objects.” Thus “objects” on one s=
ide
and “perceptions of objects” on the other side.
The person however puts unknowingly,=
unwillingly
and indiscriminately inner perceptions from things that he has previously f=
ound
into another fellow man. But not only empirically found things but also per=
ceptions,
feelings and will from one man, according to Avenarius, are put inside one’s fellow m=
en.
Humans experience through introjection that other humans have perceptions, feelings, will… experience, knowledge. Therefore Avenarius says that in=
trojection
for humans performs itself at the same time as experience.
Already from these short discussions it becomes clear that Ave=
narius
uses the word introjection as a primal word [Urwort] ambivale=
ntly
and that he designates with the same word two polar opposite processes: Int=
rojection
and projection. Introjection is with him, on the one hand, the putting in o=
f ideas
of things and persons, which originate from the external world, into one=
217;s
own ego. Thus this is about what we understand today generally by introject=
ion.
On the other hand also the shifting out and respectively inserting of our
experiences and the contents of our own subject into persons of the external
world. Thus: Projection. Getting in the external world into one’s own=
ego
and also inserting one’s own subject contents into fellow men is call=
ed
with Avenarius introjection.
=
(b) Introjection as a Psychological
Concept
=
=
The
opposition between introjection and projection was first emphasized by the
psychoanalyst Sandor Ferenczi.3 According to him, projection means a shifting out of subjective contents into the object; introjection in opposition is the =
inclusion of objects into one's
subjective interest circle.
=
=
S.
Ferenczi clarified this difference between the two ego functions as follows:
"While the paranoid pushes outward the excitements becoming unpleasura=
ble out
of the ego (that is, projects), the neurotic helps himself out in the manner
that he takes large parts of the outer world as possible into his ego and c=
reates
unconscious fantasies about an object."4 That means that he introjects.
=
=
Thus in
this definition the particular function of introjection appears clearly in
relation to projection.
=
=
C. G.
Jung took over the definition of projection and introjection of Fere=
nczi
and lined up projection with dissimulation [breaking down]; introjection, on
the other hand with the assimilation [taking in] process. "Introjection means,"
according to C. G. Jung, &quo=
t;an alignment
of the object with the subject; projection means, on the other hand, a dist=
inction
of the object from the subject by means of subjective contents shifted onto=
an
object."5
=
=
For today’s
psychology, projection is "a d=
isposal
or alienation of inner
processes." (Freud). Introjection, on the other hand, is an internalization of an outer object=
and
respectively a mental process.
=
Fate psychology [Schicksalspsychologie] holds the opinion th=
at
everything that is capital in
character and in occupation, in knowledge and ability; everything that is t=
hat
are laid down as capital in material property of the individual and of the
community; everything that is "have
ideal," that is, all that which I will have from individual to
individual and from people to people in each case is placed as the object ideal of having and of possessi=
ng
-- all that is the result of introjection.=
The expression of unconscious introjective ego functions are
consequently of a very diverse nature.&nbs=
p;
We find introjection:
(1) in build up of the perceptive world
[world formation];
(2) in build up of possessions or have id=
eals
[ideal formation, identification];
(3) in build up of character [character
formation];
(4) in build up of professional and offic=
ial
personality -- that is, in the persona formation,
=
and finally
(5) in symptom formation.
=
=
This
enumeration illuminates the importance of introjection in the drive fate, the social fate, and the me=
ntal fate
of the individual and in that of the community.
=
= We will next explain the forms of introjection on the basis of the origins of introjective contents in three categories: (1) personal, (2) collectiv= e, and (3) familial introjection.<= o:p>
=
1.
Personal Introjection
=
We
call in general an introjection per=
sonal,
when the contents incorporated into the ego belong to the most narrow
experience circle and capital of the person.
=
=
When
the ego thus incorporates objects -- which it has personally held occupied with libido for awhile -- or experienc=
es
and perceptions that bear a personal note, then and only then is it justifi=
ed
to speak of a personal introjec=
tion.
=
=
With
this definition it is to be noted that we do not emphasize here the derivation of contents out of the repressed personal unconscious, as=
we
have indeed done with the personal form of projection and inflation. We must justify somehow this posit=
ion. In the case of personal projection=
we
have emphasized that the ego through projection may actually make the repre=
ssed
to come back. That means that=
the
ego brings back the libido repressed and detached from the former object wi=
th a
projected representation (hate, persecution) again to the object. The preoccupation with the object =
[Objektbesetzung] is consequently restored through projection.
=
=
With personal
inflation, the ego work consists in that the libido freed from the repressi=
on
has struck one’s own ego.=
It is thus evident that with perso=
nal
projection and inflation, repressio=
n precedes
as the obligated form of detachment of libido.
=
=
Different
however are the conditions with personal introjection. Here a libido detachment appears f=
irst
in any case. (This separation
moment expresses itself in the test in the reaction m-). Only in the =
manner
how this libido detachment has occurred is different from that of repressio=
n.
=
=
We
find this striking difference, according to Freud, in the following: With
repression, libido detachment happens in the manner that the ego lets the
libido-filled object with all the representations and experiences belonging=
to
it sink into the unconscious. That is the well-known process in the case of=
the transference neuroses, in part=
icular
with hysteria, and partially also with the compulsive neurosis.
=
With introjection, on the other hand, the
lost object is not repressed into the unconscious but is erected again in o=
ne’s
own ego. Freud calls this detachment from the object through this setting it up in=
the
ego identification. That =
means
that preoccupation with the object is removed by an identification.6&nb=
sp;
The libido detachment through identification
-- respectively through introjectio=
n
-- is, according to Freud, characteristic for the narcissistic affections -- that is, for melancholia and for def=
inite
types of schizophrenia (thus, for example, for k schizophrenias that are healed defectively).
=
=
Only
later did Freud discover the important role of introjection also in character formation. He writes, "Since that time we
understood" -- namely since the analysis of mourning and melancholia --
"that such compensation has a great part in the formation of the ego a=
nd
essentially contributes to what is produced and what is called character."7
=
=
Consequently,
Freud differentiated two different processes in the fate of separation of
libido:
=
=
1. Preoccupation
with the object and its defense
through repression.
=
2. Preoccupation
with the object and its defense
through setting up of the object in=
the
ego, that is, through identification.
=
=
Since
however with repression preoccupation with the object actually continues, F=
reud
places preoccupation with the object in relation to identification and ment=
ions
the following historically important facts.
=
=
"In
the earliest beginnings in the primitive oral
phase of the individual, preoccupied with the object and identifications are
not well distinguished from one another.&n=
bsp;
Later one can assume that preoccupation with the object proceeds from
the id, which feels the erotic strivings as need. The ego still weak at the beginning
receives knowledge from preoccupation with the object, and it lets itself f=
all
or seeks to defend itself through the process of repression."
=
=
"Should
or must such a sexual object be given up, thus because of that fairly
frequently appears the ego change, which one must describe as setting up of=
the
objects in the ego as is in the case of melancholia; the particular
circumstances of this process of setting up are still not known by us. Perhaps the ego through this
introjection, which is a kind of regression to the mechanism of the oral st=
age,
is the giving up of objects.
Perhaps this identification is actually the condition under which th=
e id
gives up its object. In any c=
ase
the process is all the more so very frequent in earlier development phases =
and
makes possible the interpretation that the character of the ego is a precip=
itation
of the given up preoccupation with the object and contains a history of this
object choice."8
=
=
*
=
=
From
this classic description of Freud, we can learn the following about the
personal manner of introjection and identification:
=
=
1. Personal introjection brings into
existence identifications and
assimilations, which are interpreted as ego
changes.
=
=
Identification
is not synonymous with identity=
. Identification rests on the proces=
s of
introjection; identity, on the other hand, rests on participation -- that is, primary projection.
=
=
2. Identification occurs through the
setting up of the lost objects in the ego.=
They are thus “ego-lik=
e”
substitute formations for the lost object. By the test and by experiment we
record this process in the reaction coupling of m- and k+.
=
=
3. The process of the ego-like substi=
tute
formation consists in the incorpora=
tion
(k+) of the lost object (m-) and represents thus a regressi=
on to
the oral phase.
=
Therefore
Freud calls introjection -- respectively the introjective identification --=
a
"psychic cannibalism."
=
=
4. Personal
introjection solves the question of separation of the person from the l=
ost
object through identification -- that is through incorporation of the object
and not through repression.
=
=
5. Introjection
(k+) is consequently the polar
opposite manner of libido detachment in relation to repression (k-).
=
=
6. Personal introjection is a substit=
ute
formation for the lost object through incorporation into the ego. It is the most important process i=
n (a)
the build up of character and (b) in the symptom formation of the narcissis=
tic
affections -- thus with melancholia and k
schizophrenia.
