The Integrity of the Personality 0345375858, 9780345375858

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An

in

USA

extraordinary glimpse into the

work

of therapy

and the process of achieving ones ultimate potential

THE

INTEGRITY OF THE

PERSONALITY -»

'The eminent

British psychiatrist

essayist of] penetrating insight

Anthony and

Storr...

[is

an

first-rate writing."

The New York Times Book Review

ANTHONY STORR AUTHOR OF SOLITUDE

THE INTEGRITY OF

THE PERSONALITY

Also by Anthony Storr

SEXUAL DEVIATION

HUMAN AGGRESSION THE DYNAMICS OF CREATION JUNG

THE ART OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

THE ESSENTIAL JUNG (selected

and

SOLITUDE:

edited by

Anthony

Storr)

A RETURN TO THE

SELF

CHURCHILL'S BLACK DOG, KAFKA'S MICE AND OTHER PHENOMENA OF THE HUMAN MIND

HUMAN

DESTRUCTIVENESS

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

ANTHONY STORR

BALLANTINE BOOKS

NEW YORK

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coverless,

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received payment for

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Foreword © 1992 by Anthony Storr Copyright © 1960 by Anthony Storr Copyright renewed 1988 by Anthony Storr

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright

Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books,

Random House,

a division of

Inc.,

New

Originally published in Great Britain by William

Books Ltd. Library of Congress Catalog

York.

Heinemann Medical

in 1960.

Card Number: 91-92254

ISBN: 0-345-37585-8 Text design by Holly Johnson

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art:

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the

Midnight Sun by Diana

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Books Edition: January 1992

987654321

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My

thanks are due to the following authors and publishers for

permission to use various quotations:

Mr. E. M. Forster and Edward Arnold Ltd for passages from Howards End and Two Cheers for Democracy. Dr. A. W. Heim and Methuen Co. for an extract from The Appraisal of Intelligence.

&

Dr.

W. Ronald

for several passages

and

D. Fairbairn and Tavistock Publications Ltd from Psycho-Analytic Studies of the Personality,

same author

to the

British Journal of

for extracts

from papers published in the

Medical Psychology.

Mr. Leonard Woolf for a quotation from Virginia Woolf's "The Patron and the Crocus" in The Common Reader.

essay

Messrs. Chatto and Windus for a sentence from Proper Studies, by Aldous Huxley; and for two extracts from Remembrance of

Things Past, by Marcel Proust, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff.

The Hogarth and

New

Press for extracts from Outline of Psycho-Analysis

Introductory Lectures on Psycho- Analysis, by

Sigmund

Freud.

The Hutchinson Group Conception of Nature, by Cassell

W.

for a passage

from The

Physicist's

Heisenberg.

& Co. for excerpts from Clinical Psychiatry, by Mayer-

Gross, Slater, and Roth.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

vi

The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press for extracts from The Nature of the Physical World, by A. S. Eddington, and from Science and the Modern World, by A. N. Whitehead. J.

M. Dent and Sons

for a passage

from Joseph Conrad's

Nostromo.

Routledge and Kegan Paul for quotations from The Fear of Freedom, by Erich Fromm; from The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche, by C. G. Jung and W. Pauli; and from the following works by C. G. Jung: Psychological Types, Two Essays on Analytical

Psychology, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, The Undiscovered Self, and The Development of Personality Penguin Books Ltd. for extracts from W. Hamilton's translation of Plato's Symposium; and for a passage from Child Care and the Growth of Love, by John Bowlby. Macmillan Co. for a passage by T. H. Huxley quoted by Aldous Huxley in T. H. Huxley as a Literary Man-, and for a sentence from Reality, by B. H. Streeter. George Allen and Unwin Ltd. for two quotations from Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, by Sigmund Freud; for extracts from The Way and Its Power, by Arthur Waley; and for a sentence from History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell. Gerald Duckworth Co. for a passage from Psycho-Andy sis and Politics, by R. E. Money-Kyrle. G. Bell

I.

was suggested that a

man can

neither

develop nor realize his personality in isolation; and that maturity of the individual personality and maturity in relationships with other people go

maturity? is

Can we

hand

in hand.

describe or reach agreement

a mature relationship? This

is

But what

is

upon what

by no means an easy ques-

tion to answer, since the concept of a mature relationship

depends upon subjective assumptions which are deeply rooted.

interesting to note that, in the index to

It is

Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis, Fenichel's masterly

com-

pendium, the word maturity does not occur; and while easy to discover is

more

The

have

is

immature,

it

what idea they have of maturity.

Abraham used

'genital primacy"; and, for

to

writers think

it is

psycho-analytic concept of maturity derived from

the work of 4

what various

difficult to find

The

to be comprised by the phrase

some psychoanalysts, the

satisfying genital relationships

ability

with the opposite

sex constitutes the acid test of maturity in interpersonal relationships. satisfied

It is

with this

her Trends

true that certain psycholanalysts are distest.

Marjorie Brierley, 2 for instance, in

in Psycho-Analysis says:

31

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

32

But experience

that

testifies

.

.

.

genital potency

with incapacity for personal appreciation of the sexual partner,

by no means uncommon;

is

it

is,

per-

among men, where

its

development may have been aided by the long

tra-

haps,

more

frequent

'

dition of 'feminine inferiority."

The term

"personal appreciation"

my

is

not defined or en-

larged upon;

and

for

"personal appreciation" which

it is

this

this

is,

to

mind, a regrettable omission;

the final expression of maturity in a

human

I

believe to be

relationships. In

famous passage Jung 3 describes what he conceives to be

the ideal relationship between doctor and patient in the therapeutic situation.

If

the doctor wants to offer guidance to another,

or even to

accompany him

must be in touch with life.

He

is

or keeps

them

To

difference.

when he

his

to himself,

passes judge-

judgement into words,

makes not the

slightest

take the opposite position, and to

no

use,

condemnation.

We

agree with the patient offhand,

but estranges

he

this other person's psychic

never in touch

ment. Whether he puts

a step of the way,

him

as

much

as

is

also of

can get in touch with another person only by an attitude of unprejudiced objectivity. This like a scientific precept,

a purely intellectual

may sound

and may be confused with

and detached attitude of mind.

mean to convey is something quite difhuman quality— a kind of deep respect for facts and events and for the person who suffers from them — a respect for the secret of such a human But what

I

ferent. It

is

life.

a

THE MATURE RELATIONSHIP

may be

It

33

objected that this statement refers to a special

situation, that

between doctor and patient; but,

constantly emphasizes, the doctor

is

volved in the therapeutic situation

as a person;

not think that

as

Jung

himself always in-

and

do

I

misrepresents Jung's views to quote this

it

passage as an example of his picture of what a lationship should be. In this extract,

it

human

re-

be noted that

will

the ideal of "unprejudiced objectivity" occupies a middle position between two opposites

which

are

expressed as

"passing judgement"

on the one hand, and "agreeing

hand" on the

To be

therefore,

in

is

To

pass judge-

which each

ship in

right,

In the

own attitude is less The ideal is a relation-

to imply that one's

valid than that of the other person.

of

from oneself, and,

to respect this difference.

to imply that the other person should alter himself;

is

to agree offhand

own

respects the other as a person in his

without trying to alter the other. last

made of the concept the name that Fairbairn 4

chapter mention was

"Mature Dependence" which

is

Here

gives to his final stage of emotional development.

what he

says about

What fantile

it:

distinguishes mature

dependence

is

that

it is

dependence from

in-

characterized neither

by a one-sided attitude of incorporation nor by an attitude of primary emotional identification.

contrary,

it is

characterized by a capacity

On

on the

the part

of a differentiated individual for cooperative relationships with differentiated objects. priate biological object is,

off-

touch with another person,

to recognize his difference

same time,

at the

ment

is

other.

is

of course, genital; but

So

far as

the appro-

concerned, the relationship it is

a relationship involving

evenly matched giving and taking between two

dif-

is

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

34

who

ferentiated individuals

and between

whom

there

are mutually dependent,

no

is

dence. Further, the relationship

disparity of depen-

is

characterized by an

absence of primary identification and an absence of incorporation.

At

least, this

is

the ideal picture; but

of course, never completely realized in practice,

it is,

since there

is

no one whose

libidinal

development

proceeds wholly without a hitch.

This but

much more

a

is

elaborate statement than Jung's—

believe the underlying idea to be the same.

I

teresting that

neither

X

both writers

start

It is in-

with negatives: the ideal

nor Y, but something which

is

the two, or which transcends both. Scylla

either

is,

between

for Jung, pass-

ing judgement; for Fairbairn, one-sided incorporation. rybdis

is,

for Fairbairn, primary

is

Cha-

emotional identification;

for

Jung, offhand agreement.

The

attitudes described by Fairbairn as incorporation

identification are connected with,

more

familiar concepts of

and

and may underlie, the

dominance and submission, or

sadism and masochism. To incorporate another person is to swallow him up, to overwhelm him, and to destroy him;

and thus to son.

To

treat

him

ultimately as less than a whole per-

identify with another person

submerge one's own identity

overwhelmed, and hence to than a whole person. is

to place oneself in

offhandedly

is

To

is

to lose oneself, to

in that of the other, to be

treat oneself ultimately as less

pass judgement, in Jung's sense,

an attitude of

to place oneself in

superiority; to agree

an attitude of

inferiority.

Scylla and Charybdis are graphic representations of psychological truths:

ways— either by

the personality can cease to exist in two destroying the other, or by being absorbed

by the other— and maturity in interpersonal relationships

THE MATURE RELATIONSHIP

35

demands that neither oneself nor the other

shall disappear,

but that each shall contribute to the affirmation and realization of the other's personality.

Although both

attitudes

equally

are

destructive

of

mature relationships, we tend, in our pseudo-Christian democracy, to condemn the one more than the other. The greedy seeker for power who, like Tamburlaine, makes use of others as footstools from excites a general

may

which

to ascend his throne,

condemnation: and, however much he

man

secretly be admired, the ruthless

invite criticism than to

But the others

is

commended, although

often

own

abrogate one's

wishes and to

others even at one's

how

been reared

'

likely to

himself with

equally impossi-

compliant, to

in with the desires of

It is difficult

admirable,

for those

how

who have

odour of sanctity to perceive that an

undue submissiveness ness,

fit

it is

To be

own expense— how

'Christian!"

in the

more

command respect. person who identifies

less assertive

ble to have a relationship with him.

unselfish,

is

is

as culpable as

an undue

assertive-

and that maturity demands a relationship on equal

terms. In his concept of maturity Fairbairn includes the genital relationship, which, as

the touchstone of maturity for

I

have already remarked,

many

is

psycho-analysts. But,

for Fairbairn, 5 maturity in interpersonal relationship, while it

includes the possibility of genital relationship between

the sexes, implies more than

At

the same time,

it

this:

must be

stressed that

it is

not in virtue of the fact that the genital level has

been reached that object-relationships tory.

On

the contrary,

satisfactory

it is

are satisfac-

in virtue of the fact that

object-relationships have

lished that true genital sexuality

is

been estab-

attained.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

36

And

in a footnote to this extension of conventional

psycho-analytic concepts he adds:

It

my

should be explained that

it is

not any part of

intention to depreciate the significance of the

"genital" stage in comparison with the oral stage.

My

intention

is

rather to point out that the real

significance of the "genital" stage lies in a maturity

of object-relationships, and that a genital attitude

is

but an element in that maturity.

Throughout

his writings, Fairbairn

concerned with

is

persons as whole persons, not simply as vehicles for instinct.

He

reiterates that a child's basic

need

is

to be loved

"as a person." Writing of the origin of schizoid and depressive states

case

is

he

says:

6

"The traumatic

one in which the child

loved as a person, and that his

But

anyone

it

far

is

love

is

as a person:

and

I

know from experience

is

not really

not accepted."

from easy to describe what

tions given above, although

it

is

to love

think that both Jung and Fair-

it is

it

difficult in

the quota-

abundantly clear that both

the relationship that they are trying

and that they are convinced of

Fairbairn postulates an initial stage in is

he

feels that

own

bairn are showing that they find

to delineate,

situation in either

its

value.

which the

infant

both completely dependent upon, and completely iden-

tified

with,

its

object, the mother. Progress towards maturity

in relationship consists of a gradual differentiation of subject

and

a process

object. 7

"Normal development

is

characterized by

whereby progressive differentiation of the object

accompanied by a progressive decrease in identification." In other words, the more an individual becomes a separate is

THE MATURE RELATIONSHIP individual in his

own

right, the

more

others as separate individuals in their

Writers vary in

how

is

37

he able to regard

own

right.

they describe the psychological

journey towards maturity. Some, like Jung, are chiefly con-

cerned with dynamic changes within the individual; others, like Fairbairn, depict his

individuals.

But

if

changing relationships with other

one searches the pages of Jung one

finds

that he describes maturity also in terms of interpersonal

and Fairbairn can be found

relationships:

of changing intrapsychic dynamics.

It is

to paint a picture clear that the de-

velopment of the individual and the development of relationships proceed pari passu;

his

and that the one cannot

take place without the other. In the analytic process, which, I

believe,

is

a

microcosm

reflecting the

macrocosm of the

patient's relationships in the world outside the consulting

room, the changing relationship to the analyst and the changing dynamics of the patient can be observed to occur as part of the

One therefore,

same

process.

aspect of maturity in relationship seems to be,

the avoidance of either dominating or being

dominated by the other person. But, since

means

equal,

it

may be argued

never occur: since

it is

that such relationship could

which one would not be supe-

the other in at least one facet of his

achievement. Erich Fromm,

8

in

endowment

The Fear of Freedom,

swers this argument as follows:

The uniqueness

of the self in

dicts the principle of equality.

are

of

The

born equal implies that they

fundamental

human

no

are by

impossible to conceive of a relation-

ship between two people in rior to

men

all

no way

contra-

thesis that

men

share the same

qualities, that they share the basic fate

beings, that they

all

have the same

in-

or

an-r

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

38

alienable claim

on freedom and happiness.

thermore means that their relationship solidarity,

are alike.

Such

mean

is

a concept of equality

activities today. In the relation

man who

who

buys and the one

sells,

What

that

all

derived

is

from the role that the individual plays in

nomic

one of

is

not one of domination-submission.

the concept of equality does not

men

It fur-

his eco-

between the the concrete

differences of personality are eliminated. In this

sit-

uation only one thing matters, that the one has

something to it.

and the other has money to buy

sell

In economic

one man

life

not different from

is

another; as real persons they are, and the cultivation of their uniqueness

It is

is

unfortunate that

thesis that

men

are

the essence of individuality.

Fromm

they are not, and, although quality in terms

he

says,

it

is

should use the phrase "the

born equal."

It is

Fromm

which indicate that he does not mean what

a pity that

he chooses these words.

not born equal; but they share the

however disparate

their genetic

their inequality, they

they are this fact.

human

still

beings,

Moreover, the

fined to the highly gifted:

individuals of

abundantly clear that goes on to define this

humble

human

Men

endowment, however

have in

and they

are

condition and,

common

great

the fact that

are linked emotionally by

possibility of

maturation

is

not con-

and most of us have probably known

social position

and limited intelligence

who have nevertheless impressed us as personalities in their own right with their own individual style of life. Disparity of endowment by no means precludes, although it may make more difficult, the kind of relationship which

I

should

call

mature; just as disparity of social back-

ground may be a hindrance but

is

not a bar to a happy

THE MATURE RELATIONSHIP marriage.

The

psychotherapist

in

is

an especially favourable

position to appreciate this, since he

enough

know

to get to

39

usually fortunate

is

intimately people of vastly different

backgrounds and endowments, both superior and inferior to his

own, and thus may have a wider

men

tances than do

fail

Much

in other professions.

intercourse with people

often

circle of close acquain-

is

to treat the people with

as individuals in their

of our daily

regulated by convention; and

own

right.

whom we

we

have dealings

The shopkeeper

is

the

shopkeeper, the doctor a doctor— not a person, but simply

an impersonal function or at the time.

We

skill

which we happen

do not know these people

and indeed might be surprised

if

we knew

need

to

as individuals,

the person

who

Even apparently intimate relaand many sexual encounters are examples of meetings in which the man is a man and the woman a woman, and neither knows more or wishes to know more about the other than that. But the lay

behind the

social role.

tionships can be of this impersonal kind;

psychotherapist

is

daily confronted with problems of rela-

tionship in which he and the patient face each other as people, and in which the social role

Any

of

psychotherapist with experience will

he has got to know a patient ments of recognition that

is

some new

by each other. veils of

in

no importance.

know

really well, there

that,

when

occur mo-

which both he and the patient

feel

some area of truth, has been seen In such moments the barriers are down, the insight,

concealment melt, and two people face each other

just as they are,

without fear and without pretence. There

no longer any question of superiority and inferiority; of dominance or submission; of intelligence or dullness; of givis

ing or taking. Rather as a personality,

is

there the recognition of the other

and therefore of

therefore of the other.

oneself: of oneself

and

CHAPTER

4

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY For

I

was:

I

was

alive:

I

could

my

which

being was derived.

my

could guard

feel: I

personality, the imprint of that mysterious unity s*r.

from

augustine

In the preceding chapter an attempt has been

made

lineate the characteristics of a mature relationship,

1

to de-

and the

hypothesis that the development of the individual and the

development of

his relationship with others are inseparably

linked has been propounded. out,

It

has already been pointed

and may here be emphasized, that such a concept of

maturity of personality and of interpersonal relationships

an

ment is

which

ideal

is

is

never wholly attained; for the develop-

of personality seems to be a continuous process

which

never completed. This

one reason why analytical treatment may go on

is

interminably: there

opment

is

is

no good reason

always proceeding. This

shall revert

when

is

to stop, since devel-

a subject to

which

I

discussing analysis as a maturing agent.

