MIND DOCTORS AT WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 26

MIND DOCTORS AT WORK

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE “EXTRAORDINARY SCENES” Extraordinary scenes are sometimes played out in the offices of the psychoanalysts, says the special representative of the London “Daily Express.” Angry husbands 'arrive demanding to know the whereabouts of their wives, who had been content and happy un til they discovered through analysis that they did not belong to the same psychological type as their husbands, and decided to flee. Fathers, threatening to use the horsewhip on the man who has been putting “nasty” ideas in their daughters’ heads, help to break up the calm that ordinarily hangs over the office. They are quickly hushed up and sent out before the next patient arrives. A patient, on entering an analyst's office, is supposed to leave all fears and inhibitions behind. The psycho-analyst’s office does not resemble a doctor’s office in the least. Here there is no suggestion of pain or illness, hut rather of ease and comfort. It is easy for the patient to relax and talk without ever being conscious that she is there for treatment. The patient talks of everything that comes into her head, without bothering to think it out. The doctor makes notes and occasionally' asks a ques tion which acts merely as a thought suggestion. Toward the close of the hour the doctor examines his notes and explains the material that the patient has brought to light. Sometimes he allows the patient to go on talking the full hour, and then explains at the next sitting. The doctor always allows the patient time to leave before having the next one ushered in, as patients are shy about meeting one another in the psychoanalyst’s office. During the whole period of analysis, the patient is encouraged to jot things down and to write out her dreams. She brings these with her to be explained and analysed. It occasionally happens that the patients become so anxious to remember iheir dreams that they find themselves suffering from insomnia. Since it is difficult to penetrate into the realms of the unconscious without dreams, the poor wife has to give up being analysed. The work of analysis can-be divided into four stages; the conscious the sub-conscious, the unconscious, and the race unconscious. The first, according to the psychoanalysts, is the experience and know-

ledge belonging to the individual and which he employs in his every-day life. The second, the subconscious, is also knowledge gained from experience, but it rests just below the layer of consciousness. This material is temporarily forgotten, but can be recalled at will. The third stage is the serious anc dangerous stage. In the unconscious are stored all the painful experiences which the individual has gone through and which he never permits himself to recall. In this chamber of horrors all the neuroses and complexes are born. The unconscious reveals itself in dreams, the psychoanalysts state, but even here a men--tal censor is always on gu&rd, and awakens the sleeper if the scenes become too painful. The fourth and last stage is the more recent discovery. The theory of the race unconscious is said to have originated with Dr. Jung, and later grudgingly admitted by Freud. Here is stored all the experience belonging to the whole race, and only through psycho-analysis can this knowledge be brought to the surface to serve the individual. It takes years and years of analysis, however, to penetrate into the race unconscious. Psycho-analysis, if practised by an unscrupulous person, can be a dis tinct menace to society, because the element of transference comes in. Transference is when the patient substitutes the doctor for some one who has played, or is playing, an important role in her life, and gives him all the trust and affection that that person would normally inspire. When there is no transference there is a resistance, and the work of analysis cannot go on until this resistance is broken down. It can be readily seen what tremendous power Is placed in the hands of the psycho-analyst. The scrupulous practitioner does not take advantage of this situation, but tries to keep the transference well under control, but it is, not always so easy. Also, the analyst is, after all, as human as most of us, and he cannot help hut be affected by the love and worship that is continually offered up by the patients. Toward the end of the analysis, when the patient is assumed to be normal and well adjusted, the transference is supposed to be broken. It is easier said than done. Years after the analysis has ceased many patients continue to come hack to the doctor for advice and guidance. Sometimes the transference is too complete even for the doctor. Recently there was the case of a young woman, secretary to a business man, who became so jealous of the analyst’s wife that she threatened to take her life. Her family had to take her out of the country.