=
=
7. The form of identification, which =
occurs
through personal introjection, we call with Graber "active, introjective identification."9
=
=
According
to Freud this manner of identification is always narcissistic. He =
says,
"When the ego accepts the character traits of the object, he forces hi=
s self,
as it were, upon the id as a love o=
bject
and seeks to compensate himself for his loss by saying, "See, you can =
also
love me; I am so similar to the object."10 Love
to the ego replaces the lost love to the object.
=
We
must however emphasize that there is another kind: The passive, projective -- respectively participative -- form of identification (also archaic or quasi-=
identity
according to Lévy-Bruhl), which however is not introjective narcissi=
stic
and not through incorporation of the object but through being one, the same=
and
related with the object, thus occurring through participation. Th=
ere is
even a third so-called inflative form
of identification, which occurs through "being both" -- that is,
through the following inflation: "I am thus as I am, but thus also like
the other object."
=
=
We
must thus similarly accept like Graber two different categories and ways of=
identification:
=
=
(a) A materialistic "k" identifica=
tion
(k+), which occurs through incorporation, through personal
introjection. Graber calls it=
the active, introjective identification.
=
=
(b) A spiritual "p" identification=
,
which occurs either by the way of p=
articipation
or however through inflation.
=
=
The
following example will explain the process of introjection in a practical
manner.
=
Case 4: A 45 year old single language teacher suffers =
from
a severe depression. It appeared after a disillusionment in love within two
years. His fiancé, who before was always giving and tender, changed
suddenly her behavior. She became aggressive toward him, accusing and degrading<=
/i> him. Then she abandoned him and marri=
ed
another man.
=
=
The
impact snatched our good teacher from the very foundation of his existence.=
He
felt uprooted like a child and abandoned; wretched all day long, retreating
into his room, unable to work, he b=
egan to
accuse himself as the lost bride did before the separation: "He is=
not
a man. He is completely incapable of love and of marriage" and so on. =
He
did not dare any longer to appear among people since he was "nothing,&=
quot;
"a miserable fellow," the worst; he developed suicidal thoughts. =
The
condition lasted about two years long, until he decided finally to consult a
psychiatrist.
=
=
In
this case the steps of the mechanism of the melancholia developed by Freud =
are
shown clearly12:
=
=
1. The
teacher had bound himself to a woman with libido.
=
=
2.
This preoccupation with the object was shattered within two years by a disi=
llusionment.
=
=
3. He
had now incorporated the lost object, i.e. the picture of the bride again e=
rected
in his ego.
=
=
4.
Since he however carried out the introjection of the bride in a phase in wh=
ich she
behaved toward him aggressively, ac=
cusingly,
and disparagingly, he identifie=
s
himself from now on only with this picture of the lost bride and=
thus turned
his sadism against his own person. He complained against himself with the s=
ame
words that the bride had used toward him before the separation. Since she h=
ated
him at the conclusion of the relationship, he hated himself henceforth. The narcissistic identification put h=
im,
thus, by the introjection in the place of the hating, accusing and degradin=
g of
him by the bride and thus to that of the lost object.
Sub Classes of Personal Introjecti=
on
=
=
On the
basis of the intensity of
incorporation and the time factors<=
/i> we
have divided personal introjection into three sub classes:
=
=
(a)
Hyper Introjection
=
(b)
Detail introjection
=
(c) Ad-Hoc
Introjection
=
(a) Hyper Introjection
=
This
disturbed manner of introjection occurs through a hyper identification, thr=
ough
a super sharp incorporation of =
a former
object, which one has lost. T=
he
person introjects the lost object so "photographically" accurate =
that
he or she may never find a new object on the basis of this too sharp have i=
deal. Simply on the grounds that indeed =
the
lost unique object does not have a doppelgänger (double) in the
world. The introjecting perso=
n has
incorporated however the unique object so realistically from top to toe tha=
t he
or she can seek only this unique object and no other. This disturbance of introjection i=
s in
the test characterized by this syndrome:
=
=
Hyper
identification and hyper introjection: k+!
=
Perpetual
unquenchable, unsuccessful seeking of the lost, unique object: d+!
=
Tormenting
himself with this hopeless seeking: Masochism: s-!.
=
=
This
process is characteristic for melan=
cholia
and masochism.
=
(b) Detail Introjection
=
The
second manner of introjection disturbances consists in the incorporation of=
the
individual part and not the com=
plete
lost object. This means that =
not a
whole object is incorporated by the introjecting person but only an objective unimportant, moderat=
ely
experienced but overestimated individual part, a detail of the object, =
and then
only this "little piece" of the object does the person want to ha=
ve
and to possess; thus, this detail is raised up as he sole exciting object a=
nd searched
for henceforth. This is the
situation with fetishers.
=
(c) Ad-Hoc or Instant Moment Intro=
jection
=
Both
with hyper introjection and detail introjection, the instant -- thus the moment in time in which the incorporation of
the object happens -- is fate determining.=
One has the impression that the unconscious introjection mechanism in
the ego functions as a "photo automaton," that is, as an automatic apparatus=
for
the acceptance of photographic pictures.&n=
bsp;
This photo apparatus in the ego is set up and thus released into
activity in a normal manner automatically at the moment in which the carrie=
r of
this apparatus loses the love or hate object. Each
separation releases automatically the introjection apparatus and places in =
the
ego a mental picture "of the lost object."
=
=
Each person
carries in his or her ego therefore a complete "picture album" of=
all
lost objects. We call these p=
ictures
"have ideals" or &quo=
t;possession ideals," and on the
basis of these pictures are later sought new objects to be taken into
possession.
=
=
The
sharpness of these individual pictures depends partly on the constitutional,
inherited, individual variable precision strength of the introjection mecha=
nism
and partly however on the instant o=
f the "admission” -- that =
is,
the moment of separation. The more full of affect and traumatic and the
more immediate the losing of the object, the sharper and more intense is the
object as a “picture” incorporated into the ego.
=
=
Therefore
the different strengths of the individual pictures in "the picture
album" of the ego. And t=
hus
naturally the well-known phenomena that certain pictures can play a leading
role in seeking after new objects. <=
/span>
=
=
The more
blurred a have ideal picture is taken up in the ego, the more easily can the
carrier of this picture find an approximately similar new object. Thus this is the case with normal
everyday person.
=
=
On the
other hand, the person finds it extremely difficult to find a new object wh=
en
the lost object leaves behind a unique too-sharp mental picture in the
ego. This is the case in
melancholia, with fetishism, and, in general, with perversions.
=
=
Decisive
for the fate of the individual is naturally the mental instant moment situation, thus the "scenery of the mental scene" =
in
which the separation scene was played out.=
The circumstances, thus, whether the introjecting person at the
instant-moment of separation stood in a love or hate relationship to the
object, whether he is treated sadistically or lovingly at this time by the
separating object, furthermore whether the introjecting person himself has
caressed or mistreated the object at the moment of separation, or whether h=
e was
excited and by what excited him momentarily. All these instant momentary scene
pictures and excitements are decisive for the fate of the individual.
=
=
Why? The
introjection apparatus then "fixes" this instant moment scenery a=
nd
these momentary excitements; after which the person seeks compulsively and
unconsciously again and again to repeat this "fateful" instant mo=
ment
scene and all that accompanies it.
=
=
If,
for example, the love object is lost and incorporated in a moment of hate, =
then
a "hate object ideal picture" is established. As a result of this incorporated
"hate picture" the introjecting person seeks henceforth exclusive=
ly
such an object, by whom he himself is hated, tortured, devalued, and
humiliated. This is the case =
with
masochism and also with melancholia.
=
=
Or if
the first sexual excitation is evoked through catching sight of an
old-fashioned woman's panties or through stroking a sweating woman's hand or
through a naked foot or through a foot in a shoe with high heels; and if the
person has precisely introjecting these details, then the introjecting pers=
on
must incorporate these individual parts of this unique exciting object so
strongly as a have-ideal that in the future these details function as the
possession ideal and are sought.
Thus this is the case with the fetisher.
=
=
The
phenomena of fixing on a defini=
te
object in a particular situation -- respectively on an individual detail of=
the
object -- occurs precisely through this "snapshot," that is, by t=
he
ad-hoc introjection.
=
=
In
volume I of Triebpathology we have given two examples for ad-hoc
introjection.
=
=
In the
Case 5 (Case 39, p. 441 and fol=
lowing
pages, Vol. I) we presented a 55 year old gynecologist and morphine addict,=
who
was part transvestite and also part fetisher. His fetish was the old-fashio=
ned
lady pants, which during sexual intercourse either he put on or compelled h=
is
wife to do so.