Ideals are always suspect,

and the blind pursuit of them if we are to have a

frequently leads to destruction. But

coherent scheme of the development of personality some

concept of maturity in

is

some sense "ideal"

of personality

must be.

A

is

inevitable, if

and

this

is

bound

to be

the postulate that the development

never complete

is

accepted, as

I

think

it

concept of maturity, however, presupposes a

40

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

41

concept of immaturity; and here we run into

difficulties.

The development

of personality must obviously have a be-

ginning as well as the end which

we have attempted

to

sketch above; but, unfortunately, the beginnings of person-

shrouded in obscurity. In dealing with adults the

ality are

distorting mirror of our subjective

to us only our

own

can protest, and

if

scheme may

reflect

back

psychopathology; but at least the patient our interpretations

fail

to

fit

his material

or illumine his difficulties he can rise up in wrath and

tell

us so. But, in considering the small child, subjective prej-

udice has no limit. Speculation can be unconfined, and the

baby

We

unable to argue with our concepts of his inner world.

is

may, perhaps, take comfort once again from physics.

It

has been necessary to construct mental pictures, imaginary

models of the atom in order to understand the behaviour of atoms.

No

one has ever seen an atom, but they can be

weighed, their behaviour can be predicted, and they can

even be transformed,

as

we know

to our cost. Various pic-

atom have been constructed, each incomplete, each imperfect, but each stimulating observation and re-

tures of the

search which has led to

new

discoveries and, correspond-

ingly, to modifications in the original picture.

the baby

is

The mind

of

atom

to

as inaccessible as the interior of the

some sort of scheme is necessary if make valid observations about infantile

direct observation; but

we

are to be able to

behaviour or to understand those persistent emotional actions in adult

seem

to be

life

grated.

belief

and with which

the beginning of against

call

re-

immature, and which

one foundation of neurotic symptoms.

The predominant share,

which we

itself,

its

I

which many workers appear

find myself in sympathy,

existence the child

harmonious and,

The assumption

is

is

is

to

that at

a unity, undivided

in a certain sense,

inte-

that, in the natural state of af-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

42

fairs,

the baby has no problems, and that

course of

its

culties arise.

only in the

is

development towards adulthood that the

We have

a state of maturity

now we

striving;

it

diffi-

already postulated an ideal final state,

which appears

to be the

end of human

postulate an ideal initial state, from

the child has necessarily to emerge.

tween the two which gives

which

the transition be-

It is

and

rise to difficulties

tribula-

tion. Just

where

this ideal state

some

controversy; and

is

to be found

is

a matter of

writers believe that the process of

birth necessarily terminates the idyllic unity of the child by

separating

it

from the mother within

whom

it

been contained. Others believe that the child it

needs

at

the breast of the mother, and that the satisfac-

which succeeds the

tion

all later satisfaction,

will

act of suckling

never again be attained

It is

amusing, and

is

the prototype of

so that the idyllic conflict-free state genital primacy

till

isfactory contrasexual partner has

ilar ideas

has hitherto finds all that

may be

and

a sat-

been won.*

instructive, to note that sim-

were current three centuries before Christ. 3

For Tao

is

itself

unconditioned, that

the always-so, the fixed, the

which

"is to itself"

cause "so." In the individual

it

is

and

for

no

the Uncarved

Block, the consciousness on which no impression

has been "notched," in the universe

it is

the Primal

Unity underlying apparent multiplicity. Nearest then to Tao

is

the infant.

""'Satisfaction at the breast

satisfaction" (Freud). 2

is

.

.

.

the unattainable prototype of every later

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

The author

adds in a footnote that the idea of the in-

fant being nearest to

become popular

till

Tao "was probably one

that did not

about 300 B.C. In the early centuries of

the Christian era, on the other hand,

womb

infant but the child in the

Even Freud and Rank have

We

43

that

it is

is

no longer the

the Taoist ideal."

their precursors.

are here dealing with a mythology, a hypothetical

construct; but such a construct

is

necessary

if

we

are to

understand the development of the individual, and, however reluctant

we may be

to adopt a theory

which cannot

be confirmed by direct observation, any scheme of devel-

opment demands not only an end but

Some

analysts

also a beginning.

would claim that the material produced

by adult patients in analysis

is

reliable

evidence of the ear-

liest stages

of infantile development; but such material, like

dreams,

susceptible of different interpretations

is

can be made to I

fit

different theoretical schemes.

and thus

We

must,

think, be content to accept the fact that our pictures are

only pictures; and eschew dogmatism in a

bound

to be speculative.

What we need

which

field

here

is

a

is

compar-

ative psychopathology: a serious study of all the varying

points of view propounded by writers in the development

of personality. This would be a formidable task and cannot

be attempted here. But even a brief examination of three different writers reveals a similarity of

conception which

is

interesting.

Freud 4 regarded instincts as being divided into two

groups— "erotic

instincts,

which

are always trying to collect

living substances together into ever larger unities,

and the

death instincts, which act against that tendency and

try to

bring living matter back into an inorganic condition.

The

cooperation and opposition of these two forces produces the

phenomena

of

life

to

which death puts an end." He

rec-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

44

ognized, and indeed stated, that this concept was a mythology. 5

"The

instincts are mythical beings, superb in their

At

indefiniteness."

sight

first

it

would appear that Freud

therefore postulated an innate state of conflict from the

beginning, a primal opposition between love and hate. But

same paper he

in a later passage in this

We

recognize two fundamental instincts, and

ascribe to each of

mingle in the is

says 6

them

its

vital process,

own aim. How how the death

the two instinct

pressed into the service of Eros, especially

it is

when

turned outwards in the form of aggressiveness—

these are problems tigation.

which

We

this prospect

tion whether

which remain

all

opens up before

lier state

do not seek

of things,

us.

when

question too must be

at

ques-

do not

whether the erotic

the reinstatement of

an

ear-

they strive towards the syn-

thesis of living substances into larger

And,

The

instincts without exception

possess a conservative character, instincts also

for future inves-

can go no further than the point

left

wholes— this

unanswered.

in another passage, Freud says: 7

We

may

picture an initial state of things by

supposing that the whole available energy of Eros, to

which we

bido, id

is

name

of Li-

present in the as yet undifferentiated ego-

and serves

which

shall henceforth give the

to neutralize the destructive impulses

are simultaneously present.

The views

of Melanie Klein are put forward by

Kyrle 8 later as follows:

Money-

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

The

in reality the

fact that

mother's breast,

sometimes

is

times frustrating, in splits.

later

But

this

itself

may not be

45

object, the

first

satisfying

and some-

tends to initiate such their only cause.

What

appear as the opposite emotions of protective

love and destructive hate ple representations of

groups of instincts. inate in

To

may be by no means simtwo externally opposing

a great extent they

one confused and violent

inherently unstable because in

threatens to destroy what

it

may

its

orig-

which

desire

very greed

is

it

would most ardently

preserve.

This seems to be an advance on Freud's conception. Fairbairn's views are

still

further advanced, as

I

see

it.

Fair-

bairn also conceives of an initial unity which he calls a "central ego." This

namic

structure,

is

9

"conceived

from which,

as

we

as a

primary and dy-

shall shortly see, the

other mental structures are subsequently derived." From this central ego first

he

is

derived a pair of opposites which Fairbairn at

and the "internal saboteur";

called the "libidinal ego"

later

changed the name of the

latter to "anti-libidinal

ego." In his paper on hysterical states Fairbairn gives a synopsis of his views in ality of It

series.

which he

says:

10

"The

pristine person-

the child consists of a unitary dynamic ego."

seems to

me

that these views are a developmental

Freud postulates a basic conflict with two instincts

fundamentally opposed to one another but with a remote possibility there

might be a unity prior to

Money-Kyrle goes a definite unity, albeit

Fairbairn

is

little

further

this.

and postulates a more

an extremely unstable one.

much more

specific,

and postulates a unity

of a very definite kind before his pair of opposites

is

split

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

46

off.

This

human

is,

nature propounded by

The views

apists.

the

esis,

beliefs

necessity o{ a lost

Age

men

men

many

of

primitive

peoples,

Gen-

attest

the

conceiving their development in terms of

of Innocence or perfect state— a condition prior

advisedly, for

we have

in the views of

other than psychother-

of Rousseau, the second chapter of

knowledge of good and

to the

theme

of course, a recurrent

it

evil.

say "the necessity"

human mind

seems a limitation of the

to think in terms of time;

of a scheme of

I

and

I

that

cannot conceive

human development which would not have and an end— even though both be-

a beginning, a middle,

ginning and end might

about them; that

which

still

have something hypothetical

be logical extensions of the theories

is,

are necessary to explain our observations of the here

and now — just

as the existence or,

existence of a distant star

which we

see from

it

is

it

may

be, the former

necessary to explain the light

this evening,

although so

many

years" intervene between the star and the earth that

have ceased to

"light it

The concept

of the death instinct

psychopathologists; but, whatever

is

rejected by most

we may think

of this, a

dichotomy between love and hate or good and bad

is

capable; and the psychotherapist, whatever school he

belong

to,

sion at

is

may

exist long ago.

ines-

may

bound to be faced with the problem of aggres-

some

stage in his thought.

schools of opinion.

One

There are two main

school, with a sombre regard for

the actual state of the world, propounds the view that aggression bly

is

bound

primary and instinctive; that to be hostile

men

are inescapa-

and destructive; and

that, while

love and affection are certainly preferable to hate and violence, the actions of less as

men

are as

much

influenced by the

by the more desirable group of propensities.

The

other school, more hopefully and, some would say,

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

47

too idealistically, proposes that aggression arises only in

men

sponse to frustration: and that

re-

only exhibit hate and

violence in so far as their loving impulses have been rejected or in

some way blocked. They recognize

being

is

some

frustrated to

that every

human

extent, and therefore manifests a

certain degree of aggression: but they feel that,

if

the devel-

opment stages of infancy and childhood were attended with that completeness of loving acceptance quires, aggressiveness

ideal circumstances,

which the child

would be reduced to a minimum and,

re-

in

would disappear altogether.

In considering this problem

am

I

struck by the follow-

ing considerations. Firstly, everyone agrees that the dichot-

omy between

loving and hating, between

"good" and

"bad" or "exciting" and "rejecting" objects occurs extremely early in the child's existence— so early that one

might be forgiven for saying that there was no objective

dence of

opment

it.

evi-

Secondly, the further back in infantile devel-

aggression

and destructive

it

is

more

traced the

terrifyingly violent

becomes; the findings of Melanie Klein

can only be matched by horror comics or Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Thirdly, although there horrors of ble,

it

is

no

limit to the sadistic

which supposedly adult human beings

are capa-

seems to be generally true under normal conditions

of civilization that children are

other than adults, and that adults

ambitions are

less aggressive in

not. Fourthly,

more

aggressive to each

who have

attained their

general than those

who have

dependence and aggression are indissolubly

linked; for to be dependent upon another person implies some degree of restriction by that person. Restriction, as one form of frustration, evokes aggression; and thus the child is inevitably bound to want to bite the hand that

feeds

it.

The hand

that rocks the cradle erects the play-pen;

and, whilst security

is

given on the one hand, restriction

is

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

48

imposed upon the other, with the

bound

to be ambivalent figures

result that all parents are

and to excite both love and

hatred in their offspring.

view of aggression

historical

If this

seen that

become

for separateness, for the

is

is

is

differen-

if

expect a millen-

every living being

ideally secure childhood; but there

to suppose that aggressive tensions

sibling

and should diminish

futile to

of brotherly love to occur, even

had an

both

necessary for devel-

achievement of

characteristic of immaturity

as self-realization proceeds. It

nium

is

from the parents. Competitive aggressiveness,

rivalry,

be

will

it

progressively less important as

development proceeds. Aggression

tiation

taken,

can be postulated that aggressiveness

it

innate and likely to

opment,

is

is

some reason

can be lessened

if

the

grosser inequalities

between peoples can be diminished. Ag-

gressiveness

at its

maximum when dependence

at

maximum;

inequality)

becomes

is

is

less

its

important

velopment, only so

till,

much

as

(and hence

development proceeds

at the point of

maximum

aggression exists as

is

it

de-

necessary

to maintain the personality as a separate entity.

Development parents,

the

less

and

it is

is

often impeded by the immaturity of

true to say that the less a parent

can he tolerate rebellion

in his children,

is

mature

and the more

does he require their subservience and their agreement with

him. Neurotic, insecure parents tend to have neurotic, secure children; and

it

is

largely because

in-

immature parents

cannot tolerate differentiation from themselves that this is so. But differentiation is essential for individuality; two people

who

share the same views, hold the same opinions, and

have the same

interests are

not differentiated but identified;

and the wish of parents that

them

is

a narcissistic

their children should be like

one. They want

to hold a mirror to

themselves and see that what they have created

is

both

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY good and

own

in their

wrong or dangerous

image.

The notion anyone

to oppose

that

else

49

it

is

is

always im-

easily

planted in the child, but the behaviour which such a notion

imposes

crippling to the personality as a whole, for indi-

is

viduality implies opposition It

and

differentiation.

has already been emphasized that,

if

men are to achieve

mature relationships on equal terms, submission to another person

as undesirable as

is

domination of that person. Unfor-

we have no word which

tunately,

way

describes the middle

between these two opposites— and most terms which we employ carry emotional overtones of condemnation.

opposition to others in adult is

necessary

life is

to be maintained as a separate entity;

if

A

certain

the personality

and

this

is

clearly

connected with the aggressive impulses which are characteristic

of childhood; but to use the word

*

'aggression" in con-

nexion with the dignity and independence of the mature personality

is

to create a

the personality

is

*

wrong impression. All

'aggressive"— but there

conveys the idea of aggression without concept It

I

am

is

affirmation of

no word which

hostility,

which

is

the

trying to convey.

seems to

me

that maturity

is

characterized by asser-

tion and affirmation of the personality without hostility and

without competitiveness, both of which characteristics are typical of childhood.

own

realizing his

The more

feel to

be competitive and the

others.

Men

of the

man

that of the

can make reason self

a

man

has succeeded in

personality, the less compulsion will

are very differently

less hostile will

he

he be to

endowed; and the maturity

with an I.Q. of 80 will be very different from

man

full

with an I.Q. of 140; but, provided each

use of his differing endowments, there

why each should not be

and with

his neighbour.

ness to the fact that

it

Common

is

is

no

equally at peace with him-

experience bears wit-

the people

who have

least

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

50

most

hostile,

own

who

are the

and that the best way of dealing with

a rebel

succeeded in realizing their

potentialities

him in a position of authority. Most psychotherapists are struck by the alternation of "love" and "hate" in the personality and put forward vary-

is

often to put

ing points of view about this dichotomy. Extreme oscilla-

tion between love and hate, especially of the same person, is

most important

characteristic of childhood, since the

lationship of childhood, that with the parents,

which the loved object

is

bound

ideally, cooperative rather

than

is,

one

in

and hence

to be restrictive,

also resented. In adult life the loved object

is

re-

at

any rate

and hence can

restrictive;

be loved unconditionally without the admixture of hate,

though every times he treat

is

him

man

bound

is

aware that

this

to treat his wife as a

is

an

ideal, since at

mother— and

she to

as a father.

Adults sometimes want to go back to childhood, and

most of those who do have repressed the pains of that period of their lives. after a return to school are it

is

their failure to attain

which prompts

vicissitudes

and

"Old boys" who hanker

indeed "boys" emotionally; and

any more mature relationship

their wish to regress. Nevertheless, small

children exert a fascination which psychologically interesting; and

I

is

both universal and

suggest that, under

some

circumstances, children do possess something valuable

which

is

in adult

lost as life,

they grow up, which

may never be

regained

and which therefore excites both nostalgia and

admiration in adults

who have

to

do with them.

Historically, our attitudes to children

have varied. At

times they have been treated like adults; at other times

secluded in nurseries.

We

are, perhaps, still inclined to the

sentimentalization of the child so characteristic of the late

Victorian era, which Freud disturbed by his emphasis on

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

51

infantile sexuality; and the financial success of campaigns on behalf of children demonstrates their superiority to adults

in emotional appeal. Children are far

and

gels,

their

"innocence"

is

from being

not what

little

an-

was thought to

it

be in pre-Freudian times; but, nevertheless, most adults have at times

been charmed by small children and have a

attitude towards them.

charm

their

At

It is

of interest to inquire in what

consists.

the very beginning of

the baby

life

cepted without conditions, and there that those

special

which

is

usually ac-

evidence

are not so accepted suffer in later

a result. Babies are

what they

expected to be anything

else.

are,

and whatever they do

Crumpled,

we have

red, vociferous,

to their mothers,

accepted. Although those of us

is

who cannot be mothers may never be neity, unaffectedness,

life as

and are not generally

and incontinent, they are yet wonderful

entire devotion,

is

now some

all at

and

joie

able to manifest this

times admired the spontade vivre of small children.

Children are also excessively demanding, require constant attention,

and

are far

from always exhibiting the

sort of

behaviour which we find endearing; but given the right

show a freedom of expression and an unnaturalness which we as adults may envy; for we

conditions, they affected

can no longer display

it.

This freedom of the child

course, only possible in a sheltered it

feels at ease.

spell,

who

and

it

is

The

environment

intrusion of a stranger

in

is,

of

which

may break

the

probably only parents or parent surrogates

see the child behaving in a completely uncomplicated

way. Children need a playground of emotional security

if

they are to be most surely themselves and behave in the unsophisticated, naive, and charming

manner which

elicits

our delight in them. If

I

am

right in thinking that

it

is

the spontaneity and

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

52

freedom which children can exhibit which constitutes their appeal,

it

is

not

difficult to see

why

there seems to be a

connexion, a similarity, between the two extremes of immaturity and maturity.

As

and freedom grows

the child develops,

its

sponta-

bound to come into conflict with parents and other authorities; and in its efforts to adapt, to be what it conceives others want it to be, to neity

fit

in with society,

lic state

started

less, for it is

must necessarily leave behind the

it

of completeness with which

and of which

traces

can

still

ditions suggested above. But, as lost

freedom of childhood

is

we

idyl-

postulate that

it

be seen under the con-

development proceeds, the

new freedom accepted child may once

replaced by the

of maturity, and the security of the

again be attained in the achievement of a fully adult relationship with others.

The wish to return to childhood is, in most instances, a regressive wish— a desire to abrogate adult responsibilities and to return to a state of dependence. But this wish may also have another aspect. To seek after the spontaneity and freedom of the secure child perhaps, be what

is

meant

is

a different matter

in the saying of Christ:

ye be converted and become as enter into the

Kingdom

little

"Except

children ye shall not

of heaven." This

to childishness, but rather

and may, 11

is

no

regression

an advance to such security and

freedom with our fellow-men that we can be whatever we are

and allow them

to be the same.

CHAPTER

5

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

The most

that

we can hope

to

do

is

good deal of

who

those

result of

that

it

and become

aldous huxley

completely himself.

A

train every

to

individual to realize all his potentialities

fruitless

controversy takes place between

consider that personality

is

predominantly the

environmental influences and those

is

1

who

believe

determined by the inherited genetic en-

chiefly

dowment. Psycho-analysis, while never denying that men differ innately,

much emphasis upon

has laid so

pothetical influences in early childhood that atrists

have

real or hy-

some psychi-

that the genetic factors in the personality

felt

were being undervalued, and that psycho-analysts assumed that a silk purse could be

made out

of every sow's ear

if

only the analysis were deep enough in extent and prolonged

enough

in time.

On

the other hand, genetic research

complicated, and has progressed so

little,

that

it

is

so

remains

impossible to say in the majority of cases of persons with psychiatric disorders

netic and as is

how

far the disorder

is

related to ge-

environmental causes. Diseases such

Huntington's chorea, in which a single dominant gene responsible, are the exception rather than the rule,

it is

generally agreed that the inheritance of most

characteristics in

far to

how

how

is

multifactorial.

One

has only to consider

very few instances of mental disorder one

53

and

human

is

justified

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

54

in advising against reproduction little

evidence there really

is

upon eugenic grounds; how

for the widespread belief that

how

certain types of neurosis are "constitutional" in origin;

inadequate our knowledge of what realize that,

may

is

actually inherited, to

however shaky our psycho-dynamic concepts knowledge is still shakier. A recent

be, our genetic

textbook 2 of psychiatry, of which one of the co-authors

is

the leading expert on psychiatric genetics in this country, states of the manic-depressive psychosis:

To summarize edge,

we may

the present state of our knowl-

say that the significance of hereditary

factors in the causation of manic-depressive psychoses

is

established.

The mode

of inheritance tends to

take a dominant form, but the gene-carriers develop

the psychosis in only a minority of cases.

The

effect

of non-genital factors has to be taken into account. Finally, the relative

importance of single

specific

and of multifactorial genes, and the degree of netical hetero-geneity, are

still

ge-

unclarified.

In other words, although "the significance of hereditary factors ...

impossible; disorder,

is

established," prediction of any accurate kind

one can

is

carry the gene without developing the

and no one can

tell

which of the

vast population

is likely to develop it. The presence of hemay have been demonstrated, but it seems

carrying the gene reditary factors

premature to say that their until

some

clearer statement

significance

has been established

can be made

as to their relative

importance compared with factors in the environment. It is

clear that

it is

easier to predict the character struc-

ture of a child reared in certain specific ways than foretell his future

from

his ancestry.

Even

if

both

it

is

to

his parents

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY and

are manic-depressive,

before them,

it

manic-depressive. But,

if

and

their parents,

would not be he

55

upon

safe to bet

their parents his

becoming

separated from his mother in

is

infancy and then persistently ill-treated,

if

he

is

reared in

and cowed and beaten, his adult character may be compounded of variable degrees of fear and hatred— and it is

fear

safe to say that

both those attributes

will exist as part of his

adult personality in extreme measure. Let us revert to the

textbook of psychiatry 3 and see what the authors have to say of schizophrenia:

Our knowledge

of the genetics of schizophrenia

provides the basis for some conclusions about prophylaxis.

These conclusions

however, best ex-

are,

pressed in terms of probabilities, and provide certainty in the individual case.

among

of schizophrenia

phrenics

is

.

.

.

The

no

incidence

the children of schizo-

between 10 and 20 per cent depending

on the type

So

of psychosis.

might be expected

it

that sterilizing schizophrenics would prevent the birth of a substantial later to

ever,

have a very low

as they

number

of persons destined

develop the disease. Schizophrenics, howfertility,

and, of such children

do have, only a small proportion are born

after the onset of the

schizophrenic has

psychosis— that

become

is,

after the

recognizable as such.

The

great majority of schizophrenics are the children of

non-schizophrenic parents.

And

zation of schizophrenics

almost useless as a pro-

is

in fact the sterili-

phylactic measure.

It

appears from these quotations that so

known about

little

is

yet

the genetics of even the major psychoses that

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

56

an overwhelming importance

to attribute

in the causation of

mental disorder

is

to genetic factors

as yet

premature; and,

although one may hope that future research in genetics may illumine the study of personality and mental disorder, the

present contribution of genetic knowledge small.

It

extremely

is

reasonable to argue the schizophrenic parents

is

are as likely to produce schizophrenic offspring because of

the way they treat their children, as because of the genes

which they transmit

to them;

and

gross instances of neglect

and ill-treatment of children are not infrequently the of schizophrenia in the mother. in

It is

result

generally agreed that

most cases of schizophrenia schizoid character

traits

can

be detected in the pre-psychotic personality; so that, even if

children are born prior to the onset of the psychosis,

is

reasonable to assume that there will have been a certain

lack of emotional

warmth and

security in their early envi-

ronment which may well predispose them a schizophrenic

breakdown

sent stage of knowledge

in early adult

it is

it

in their turn to life.

At our

pre-

premature to argue that either

the genetic factor or the effect of the early emotional en-

vironment

is

supreme, and

it is

are engaged in genetic research

unfortunate that those

have so

little

psycho-therapy, and that psychotherapists genetics.

The admirable

firm basis for research, factors

for a yard-stick

can be separated from other

little

of

by which genetic

factors, provides the

certainly as emotionally determined as

A

so

importance of genetics which

overwhelming importance o{ the ment.

experience in

know

desire for scientific certainty, for a

and

basis for a belief in the

who

is

is

the belief in the

early emotional environ-

further quotation from the

same textbook 4 may

serve to illustrate this. Referring to schizophrenia, the authors go on:

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

The races

57

universal incidence of the disease in

all

and cultures weighs heavily against any argu-

ments that environmental and psychological

factors

of any specific kind play an important part in causing the disease; and so does the experience of the

who

clinician tients

from

verse

family

sees identical clinical pictures in pa-

all

walks of

life

and from the most

di-

and educational backgrounds. The

dangers of being misled by facile optimism are ex-

adopted

known

by a patient

emplified

as a child

by a

to

woman

who was

us,

psychiatrist

and

brought up in the most favourable circumstances by

methods derived from

his mother's great experi-

He

ences in analytical psychopathology. less

developed

neverthe-

after puberty a simple schizophrenia,

changed school several times, and

finally

had

to be

admitted to a hospital for treatment.

But the

facts that schizophrenia

of universal occur-

is

rence and that the patients suffering from alike, are really

psychological factors. also very

much

it

are very

much

not evidence against environmental and

alike,

Men

suffering

behave

found daily anywhere in the world. posed, however, that anger

determined and not

from extreme anger are

in the

is

same way, and can be It is

hardly to be sup-

for this reason genetically

at all the result of

environmental and

psychological factors of a specific kind. Schizophrenia generally a chronic condition, whilst anger sitory;

but

Every

effort to

it is

equally a

human

is

usually tran-

reaction and not a disease.

prove that schizophrenia

sense that general paralysis of the insane far failed. It

is

is

surely time that this

is

is

a disease in the a disease has so

way of looking

at schizo-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

58

ophrenia was dropped, and that

was recognized

it

of reaction of the personality which

is

latent in

only comparatively recently that

It is

ognized that everyone

have an epileptic

fit

is

only

if

an

electric current

Other people may

leptazol.

still

react with a

others have

some people

taneously. Just as

stimulus to produce a

so

fit,

of us.

people will

is

applied to

an intravenous injection of

their brain or they are given

of various kinds, while

ail

mode

has been rec-

it

Some

liable to epilepsy.

as a

fit

fits

to

minor stimuli

apparently spon-

require a major physiological

some need

isolation

and mes-

caline to produce a schizophrenic condition.

Others may be so constituted that

it

requires only very

moderate adversity to cause their psyche to disintegrate; and, although twin studies show a very high incidence of

schizophrenia in uniovular partners, that 5

"some of the uniovular

it

is

also true to say

partners of schizophrenics not

only did not develop schizophrenia, but showed no note-

worthy psychiatric abnormality."

We

need to know not so much what causes schizophre-

nia but what prevents

and the ity

it.

similarity of the

of the

human

schizophrenia

is

The

universality of the disorder

symptoms

psyche; but this

attest the basic similar-

is

scarcely evidence that

dependent of any external

factors. In the

what age

example given above the authors do not

tell us at

the child was adopted.

though unproven,

It

is

a tenable,

hypothesis that the tendency to become schizophrenic related to emotional

damage

at

an early age— and the

environment of a child who has likely to

be adopted

is

un-

be favourable. Moreover, the authors show an ex-

cessive naivete

mother

later to

is

early

is

when

they assume that because the adopting

a psychiatrist with "great experience in analytical

psychopathology" the child will be brought up in "the most favourable circumstances." Even the least sophisticated of

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

59

became

psychotherapists will usually admit that he

inter-

own emotional

ested in psychotherapy because of his

prob-

lems; and that, although his psychopathological insight

have given him the a constructive way,

he

is

no

loves his children unthinkingly

them

book or

in

better equipped to bring up

who

children than a completely unsophisticated person

of consulting a

may

human problems

handle

ability to

and who would never dream

on how

a psychiatrist

to bring

up.

People are not attacked by schizophrenia enza; they regress or relapse into

it;

by

influ-

and, although

many

as

cases of the disorder appear to be irreversible, striking in-

stances of the temporary " recovery" of the most chronic cases are

known

to every psychiatrist.

No organic pathology

of a definite kind has ever been demonstrated in schizo-

phrenia; but

it

is

comparatively easy to demonstrate that

the schizophrenic condition

making that

is

is

improved by any attempt

a relationship with the patient.

The more

given to schizophrenics in hospital the

rated, the less ''schizophrenic,"

less deterio-

do they become; and the

increasing use of occupational therapy for patients

been mentally

ill

for

many

and appearance of those

the chronic wards of the mental hospitals.

The mute,

continent, cyanosed, oedematous schizophrenic in time

who have

years has resulted in a consid-

erable change in the behavior

he was, and

at

attention

rarer

is

in in-

than

he may disappear altogether. Schizo-

phrenia seems to be a failure of the personality to cohere as a

whole, and this failure of inner cohesion

the outer absence of relationships which feature of schizophrenia.

is

is

reflected in

the most striking

In his Introductory Lectures on

Psycho-Analysis Freud 6 says: "Already in 1908, K.

expressed the view after a discussion with characteristic of

me

dementia praecox (reckoned

Abraham

that the as

main

one of the

60

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

psychoses)

is

with libido

that in this disease the investments of objects

is

lacking."

It is

as

if

one was talking

to a series

of complexes or mental processes, not to a person; as

was presented with

if

one

the parts of the body dissected from

all

each other with no unity to bind them into a single body. Schizophrenia will continue to be a mystery so long as we to understand the forces

fail

make

for the

and the organization which

wholeness of personality.

and

ality

is

which 'personality"

in

lost.

The

similarity of schizophrenic is

good evidence

collective unconscious

functioning which

is

lack-

is

in the sense of individu-

'

and experience

seems to be an

which something

essentially negative condition in ing,

It

symptomatology

for the hypothesis of the

advanced by Jung;

a level of physical

characterized by the recurrence of cer-

tain basic archetypal themes

sonal psychological material

and

in

which individual

largely absent.

is

per-

Whatever

views are held on this point, there can be no disputing the fact that schizophrenics

improve

taken in them, and deteriorate it

if

if

a personal interest

they are

left

alone.

I

is

find

helpful to think of schizophrenia as the very opposite of

self-realization.

It

is

the negation of personality, the ab-

sence of individuality, the disintegration as opposed to the integration of the whole person.

It

has recently been sug-

gested that the comparative success of the insulin

coma

treatment of schizophrenia depends upon the fact that the treatment

is

many people

difficult to

administer and necessitates a good

giving a great deal of attention over a long

period to each patient. This to assume that the

most

may

well be true.

If it is

right

striking feature of schizophrenia

is

the emotional isolation of the patient, one would expect that any lation It

method of treatment which broke down

would be

this iso-

at least partially effective.

seems absurd that there should be any serious diver-

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

61

gence between geneticists and psychopathologists, for

development of personality

surely obvious that the

it

de-

is

pendent both on heredity and environment, and that seeking to evaluate which of the two factors

is

in

the most

is

important we are probably trying to over-simplify something which differ widely;

is

extremely complicated.

It is

tween them are inborn and constitutional; but how particular characteristic tal

men

clear that

and probable that many of the differences be-

conditioning and

any

far

the product of early environmen-

is

how

far

it is

inherited as such

is

quite

unknown. As an example, one might consider Jung's dichotomy of introversion— extraversion; a classification which has appeared even more valuable to psychologists and research workers than

to psychotherapists. Jung himself

seems to regard his types

as

predominantly constitutional

in origin, not the result of infantile emotional experience.

Fairbairn also recognizes two basic types schizoid

which he

and depressive, which he recognizes

ilar to Jung's;

as

calls

being sim-

but, although admitting hereditary factors,

attributes the differences

he

between the types predominantly

to infantile experience.

My own working hypothesis

is

that personality

genetically determined, but that the extent to

personality reaches maturity, fruition,

dependent upon environmental

largely

and

is

indeed

which each

realization

factors.

The

is

seed

contains the promise of the future plant, and nothing will

make oranges grow from plum pips; but the soil

may be

stones, or

plums from orange

and climate which encourage the orange

too exotic for the plum, and the orange will find

too rigorous conditions in which the plum It

seems to

me

inescapable that

different in constitution;

pacity of detachment

and

it

men

requires

and toleration

may

flourish.

are profoundly

an exceptional

ca-

for the psychotherapist

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

62

to treat people

who may be

temperament and outlook.

poles apart from himself in

It

is,

however, one of the

re-

wards of an exacting profession that the psychotherapist gets to

know

can be universal, yet chotherapist self

who

intimately people

are very differently con-

from himself; and although no one's sympathies

stituted

it

is

become wider

probable that those of the psyrather than narrower as he him-

matures.

The most extensive contemporary investigation human constitution has been that of Sheldon, whose 7

into

con-

mesomorphy, endomorphy, and ectomorphy with temperamental equivalents of somatotonia, viscero-

cepts of their

tonia,

and cerebrotonia are becoming increasingly widely

adopted. Sheldon and his associates have advanced the interesting suggestion that neurosis

struggle of people to be

which

their constitutional

cline them.

is

due to the unavailing

something different from that to

endowment would

are intimately related;

and anyone who has studied

his writ-

and those of Kretschmer 8 must be impressed with the

ings

case they put forward, although proof J.

naturally in-

Sheldon believes that physique and character

M. Tanner, 9 who

interesting article that there scientific

is

at present lacking.

has worked with Sheldon, admits in an is

not yet very

physique and character. But he goes on to

This admission places I

much confirmed

evidence in favour of a close relationship between

me

in a

say:

quandary because

think that the evidence of everyday

life is

strongly

in favour of the existence of a relationship,

and of

one very much of the sort described by Kretschmer and by Sheldon. I would go even further and say that

I

think that

I

see neurotic behaviour quite often

coming from an attempt

to

behave

in a fashion out

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

63

of character with what one might predict from the

physique.

neurotic

comes

I

think

traits

more

to act

more often than by chance

see

I

diminishing as the person concerned in accordance with theoretical

expectation.