=
=
This drive
is based historically on an experience that he had in puberty and that enti=
ced him
for the first time to masturbation. He stood at the window and looked on the
street down below, where immediately a thunderstorm broke out. Suddenly the=
wind
raised the skirt of a woman up, and he, petrified and fascinated, saw the u=
nderpants
of the woman, who struggled against the thunderstorm on the road. From now =
on
he always masturbated with the fantasy that he
himself had on the fateful lady pants. Then he stole the pants from his
sister, which he put on secretly, and masturbated in this way. Often he tho=
ught
of the underpants of his mother, but that remained taboo for him. Thus the
female pants became his fetish, which he needed for sexual excitation, and =
no
more was he able to do without it. He had to carry the fetish forward also =
into
the marriage bed. When his first wife revolted against this unnatural habit=
, he
fell into a deep depression, which drove him gradually to drinking and morp=
hine
addictions.
&nb=
sp; =
=
The ad-hoc
introjection of the lady underpants thus had a fate-determining effect.
=
In the
case 6 (case 32, Triebpathol=
ogie,
Vol. 1, p. 375 and following pages) a sweaty
hand fetish developed by ad-hoc introjection. The patient, a 20 yea=
r old
student, becomes excited sexually only by the thoroughly soaked sweaty and =
foul
smelling hand of his colleagues. One took him for a homosexual, which howev=
er he
was not, since he wished only the hand and otherwise however wished nothing=
at
all from the partner.
=
=
The
analysis solved the history of this strange anomaly. As a child he clung to=
his
mother, who however gave him very little tenderness. Thus he transferred hi=
s love
to a 20 year old cook, who he always ran after in the kitchen and who ̴=
9;-
inadvertently ‑- also sexually excited him. When he got an erection o=
nce when
nine years old in the kitchen and when this was noticed by the cook, she st=
ruck
him with a dirty, damp kitchen wash=
cloth
in the face. This experience for the testee became fate decisive through th=
e ad-hoc
introjection. From then on he struck the dirty
vile-smelling wash cloth on his face and nose, thereby excited himself =
and became
a slave of masturbation. Then he developed fantasy pictures of the hand and=
of
the arm of this cook with the appropriate smell and wetness. At the time of
puberty ‑- in a boarding school ‑- he alternated the person of =
the
cook with those of his colleagues. In order to be able to smell the hand of=
the
partner, he provoked scrapes and wrestling. Often he seriously fell in love=
with
one of these partners, but no one ever excited him as a whole person, alway=
s only the hand. A substitute action=
for
the hand was smelling gloves and di=
scarded
shirts and underpants, which he himself then wore.
=
=
Ad-hoc
introjection plays a quite similar role according to our experience in the
origin of criminality. This is elucidated from the following case of H. Wal=
der13,
about which we present additional material here on the basis of the
investigation of Binder.
=
Case 7. The 24 year old gardener and hotel emplo=
yee
was condemned by the court because of “attempted murder” to five
years prison. The act was as follows:
=
=
The accused
lured a twelve-year-old school boy on the pretext that he would like help to
get a shot deer from the forest and promised the boy five franks for doing
this. He sent the boy on ahead into the thick part of the forest; then he f=
ell
upon him from behind with both hands at the neck and choked him so strongly
that the boy sank into unconscious. When the perpetrator believed him dead,=
he suddenly
became conscious of his action, and thus he became incapable to carry out h=
is
plan to the end. According to statements of the perpetrator, he preserved t=
he
desire for "violating a handsome boy," i.e. for murder out of pas=
sion.
He was possessed of the need to have "a boy completely for himself alo=
ne; he
must kill him in order to extract the love of another from him." The p=
erpetrator
was so much possessed by this demand for a “having-pleasure-with
object” that he had already wandered about before the act in the area
around the school and looked for his pleasure object. This person had to we=
ar
however according to the statement of the perpetrator blue
=
&=
nbsp;
=
When he
wandered now in W., he saw a boy among the returning pupils, who wore the
fateful blue
=
&=
nbsp;
=
The
psychiatric investigation stated that the perpetrator is a manifest homosex=
ual fetisher
and transvestite. As a child he was educated as an effeminate woman by his =
mother
and his sister; soon he adopted a girl-like behavior and developed patholog=
ical
narcissistic and transvestite actions; in particular at this time he was
separated from his mother and was active with a farmer. Thus he became a
passive homosexual. Later, however, after an encounter with a sadist, he al=
so developed
in himself the inclination to the perversions of masochism and sadism. His
fantasy was occupied by metatropic pictures, playful strangling scenes, per=
verse
scenes in concentration camps for boys with sadistic actions that were pain=
ted out
fully by him in his fantasies. Decisive to his act however was a newspaper
report about a passion murder, in which a twelve-year-old boy had fallen
victim. This case mobilized in him all his abnormal sexual demands. He deci=
ded under
all circumstances to have a boy only for himself alone, to violate him, and=
to
commit suicide afterwards. Then he prepared everything in the forest for the
act. He looked for a suitable place, marked the way with broken off branche=
s,
provided pieces of an iron hook as a striking tool, and only then did he go=
on
the search for a boy with blue
=
*
=
The
drive psychological question here is: Why
was this perpetrator fixed so fatally on the blue
=
=
First
of all that the perpetrator wore blue
=
=
Secondly
that the mother, when he had made these blue
=
=
We
must assume that this experience had led to an ad-hoc introjection and that=
the
blue
=
=
The
personal ad-hoc introjection plays a double role in this case.
=
=
First
of all by the fact that after the separation from the mother he identified =
himself
with this mother. Since the mother loved him so much at this time and since=
he
still wore blue
=
=
Secondly,
the experience with the wet
=
=
The
case proves now the fate forming meaning of the personal ad-hoc introjectio=
ns
in a phase of development tha=
t becomes
later disastrous for the person who incorporated this ad-hoc picture.
=
=
The
next case is less tragic, nevertheless an example of how threatening for a life time an ad-hoc introjection can become f=
or
the bearer of these pictures.
=
Case 8. For instance a 40 year old artist, who in
European cities produced a vaudeville act for reading thoughts, consulted me
with the following question: He was actively homosexual since his youth, ne=
ver
had sexual intercourse with women, and nevertheless doubt torments him whet=
her he
was indeed "mentally" homosexual because he had, as he says, neve=
r had
the need to be a woman. On the contrary constantly he always clung to the
desire to marry, to have a family, and as a family father to lead a puritan=
and
bourgeois life. Although he already had gotten engaged several times, he fe=
lt
unable to sleep with a woman, and in the particular he could not do without=
the
love for men.
=
=
There
is an incomprehensible discrepancy between what he wants consciously and ho=
w he
behaves nightly in life. And there is still more. He loses any desire for m=
en
and his work in the course of years and has suicidal thoughts.
=
I
could take the man only for a short analysis since he had to continue his s=
tage
tour. The analysis uncovered that this artist is not inverted mentally, thus
homosexual, but metatropic and thus is sadomasochistic perverted. An encoun=
ter with
an artist happened at the time he came to analysis for help; this sadomasoc=
histic
perversion was able to lead back to a long forgotten experience in youth, w=
hich
had released the original ad-hoc introjection.
=
=
The object
of the encounter was a mechanic apprentice in a greasy pair of overalls, who
had worked in his hotel room during his settling in. The man attracted him =
so
much that he followed him even onto the roof area. Here the man pressed him
brutally against the wall and began sex play with him. The patient continued
commented on this meeting: "It was a horror for me to be with him. He =
was
wild and looked just like a lustful murderer; I had enormous fear of him, a=
nd
nevertheless I had to follow him."
=
=
We interpreted
this encounter like a dream and obtained insights about the individual elem=
ents
of the experience.
=
=
On the
mechanic apprentice, the patient indicated that this kind of young man was
extraordinarily attractive to him. The more crudely and more roughly the yo=
ung
man behaved, all the weaker his resistance becomes; in particular the greasy
pair of overalls of this apprentice attracted him. On the instigating words=
"roof,
roof area," suddenly the=
following
memory from his childhood was awakened: he was about four or five years old,
when an apprentice in a muddy pair of overalls took him up once into a room
under the roof. He sees clearly the window of the room; he still smells the=
odor
of the wood still stacked there. He sees how the apprentice takes his tape
measure out, opens and unfolds it, loosens the chain of the measure and with
the chain binds his hands, places him with his head against the wall with h=
is
lower legs spread out ‑- and he become powerless.
=
=
He had
completely forgotten this scene, yet now he sees clearly that he always sea=
rched
to repeat this experience in al=
l his encounters
with apprentices in a pair of overalls.