The

men can

idea that

act, so to speak,

and that they become neurotic very valuable one. that a

man can

If this

if

hypothesis

also reach

some

out of character

they do so seems to is

accepted

it is

me

a

implied

sort of solution to his prob-

lems by learning more about himself and acting more in

accordance with his

own

view that the psyche

symptoms of,

is

nature. Jung has long held the

self-regulating,

and that neurotic

are not just unpleasant disturbances to be got rid

but are also attempts on the part of the psyche to restore

equilibrium.

The view

Tanner seems

One

of neurosis put forward above by

to contain the

of the

common

same

idea.

objections to psychodynamic con-

cepts of the causation of mental illness a given family,

is

the fact that, in

one child may develop such an

illness

whereas another does not. Assuming that the environment

and the type of upbringing has remained more or less constant, the argument is that genetic factors must be allimportant.

Of

course

it

can be argued that no two children

have exactly the same upbringing; that position ily is

important; that early experiences of feeding difficulties

may be same

in the fam-

decisive

family,

and quite

and

all

this

objection remains, and

different for

may be

it is

one

in the

true. Nevertheless, the

foolish to

of inherited constitution. But

two children

deny the importance

child's

meat may be an-

other child's poison, and, whereas parental attitudes and

temperaments may encourage the development of one child's personality, they

may

inhibit that of another child

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

64

who happens to be differently endowed. In psychotherapy we are constantly dealing with the interaction between child and parent; with a relative, not an absolute, situation. The same parents may take on one aspect when seen through the eyes of an introverted child, and quite another when described by his more extraverted brother; and both descriptions

may be "true"

in that

what

is

being described

is

not the actual personality of the parents, but the interaction between

them and the

child.

believe that

I

it

ulti-

is

mately possible to describe another person objectively, but only

if

one has been able to form with them that

ship which, in an earlier chapter,

relation-

have called mature; and,

I

by definition, such a relationship cannot exist between child

and parents while the child

is

When

upon them by

describe the restrictions imposed ents, the disapproval with

young.

still

which

patients

their par-

their struggle to assert

themselves was attended, the guilt with which their emergent sexuality was surrounded,

take their description as

I

being the truth for them but not

be seen by an outside observer. miles an hour

on the

may seem

at the

station platform, but

its

speed by

its

A

if I

which would

train travelling at

to be going fast

a train going at seventy miles

not by

as the truth

am

am

shall

I

its

it

in

be impressed

The same

train going

same speed can appear slow on one occasion,

another; and both descriptions of

fifty

standing

gradually passing

an hour

sluggishness.

if I

fast

on

behaviour are "true,"

relative to the different circumstances of the observer.

Any-

one who has worked

have

in a child-guidance clinic will

noticed that the parents as seen by the

staff

of the clinic

are very often extremely different from the parents as seen

by the child; and fathers and mothers staff

who

appear to the

to be no more than normally solicitous may be

garded by the child

as

monstrously restrictive.

re-

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

65

Analysts of every school are so often criticized for blaming the parents for subsequent neuroses of their children

that

it

worth labouring the point that the

is

development cannot be regarded objectively, but

strains of

only through the eyes of the patient whose

none the stituted,

less real

is

difficulties are

because another person, differently con-

might not have found them

Environment

which

and

stresses

is

difficulties at all.

both very important, and

why schemes

also relative—

of education, advice to parents, and

psychological textbooks are of comparatively

There seems to

me

to be only

one

can make about bringing up children— and that should be accepted as individuals in their their differences from their parents

what they

are,

one

is

own

that they

and

right

and each other tolerated

and encouraged. Children develop most are loved for

use.

little

definite statement

satisfactorily

if

they

not for what anyone thinks

they ought to be. It

seems probable that

this irrational acceptance, this

sense of being loved as a whole without reservation, basis of adult confidence in oneself as a person, satisfying relationships

harmony occurs ceptance.

its

human

the withdrawal of their protecting love.

may come and

to

helplessness,

conform with what

is

dis-

imagined lack of ac-

to the long period of

bound to have to parents want it to be—for to be anything

the child

the

also of

with others; and that neurotic

as a result of real or

Owing

and

is

else

And

is

it

thinks

to court

so the child

what it is not on the one hand, on the other.

to pretend to be

deny what

it is

These mechanisms of pretence and denial can be seen in every neurosis in the adult,

of neurosis

is

and

I

believe that the type

dependent upon which mechanism

is

predom-

inant.

The concepts

of pretence and denial are closely con-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

66

nected with introjection and projection; but whereas some psycho-analysts seem to regard the personality as largely

would incline to Jung's view that the child has a discrete personality of its own from the

built-up introjections,

beginning.

I

would therefore consider that both projection

and introjection

owing to

its

are defensive devices.

since

what

it

its

This

shift it

child,

personality happens to coincide ex-

comes

to believe

no child can be wholly

bound to like what

The young

weakness and dependence, cannot dare to be

entirely itself unless actly with

I

is

in this

from being simply

required of

it;

happy position,

itself

and, it

is

towards being more

thinks the parents want.

shift

away from the positive

state of being itself

involves a partial identification with the parents and an introjection of their attitudes;

becoming mature ality

and part of the process of

will consist of expelling

from the person-

those attitudes and modes of behaviour which have

been introjected

for reasons of security, but

which do not

necessarily belong to the person concerned as part of his

own

personality.

CHAPTER

6

AND

IDENTIFICATION

INTROJECTION Just as everything serves serves a purpose in the full

nature in

it.

This

some purpose or

scheme of

is

to

things

develop

other, so

and

his depth,

identification,

logical expressions, ing. It

is

in

common

susceptible of

or inborn

bowra

capacities so far as he possibly can.

The term

man

realizes his

with most psycho-

more than one mean-

therefore important to define the sense in

is

the word

used.

is

phenomenon

in

As

I

1

which

use the term, identification

which subject and object

is

a

are not differ-

entiated from each other, but assumed to be the same,

although the real situation

is

the chapter

in

"Definitions"

that they are different. In Psychological

Types,

Jung 2

says:

Identification

is

an estrangement of the subject

from himself in favour of an object in which the subject

is,

to a certain extent, disguised. For ex-

ample, identification with the father practically nifies

sig-

an adoption of the ways and manners of the

father, as

though the son were the same

as the fa-

ther and not a separate individual. Identification

is

distinguished from imitation by the fact that identification

tion

is

is

an unconscious imitation, whereas imita-

a conscious copying.

67

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

68

The view

that the acceptance of other people as differ-

ent, as existing as separate entities in their

criterion of a

vanced; and

son

it is

them.

I

is

characterized by a process whereby is

accompanied by

a progressive decrease in identification." This

is

an admi-

and succinct exposition of a basic psychological I

a

have already quoted Fairbairn's 3 statement that

"Normal development

rable

is

have an adult relationship with

progressive differentiation of the object

and

right,

clear that identification with another per-

a bar to being able to

is

own

mature relationship has already been ad-

truth;

believe that the decrease in identification and the

increase in differentiation proceeds as long as the personality

continues to develop. But Fairbairn omits to indicate

the fact that the later stages of development are also characterized by identifications of various kinds

which serve

a

positive function in the maturation of the personality; and,

although such identifications serve to evoke qualities

mained

latent,

may be

temporary, they

and thus play a valuable part

ment. Identification can also be regarded self-discovery,

and

is

may

which might otherwise have as

re-

in develop-

an aid to

not merely a state of infancy which

should be discarded.

The most tion

is

primitive and elementary type of identifica-

that of the infant with

its

mother; and

it

seems

justifiable to assume that the infant only gradually becomes

aware of himself

who

as

having a separate existence from her

so recently contained him. In the beginning

that the infant's world

is

a solipsistic one,

it

seems

and people are

treated entirely from the subjective point of view.

That

is,

the small child treats people as being there solely to minister to its

their

needs, and not at

all as

creatures having lives of

own. The baby usually goes to sleep when its needs and those who serve it may, from the baby's

are satisfied;

IDENTIFICATION

AND INTROJECTION

69

viewpoint, temporarily cease to exist, only to be raised again

when hunger demands their revival. We cannot know exactly how long or needed person persists after satisfying the baby's need; but

it

has

the image of a loved

fulfilled its

modern opinion

the time-span increases with age.

We

know

function of

suggests that

that in early

childhood any prolonged absence of the mother

mean her total disappearance. The small child cannot conceive ued existence it.

if

she

is

is

likely to

of a person's contin-

not there in the

flesh to substantiate

Bowlby, 4 for instance, distinguishes these main phases

in the

development of the

child's capacity for

human

rela-

tionships:

In broad outline, the following are the most important: (a)

The phase

during which the infant

is

in the

course of establishing a relation with a clearly iden-

person— his mother; this by five or six months of age. tified

(b)

The phase

is

normally achieved

during which he needs her as an

ever-present companion; this usually continues until

about his third birthday. (c)

The phase during which he

is

becoming able

to maintain a relationship with her in her absence.

During the fourth and

fifth years

such a relationship

can only be maintained in favourable circumstances

and

for a

few days or weeks

at a time; after

seven

or eight the relationship can be maintained, though

not without

One can scious of the

strain, for periods of a year or

speculate as to

mother

how

as a separate

more.

the infant becomes con-

person at

all. Is it

by the

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

70

discovery of the boundaries of divides itself from

need

not immediately

is

an object other than

its

own body

environment? Or

its

satisfied,

itself

is

is

it

that the baby

when

that,

some vague concept

necessary to satisfy

a

that

arises?

it

Perhaps both these mechanisms operate together. But we

can perhaps disagree with Bowlby's phraseology delineation.

The

infant

recurrently recognized

may

is

seems

it

"clearly identified." In adult

not rare to meet neurotics

who

still

cannot

distin-

guish between what they feel and what their mother

and who

attribute to their

first

establish a relationship with a

person— his mother; but

highly doubtful whether she life it is

in his

feels,

mothers thoughts and even bodily

sensations which, to an outside observer, have nothing to

do with anyone but themselves. The infant can hardly be expected to identify anyone else

ment even really

clearly. It

is

an achieve-

same person again; and

to recognize the

this

may

be a recognition of expected pleasure— not a response

who is identified as such. know and expect that the love of a small child is We 'cupboard" love; and that we who look after it are going

to a person

4

to be treated not as people with lives of our

who

as slaves

are there to serve the child,

"loved" in so far as

we

far as

refuse them.

omnipotence

fantile

we

fulfil its

The

its

and who

will

be

wishes, and "hated" in so

psycho-analytic concept of in-

refers to the

of feeling of the infant in

be centred round

own, but simply

supposed subjective state

which the whole world seems

wishes and subservient to

Absolute dependence does indeed arouse the

its

to

desires.

maximum

re-

sponse from others: and the complete helplessness of the infant

is

its

most powerful weapon.

It

has only to cry and

and

ecstatic voices will

willing hands will tend

it;

commend

and comforting shoulders

port

it.

it;

It is

to belch,

to smile,

will sup-

not surprising that the external fact of help-

IDENTIFICATION

lessness

matched by an

is

AND INTROJECTION

71

internal sense of omnipotence,

and that these two apparent incompatibles march thus hand in hand.

In adult

life it is

always the most helpless patients

make the most demands upon

who

the therapist; and such pa-

tients are unconscious of the fact that they treat people as

slaves

with

who

them

are there to serve

whom

rather than as people

they could have cooperative relationships on

equal terms.

It

is

because they

from being on

feel so far

demanding—for they do

equal terms that they can be so

not believe that they have anything to give to anyone, and

and not

so other people are treated simply as givers ceivers,

with a consequent absence of any reciprocal

tionship.

Love

is

who have been

conceived

as a

deprived of

one has nothing to

is

if

rela-

by those

traffic

one believes that

the only possible relationship

give,

with another person

one-way

and,

it:

as re-

of passive

that

receptivity— in

psycho-analytic terminology, the early oral stage of devel-

opment.

The

hypothesis seems inescapable that the infant's

world consists originally simply of

from the mother cover

it,

who

tends

nor from the

milk which

air

it,

itself; itself

not separated

nor from the blankets which

which

it

breathes, nor from the

imbibes. In the beginning was the All and

it

Everything, the wholeness which comes from total depen-

dence, the wholeness which tion that, since every desire

is

only broken by the realiza-

is

not immediately

fulfilled,

there must be something external to the infant,

who

is

therefore not whole but incomplete.

The Buddhist

ideal of

freedom from desire

for this original wholeness: since only

desire

is

one

free

wants anything

is

if

from dependence; only

one complete

one if

is is

a search

free

from

one no longer

in oneself. In schizophrenia

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

72

we can sometimes fant

what

this solipsistic

world of the

who had "the

Jung quotes a patient

like.

is

see

5

in-

magnifi-

cent idea that the world was his picture-book, the pages of

which he could turn at will. The proof was quite simple: he had only to turn round, and there was a new page for

him

A

is omnipotence in all its pristine glory. mine used to represent himself by drawing a He had the fantasy of the circle expanding until it

to see." This

patient of

circle.

included the whole world, so that he and the whole world

would be

who was

finally indistinguishable.

He was

a schizophrenic

quite incompetent to deal with the world in fact,

and whose helplessness

in the face of reality

was accurately

balanced by the omnipotence which existed in his inner world of fantasy. It

is

only gradually that the small child begins to be

aware of himself

as a separate entity,

and

at the

to be aware of other people as separate also.

same time

It is

probably

that this loss of the original or primary identification with

the mother takes place partly by means of the child becoming orientated in space through the discovery of the boundaries of

there

is

its

own

both a

body. self

To

and a

kick an object

is

to discover that

not-self. Frustration

is

therefore

important in self-discovery— the frustration of finding that all

wants are not immediately

ery that

one

is

the discov-

satisfied leads to

dependent upon others: the frustration of

finding intransigent objects to the realization that one has

physical limitations and that there

which one is

is

is

an external world with

not coexistent, and over which one's power

limited.

This realization of separateness leads, iety

and

fear; for, in

I

believe, to anx-

the infant, this realization

is

necessarily

attended by the simultaneous realization of dependence and helplessness.

The

small child

who becomes

increasingly

IDENTIFICATION aware of

its

AND INTROJECTION

separate existence from the mother

to realize the

73

is

also liable

dangers attendant upon her departure. Parents

sometimes notice that a child, hitherto secure, may begin

They wonder what they have done wrong: but often there is no particular external reason to account for the change. The anxiety which the child exhibits often goes hand in hand with an increase in to exhibit anxiety about being

aggressive

left.

behaviour— the tempers which

the fourth and

years

fifth

when

that

its

One way

in

of looking at

to say that, unconsciously,

is

common

the beginnings of indepen-

dence make themselves manifest. the child's anxiety

are so

it

was

afraid

aggression had destroyed the parents; and this would

perhaps be the orthodox psycho-analytic view.

It is

also of

value to look upon the anxiety as being related to the be-

ginning of the child's emergence as a separate individual. It

by means of

is

parents— and so that

is

aggression that

its

it

it

separates from the

indeed the fear caused by aggression

is

the cause of the child's anxiety: but this fear

that of being

is

more

abandoned than that the parents have been

destroyed.

The more a will of her

the mother becomes a separate person with

own, not merely a source of supply

at will, the greater

is

the danger that she will disregard the

needs or wishes of the child.

If

child and

identified, the

mother

and therefore

partly subservient to

mother's separateness

is

is

life is

mother

are

still

treated by the child as part of itself its will:

but directly the

realized her necessary support

become dubious. That such an adult

to be tapped

identification

can

must

persist into

attested by the almost daily clinical experience

of seeing daughters

roof to get married.

who are In many

about to leave the maternal instances the strong link be-

tween mother and daughter has been completely unconscious until the time of separation draws near.

The daughter

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

74

has considered the mother so so

little as

of

life

much

as part of herself

and

a separate person that she has never conceived

without her: and the realization that she

is

hence-

forward to be without her mother's support gives

rise to

fear.

Many mothers

encourage

this

unconsciousness on the

part of their children by always doing everything for them,

and thus never allowing the children to develop

own

right.

The mother

then treating the child merely

is

an extension of her own personality and not its

own right— and

identity shall

in their

as a

as

person in

so herself ensures that the unconscious

In such cases the dependence of

persist.

mother upon daughter

is

as great as that of

daughter upon

mother: and each fears abandonment by the other.

Throughout ings

adhered in

this

need each other

book the hypothesis that human befor their own development has been

and the idea that maturity

to;

independence

as in the

consists not so

much

achievement of a mature

tionship with others has been underlined.

It

rela-

will therefore

no one who has so far followed my argument that I consider the fear of abandonment to be one of the basic fears of mankind. Even in adult life we are inescapably dependent upon each other for our mental health; and no surprise

one can accept emotional ality intact.

'To

feel

isolation

and retain

his person-

completely alone and isolated leads

to mental disintegration just as physical starvation leads to

death." 6

It is

not therefore surprising that the child dreads

the loss of those upon

whom

he

is

dependent— not only

because of his physical needs, but also because the preservation of the developing structure of his personality de-

pends upon a sustained relationship with people him. That

disintegration of personality

relationships

march together can be

and

who

accept

loss of object-

clearly seen in schizo-

AND INTROJECTION

IDENTIFICATION phrenia: and the fear of

75

abandonment can be taken

as

being

an attempt

to re-

in essence equivalent to the fear of insanity.

The

fear of being

abandoned

leads to

and to an introjection of

identify with the parents

their

standards and attitudes— in other words, to the establish'

ment

of that internal and primitive type of conscience

which psycho-analysis has made familiar as the super-ego. The small baby which is unconscious of its separateness

may

both omnipotent and secure so long

feel

helplessness

is

as

begins to be aware of

its

itself as a

it

is

needs. But directly

it

separate individual, and

adults are not so immediately ready to serve

expedient for the child to

try

actual

whom

complete and the adults with

surrounded minister at once to

its

it,

it

becomes

and please the adults

for fear

may abandon it or punish it. When in Rome it to do as the Romans do, or one may arouse their

that they is

safer

wrath: and

it

is

therefore expedient to assume the aspect,

and mimic the behaviour, of those upon whose benevolence one's security depends.

One

way, therefore, of dealing with the anxiety which

the loss of primary identification inevitably entails troject the standards

and thus to titudes child:

may

them. Such standards and

at-

coincide with the inherited disposition of the

and there are many

and

their forefathers

men who

go through

persist in the

mode

life

content

of existence

have handed down to them. Others

are destined to find their traditions

to in-

attitudes of the parental figures

re-identify with

to hold the beliefs

which

and

is

own

way; to rebel against the

which have been transmitted

to them; to suffer

anxiety and the fear which attends separation from the parents; and, finally, to

point of view. Such

win

men

their

way to a new individual whose genetic endow-

are those

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

76

ment makes

own

of their

impossible for

it

them

to preserve the integrity

personalities and, at the

same time, preserve

the parental attitudes which they have introjected. are compelled to fight their

own

individual

way of

life;

which they have been

way

to freedom; to find their

and to discard the reared,

traditions in

for such people

becoming conscious

realization consists partly in

They

self-

and

of,

subsequently discarding, introjected parental attitudes: and the earlier some degree of emotional security

is

attained,

the sooner will this discarding take place. Emotional security

more

is

likely to

be attained in a household in which

the parents are secure enough to be able to tolerate

differ-

ence from themselves, and mature enough to make

who

tionships with children

are not just little

themselves, but individuals in their

people

who

rela-

models of

own right. It is only who have to insist their own tastes and

themselves need reassurance

that those around

them conform

to

opinions; the ability to tolerate difference from oneself

good

test of maturity.

when

interests

dren

and

who

a

Parents often treat children not as

discrete entities but as parts of themselves,

turbed

is

and become

dis-

they find that their children have separate identities. It

most

are

is

my

impression that the chil-

identified with their parents are those

whose upbringing has been most fraught with anxiety; and, if they become patients in adult life, one can observe with what

irrational fear

tal

standards

to

emerge and

is

even the smallest departure from paren-

attended.

To

see the true personality trying

to cast off identifications

which have been

on grounds of security is rewarding, and it is a process which is accompanied by a new firmness and certainty on the part o{ the patient. But the preliminary at-

made

solely

tempts are

like

watching a timorous bather

to dive into the water.

Many

who

is

frightened

testings of the temperature,

IDENTIFICATION

many

AND INTROJECTION

77

cautious extensions of the limbs, are necessary before

the final plunge

is

taken.

This type of identification with parents

ultimately

is

based upon the primitive morality of the super-ego, which is

the morality of fear. "I must be the same as they are or

they will be angry"

what parents approve

is

the operative phrase.

and "bad"

of,

is

"Good"

what they

is

dislike;

and, naturally, they like themselves and their opinions.

Most adults exhibit modes of behaviour which are not based upon reason or upon conscious choice, but upon parental attitudes

which were introjected

in childhood

and which

have never been discarded even though they may be inappropriate to present conditions. Super-ego standards are rigid,

unrelated to the present, and emotionally defended.

Reasoned argument makes but ions

little

impression upon opin-

and modes of behaviour which cannot be altered with-

out making the person concerned feel like a threatened child.

We

must

all

be familiar with people

pelled to be perpetually busy;

who cannot

uncomfortable unless they are

*

who

rest

are

com-

and who

'doing something."

feel

Such

people have taken into their psychic structure the notion that idleness sult that

is

"bad" and

activity

is

"good"; with the

re-

they will engage in any activity, however useless,

rather than incur the inner reproach of laziness

ments them

if

they

which

tor-

sit still.

Part of the process of self-realization consists, therefore, in discarding introjected beliefs

and

attitudes

to be foreign to the developing personality:

which prove and

this

may

be attended by considerable anxiety and depression. In adolescence, for example, a

new

piece of self-discovery

is

of-

ten initiated by depression. Adolescents are notoriously

moody, and often

their

fits

of depression express their de-

spair at finding that they are not

"good"

in the sense that

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

78

they do not correspond to what they believe their parents

expect of them, and are not just pocket editions of the parental models.

Becoming free of identification with others completed; and most of us remain to some extent

is

never

prisoners

of our family background, of our social class, or of our nationality.

The

club, the old boys' reunion, the perpetuation

of hierarchical social structure, are mechanisms of reassur-

What

ance.

a sense of solidarity,

mutual grandeur,

The most

dinner!

is

to be

found

what an affirmation of at,

for instance, a City

platitudinous speech

is

acceptable in the

alcoholic haze of good fellowship, and everything conspires to

make

us feel that

we

are all jolly

of course, for the waiters).

The

good fellows (except,

sense of mutual support

which men gain from such gatherings

is

matched by the

and the

loss of their individual characteristics,

subtleties of

personality disappear in the simplicities of the crowd.

So

far

I

have attempted to discuss identification from

the negative point of view; but, as

I

pointed out at the

beginning of this chapter, identification may also serve a positive function in the

searching for his

may need

own

development of the personality. In

individuality the developing person

to discard his identifications with those

whom he

has been dependent, and from

to differ.

He who

with people

will also,

upon

whom he has feared

however, tend to identify himself

appeal to

him and who may

play a valu-

able role in his development by evoking aspects of his personality

which might otherwise

lie latent.

CHAPTER

7

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION Homo

sum; humani

nihil

a

me alienum

puto.

TERENCE

In the previous chapter

we

discussed the importance of rid-

ding the personality of introjected attitudes and beliefs

which did not belong

to

it,

but which had been taken over

wholesale from parents and other people upon whose goodwill the child

depended.

site process: that

characteristics

in

must now consider the oppo-

which

Whereas

to terms with

introjection

is

in the

the phe-

characteristics belonging to others are

attributed to oneself, projection

which

coming

which have been denied and rejected

course of development.

nomenon

We

of recognizing and

is

the

phenomenon

in

characteristics belonging to oneself are attributed to

others. In the search for one's

own

individuality

it

is

as

important to recognize those parts of oneself which are projected

upon others

as to discard those parts of others

which

have been taken into oneself.

We its

have already postulated that the

dependence upon parental approval,

itself

upon those

whom

it

child, because of strives to

has to please. This

is

model

a shift of

the child's personality towards that of the parents, or to-

wards what the child comes to believe that the parents are

demanding of

it.

At

the same time there will be a shift

79

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

80

away from whatever seems to displease the parents; an attempt to deny and expel what they condemn, or what cannot be brought into the relationship with them. The child comes, therefore, to regard certain aspects of himself

as

dan-

gerous or unpleasant, and so denies them. But these same characteristics,

to

later

meets them in other people,

will

tend to attribute to others,

him; and he

will disturb

and

when he

condemn

in

them, that which he cannot accept in

himself.

The most extreme form

of this type of projection

is

found in the paranoid psychoses, in which the patient believes himself to be the

The

persecution.

delusional systems

monotonously

tients exhibit are

variations

innocent victim of an unprovoked

upon the same

which paranoid pa-

similar, since they are but

basic themes; themes

which stem

from the sexual and aggressive impulses which the subject has been unable to accept himself, and which he therefore

upon others. It is "they"— the others— who fill mind with obscenities and excite peculiar sensations in

his

who

are

projects

body, not he

who

has erotic feelings.

plotting to destroy him, not he

fellow-men.

It is

who

"they"

It is

his

hates and shuns his

"their" voices which whisper abuse in his

ear at night, not his

own

ment him. That which

thoughts and fantasies which

tor-

completely

dis-

is

unacceptable

is

owned, but found to be projected upon other people. The complete projection of the "bad" in such instances is a measure of the basic weakness and helplessness o{ the patient. It

is

only those

who

are emotionally extremely de-

pendent who

cannot afford to admit any of those they believed as children to be rewhich characteristics garded as "bad" by the parents, and which might, there-

fore,

if

admitted, threaten their security.

that those

who

later

The

observation

develop schizophrenia have often been

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION

81

unusually compliant, ''good" children supports this concep-

But in order to see

this type of projection in action

we need not examine the

psychotic, nor even penetrate the

tion.

psychotherapist's consulting-room; our daily experience will furnish a plenitude of examples.

Only

a very moderate acquaintance with psychology

required to recognize that

men

which they cannot accept

that

own unadmitted

is

constantly deplore in others

and that

in themselves,

it

inferiorities

which

violent condemnation.

And

so

find that

the latent homosexual

who

fulminates against homosexu-

their

is

ality,

it

is

generally

and the man who cannot come to terms with

violent impulses

the

we

excite their most

who demands

woman who

is

his

own

the revival of flogging.

It is

unable to accept her

own dependence

and helplessness who cannot stand babies: and the denunciations of the militant atheist reveal

how

powerfully he

has been affected by the religion against which he inveighs.

A

study of those people

warding

if

and hence unadmitted,

The

one most

parts of one's

bond which

peculiar

often been described.

dislikes

more

if

likely to

own

is

a re-

personality.

links together

Two men who

closer emotionally than

ultimately

whom

painful task; for such a study reveals projected,

enemies has

detest each other are

they were politely detached, and

make

a relationship. This

an

is

expression of the fact that hatred— like love— invariably

contains a subjective element, and that there in

common between two

people

who

something

is

hate each other; for

they hate that in themselves which the other appears to personify.

The

principle that

some unadmitted

what we most condemn

part of ourselves

accepted. Accepting a principle tually

coming

is,

is

in others

is

becoming generally

however, easy: but ac-

to terms with infantile aggression

and sexu-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

82

ality

which has been repressed

is

a painful

what

is

projected

is

is

difficult

and anxiety. To

process, attended by considerable fear

similate

and

as difficult as to discard

as-

what

introjected; and, in the psychotherapeutic endeavour,

perhaps even more time will generally be spent in the

mer than

in the latter process.

Unadmitted

for-

parts of the

personality generally display three characteristic features.

They tend infantile,

to be projected

upon other people, they remain

and they cause disturbance

in the

form of symp-

toms. Their projection upon others has been discussed

above, but the other two features require further

clarifica-

tion. It is

a remarkable

remain

and interesting

fact that parts of the

which have been disowned

personality

in early

childhood

and even the experienced psychotherapist

infantile;

may sometimes be

surprised by the appearance, in an ap-

parently mature adult, of beliefs and attitudes appropriate to early childhood.

adult personality acteristics

ued to

—a

It

is

as

if

a child coexisted with the

whose

child, moreover,

earliest char-

had been accurately preserved and who contin-

feel

and think

in exactly the

same way

as in times

long past.

Many

estimable people are, for example, plagued with

sexual fantasies and compulsions of an infantile, primitive

kind which occasion them considerable

distress

and which

are admitted to the psychotherapist only with the greatest difficulty. if

But

if

such fantasies are

fully

and honestly faced,

they are accepted to such an extent that they can be

completely revealed to another person, their compulsive quality disappears,

and the energy with which they are

in-

vested becomes available to the personality as a whole. That

which cannot be

fully

admitted to another person

is

that

which cannot be completely accepted by the individual

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION himself; that self

is

which

is

83

unacceptable to the individual him-

inadmissible to another person.

It

is

commonly

be-

what can be admitted to oneself in the privacy of one's own solitude has been accepted: and that it is only lieved that

material of

which

it is

which the individual

is

completely unconscious

hard for him to tolerate. But the

difficulty

which

people experience in revealing disturbing fantasies, which

may be

fully conscious, indicates that there

in fact a vast

is

between admitting something to oneself and

difference

tually telling

someone

else

earlier chapters of this

about

and, as

it;

is

ac-

implied in

book, the maturing process, which

includes the acceptance of the rejected, infantile parts of

the personality, cannot take place in isolation. This

is,

I

believe, the raison d'etre of the psychotherapeutic process,

which ultimately depends upon the relationship formed between patient and therapist. That the unadmitted, rejected

parts of the personality

which cause symptoms is generally recognized; some concept of self-realization, it is

are those

but, in the absence of

hard to see why this should be

so.

Freud gave us the valu-

able observations of "repetition-compulsion" and of the '

'return of the repressed"— and every psychotherapist

surely recognize that

to persist

demand

and repeat

must

what has been rejected tends not only itself in its infantile

form, but also to

recognition in the form of symptoms. Rejected parts

of the personality are like children clamouring to be let into a room: they will continue to cause a disturbance until they are admitted.

It is as if

even the most

the personality, the aspects of which to rid ourselves, were

demanded

endowed with

a

infantile aspects of

we should most

that they too should seek expression. Personality

ultimately seeks realization as a whole, and,

the ego

like

dynamic energy which

may

seek to reject that which

it

however much

finds

hard to

tol-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

84

erate, the rejected parts will

make

where, whether as symptoms or

The

people.

final

aim

is

their appearance some-

as projections

upon other

the realization of the total person-

ality.

This chapter

is

headed "Projection and Dissociation"

rather than "Projection and Repression" because

need of

a

word which

will express the rejection

ting off of mental contents, but

which does not

I

feel the

and

split-

necessarily

imply that such contents are unconscious. Repression

is,

by

definition, a process in

which mental contents become un-

conscious; and what

repressed can only be disinterred by

is

the use of one or other specialized techniques. There are,

however, mental contents

which

— thoughts,

feelings, fantasies

are felt to be alien to the personality, but

which

are

not themselves deeply unconscious, although they may be

masking other material which

is.

The

sexual fantasies

luded to above come into such a category, and so do obsessional thoughts.

The term

both such phenomena repression,

and

I

as these,

propose to use

contents which are

felt

it

al-

many

dissociation can include

and

also the

concept of

as referring to all

mental

to be alien to the personality,

whether conscious or unconscious. Why is it that the mental contents which tend to be dissociated,

and hence projected,

chiefly consist of sexual

and aggressive impulses? In the next chapter I hope to show that such contents are by no means the only ones to be projected, but it is in general true that the aspects of themselves

which

in this civilization people find hardest to con-

front are connected with sexuality and the drive for power.

Jung,

2

in

The Undiscovered

Self, talks

of "the world of un-

conscious instinct dominated by sexuality and the power drive (or self-assertion), corresponding to the twin moral

concepts of Saint Augustine: concupiscentia and superbia.

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION

The

85

clash between these two fundamental instincts (pres-

ervation of the species and self-preservation)

the source

is

of numerous conflicts."

The

urge to power and the sexual instinct are also those

which cannot

aspects of the personality

find expression in

childhood and which necessitate conflict with the parents.

So long

the parents are in power, so long

as

the child's

is

assertion of itself incomplete: so long as the parents are

principal love-objects, so long

is

the expression of

its

its

sex-

uality impaired.

The

hypothesis has been advanced in an earlier chapter

that dependence

since every child

every child

is

and aggression is

are linked together: and,

necessarily dependent,

inevitably aggressive.

If

lish itself as a separate personality,

should oppose loving they

it

follows that

the child

it

is

is

to estab-

necessary that

it

the parents, however tolerant and

itself to

may be— or

else the child

remains identified

with the parents, a mere reflection of the parental psychology.

Some

parents seldom oppose their children at

give the children everything that they stantly at their

beck and

call,

demand,

and subordinate

all.

They

are con-

their

own

personal lives completely to the wishes of the children.

Such

whom

they

parents are depriving their children of anyone

can legitimately oppose, and by doing so are preventing their development.

It is

who

in;

at

once gives

tyrant or else

aggressive feelings.

who never to a

life

and so the child either

becomes

A

guilty about his perfectly

mother who

asserts herself,

of her

own

is,

someone becomes a

impossible to fight with

is

normal

always self-sacrificing,

and who has given up any claim

by her example, likely to create the

impression in her children that to oppose anyone else

is

wrong: and this may result in their disowning and trying to split off

from their personalities those aggressive impulses

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

86

which should play

The

a valuable part in their development.

old-fashioned "progressive" school

on the same grounds.

impossible since everything for individual

tolerated, there

development than

as well as pupils

mean

is

have their

always giving in to

fact that rebelliousness

one

in

criticized

is

is

scope

less

which teachers

in

Loving a child does not

rights.

it,

may be

which rebellion

In a regime in

but does imply accepting the

and opposition are

a necessary

and

valuable part of growing up. Children need to fight with their parents, is

and

for the parents to refuse ever to fight

to treat the child as less than a person

maintain a relationship with

which the

it.