Now he actually understands why mechanics, who behave roughly and crudely,
affected him so significantly and why his last meeting on the roof with the=
mechanic
in a pair of overalls overcame any power of resistance from him. Because of=
this
pressing him exactly the same against the wall, as it has happened before, =
and
because the youth also wore a pair of overalls. His eyes had the same lustf=
ul
looking eyes of a murderer as those that had starred at him when a child.
=
=
From
these confessions it becomes now clear that our artist is indeed no "b=
orn"
homosexual. His sexuality remained fixated to the "sadomasochistic&quo=
t;
scene suffered in the youth. The picture, which he incorporated into his ego
through the ad-hoc introjection, forces him night after night to go on the
search for such apprentices in a pair of overalls, with whom he repeats the
forgotten original scene. He looks thus for his lustful murderer.
=
=
*
=
These
and similar experiences permit us to add the following complements to the
Freudian repression doctrine:
=
=
1. Complex
forming experiences and scenes are first ad-hoc introjected and only afterw=
ards
repressed.
=
=
2. Presumably
an ad-hoc introjection precedes most repressions. This statement will naturally not =
weaken
the making-ill meaning of repression but only completes it.
=
=
3. In psychoanalytical therapy one sh=
ould
notice the formation path of complexes reversed analytically. That means the repressed leads back
first into the phase of ad-hoc introjection, which analyzes the ad-hoc orig=
inal
identification and by this means facilitates making it conscious.
=
=
4. Complex
formations are almost all primary and personal ad-hoc introjections.
=
=
5. Probably definite character traits=
-- exactly
like complexes -- can be traced back to ad-hoc introjections in youth.
=
=
6. The rigidity of the pictures, which
originates from the ad-hoc introjection, causes the fixation and the often
insurmountable difficulty in the elimination of definite complexes,
perversions, and character anomalies.
=
=
7. We will indicate here only briefly=
the
important and disturbing effect of ad-hoc introjection in each education
situation. So many education =
errors
originate on the basis of ad-hoc introjection. Parents, infant nurses, pediatrici=
ans,
teachers, pastors, etc. must themselves be made conscious of these dangers =
and
consider therefore their behavior in relation to small children.
=
Personal Introjection and Symptom
Formation
=
In the
chapter "The Language of the Unconscious" we mentioned Freud's
classic definition of symptoms: "The symptom is a sign and substitute =
of a
frustrated drive satisfaction and a result of the repression process."=
14
=
=
According
to Freud the symptom thus originates from the personal repression. He
emphasizes that the symptom represents the "ego-strange" that is
found in the soul.
=
=
With
good reason one can therefore ask: If the symptom is actually a legitimate
substitute and descendent of the personal repressed
unconscious, as psychoanalysis affirms, why do we then speak of a
relationship between the symptom and introjection?
=
=
If introjection still has to do wi=
th the
identification -- that it has to do with the assimilation into the ego --
should the "ego-strange" be represented in the soul according to
Freud?
=
=
Freud
himself must have come across this contradiction and indeed in the symptom
analysis of compulsion neurosis.15 Certainly the compulsion neurosis =
--
exactly as with hysteria -- begins with the repression of the Oedipus
complex. This repression symp=
tom
remains, however, according to him, in the lowest layer of the symptom
fabric. In the symptom format=
ion of
compulsions however, according to him, the ego
and the superego play completely
special roles and, indeed, in the form of "reaction-formations." =
About
such ego changes he conceives the following symptoms of the compulsive neur=
otics:
conscientiousness, cleanliness, ceremonial acts, inclination to repetition,=
and
expenditure of time.
=
=
In
order to make these reaction formations understandable, Freud has coined the
concept of "preoccupied with o=
pposites
[Gegenbesetzung]." The
compulsive neurotic at first represses the Oedipus demands, and then he
regresses to the anal-sadistic drive stage, where he seeks through
"isolation" to make them harmless. The person is however compelled to
secure his defense reaction through a continuous expenditure. Freud calls t=
hese
security activities of the ego in relation to the return of the drive danger
"preoccupation with opposites<=
/i>,"
and they should manifest themselves according to him as "ego-change,&q=
uot;
as "reaction formation" in the ego itself.
=
Reaction formations are thus "the
strengthening of each attitude, which is opposite to the repressed drive di=
rection."
=
=
In other
words, the ego secures itself against the anal, unclean demands through
cleanliness; against aggression through compassion, selflessness, care of
others, and exaggerated tenderness.
Freud considers these reaction formations as exaggerations of normal
character traits that should occur as a result of preoccupation with opposi=
tes.
=
=
In the
first volume of Triebpathologie [Drive Pathology], we treated thorou=
ghly
the question of compulsion symptom formations. Here we limit our explanations to =
what
is necessary for understanding the role of personal introjection in general
symptom formation. Experimental ego analysis in the case of compulsives lea=
ds
to the following considerations:
=
In the compulsion mechanism two polar opposite ego
functions are indeed coupled:
=
=
1. Repression .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .&=
nbsp;
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
Sch =3D - 0
=
2. With introjection . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . .=
. . Sch =3D + 0
=
Thus
originates the well-known ego picture of compulsives: . Sch =3D ± 0
=
=
On the
basis of experimental ego analysis we say:
=
1. With the compulsion process repres=
sion
plays in fact a primary role (Freud).
=
=
2. Most
symptoms however occur through introjection.
=
=
3. The prohibited social negative str=
ivings
of the opposite pair (here the anality and aggression) are repressed (k-); the social positive opposite
strivings (here cleanliness and compassion) are, on the other hand,
incorporated into the ego (k+).=
=
=
4. Repression and introjection form c=
onsequently
together the illness picture of compulsion neurosis.
=
=
5. The symptoms, which are considered=
by
Freud as a result of the "preoccupation with opposites" and
"reaction formation," are products of incorporation, the
introjection, and the tendencies set opposite the prohibited drive striving=
s. Consequently, the concept
"preoccupation with opposites" and "reaction formation"=
are
redundant. Both belong to the
category of personal introjection.
=
=
The extremely
complicated and often defense techniques full of contradictions used by the
compulsives in psychoanalysis are attributed thus by us to the two intimate=
ly-connected
unconscious ego functions of repres=
sion
and introjection.
=
=
Consequently,
all manner of symptom formations of compulsives become understandable in a
highly simple way.
=
=
*
=
=
Compulsion
neurosis is, however, only a classic example for our interpretation that the
symptom is not exclusively a descendent of the repression process. We maintain that the symptom can o=
ccur
by means of personal introjection. With compulsion the task of introj=
ection
is to incorporate into the ego the opposite strivings of repressed and
forbidden social negative tendencies.
We cannot however draw the conclusion out of this fact, which has be=
en
proven with the ego analysis of compulsion, that with other neuroses or
psychoses the same coupling of repression and introjection is to be found w=
ith
the same distribution of defense work.&nbs=
p;
The ego analysis of the other psychoneuroses -- in particular, howev=
er, those
of melancholia and perversions (like masochism and fetishism) -- has led to=
a
different interpretation. We
establish the following with these narcissistic affections:
=
=
1. Personal introjection led to sympt=
om
formation without repression.
=
=
2. The so-called total introjection is the process by which both opposite tendencies of an opposite pair are incorporated =
into
the ego. The symptomatic consequences of total personal introjection are:
=
=
(a) The
person has developed in his pathological character concurrently or successi=
vely
both traits of an opposite pair. He
is thus both anal sloppy and purely pedantic. He can act in one area full of
compassion and in another act sadistically and aggressively. He can at the same time hold in
possession a definite object frantically and greedily and on another object=
squander
frivolously. Many pathological
extroverts belong in this category.
Also compulsion neurotics, with whom psychoanalytical treatment has =
eliminated
the repression symptoms, behave aft=
er
analysis in the manner described above.
=
=
(b) The total introjection of masochists
shows most frequently that they have actually never really renounced their sadistic tendencies. It depends on the strength of the
partner whether they place their masochistic or their sadistic characterist=
ics
into the foreground. Actually=
, they
have incorporated both demands in their egos. They are really metatropic persons=
--
that is, sadomasochists.
=
=
(c) The
fetisher shows in analysis like=
wise
this acting in a double way. =
On the
one hand he will only have the little piece of the object that in particula=
r is
able him to excite him; on the other hand, however, he still can not detach
himself from the entire person. He
will have the fetish piece and also have the whole. The perpetrator in case seven woul=
d have
for himself alone not only the =
blue
=
=
(d) Total
personal introjection shows up clinically clearly with definite forms of melancholia. The melancholic has interjected in=
the
first place the "hate side=
"
of the object and as a result he hates himself now in the same way. Nevertheless he shows symptoms that
indicate that he also can not renounce the "love side" of the int=
rojected
object.