One

child's aggressive feelings

ated and partially denied

is

for

and to

back

fail

to

way, therefore, in

may become

dissoci-

to be faced with a parent

it

who always gives in: another is for it to confront a parent who never does so. The tyrannical parent is perhaps less frequent than he was; and for many educated people the problem is rather that of exerting authority than that of tempering is

clear that a child

and so

terrified of its parents that

In such circumstances the child

expression to

its

it.

But

it

can be cowed by an excess of authority,

aggressive feelings,

also inhibited. Since

dare not oppose them.

it is

equally unable to give

and

its

development

is

any show of aggression on the part of

the child results in punishment,

it is

natural that

it

should

seek to deny feelings which arouse parental wrath and therefore induce insecurity. Aggression ciated because a parent

is

too compliant: the ideal

may

thus be disso-

too domineering or because he is

balance between two opposites. Since this balance to attain,

it

sive feelings

is

is

to be found, as always, in the

not surprising that, in

have been subjected

many

is

hard

people, aggres-

to dissociation

and may

give rise to neurotic symptoms. Indeed, the efforts of a con-

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION body of psychopathologists have

siderable

87

for

some time

been directed much more to the understanding of aggressive impulses within the personality than to the study of sexuality. It is

become

easy to see

how

its

personality in the ways

attempted to outline. Perhaps

it is

became

may

its

how,

come

in

to be

no longer condemn the manifestations of

found that they did in

and

have

equipment of every educated

fantile sexuality in their children in the

ality

also

I

Since the concepts of psycho-analysis

part of the mental

adult, parents

easy to see

less

these days of enlightenment, sexuality felt as partially alien.

may

the child's aggressive impulses

dissociated from

fin-de-siecle

way

Vienna.

offshoots remain a major

in

in-

which Freud

And

yet sexu-

and potent source of

neurotic conflict; and such evidence as there

is

seems to

indicate that children brought up in complete sexual free-

dom

suffer

the same difficulties at adolescence as their more

conventionally reared contemporaries. that

It

seems probable

some degree of guilt and anxiety about sexuality is however tolerant the upbringing, it is gen-

inevitable: for,

erally impossible for sexual impulses to find full satisfaction

within the still

home

circle.

So long

as

the child's behaviour

is

predominantly under parental control, whether from

without, by the actual parents, or from within, by the superego, so long will sexuality be to

of the personality; for

it is

some extent a rejected part which cannot be expressed between parent and child,

a part

in actual behaviour, at least

without the parent-child relationship being damaged. It is

worth considering why incest excites universal con-

demnation.

It is

chiatrists will

not particularly uncommon, and most psy-

have seen a number of examples.

It

is

my

impression that an incestuous relationship with a parent usually harmful to a child,

is

though incest with a brother or

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

88

sister

is

not necessarily

poraries,

that, in the absence of ents,

I

emotional

cannot believe that

difficulties. Incest firstly

Indeed, sexual play with contem-

so.

whether consanguineous or not,

it

is

so

is

difficulties

productive of later

itself

between parent and child

is

objectionable

because, in a sexual situation, the parent abrogates

parenthood. In our civilization a parent

command,

is

required to be in

to give security by being able to deal with cir-

cumstances and situations with which the child able to deal.

he

is

common

with the par-

a parent

If

no longer

not yet

is

possessed by any violent emotion

is

a safe person,

no longer

Drunk

a parent.

parents, violent parents, frightened parents are also threats

even

to a child's security,

if

they are not amorous parents

as well; for their loss of control

temporarily, to

fulfil

Moreover, sex

makes them unable,

at least

the parental role. apt to be terrifying where there

is

is

a

marked discrepancy of power between the two people concerned; and most of us recoil from a situation in which intercourse

is

upon a weaker by

forced

a stronger person.

Observation of the so-called ''primal scene" preted by the child as frightening, for ceives the sexual act as an attack by the

Since to the small child love protection,

it is

means

it

is

often inter-

frequently con-

man on

the

woman.

chiefly tenderness

not surprising that adult passion

is

and

equated

with violence, and that the incestuous advances of a parent are felt as a threat rather than as a manifestation of affection. In cases

where the son or daughter

does not apply: and

I

is

grown up

this

have seen an example of an incestu-

ous relationship between father and daughter which persisted for a considerable time. Eventually the father

became

intensely jealous of the daughter's feelings for another

she reported him

and created such a disturbance that he was convicted and

police, with the result that

man

to the impris-

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION

The continuance

oned.

89

months

of such a relationship for

without undue disturbance on either side tends to demonstrate that

it is

not necessarily incest

is

exploited by an older and

between

one

to be

since It is

a parent

it

so

is

which

in

is

not treated

is

incest

bound

as a person,

cannot participate in the situation on equal terms.

thus being used rather than loved, treated as a thing,

not an individual, and misused by the very person to it

dam-

a child

more powerful person. In

and a young child the situation

which the child

in

which

itself

an emotional situation

aging, but rather

would normally turn In adult

life

for protection

and

whom

security.

the complete expression of sexual love

is

only possible where each partner feels on equal terms with the other, where giving and taking

is

and where each

equal,

accepts the other as a whole person. This

is

why

analytic test of maturity, "genital primacy,"

the psychois

valid; al-

though the terminology employed suggests a more limited concept than

is

actually implied. If

dependent upon the other, child is

if,

one partner

is

markedly

emotionally, one partner

is

a

and the other a parent, then the sexual relationship

bound

more powerful

to be unsatisfactory, for fear of the

partner will impair the free expression of what either

When

one partner

one partner

is

is

treated as a parent

it

is

weaker and the other stronger.

expression of sexual love requires that a

man

feels.

implied that

A

complete

should be free

of the fear that she will hurt him, and the same holds true of the

woman

also.

The

persistence of fears of this kind

is

usually related to the persistence of a childish sense of being less

than the partner. This sense of inequality excites

re-

sentment on the one hand, and apprehension on the other:

and so the freely

is

An

ability to give

and receive physical

affection

impaired by the fear of physical hurt. adult patient

whose father had made repeated

in-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

90

cestuous advances to her in childhood was frightened of arousing any sexual feeling in a man, for to do so implied

She projected the image of her

that he would hurt her.

upon every man, felt that every man was powerful and that she was weak, and believed that any manifestation

father

of affection towards her was

than in pleasure, since she

bound

felt like

to result in pain rather

a helpless victim

when

woman who

could

confronted with a man, rather than like a play the feminine part

She had

sure.

on equal terms

to avoid evoking love

do so meant that they would be

The

in a cooperative plea-

from

men

because to

cruel to her.

sexual advances of a parent to a child need not

necessarily be frightening; but there

is

a further, and per-

haps even more important, objection to such incestuous relationships. Sexuality

which makes

for

is,

in adolescence, the

The

independence.

main

adolescent

force

com-

is

pelled by his increasingly urgent sexuality to seek relation-

home, since

ships outside the

events there If

sexuality

there

and

is

so

is

but

little

can find

much

strike out

on

scope for

its

expression within

it.

free expression within the family circle

the its

dependence are the

in the ordinary course of

less

reason for the child to leave

own, and

persistent immaturity

it

and

result.

A patient told me that his mother used to

"act the part

of a prostitute" towards him. His incestuous fantasies about

her were perfectly conscious, and there was no evidence of the incest taboo in his material. But his immaturity was

and he was quite unable to act or take decisions an adult or masculine way. He had never had to do so,

striking,

in

and

his reluctance to

grow up was reinforced by the

tuous relationship with his mother,

for,

inces-

since he could gain

a partial satisfaction with her, there was so

much

the

less

PROJECTION AND DISSOCIATION reason for his forming outside the Incest to

new and more

91

adult relationships

home.

between parent and child

individuality,

is,

therefore, opposed

opposed to maturity, opposed to

self-

realization. By making sexuality either too easily accessible on the one hand, or too terrifying on the other, incest may

encourage the persistence of immaturity or prevent the de-

velopment of more adult taste for incest

attached to

it

which

is

attitudes.

deeply rooted

dis-

attested by the legal penalties

in our society

rational as well as

The

can be shown to be based on

on emotional grounds;

can

for incest

prevent or interfere with the growth and development of the individual, and, provided our basic hypothesis

cepted that the development of the individual to his extent

is

desirable,

it

is

is

ac-

fullest

easy to demonstrate that incest

is

to be deplored.

Since sexuality cannot be brought into the relationship

between parent and child without disturbance of that tionship,

it

becomes evident that

sexuality, like the aggres-

sive impulses previously referred to,

from the

total personality

and

may become

felt to

though the parents may have never the early manifestations of

it

rela-

dissociated

be alien to

explicitly

it,

even

condemned

in their children or uttered the

castration threats so often emphasized by the pioneers in

psycho-analysis.

The

integration of sexuality, the full ac-

ceptance and recognition of

which

it

its

importance and the way in

pervades every aspect of our being,

of maturity; for to realize sexuality in

all its

is

a valid test

richness

acknowledge separation from the parents and to act

is

as

to

an

independent person. Parents often blame themselves unnecessarily for supposedly causing guilt

children.

Of

and anxiety

in their

course they often do, and nobody supposes

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

92

which the child

that a fiercely authoritarian upbringing, in

becomes cowed,

remember

anything but harmful. But

is

bound

to be attended with

this anxiety will

aspects of the personality as sexuality

the child It is

it

is

well to

that the gradual emergence of the child as a sep-

arate individual

and that

is

some

anxiety,

be chiefly manifested in those

which we

artificially

dichotomize

and aggression, even though the upbringing of

may have been

as nearly ideal as

can be imagined.

therefore not surprising that, in adult

life,

those parts

of himself which are denied by the subject, which tend to

be projected, and which may give

rise to

symptoms, are

intimately connected with the twin drives of power and sexuality

gence

which constitute the individual

as a separate individual.

roots of his emer-

CHAPTER

8

AND

IDENTIFICATION

PROJECTION Now we

have agreed that Love

and does not

lacks

is

plato

In a previous chapter an attempt was

two types of at

first

identification.

what he

in love with

possess.

We

made

1

to distinguish

pictured an infant

quite unaware of his separate identity; and

who was we

pos-

tulated that the beginnings of personality development con-

with the parents— the

sisted in a gradual disidentification

slow emergence from a matrix of a

We

concluded that

also

new and

this loss of

was replaced by a secondary identification acteristics

introjected for security reasons:

longed not to

An

itself

come

and we were thus able to

but to those upon

whom

it

which bewas depen-

introverted child brought up in a predominantly

in contact with other people

may appear than

it

to be

actually

much is

be-

has assumed modes of behaviour which are foreign

cause

it

to

real personality.

its

which char-

to exhibit traits

extraverted household, for instance,

more

in

belonging to parents and others in authority were

see that a child might

dent.

distinct person.

primary identification

Parents are bound to prove unsatisfactory objects of lationship for the developing child;

and

this

is

re-

so for three

reasons. First, since parents are in a position of authority,

they are bound to be to some degree restrictive, and hence

93

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

94

to excite resentment as well as affection. Second, a sexual

relationship of a satisfactory kind with parents ble. Third, since

may

lack qualities

which

in the child,

of

them

to find

expansion.

is

impossi-

no parents are perfectly endowed, they which would help to evoke potentialities will

what

it

It is difficult

be forced to turn to others instead needs. This third postulate requires to imagine that

Mozart could have

been anything but a musician. But suppose that Leopold had been unmusical. Would Wolfgang's talent have matured so

would he have acquired

fast,

at so early

an age that

mastery of technique which laid the foundation for his later

achievement? will force

its

A

phenomenal endowment such

as Mozart's

and

realization against considerable opposition;

the example of Handel attests the fact that even elderly

and

irascible physicians

gifted sons; but there

can be vanquished by their more

can be

little

doubt that the realization

of an innate potentiality in a child proceeds at a faster pace if

his parents themselves exhibit

or interest

which

something of the same

gift

seeking expression.

is

During the course of development various people other than the parents, with

whom

the child comes in contact,

may become emotionally important stance

is

the school-teacher.

to

it.

The

A favourite teacher may evoke

latent potentialities in the child by providing a

which the child can

typical in-

identify

itself.

model with

Often such an

identifi-

cation goes temporarily too far and the child may, in

its

enthusiasm, take over attitudes and characteristics which again will be later discarded— just as in the case of the parents.

But often something remains; some part of the child's

personality has been evoked and continues to play in actual

its

part

life.

Often the traits which are evoked in this way are those which the parents themselves do not exhibit, and which are

IDENTIFICATION

AND PROJECTION

95

therefore liable to remain latent unless the child across

someone who

identification

is

will

an argument

for the widest possible type of

education; for the school with a wide range of

is

in hereditary

tact, the

not the

variety of

represented, not the specialized technical insti-

tution. For the varieties of

ple with

staff,

which every

private tutor; for the university in

opinion

comes

evoke them. This positive type of

endowment

whom

temperament and the

are extensive,

and the more peo-

the child and adolescent can

more quickly

is

he

differences

come

in con-

likely to find himself. It

may

be as well to emphasize here that this type of identification with school-teachers and others

is

not a conscious process

upon an emotional link between teacher and pupil which cannot be produced consciously. I am reminded here of a boy who, although intelligent, remained near the bottom of the class for a whole term. Next term he rose to a place near the top: and this was simply the result of a change of teacher. The boy was one who had failed to realize his potentialities partly because his father's attitude of anxious expectation had induced in him

of copying, but rests

the conviction that nothing he did was worth while or ever likely to be.

He was much

would give him what

in need, therefore, of a

his father

had been unable

a feeling that his efforts were worth while

and that he was

capable of some achievement. Whereas the failed to this

convey

this to the boy, the

man who

to provide;

first

teacher

second succeeded; and

was reflected in the boy's change of position in the

class.

This

is

the kind of situation which leads to a partial

identification of pupil with teacher. Because the pupil feels

that the teacher approves of him, he reacts by taking over

some of the

teacher's characteristics. But this process does

not occur with anyone:

it

occurs in response to a subjective

need which the teacher happens to

fulfil at

that particular

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

96

moment.

In such a situation

it

likely that, temporarily,

is

the teacher will be seen as wholly "good" by the pupil, and that his attitudes and opinions will be taken over whole-

Time

sale.

will

modify

and further experience

this,

will re-

how much of what has been taken over really belongs the pupil's own personality. The type of identification described above is often, if

veal to

not invariably, preceded by projection.

We

which charac-

discussed the familiar type of projection in teristics

which we cannot accept

to others.

more this

It

is

have already

in ourselves are attributed

not, however, so generally recognized that

positive qualities are often projected also,

and that

phenomenon is an important part of development. The developing child is often fascinated by certain peo-

ple; that

is,

upon him.

these people have a strongly emotional effect

enough that people should be attracted by those who resemble themselves and whom they It

is

natural

recognize to be like themselves.

the previous chapter that

whom we

with

darity us.

and

we

It

has been pointed out in

like to

can identify— for

it

have

to

do with people

gives us a sense of soli-

security in the world to find others

who

resemble

rests upon the more powerful than the link

But the compulsive attraction which

mechanism

of projection

between those with

is

whom

far it is

easy to identify; and this

attested by the type of language which

describe

is

is

generally used to

it.

The phenomenon

I

mean

is

commonly

referred to in

the language of magic; and, although the words used have lost their

can

ing,"

we

them the awe oi the irrational which in all of us. When we refer to a person as "fascinat"bewitching," "enchanting," we may recognize that

still

lurks

compelling power through the abuse oi habit, one detect in

are using terms originally appropriate to witchcraft

and

AND PROJECTION

IDENTIFICATION

wizardry.

A

"glamorous"; an orator

is

us— we

are at

once in a realm where

recognize that their effect

upon

us

"casts his spell" over

we

woman

beautiful

97

is

based upon some-

thing more powerful than reason. In the course of development children are usually emotionally attracted to a

Such people

are

whole

commonly

series of

people of both sexes.

school-teachers and older chil-

home with The glamorization and much a part of normal

dren; since these are the people outside the

whom

the child has most to do.

idealization of such people

development that

it is

who have

few parents

is

so

taken for granted; but there can be not sometimes been surprised by the

intensity of feeling aroused in the breast of their child by

some apparently

dull

believe that

I

it

and undistinguished person.

can generally be shown that these peo-

ple epitomize undeveloped parts of the child's

and that they

ality,

attract

a subjective response.

It

him

own

person-

so strongly because they stir

seems probably that those parts of

the personality which are latent, undeveloped— and only potential, those parts, therefore,

which can be

said to be

unconscious— are in fact recognized by the individual concerned, but, to start with, are thought to belong to others rather than to himself. Personality

Not

strings.

may

all

lie silent

is

like a

many

harp with

the strings are plucked at once, and some

throughout

life.

Others may be

set into vi-

bration by the impact of personalities with the same

quency.

The

irrational attraction

and sometimes adoration

which an older child or a teacher

may be explained in terms of a the former. The child can be love" with

The sion"

is

its

own

fre-

will inspire in a pupil

projection of the latter said, as

it

upon

were, to "fall in

latent potentialities.

psychological

phenomenon

of the "crush" or "pas-

often undervalued, and the explanations of

it

which

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

98

me

advanced seem to

are usually

that the child

other that this

One

inadequate.

such

is

simply looking for a substitute parent; an-

is

merely a manifestation of the homosexual

is

phase through which everyone passes are usually towards

such attractions

(for

members of the same

sex).

I

believe that

these attractions are of great importance in psychological

development, and that

it is

through such emotional attach-

ments that the child discovers

comes more aware of both

To

his

own

his abilities

the small child every adult

is

personality and be-

and

his limitations.

invested with a certain

glamour simply because the adult can do things which the

The

child cannot. itself

very attribute of being

*

'grown up"

is

an attraction and something which every small child

longs to exhibit in

which

more

am

I

its

own

person. But the attractions with

here concerned are both more powerful and

than

specific

How

this.

often, for instance, will a la-

tent capacity for appreciation or performance in the arts or in music be

awakened

child admires. exhibits

is

in a child

by a teacher

a projection

upon the teacher of the

capacity which, until the teacher evoked latent and unrecognized. curs, there are

whom

The emotional attachment which

When

this

is

child's

own

may have been

kind of projection oc-

two courses open to the

and desirable development

it,

the

the child

child.

The normal

that the child should proceed

from the stage of projecting upon the adult to that of idenwith him, and thus begin to model himself upon the

tifying

As

teacher. erto has

the child himself becomes capable of what hith-

been thought to belong only

to the teacher

and

not to himself, the emotional fervour of the attachment will die

down.

We

those

who have

selves

have got

degree.

A

child

only become emotionally involved with

got "something for us"; and it 4

when we

our-

they no longer attract us to the same

'grows out" of

someone

to

whom

he was

AND PROJECTION

IDENTIFICATION attracted because he has

which was

that

in adult

life

we

been able to develop

upon the

originally projected all

99

in himself

other.

Even

skills which we do not no longer admire in others

tend to overvalue

ourselves possess; but

we

also

which we can easily do ourselves. The second and less desirable course

that

rest in

is

for the child to

the attitude of adoration in which he feels that the

teacher continues to be wonderful but that he himself

is

incapable of reaching such heights. In such a case identification does not take place and the projection

is

not with-

drawn. This persistence of projection without identification is

an important feature of homosexuality. Children in adolescence and during the years immedi-

ately preceding adolescence

their

love

own is

sex.

The

commonly

idealize

a natural

is

often attributed to segrega-

phenomenon which

plays a positive

though passionately interested

between the

sexes,

female groups,

it is

do not usually

my

view,

in

the

up into male and

split

characteristic of older groups that they

small child simply wants to "grow up," to gain

striving to be a

chil-

differences

denigrate the opposite sex while exalting their own.

power which adults

it

and impor-

Whereas small

tant part in emotional development.

dren,

of

fact that this initial type of falling in

generally homosexual

tion or to other environmental factors; but, in is

members

childhood the boy

possess. In later

man, and the

girl to

The

some of the is

be a woman; and they

tend to be fascinated by those people

who

possess qualities

of masculinity and femininity which are as yet only latent in themselves.

The

over-valuation of one's

under-valuation of the other

is,

own

development; and in the initiation eties, in

which youths

pass from

sex

combined with the

perhaps, a necessary part of rites

boyhood

of primitive socito

manhood,

it is

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

100

women

usual for

of

at puberty,

girls

The

to be rigorously excluded. 2

though

supposedly evil effects of their menstruation,

adduced

scribes

M.

at certain stages of

Forster, 3 in his essay

how

in his

first

shameful to have a

preparatory school

who had

it

de-

was considered

a sister hid her as

and forbade her to

in a very formal

his

development.

on "Jew-consciousness,"

prize-giving or to speak to

At

also be

sister.

Naturally anyone far as possible,

and

may

an example of the segregation of the sexes being

as

thought desirable E.

seclusion

chiefly practised to avert the

sit

with him

him except

at a

in passing

manner.

second school,

Sisters

were negligible, but

have a mother. Many

it

was a disgrace to

tried to divert suspicion

by

being aggressive and foisting female parents upon the weak.

One

and had a

large popularity-surplus, took

or two,

who were good

at

games

up a

really

heroic line, acknowledged their mother brazenly

and would even be seen walking with her the playing

field,

like

across

King Carol with Madame

Lupescu.

Although concepts of masculinity and femininity vary widely from era to era and from place to place,

it

may be

been no era, and that there which such concepts do not exist; and that

firmly asserted that there has is

no

it is

place, in

a vital part of every child's development that

become

firmly

established

emotionally as a

it

should

member

of

IDENTIFICATION whichever sex

it

AND PROJECTION

101

belongs to anatomically, and feel able to

compete with other members of the same sex on equal terms. It is

generally accepted that an emotional interest

which

is

predominantly directed towards members of the same sex

is

characteristic of childhood

and the period up to the be-

ginning of adolescence; and that, in

homosexual

interest

may

many

instances, this

persist until early adult life with-

out there being anything abnormal or unusual about

it.

Ho-

mosexuality in the sense of a fixed adult pattern of behaviour cannot be said to exist until the middle twenties; for often the pattern spontaneously alters

becomes heterosexual long

and the person

after the legal age of maturity

many men and women remain prein their own sex in exactly the same

has been attained. But

dominantly interested

way

as

we

accept as being natural at an earlier age. This

is

not simply a matter of the misdirection of the genital impulse, but of falling in love with a person, or at least with

an idealized aspect of a person. Whether or not in love

is

accompanied by a conscious wish

tact with the desired person

seems to depend on age and

on previous experience. Children of their

own

this falling

for genital con-

habitually adore

members

sex without wishing for genital contact be-

become the most important channel for the expression of their loving impulses. Adolescents and young adults may be more aware of the physcause the genitals have not yet

ical aspect of their desire,

but homosexual fantasy

is

often

only vaguely concerned with physical contact unless physical

seduction has already occurred. There

is

a wish to be

with the beloved person; to be noticed by him talk of him;

and a compulsive

(or her); to

interest in all that

he does;

but the desire for physical union usually follows, rather than

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

102

accompanies, the fascination which the beloved person ex-

may never

and, in the ordinary course of development,

erts

be made manifest

at all.

Clinical experience of both male and female homosexual patients has

convinced

me

that the most important psy-

chological fact about confirmed homosexuals

is

their inner

conviction that they can never be adequate members of their

own

For them

who can compete with others on equal terms. is always "the other man" who possesses mas"the other woman" who has feminine charm.

sex it

culinity, or

Homosexuals

are fascinated by that in others

which they

believe to be lacking in themselves— and, in the normal

course of development, this fascination disappears because

most people succeed

in identifying themselves with adult

their own sex. If you, a man, man among men, you will no longer

members of

feel yourself to

be a

accord to

men

which you gave them woman, feel yourself to be and poised member of your own sex, you will

that degree of admiration and esteem

when you were an attractive

a boy.

If

you, a

no longer be fascinated by the charms of those women upon whom you had "crushes" when you were growing up.

The

persistence of a predominantly homosexual incli-

nation indicates a failure of maturation— but a failure of a special

kind— a

failure to identify

with adult members of

the same sex, and a persistence of the projection upon them of those qualities of male and female maturity which, in the

no more than latent. that homosexual men (and

child and in the adult homosexual, are

The

psycho-analytic view

is

other perverts) suffer from an intensification of the fear of castration

which

tion leads

me

is

a universal complex.

to suppose that

it is

not so

My own much

castration as the conviction of being castrated chiefly operative.

Homosexual men

observa-

the fear of

which

is

are usually fascinated

IDENTIFICATION by the penis— both by their

AND PROJECTION own

103

organ, which they often

regard as too small, and by that belonging to others, which

they admire as being larger.

over again that

men who

has been observed over and

It

are uncertain of themselves as

men have

a conviction that they

that other

men

are

have a small penis, and

more generously endowed. This

belief

has, as a rule, nothing to

do with

concretistic expression of

an inner emotional conviction of

reality. It

is

an outward,

being lacking in masculinity and unable to compete with other

men on

equal terms.

The

fascination

which the male

organ exerts compels homosexuals to look for

and the

it;

compulsion to go into public lavatories in order to gaze

at,

men is a symptom which some homosexuals and not infrequently

or to touch, the genitals of other is

distressing to

leads

them

more does

to seek treatment.

it

The

larger the penis, the

excite their interest— an interest

of a wider and

more general

which

is

part

interest in "masculinity."

Homosexual men may themselves be effeminate, but they do not generally admire effeminacy in others.

On

the

contrary, they are attracted by a rather extreme type of

masculinity; and the over-muscular, tough young

men who

appear on the outside of physical culture magazines are the pin-ups of the homosexual male.

They

are

drawn

to just

those qualities which they feel to be lacking in themselves, qualities

which may

Proust,

opens

4

in the

in fact be latent rather

famous essay on homosexuality which

Cities of the Plain, describes

lovers

from

whom

bility of that

than absent.

is

homosexual

men

as

always precluded the possi-

love the hope of which gives

the strength to endure so

many

risks

them

and so much

loneliness, since they fall in love with precisely that

type of

man who

has nothing feminine about him,

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

104

who

not an invert and consequently cannot love

is

them

in return, with the result that their desire

would be

for ever insatiable did not their

money

procure for them real men, and their imagination

end by making them take to

whom

for real

Proust conceived of homosexual logically feminine. In describing

He

men

men

in their

life

temperament

is

5

less para-

manly sim-

feminine and

who

resemble in their appearance only the

men; that where each of

in the universe, a

us carries, inscribed

which he beholds everything

in those eyes through

human

surface of the pupil, for

nymph

is

being psychosays:

belonged to that race of beings,

ply because their

We

as

Charlus he

doxical than they appear, whose ideal

rest of

the inverts

they had prostituted themselves.

outline engraved

them

it

is

on the

that not of a

but of a youth.

may sympathize with

insight, his observation,

and

Proust's view

and envy

his

his superbly subtle awareness

men and women: but we must disagree his idea with that the homosexual man is feminine. Rather is he a child whose development is incomplete — a boy who of the motives of

has not yet matured into a man.

The homosexual

search

is

often determined by an absence of a satisfactory identification in early

homosexual father has

with. ing

life

men

with the parent of the same sex; and in it

A father who

may

is

common

is

to find that the patient's

some way impossible to identify hard, unapproachable, and overbear-

been absent or

in

inspire such fear that the developing

away from him.

A

weak,

soft,

and

boy turns

ineffective father does

AND PROJECTION

IDENTIFICATION

105

not provide a sufficiently forceful personality to evoke masculine qualities in his son. In either case there

a failure

is

of identification, and the son turns away from his father to

seek in others those masculine attributes which he needs for his

own development.

If all

upon

goes well he finds

them and, by modelling himself

a teacher or friend, himself

looking for in others. But, or frightened, he sess

if

he

may continue

becomes what he has been is

sufficiently discouraged

to feel that other

something to which he can never

aspire,

men

pos-

and so remain

in a state of immaturity.

A paradoxical effect of the failure of identification with one's sex:

of

own

sex

is

the attempt to identify with the opposite

and the tweeds and

manner

flat

assumed dominance

heels, the

woman, conceal

of the homosexual

a deep hurt

and feeling of inadequacy. In homosexual men the

women

is

usually strong

them; but trans vest ists,

enough

who

fear of

to forbid identification with

are, as

it

were, half-way be-

tween homosexuality and heterosexuality, exhibit

identifi-

men men and

cation with the opposite sex in clear-cut form. Such are usually deeply discouraged with themselves as feel

they cannot possibly compete with others. But a

lin-

gering desire to shine, a normal wish to be recognized as

somebody, finds expression in the fantasy that,

if

only they

could be female, then they would be acceptable and even admired. In such cases of transvestism as treated there has

been no wish

I

have seen and

for sexual contact

with men,

but an envy of women, a wish to give up the struggle of

man and a desire to be a woman instead. Similarly, a woman who has felt herself to be a failure as a member of her own sex often feels that life is so much easier for men; that if only she had been born a man her

trying to be a

problems would be solved; and that

it

is

an unfortunate

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

106

endowed with a female body when her soul is that of a man. The process of becoming an adult member of one's own accident that she

is

sex emotionally as well as physically serves as a striking illustration of

their part

which

is

how both

in the

projection and identification play

development of the personality. That

originally unconscious

is

at first

conceived of

as

belonging to others, then assimilated as part of the person's

own

personality;

and

it

is

through contact with other per-

sonalities that the individual finds and identifies his own.

CHAPTER

9

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE

AND I

RELATIONSHIP

attempt from love 's sickness to

Since

I

am

myself

my own

fly in

fever

and

vain

pain.

DRYDEN AND HOWARD

1

In the last chapter the hypothesis was advanced that the

compulsive attractions

felt

by the developing child towards

members of its own sex were based upon projection, and that what was projected was an undeveloped part of the child's

own

personality.

It

was further suggested

when

that,

a sufficient degree of maturity has been attained for identification

with adult members of the same sex to take place,

the projections upon

them

are

withdrawn and emotional

interest shifts to the opposite sex.

To be

able to

with the opposite sex implies a more or

fall

in love

less firm identifi-

cation with one's own, and also an identification with being

"grown up," although,

as

with

processes, outlines are never sharp pleted.

and

all

psychological

stages never

com-

There are obviously many people who seek a parent

in their heterosexual partner; but such people

be said to be

falling in love in the full sense,

can hardly

and a study

of their psychology invariably reveals the presence of sexual fantasies

ner, but

which have little or nothing to do with the partwhich contain those aspects of sexuality which

they feel to be incompatible with the real person.

who

A woman

has married a kind and gentle elderly man, to

107

whom

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

108

she

is

really a daughter, will

ruthless

tend to have fantasies of a

and powerful young lover who

is

perpetually en-

A

gaged in abducting her to some romantic destination.

man whose woman

a

is

mother

to

him

will

be preoccupied

with day-dreams of an invariably seductive courtesan whose sole raison d* etre

to inflame his sensuality.

is

paternal or maternal the partner, the

more

The more

insistent will be

the fantasies: and a study of the conscious relationship enables

one

to predict

the type of day-dream with some

confidence.

In addition to this type of parent-child relationship be-

tween the

sexes, all kinds of stages of intermediate

homo- and

between

heterosexuality can be observed: and a study of

the fantasies of those people in yet not firmly established

is

whom

heterosexuality

of considerable interest.

material could be adequately codified

it

If

is

as

such

would provide us

with objective evidence of the process of sexual develop-

ment; for

it

is

not generally realized (except by purveyors

of pornographic literature) that these fantasies are far more collective than individual and, as such, give a picture of

the general development of the sexual instinct in

man

rather than in a particular person.

For instance, some male homosexuals

who

are

still

pre-

dominantly fascinated by the male may yet admit to fantasies in which their favourite man is observed to be having intercourse with a is

woman. Sometimes the

watching the procedure with

interest;

subject himself

sometimes he then,

or concurrently, has relations with the man: and frequently

he follows the

man

in

Uncertain himself of

own

instinct to be

from the

having intercourse with the woman.

how

to deal with her,

and feeling

his

an inadequate guide, he requires a lead

man whom he

so

much

can only then attempt to emulate.

admires, and

whom

he

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP

Of

a similar kind are the fantasies in

man

to be brought to heel by another sufficiently

which

109

a wife has

before she will be

compliant to submit to her husband. Elaborate

sadistic fantasies in

which, for example, the

which she

to a school for wives in

is

woman

is

sent

beaten into submission

by a stern schoolmaster, are not uncommon, and form the stock in trade of pornographers whose function

is

to provide

who are not yet able to find love in orthodox manner. Nor are such fantasies confined solace for those

pages of vulgar magazines. Several writers of

work

acclaimed by the

is

books which are

more

to the

whose

and public, have produced

critics

more than

little

thrillers,

a

a series of such fantasies

interspersed with padding designed to give the appearance

of coherent stories.

The

yet to be compiled in such a

which

I

am

way

as to illustrate the thesis

advancing; that such fantasies are not merely

compensatory strivings

distasteful aberrations, but also

may be

of development, as in

mentioned here simply to

hesitant stages

illustrate

the fact that there are

intermediate steps on the way to sexual maturity.

There may be no realizes that, for

clearly defined

him, magic

is

moment

no longer

at

which the boy

to be found in the

toughness of the male, but rather in the softness and cacy of her

whom

hard for the

he so

girl to

lately despised:

remember when

faster at the sight of the

as

to-

on the path the examples given above. They are

wards normality, which

many

phenomena has

catalogue of these

boy

whom

and

first

it

deli-

might be

her heart beat

yesterday she dismissed

rough and noisy. In the last chapter

we noted

that those compulsive at-

upon projection are referred to in the language of magic; and we assumed that this magical quality was due to the projection of a subjective element— tractions

which

are based

an undeveloped part of the personality. This conception

is,

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

110

I

and apprehomosexual infatuations of young people. Does it

believe, valuable in helping us to understand

ciate the

also apply to heterosexual falling in love?