=
=
(e) Of
all drive and ego illnesses the so-called autistic
schizophrenics and hebephrenics=
show
however most remarkably the symptoms of total
personal introjection, most frequently in the form of a so-called introprojection (k+ p-). Autism, according to E. Bleuler, i=
s the particular form of thinking and be=
havior
with which the person is able to jump easily beyond the limits of reality.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> With autism, drive demands are tra=
nsferred
out of the unconscious and not
projected into the outer world but are incorporated into one's own ego -- that is, introjected.
Experimentally, it was established by us that autism rests on the
coupling of two elementary functions of the ego: on that of projection and
introjection. We say: autism =
is an introprojection (Sch =3D + -).
=
=
This
process in the ego makes possible for the sick person to have everything [alles zu haben] in his mental reality, but =
to
give away most frequently so many things and also to renounce so many thing=
s.
=
=
The 33
year old autistic schizophrenic, a hebephrenic, who has been investigated b=
y S.
Déri16, would have, in his introprojected delusion world
(profile II), a superior life: good eating, drinking, boxing, bicycling, ea=
ting
roast goose, while drinking champagne....&=
nbsp;
His peasants appoint him to be a prince, and he received daily five =
or
six millions. Briefly: he wil=
l have everything.
=
The
same have-addicted autistic person will however also give away many things =
that
satisfied him in his delusion. Thus
he will -- since indeed so few churches are built -- built 100 million chur=
ches
and indeed each church will have two ministers and each church should seat =
two
to three thousand believers. =
Then
he wanted to give to the women beautiful rings, etc.
=
=
This
case indicates clearly therefore that the person has both strivings opposite to each other of the opposite pairs: &#=
8220;Having
everything and giving everything away” and may live both introjectively at the same time wi=
thout
thus repressing one striving as=
a
compulsive neurotic does.
=
=
(f) We
have found the same process in the case of one of the most frequent neurosis
forms, with the so-called "acceptance neuroses."
=
=
Here very
often occurs in any case after the =
real
separation no repression but a total introjection of the lost object. The ill person clings anxiously to=
the
introjected picture of the beloved object.=
(They give in the test the corresponding reactions: m+! ; k+.)
=
=
That
however in this "have picture" (k+)
not only is present the wish to cling to the old object but also the opposi=
te
striving the wish to separate himself; this proves itself precisely in the
psychoanalysis of this acceptance neurotic.17
=
=
*
=
=
We
have quoted all these examples briefly in order to support the contention t=
hat
personal introjection -- next to the
repression process -- must be awarded in symptom formation a most
significant role.
=
Personal Introjection and Transfer=
ence
=
S.
Ferenczi , as the first, in his essay has treated the inner connection of
introjection and transference.18
=
=
Afterwards,
on the basis of Freudian work, it was recognized how transference occurs in
psychoanalysis with the help of the projection process. Ferenczi delineated masterfully th=
e role
of introjection -- respectively introjective identification in the transfer=
ence
process. First he established=
that
the first love object and the first hate object of infants are "at the
same time transferences and the=
roots
of each future introjection."19 Then this statement follows: "The neurotic uses a much followe=
d course
also used by normal people, when he seeks to moderate his free floating aff=
ect
through the expansion of his circle of interests; thus, through introjectio=
n he
moderates the affects and then squanders his emotions on all possible objec=
ts,
which do not concern him, in order to let himself be unconscious about emot=
ional
relations to certain objects that are coming close to him."20=
This manner of expanding the circl=
e of
interests Ferenczi calls the identification of the ego, and he finds this
process also in the analytical transference situation.
=
=
The
author establishes in the following the difference of this manner of
transference expansion of interests in psychoanalysis in relation to normal
people:
=
=
The
healthy are conscious of most introjections (identifications), while in the
case of neurotics they live them out themselves in unconscious fantasies.
According to Ferenczi, the introjective form of transference shows
itself most clearly to the physician in the treatment of a patient with hypnosis and suggestion. He co=
mes to
the following conclusion: "Sug=
gestion
and hypnosis were according to this interpretation the intentional producti=
on of
conditions under which the inclination present in each person, but habitual=
ly
held repressed by the censor, to blind belief and uncritical obedience -- a
remnant of the infantile erotic love and fear of the parents -- can be
transferred unconsciously onto the person who is hypnotizing and
suggesting."21
=
=
Ferenczi
considers identification, thus the process of introjection, as the bridge to
such a transference mode. We
emphasize here again the fact that -- as with character and symptom formati=
on
-- transference can also occur not only through repression but also through
introjection.
=
2. Collective Introjection
=
All
introjections are called collective=
in which the ego incorporates a=
nd
assimilates into itself the contents of the collective
unconscious. Contents thus
which do not belong to the experience world and inventory of the person.
=
=
In the
introjective identification with cosmic power or god-like characteristics a=
nd
an autistic expansion of interests of the ego with contents of a cosmic or =
beyond-the-personal
and magic nature is thus a form=
of collective introjection.
=
=
Frequently
it is not easy to distinguish where collective inflation in a mental proces=
s stops
and collective introjection becomes effective. This difficulty is all the greater=
since
indeed the collective introjection quite often is already the defense; thus,
this is the attempt for healing the inflation and follows it sequentially in
time.
=
=
It must
not always, however, be like that.
We recognize processes in which collective introjection follows afte=
r a
projection of collective contents and not after an inflation. In the first case our ego psycholo=
gy
speaks of Introinflation (that =
is, k+,
p+); in the second case of intr=
oprojection
(Sch =3D + -, thus k+, p-). Introprojection corresponds to the
clinical picture of autism. T=
he
difference of an introjection from an inflation of collective origins appea=
rs
most certainly through the verifying of the question if the person through =
the
components of the collective uncons=
cious
must have everything [alles =
haben]
or must be everything [alles=
sein]. If being everything predominates i=
n the
autistic fantasy world of the person, then we must consider the process as =
collective inflation. On the other hand the dominance of=
the
impulse to have everything -- i=
n the
form of introjective identification -- speaks rather for collective introjection.
And the ideal allness co=
rresponds
to collective inflation and materia=
l seeking
for everything for collective introjection. In this sense we already consider =
the
formation of the persona as a
collective introjection that oc=
curs
as a result of the preceding inflation after incorporation of inflative com=
ponents
of the collective unconscious.<=
sup>22
=
=
The function
of collective introjection appears in two phenomena: (a) in the formation of
collective world pictures and (b) in magic.
=
(a) Collective Introjection and
Collective World Picture
World picture is considered the who=
le of our
knowledge of the cosmos and of the =
outside
world. In this world picture,=
the
knowledge about the condition, the structure and components, and the govern=
ing
laws in the order in the whole world are brought under a uniform viewpoint =
and
represented clearly and pictorially.
=
=
The
world picture thus formed bears col=
lective
traits. It originates through=
a
particular form of thinking, which according to E. Bleuler is called the autistic mode of thinking. It begins in the most pronounced f=
orm with
autistic schizophrenics; it is however also characteristic for the thinking=
of infants. If we examine with the help of
experiments the division process of the ego in this autistic manner of viewing the world, then it divides itself in=
to projection and introjection.
=
Autistic thinking and behavior=
is the result of the
coupled bifunction of the ego, which we call "introprojection." <=
/span>Its
test ego-picture is: Sch =3D + =
-,
whereby the original picture is shifted out from the collective unconscious
[archetypes: p-] and becomes assimilated and incorporated, thus introjected, by the ego (k+).
=
=
The
origin of the collective world picture rests on the well-known interpretati=
on that
was formulated by Jung as follows:
=
=
"Since all knowledge means something li=
ke recognition
-- that what I have represented as a gradual development process as
anticipation and prefiguration about the beginning of our chronology -- was=
more
or less present already is not unexpected."23
=
=
In
relationship to the world picture that means that a picture of the sun, moo=
n,
heavens, stars, in a word, the whole cosmic world picture is present as
prefiguration -- Jung called them archetypes and original formations -- in =
the collective unconscious of each man=
from primeval
times to the present in the same form.&nbs=
p;
When thus the child or the adult "perceives or knows" the =
sun,
the moon, the heavens, and the stars, thus this perception is actually a recognition.
=
=
*
=
Fate
analysis [Schicksalsanalysis] assumes that the formation of a world
picture -- the construction of a world from perceptions, representations,
experiences, and knowledge in relation to the outer world -- represents
functionally the results of two elementary ego functions, and indeed that of
projection and introjection. =
In
essence: The human world picture is=
the
result of an introprojection.
=
= The formation of humanity’s collective pictures of the external world beg= ins with the shifting out (projection) of the stirrings of the collective unconscious into the external world. Each collective human perception of the banal components of the exte= rnal world has the primary condition that a part of a collective striving has sh= ifted out of the collective unconscious and, indeed, the collective demand “to have again” personally w= hat was "had" already at one time by one’s ancestors in the phylogenesis of the world and what already had been taken into possession.<= o:p>
=
=
This
collective projection is the first step for formation of a world picture.
=
=
Only
after this "collective wish projection" does the second step in t=
he
world formation follow, namely the personal incorporation of the components=
of
the external world into one's own ego.&nbs=
p;
Thus humans form their all-human perception, representation, experie=
nce
and knowledge world on the basis of collective projections and personal
introjections processes.
=
=
That
the world formation -- together with the collective world picture and thus =
together
with the "archetypes of the world formation" -- still bears a
"personal" note stems out of the fact that each person in the cou=
rse
of his ego development shifts out into the external world from not only the
collective but also from certain striving and stirrings from the familial a=
nd
personal property of the unconscious into the environment, which leads then=
to
individually variable personal introjections from certain individually seiz=
ed
elements of the external world.
Therefore results the individuality of the world pictures, respectiv=
ely
the "world concepts."24 The world as "will and
representation" (Schopenhauer<=
/i>)
according to our interpretation is the total result of a collective, famili=
al,
and personal introprojection.
=
=
"World
concepts" and "world designs" of ill persons come about prec=
isely
through introprojection of abnormal "familial" and
"personal" strivings. (See
the chapter about delusion formations.)
=
=
The
time of personal world formations is however ontogenetically limited and &q=
uot;time
oriented." And indeed
exclusively through the fact that the greatest capability for introjection =
is
limited physiologically in the life of the individual in general to a quite
short time span, namely from 3-4 up to 13-16 years. (See the history of introjection i=
n the
chapter "Defense Mechanisms.")&n=
bsp;
From the second puberty on, gradually the incorporation activity dec=
reases. One can therefore say: The world
formation process (as also the process of character building) is determined=
for
the most part at the end of the first and partly at the second puberty. The "world concept" and =
the
"world picture" remain after puberty lifelong the same as stamped=
at the
time of maturity. Only unique
extremely positive (talented) and extremely negative (pathological) individ=
uals
maintain their introprojection talent also after puberty. Only in the case of extreme varian=
ts can
there be a discussion of a reforming of the world picture.
=
=
We
will express our view about the possible causes and tragic consequences of =
this
physiological time limiting of the introjection capability in the chapter
"Chronology" in the defense doctrines. The reader will find the history o=
f the
development of the ego in the “Experimentellen Triebdiagnostik”=
[Experimental
Drive Diagnostics] (Chapter XXII, p. 175 ff.).
=
The Elementary Function of Introje=
ction
Is the Bridge to the World
=
If
this ego-function (k+) falls out and the other three remain intact, thus ar=
ises
the well-known phenomenon of "estrangement." This fact -- as we have already
explained in another place25 -- shows up clearly in the test pic=
ture
of estrangement. The test pic=
ture
of the complete, integrated ego is =
Sch
± ±=
. The positive k function is thus intact there. The picture of estrangement on the=
other
hand is Sch - ±.
With estrangement, the posit=
ive k function
is thus absent, and the person is unable to perceive the external
world. Therefore the
estrangement.
=
=
The
ego analysis of the process as in the case of estrangement and
depersonalization is an experimental indication for the correction of our
interpretation, according to which introjection (k+) is the bridge to the world and to a cosmic world picture.
(b)
Collective Introjection and Magic
=
Jung
is of the opinion that the driving motive with persona formation is not only
the power striving of the individual but a prestige formation that originat=
es constantly
out of the particular needs of the masses to form "magic" figures=
.
=
=
The
dignitary at the same time bears the
magic power, which the masses have transferred onto him from out of the=
collective
unconscious.
=
Magic is recognizably the supernatural power of chosen
persons, with which they are capable to call forth in nature and with men g=
ood
or evil transformations. The
magician and the medicine man with primitives and the Magi (Magus) with the=
old
Persians, who belong to a priest class, were bearers of this magic power.
=
=
Ego psychologically
it is of first importantance to notice that in the spiritual realms in magic
the possibilities of a human manifest themselves: To transform the ideals i=
nto
the real. That means in our t=
erms: The
person using magic has the power to develop into reality the needs of
inflation, thus the ideal: To be everything-- that is, his subjective wish =
is
transferred onto the material object, and he forces his wish upon it. We say that out of inflation, the =
being ideal
(Sch =3D 0 +) is introjected --=
thus
the have ideal (Sch =3D + 0).
=
=
The Magus
has -- thus believe the masses and he himself too -- magic power to have the
object in one’s power and to determine the fate of the object taken i=
nto
one’s possession. He po=
ssesses
the magic power to intervene in the fortunate or unfortunate events of anot=
her and
in that of nature. That the m=
agic
power of the Magus or magician is of a collective
nature is demonstrated by the customs and conceptions of the primitive,
which we here only briefly follow according to Bronislaw Malinowski, who has
collected his facts in the Northwest Melanesia from the natives of the Trob=
riand
Island (British New Guinea).
=
=
With
the primitives, magic applies essentially everywhere, where the outcome of =
an activity
is uncertain. Therefore the div=
erse
application of the magic. Malinowski enumerates the following magics
distributed between the two sexes:
=
a) Male magic: Public garden magic,
fishing, hunting, canoe building, Kulamagic (ritual bartering), weather (su=
n and
rain) magic, wind magic, war magic, safety magic on lake, wood carving, wit=
chcraft
(black magic).
=
b) Female magic: Rites with the first
pregnancy, production of the phloem skirts, defense from threatening dangers
with birth, toothache, elephantiasis (tumors), discharge (gonorrhea?), abor=
tion,
female witchcraft.
=
c) Magic common to both sexes,=
which can be exercise=
d by
men and women, is: Cosmetic magic, love magic, private garden magic.27=
=
=
From
this enumerating of magic practices it is evident that magic plays a decisi=
ve
role in all important enterprises and activities of the collective village =
life
and personal fates. It is ‑- as Malinowski observed ‑- a partic=
ular
side of reality. “Luck or misfortune, scarcity or abundance, health or
illness -- all are based, according to the feelings and the faith of the
natives for the most part, on the magic being used correctly under correct
circumstances.”
=
=
The
magic is exercised by magic formulas and magic rites. The words are loaded =
with
magic power, which the magician transfers by his breath to the bewitched ob=
ject
(human or thing).
=
=
Three events
seem to encourage the collective origin of magic introjection:
=
=
First
of all, the belief that all magic formulas since time immemorial are linked=
unchanged
“from the origin of the things to here.”
=
=
Secondly,
different magic systems are heredit=
ary,
“each in a special sub-clan; since the time that their ancestors clim=
bed
upon the earth, the particular system was in the possession of this sub-cla=
n. The
magic system can only be exercised by a member and belongs naturally to the
most valued individuals and properties of a sub-clan. Although it is handed
down in the female line, it is exercised mostly, as also are different form=
s of
power and possessions, only by men. But in a few cases such hereditary magic
can also be exercised by women."28
=
=
Thirdly,
the practicer of the magic is also supervisor and leader of the same work, =
which
he is able to influence by magic words and rites. The magician holds conseq=
uently
a social position. And thus the=
same
man leads the garden work or the canoe expedition and carries out horticult=
ure
or respectively canoe magic.
=
These practices
and arrangements collaborate the correctness of our interpretation that the
magician takes into possession in fact the collective and familial power --
that is incorporates, introjects, it into his ego. We do not believe it a false
interpretation ego psychologically<=
/i>
when we interpret magic as an intro=
projection,
respectively introinflation of a collective and familial nature. The particular role of words in magic is particularly
interesting for us. Words are
loaded with magic power, and they are transferred through the magician to t=
he
thing or a person with breath (atem =3D spirit). Word
and breath (atem) are oral activities; they belong drive
psychologically to the need area of "m." Now we know however from the tests=
of
the magic autistic thinking schizophrenics as also from the physiological
separation process with children that the oral
clinging tendency (with mouth and arm, m,
J. Hermann) are linked intimately with the introjection process (k+).29 It appears therefore not surprisin=
gly to
us consequently that with magician rites, the ancestor spirit, the forefathers from the ancestor realm, quite often assist with the practice of magic.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Often even the magician is obliged=
to dream
“under the guidance of the ancestor spirit about his task.” He,=
the
introjected ancestor, on whom the dreamer depends childlike (m), prophesies to him whether rain=
s or drought
or whether success or failure in fishing itself will take place. Hanging on=
to
the ancestors, the dependence on them (m
need) and the repetition of the words of the ancestors appearing in the dre=
am
play thus in magic just as weighty a role as it does with autistic schizoph=
renics
and children. Word magic has still a further similarity with the autistic m=
ode
of thinking. The magic sentence is composed not as a wish for the future, l=
ike
a prayer, but always as an already =
fulfilled
and realized result of the pres=
ent.
=
=
An
example from the various formulas of love magic makes this fact evident:
Frequently with love magic and with ritual bartering (kula) mint is =
used
as a means of seduction and as the chief means of attraction (sulumwoya<=
/u>).
The formula (the mint herbs) of the Sulumwoya magicians is translated as
follows by Malinowski:
=
=
Oh, its
sensual excitement,
=
Oh,
their falling in love!
=
Oh,
desiring, oh, mighty female!
=
Our falling
in love ignites my hugging, your hugging!
=
My
embraces, your embraces ignite our falling in love!
=
My matting,
your mating ignite our falling in love!
=
&=
nbsp;
=
The saying
oil in the form of a long litany is given over a mint plant cooked in cocon=
ut.
One has the impression, as if over this act in the present a passionate rep=
ort
was delivered here. And as if the suitor had already taken the bride in
possession.30
=
=
These
formulation of the magic sentences speak for the autistic magical introjection process. The magician acts as if =
the
magic of words had translated the wish immediately into reality. Precisel=
y in
that consists the magic. The same applies to the magic thinking of certain
schizophrenics.
=
=
As an example
of that magical autistic thinking with schizophrenics we refer to case 28 of
the Triebpathologie (p. 323), that here figures as
Case 9. The 32 old civil servant, a heboid depressive =
schizophrenic
from the Tübingen hospital, reports of magnetic fields in which he fou=
nd
himself. The patient says: “I find myself on a stage, where I receive=
and
send again the radioactive rays in my brain, therefore also the designation=
death
rays.” (On the
=
&=
nbsp;
=
The autistic magic mode of thinking, w=
hich
makes itself known in the collective form of introjection, constitutes with
culture poor primitives an important place in reality. With culture rich people, on the o=
ther
hand, the same kind of thinking is judged as pathological. How great however is the longing o=
f the
original soul after this magic thinking that always still reigns also with
higher culture is shown by the results of the magic representations that ap=
pear
on the theater stages in all large cities.=
Collective ego functions appear therefore to be stronger than all the
disapprovals of civilization and culture.
=
3. Familial Introjection
=
An introjection
is of a familial nature when the
person incorporates into his own ego and takes into his personal inventory
material possessed components or mental hereditary property such as
characteristics, capabilities and ideals that belong to the hereditary trea=
sure
of the family.
=
=
If
thus the individual mentally becomes like a figure of his ancestor's line,
identifies himself with him and designates expressed character traits,
attitudes, world views, behaviors and choice forms in love, friendship, occ=
upation,
illness and death, affirms these
ancestor figures, and afterwards assimilates the figure as being his own have ideal, then we speak correctl=
y of familial introjection and familial identification. There is no mental form in which o=
ne may
not discover assimilated and incorporated components of the family heredita=
ry property. Overall, where the ego steps in at=
times
as the choosing court and where thus the life through choice becomes one's
human fate, ego psychology must think of familial
introjection.
=
=
And then
only the one who chooses has fate.
With the first choice is fate born, and with the last -- with the ch=
oice
of the manner of death -- goes fate to its end.
=
=
Fate
is however -- as we maintain -- originally the choice compulsion of ancestors.&nb=
sp;
If the person does affirms this imposed choice by the ancestors,
thus that indicates: Identification with one's ancestors and consequently
introjection of the ancestor demands.
The person experiences from the first to the last choice behavior of=
the
ego (most often unconsciously) identifications and introjections out of the=
familial hereditary property. In the build up of the world pictu=
res,
in the formation of character, occupation and official persona, illness syn=
dromes
-- everywhere ancestor elements are present, since the choosing ego constan=
tly
affirms or denies precisely certain strivings of the ancestor world through
choice.
=
Choice manifests itself consequently in t=
he
ego to the possibilities that the family unconscious offers as choice
possibilities for the person. Thus out of this compulsion fate becomes a choice
fate. Each affirmed position =
taking
is consequently an introjection of familial origin. The role of ancestors in the build=
up of
world views is little researched.
No one can however dispute that there are familial world views. The analysis of magic reveals alre=
ady a proof
that the family, as hereditary owner of definite magic secrets and practice=
s,
may play an eminent role in the formation of the primitive world picture.
=
=
*
=
The relationships
between the familial introjections<=
/i>
and character formation will be
explained later in the section "The Ego and Character." Here we will treat the important
relationship between the familial introjection and occupation choice.
=
Family Introjection and Occupation
Choice, Occupational Persona and Professional Mask
=
=
In the
second book of Fate Analysis [Schicksalsanalysis]31 we ha=
ve
defined as follows the concept of "introjective
operotropism [work tropism]": The occupation choice is introjective if the person may mak=
e out
of the need bringing danger an occupation "interest," and may make
out of this need an "object of one’s occupation." If a man who is inverted or latent=
ly
perverted, for example, chooses sexual pathology as a profession, he can th=
us succeed
-- under favorable circumstances -- to raise the inverted or perverted sexu=
al
wish to an occupational interest and his desired sexual object to an object=
of
his preoccupation. Psychoanal=
ysis
in these cases speaks of sublimation; we only speak of the socialization of=
the
drive in an occupation. Accor=
ding
to U. Moser,32 we call this drive mechanism: "Defense Opero=
tropism";
ego psychologically: Personal
introjection.
=
=
In
order to be able to interpret an operotropism as a familial introjection, we must indicate with appropriate
verification that the person in fact is known to incorporate components,
tendencies, and fate possibilities out of his family into his own ego and i=
s known
to form out of this familial te=
ndency
an occupational interest. The
criteria for acceptance of a famili=
al introjective
operotropism are the following:
=
=
1. The familial
sickness must form with the kind of socialization through the occupation an=
adequate and complementary pair of opp=
osites. That means that the familial illne=
ss and
professional activity must have the same
"mental hereditary atmosphere." Thus, for example, endogenous psych=
osis
(like schizophrenia) and psychiatry or psychopathology. Or family hard of hearing and audi=
ology. Or familial throat anomalies and l=
aryngology,
etc.
=
=
2. The heredity of the illness that m=
atches
the atmosphere of the occupation must be confirmed in the family of the
choosers of the occupation.
=
=
3. The conductive
nature of the occupational choosers must be able to be indicated without
any objections. Thus, for exa=
mple, the descendents of the typical phenotype healthy occupation choos=
er
burdens his children and eventually grandchildren with his hereditary illne=
ss,
whose healing he himself has chosen as a specialty.
=
=
The
fulfillment of these three criteria permit us now mostly to accept operotro=
pism
of a familial introjective natu=
re.
=
=
4. Very rarely can we introduce a fou=
rth
indication, namely that the occupation chooser after serving years as a
phenotype healthy man in the particular profession becomes ill of the same
hereditary illness of which he was a specialist.33 In these cases, which meet criteria
three and four, there is no doubt that the occupational chooser bears hidde=
n in
himself this familial hereditary inclination at the time of the occupation
choice and that later it becomes manifest in his descendents or in himself.
Case 10 serves as an example for the criteria of the conductive nature of t=
he occupation
chooser:
=
Case 10: A young physician becomes a laryngologi=
st,
marries, and his son comes into the world with a cleft palate. This son of =
the
laryngologist has two grandchildren, who are born with splitting of the uvu=
la. The
palate splitting is well known as a rare hereditary anomaly; its hereditary
course (unevenly dominant or recessive?) is not yet clearly proven. In
=
&=
nbsp;
Case 11 belongs as an example for criteria 4. We
treated it in detail in this book and likewise already mentioned it in S=
chicksalsanalyse.35
=
A
physician becomes a psychiatrist (No. 119). He falls in love with a cousin =
of
second degree, who later becomes a paranoid schizophrenic and a suicide (No=
. 146).
In the family of this cousin were paranoid=
schizophrenics (No. 141, 147, 149, and 1). These circumstances made =
the
marriage ceremony impossible. The mother of the psychiatrist was twice marr=
ied.
Her first husband (No. 56), a surgeon, was a severe paranoid and threatened=
to
kill his wife out of jealousy. Her second husband (No. 58), the father of t=
he
psychiatrist, was unremarkable. The mother however became with age more and=
more
paranoid. At last she developed senile dementia paranoia (No. 57). The brot=
her
of the psychiatrist died interned as a schizophrenic (No. 114). The sister
became a psychoanalyst (No. 112).
=
=
Since his
brother at the time of his occupational choice (psychiatry) already was sch=
izophrenic,
one can assume that he selected – out of compassion for his brother &=
#8209;-
this occupation. Rationally it can be like that. We have however a tragic p=
roof
for the fact that the chooser of the occupation was indeed a conductor of
schizophrenia. After he had worked successfully through two decades as chief
physician in a health care institute, he became a psychoanalyst. Already du=
ring
this activity he experienced phases, in which he feared becoming mad himsel=
f. Since
because of his age he had to give up completely his occupation as a psychia=
trist
and a psychoanalyst , he developed a paranoid delusion system with depressi=
ve
self-accusations. He had to be interned in the same institute, where in for=
mer
times he was active as the head physician. The institute diagnosis was the =
same
as that for his mother: Age dementia of a paranoid schizophrenic nature.
=
=
This
case with its tragic twists of fate demonstrates incontestably that there i=
s in
fact a kind of familial introjectiv=
e
professional choice. The know=
ledge
about these introjective familial hereditary shaped conditions help us to u=
nderstand
professional persona formations;
without which, otherwise, they would be completely incomprehensible.
=
=
We
continue with the professional persona of a psychiatrist. A group of institution psychiatris=
ts wear
the mask of "the all powerful."&=
nbsp;
Their autistic, narcissistic behavior in the realm of the institution
immediately springs into one's mind.
They "govern" and act as all-powerful rulers. Often they expand their
"omnipotence" over the realm of the institution also into the reg=
ion
of science. They label themselves as knowing everything, are able to criticize everything, and thereby arm
themselves with the persona of an oversized head with the mask of a "g=
reat
professional." If they l=
ay
aside this mask, then they often become mentally ill.
=
=
A very
frequent professional persona among the psychiatrists is the inhibited schizoid introverted typ=
e. They are often very efficient phys=
icians
with the sick patients; on the other hand, in the society of the healthy th=
ey
are mostly "mannered," isolated, and incapable of contact. Others are lively and theatrical l=
ike
the heboids.
=
=
Fortunately
psychoanalysis has succeeded also to exercise among the psychiatrist its
"healing" action, and those psychiatrists, who have taken the tro=
uble
to undertake on their own a personal depth psychoanalysis, have lost gradua=
lly their
"professional mask" and work freely with the sick as with the
healthy.
=
=
The
insight into the process of the introjective professional mask of a familial
nature often helps one to understand correctly the occupational character a=
s,
for example, that of surgeons, judges of criminals, f=
orensic
pathologists, =
doctors,
pastors, monks, etc. The more these professional men succeed to distance
themselves from the occupation mask which was formed through the introjecti=
on of
familial tendencies, the freer =
then they
can experience and unfold their individual personalities.
=
=
With
this we end the explanation of the third elementary function of the ego: In=
trojection. About the important relationship of
introjection to the activities =
of the will will be the subject in=
the
summary of ego functions. Her=
e we
must limit ourselves to the unconsc=
ious
activity in the incorporation process.
=
=
We turn
to the treatment of the last elementary function of the ego: Negation.
=
=
=
=
=
End
Notes
=
1 0. R. Reisland,
=
2 AVENARIUS, R.: Der
menschliche Weltbegriff [The Human World Concept], p. 29.
=
3 FERENCZI, S.: Introje=
ktion
und Übertragung [Introjection and Transference]. Jahrb. f. ps.‑a=
. u.
ps.‑path. Forsch., Bd. I, 1909. p. 422.
=
4 Ibid, p. 429.<= o:p>
=
5 JUNG, C. G.: Psychologische Typen [Psychological Types].
Raschcr, Zürich 1930. p. 640.
=
6 FREUD, S.: Trauer und Melancholie [Mourning and Melancholia].
Ges. Schr. [Collected Works], Bd. V, p. 535 ff.
=
7 FREUD, S.: Ges. Sehr., Bd. VI, pp. 372/373.
=
8 FREUD, S.: Das Ich und das Es. [The Ego and the Id]. Ges. Sch=
r.,
Bd. VI, p. 373.
9 GRABER, H.: Die zweie=
rlei
Mechanismen der Identifizierungen [“The Two Kinds of Mechanisms of
Identifications”]. Imago, XXIII, Heft [Issue] 1.
=
10 FREUD, S.: Das Ich und das Es. Ges. Sehr., Bd. VI, p. 374.
=
11 Näheres siehe im
Kapitel «Introjektion als Abwehr». [For more details see the Ch=
apter
“Introjection as Defense.”]
=
12 Vgl. Hiezu [compare t=
his
to] Triebpathologie, Bd. 1, p. 339 ff.
=
13 WALDER, H.: Triebstru=
ktur
und Kriminalität [Drive Structure and Criminality]. Abhandl. z.
exp. Triebforschung und Schicksalspsychologie [Drive Research and Fate
Psychology]. (Compare to vol. of L. SZ0NDI).
Nr. I. Huber,
=
14 FREUD, S.: Hemmung, Symptom und Angst [Inhibition, Symptom, and
Anxiety]. Ges. Schr., Bd. XI, p. 28.
=
15 Vgl. hiezu Triebpatho=
logie,
Bd. I, p. 463 ff.
=
16 DÉRI, S.: I=
ntroduction
to the Szondi Test. Grunc & Stratton,
=
17 Vgl. hiezu Triebpatho=
logie,
Bd. I, Fall 12, p. 209 ff.
=
18 FERENCZI, S.: Introje=
ktion
und Übertragung. Jahrb. f. ps.‑a. u. ps.‑path. Forsch., Bd=
. I,
1909. p. 422 ff.
=
19 Ibid, p. 430.<= o:p>
=
20 Ibid, p. 431.<= o:p>
=
21 Ibid, p. 457.<= o:p>
=
22 JUNG hat diese
Differenzierung von kollektiver Inflation und Introjektion nicht klar
durchgeführt [Jung did not clearly achieve this differentiation of
collective inflation and introjection].
=
23 JUNG, C. G.: Aion. Untersuchungen zur Symbolgeschichte [Investig=
ation
into the History of Symbols]. Rascher, Zürich 1951. p. 267.
=
24 Vgl. hiezu die
interessanten philosophischen Erörterungen AVENARTUS' über «=
;Die
Restitution des natürlichen Weltbegriffs» durch Ausschaltung der
Introjektion [Compare this to the interesting philosophical discussions abo=
ut
“The Restitution of the Natural World Concept” through eliminat=
ion
of introjection]. Der menschliche Weltbegriff. p. 63 ff. and p. 67 ff.=
=
25 Triebpathologie, Bd. =
I, pp.
133, 163, 284, 328.
=
26 Vgl. hiezu Abschnitt
“Entfremdung” in der Abwehrlehre [Compare this to the section
“Estrangement” in the Defense Doctrines].
=
27 MALINOWSKI, B.: a)
Argonauts of the Western Pacific; b) Das Geschlechtsleben der Wilden [The
Sexual Life of Savages]. Grethlein & Co.,
=
28 Ibid, p. 30.
=
29 Triebpathologie, Bd. =
I, p.
421. (Die Verlassenheit und die verlassende Mutter werden introjiziert [The=
abandonment
and the abandoned mother become introjected].)
=
30 MALIN0WSKI, B. Das Geschlechtsleben der Wil=
den, p.
263.
=
31 Experimentelle
Triebdiagnostik. H. Huber,
=
32 MOSER, U.: Psychologie der Arbeitswahl und der Arbeitsstörungen=
[Psychology
of Choice of Work and Work Disturbances]. Huber,
=
33 Vgl. hiezu die intere=
ssante
Arbeit von [Compare this to the interesting work of] H. CHRISTOFFEL:
Bemerkungen über zweierlei Mechanismen der Identifizierung [Remarks on=
the
Two Mechanisms of Identification]. Imago, Band 23, H. 1, 1937.
=
34 V=
ON
VERSCHUER, 0.: Erbpathologie [Hereditary Pathology]. Steinkopff,
Dresden-Leipzig 1934. p. 126.
=
35 V=
gl.
hiezu die Stammbäume [Compare this to the family tree] 26 a, b, c, p. 186 ff., in der Schicksalsanalyse. Der hier er=
;örterte Fall figuriert dort im Stammbaum [The here mentioned case’s place=
in
the family tree] 26b,
=
66 V.
Ego Introjection
&=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; &=
nbsp; &nbs=
p; V. Ego Introjection 67