In the Symposium 2 the idea that

what seems

or are fascinated by, is

advanced by Socrates 4

men

fall

in love with,

to be lacking in themselves

in characteristic fashion:

the nature of Love such that he must be

'Is

love of something, or can he exist absolutely with-

out an object?

don't

I

mother or

ticular

mean

father?'

'Is

— to

love love of a par-

ask whether Love

love of a mother or father would be absurd— but

can make

my

point clear by analogy.

If

I

is I

were to

take the single notion Father and ask 'Does Father

mean

the father of someone or not?' you,

wanted

to give the right answer,

reply that Father

means the

if

you

would presumably

father of a son or a

daughter, wouldn't you?"

"Certainly," said Agathon.

"And

similarly with Mother?"

"Agreed." "Let us go a quite clear.

little further,

The notion

to

make my meaning

Brother, does that intrinsi-

cally imply brother of someone, or not?"

"Of "In

course

it

fact, of a

does."

brother or sister?"

"Yes."

"Very

well.

Now

try to tell

me whether Love

means love of something, or whether there can be Love which is love of nothing." "Quite clearly, it means love of something."

"Take a firm grasp of this point then," said Socrates, "remembering also, though you may keep

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP it

to yourself for the

is

love

moment, what

And now

of.

"Of

is

isn't

it

you

is

in possession of

when he

reflect for a

is

what one

Agathon,

I

one does

To me

as certain as

any

at

anything can

think?"

think

"Good.

it

is."

Now would anybody wish to be big who who was strong?" from my previous admission

big, or strong

"It follows is

will see that

lacks, or rather that

seems

it

What do you "Yes,

was

or

not."

moment, you

not desire what one does not lack.

be.

it

merely probable but absolutely certain that

desires

rate,

Does Love

or not?"

of,

not?"

"Probably

one

this:

Love

does he desire and love the thing that he

and loves when he

when he "If

me

love

is

that

course he does."

"And desires

just tell

he

desire the thing that

it is

111

that this

impossible."

"Because a be in need of

man who

possesses a quality cannot

it?"

"Yes."

man wanted to be strong who was swift-footed who was swift-footed. I labour

"Suppose a strong or

the point in order to avoid any possibility of mistake, for all

one might perhaps suppose

who

similar cases that people

character or qualities

who

and

in these

are of a certain

possess certain qualities also desire

which they

possess.

But

you consider the

if

matter, Agathon, you will see that these people

must inevitably possess these ent

moment, whether they

one presumably would

desire

qualities at the pres-

like

it

what

is

no No,

or not, and inevitable.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

112

if

a

man

says:

who am

'I,

am

healthy, or

rich,

none-

may

theless desire to be healthy or rich, as the case

be,

and

I

desire the very qualities

we should

reply:

'My

friend,

which

I

possess,'

what you, who

are in

possession of health and wealth and strength, really

wish,

is

have the possession of these

to

continued to you in the future, since

moment you

them whether you wish

possess

whether when you say

not.' Consider, then, sire

what

that

may continue

I

which

things

like this, '

4

you do not

possess'

I

really

mean

he would agree,

I

If it

'I

de-

wish

were put to him

think."

'Yes," said

Agathon.

'But this

to be in love with a thing

is

or

it 'I

to possess in the future the

possess now.'

I

qualities

at the present

which

is

not yet in one's power or possession, namely the

continuance and preservation of one's present blessings in the future."

"Certainly."

"Such

a

man, then, and everyone

desire, desires

possession,

what

and

and love have

things or qualities which a possess but

which he

who

feels

not in his present power or

is

desire

else

man

for their object

does not at present

lacks."

"Yes."

"Come

then," said Socrates, "let us sum up the which we have reached agreement. Are on points they not

first

that

Love

exists only in relation to

and second that that object must be something of which he is at present in want?"

some

object,

Like poor Agathon,

we can only answer "Yes"

remorseless argument: but,

if

to this

our hypothesis that compul-

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP sive attractions are based

upon projection

113

to stand,

is

need to add something to the statement of Socrates.

we

We

have already suggested that the compulsive, magical quality

which love,

the characteristic feature of the state of being in

is

due to the projection of

is

Greeks were well aware of

known

a subjective element.

The

and, in an even better-

this,

passage in the Symposium

,

Aristophanes puts

for-

ward an explanation.

He

recalls the

myth

that there were originally three

When

sexes— hermaphrodite, male, and female.

Zeus, in-

censed by the hubris of these creatures, decided to sever

them

in half,

each sex was

left

incomplete and was com-

pelled, therefore, to seek out a partner

who would make

it

whole once more. Thus the male sought a male, the female a female,

and the bisected hermaphrodite

its

contrasexual

name

partner. "Love," says Aristophranes, "is simply the for the desire

and pursuit of the whole."

The Greeks same need

of the fifth century B.C. evidently felt the

as ourselves for

an explanation of the compulsive

and magical quality of Love, and recognized the subjective element which they personified whole. In finding a lover a

as the lost half of the bisected

man was

therefore discovering

the other side of himself, and the same was true for a

woman. Recognizing and accepting homosexuality did, the

Greeks found

it

ent original types of people: whereas

and female homosexuality uality,

pass

as

necessary to postulate three

we

they

differ-

regard both male

as precursive stages to heterosex-

although realizing that

many people

are unable to

beyond the homosexual phase of development. The

high value which the Greeks attributed to masculinity, and the comparatively lowly position of

women

why male homosexual of women. Our values are

in their society,

perhaps explains

love was valued

above the love

different

and we

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

114

regard homosexual love as inferior and is

prolonged into adult

condemn

it

when

it

But we can entirely agree with

life.

the conception of the desire and pursuit of the whole, and

with the idea that people in love are seeking not only for sexual satisfaction but for the other half of themselves. It

seems that no sooner have adolescents reached the

own

stage of identifying with their

sex in a

more or less which

adult fashion than they begin to be fascinated by that

they appear to lack— the attributes of the opposite sex. That heterosexual falling in love

is

based upon projection

versally accepted, although the technical

used. is

uni-

is

term may not be

We all know that the beloved as regarded by the lover

not identical with the person seen by everyone

and

else:

that falling in love involves an over-valuation, and a distorted picture, of the person

seem ordinary:

To

us a

hero.

man

It is

to

who

him she "walks

is

loved.

To

may

in beauty like the night."

appears commonplace: to her he

inevitable that beauty

us a girl

is

a romantic

is

predominantly in the

eye of the beholder, and that the image of the beloved

is

an expression of a subjective need rather than a picture of an actual person. But what

is

this subjective

need and from

where does the contrasexual image originate? It is

obvious that the sexual instinct

ment, and that to

its

without

seeks

men

men

without women, and

will, inevitably, like St.

surrounded by a host of incubi and succubi

Antony, be

who

take pos-

session of their imagination and personify the object is

missing. But to be in love

mind

is

fulfil-

frustration or lack of object will give rise

an imaginary object: so that

women

itself

is

which

an experience which to

my

inadequately explained in terms only of the need

for genital satisfaction; for this

may be and

often

is

without two people being in love with each other.

attained If

we

are

to be consistent in assuming that the irrational, magical

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP

1

15

is

always due to the

projection of a subjective element, then

we cannot escape

quality associated with falling in love

we

the hypothesis that rather, that all those

are all in

some sense bisexual— or,

who become

capable of falling in love

with the opposite sex are so constituted, for

is

also

it is

clear that

more magical than falling in love; and it apparent that no experience is more manifestly sub-

no experience

is

seems to con-

jective. In his state of infatuation the lover

ceive of union with the beloved as the be-all and end-all of existence. Lovers feel as as

if

no one

else

one could conceivably be

made

they were

if

could possibly

fulfil

for

each other;

their need; as

no

if

as fortunate as themselves; as

if

they themselves were incomplete without the other person.

The

projection of the subjective element

In this connexion

it

is

is

obvious.

interesting to note that, at the

outbreak of a schizophrenic psychosis, the patient quently believes that a change of sex

is

taking place.

suggested that identification with one's

portant part of development: and

it

is

own

sex

fied in this

in

way. In acute schizophrenia the ego

command;

it is,

and the patient his emotions.

is

The

as

it

were,

at the

is

it is

fre-

have

an im-

is

clear that

conscious part of the personality, the ego, which

I

is

the

identi-

no longer

swamped by the unconscious,

mercy, rather than in control, of

patient not infrequently expresses his

way

fear of being

overwhelmed

of sex; as

the ego was identified with the anatomical,

if

actual, sex of the patient,

in this

as a fear of

change

and the unconscious with the

opposite sex.

The anatomical abnormality

of hermaphroditism

rare as to be a medical curiosity.

maphrodite that

is,

will elect, or

to adopt the

is

so

But occasionally a her-

be encouraged, to "change sex";

manners and behaviour of the sex

opposite to that in which he or she had up to date been

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

116

reared.

Such an occurrence

excites

an outburst of publicity

of such proportions as to suggest that the emotional interest in

change of sex

a collective rather than

is

phenomenon, and tends

an individual

to attest the fundamental bisexu-

of human beings. The mutual projection which

ality

occurs between lovers

seems to indicate a search for completeness, a reaching out after wholeness, a

union between conscious and uncon-

scious: so that, to the all

that

his

life;

is

man, the woman appears to contain all that would complete

missing in himself and

and, while a fundamental part of what

a partner with

whom

the only need which she promises to

fulfil.

personifies whatever, in his particular culture,

inine;

and

for her

he

is

the

missing

is

he can have intercourse,

this

is

is

not

For him she is

called fem-

embodiment of masculinity. The

image which each projects upon the other exhibits the psychological, as well as the anatomical, attributes

which

dis-

tinguish the sexes; and the fact that the psychological attributes vary

from time to time and from place to place

does not invalidate this concept. differ

The Mundugumor may 3

from the Arapesh in their ideas of what

and what

is

masculine

feminine; yet the fact that the sexes are distin-

guished by more than their anatomy civilization.

is

is

common

to every

The forms in which masculinity and femininity may vary; the fact that there are such

manifest themselves

manifestations remains the same.

The scheme

of development propounded by the older

type of psycho-analysis ends, like the Victorian novel, with

happy marriage— or, to use jargon, with the attainment of genital primacy: and, in earlier Freudian writings, one might a

be forgiven for assuming that the achievement of tory heterosexual intercourse was the final

relationship.

satisfac-

aim of human

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND RELATIONSHIP

Of

course, the fascination

which each sex

117

upon

exerts

the other leads to heterosexual relationships, and to the

establishment of the genital, as the main channel for the giving and receiving of love: but,

our view

if

is

correct,

the achievement of genital primacy and the becoming an

member

adult

opment.

A

projection

own

is

not the whole of devel-

further stage exists in

which the heterosexual

of one's

sex

withdrawn, in the same way

is

homo-

as in the

sexual phase; a stage of development in which being "in

love"

is

superseded by loving, in which projection

is

re-

placed by relationship.

This

is

not to deny the continuing need of each sex for

the other; anatomy alone demands that this be recognized.

But the absence of compulsion— the withdrawal of projec-

tion—must be recognized that in ings.

as a stage of

which the individual

However

delightful

it

is

is

development beyond

at the

to be in

mercy of such

love— and,

spect, the torments

which accompany the

to be forgotten— it

is

still

feel-

in retro-

delights are apt

an advance to be able to love

without the distortion of the other person which the projection of the contrasexual image necessarily involves.

a

man

to be

companion

marooned on it

is

we no

Were

one female

probable that his subjective need would

invest her with a glamour possess under

a desert island with

which she would not appear

more normal circumstances:

it

longer compulsively need someone that

a real relationship with them.

None

of us

is

to

only when we can have

is

ever completely

whole; nor can our need of each other, and therefore our distortion of each other, be entirely dispelled; but, sufficiently fortunate in is

our partner, and

if

if

we

a progressive thing, not merely a static achievement,

may approximate

to a stage in which, because each

the other's need, each

is

also treated as a

are

our relationship

we

fulfils

whole person by

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

118

the other. Whereas formerly two people in love served only to complete

what each

felt to

be lacking— now two whole

people confront each other as individuals.

The attainment

of this stage of development

is

marked

by a diminution of the competitive striving so charac-

also

teristic

who

of young people

selves as

men

or

are not yet certain of them-

women. Much psychotherapeutic time

is

habitually spent in exploring such uncertainties, and in try-

ing to reduce the compulsive struggles in

which men

feel

forced to prove themselves stronger than other men; in

which women have

to

show that they

are better than other

women. To the adolescent the world is peopled with impossibly masculine men, and inconceivably feminine women, none of whom could ever be emulated by an actual

human

being. But, with the attainment of a real relation-

ship with the opposite sex, the need for such affirmation of one's

own

of a real relationship with oneself is

neither

A man

all

male nor

vehement

sex disappears; and the possibility

all

emerges— that

self

which

female, but a mixture of both.

happy marriage perhaps represents the

ideal of hu-

relationship— a setting in which each partner, while

acknowledging the need of the other,

he or she by nature

is:

feels free to

a relationship in

well as intellect can find expression; in

which

be what

instinct as

which giving and

taking are equal; in which each accepts the other, and confronts Thou.

I

CHAPTER

10

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS Only connect

and

the prose

be exalted, and

human

the passion,

and both

love will be seen at

will

height.

its

Live in fragments no longer. Only connect and the beast

and

the

monk, robbed of

the isolation that

either, will die.

e

m.

.

is

to

life

forster

This book began with the observation that the

1

results of

psychotherapy did not seem to depend upon the school to

which the psychotherapist belonged, nor upon the method

which he employed (although there

is

an important

vation with regard to method to which

There have

in fact

I

reser-

shall refer later).

been investigations into psychoanalytic

technique which show that, even within the same school, therapists differ widely in in the beliefs

what they do. They vary not only

which they hold, but

in innumerable lesser

ways which may, nevertheless, be of importance; example, in

how

often the patient

is

lies

on

and

in the degree of activity of the therapist.

a couch or

sits

as,

seen, in whether

for

he

up, in the timing of interpretations,

able schemes of technique

may

be, there

is

However no doubt

in practice, there are all kinds of variations in

how

valuthat,

thera-

behave; and that, since investigation within

pists actually

the comparatively formalized school of psychoanalysis has

shown such other,

less

variability, investigation into the practice of

formalized,

show an even

psychotherapeutic schools would

greater range of individual differences. This

119

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

120

being

so,

hard to defend the proposition that the

it is

results

upon the technique employed. It can, of course, be argued that there are no results of psychotherapy, and that the recovery of some patients who have been treated by psychotherapy is fortuitous. The fact of psychotherapy depend

symptoms vary

that neurotic

many

in severity,

and that a good

people appear to lose their symptoms spontaneously

has been adduced as evidence that psychotherapy essary, its

and that

aid. It

as

many people

most virulent attack upon

significant that the

is

unnec-

is

recover without, as with,

psychotherapy in recent years has come from a professor of psychology

who

has no medical qualification and

who

has

never been responsible for the clinical care of patients; and,

we may accept

while

evidence

tific

upon the lack of

his strictures

the results of psychotherapy,

as to

scien-

we may

ence in the treatment of neurosis, and

who has no experiwho has never felt

human

being in distress of

justifiably suspect

the opinions of one

obliged to try and help a fellow

mind, even though there such help

am

I

and

I

is

effective.

believe that

it

and

is

in

effective in a large proportion of

some psychotic

cases also. But,

could be proven that psychotherapy was not

(and that still,

upon

is

as

hard to do

as patients,

to

that

inevitably prejudiced in favour of psychotherapy,

cases of neurosis if it

no absolute proof

as yet

is

and

still

as to

more

make some attempt

prove that as

human

it is)

even

effective

we should

beings, be called

to care for people in distress

of mind: and this would inevitably result in our trying to

make some

relationship with such people.

therefore, be driven into psychotherapy

lieved in

its

efficacy: for, as

I

see

it,

even

We if

should,

we

disbe-

psychotherapy consists

fundamentally in two people attempting to make a relationship with each other.

The view

of

human development

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS which esis

I

have outlined

is

121

based upon a fundamental hypoth-

derived from the practice of psychotherapy: this

is,

that

the development of personality and the development of object-relationships are ultimately aspects of the cess,

and that

to talk of personality as

from interpersonal relationships

my

In

is

if it

same pro-

existed apart

meaningless.

search for an explanation of the efficacy of psy-

I am forced to the conclusion that the undercommon factor is the development of the relationship

chotherapy lying

between the patient and the psychotherapist. Methods and theories differ widely: but every psychotherapeutic situation

contains at least two people— a therapist and a patient— and,

although in group psychotherapy the relationship

formed between members of the group may be more important than that formed between therapist and patient, this

does not contradict the hypothesis: for in group psychotherapy the other members of the group are acting as therapists vis-a-vis

each other, since they provide for each other

the possibility of

new

setting— which

the characteristic feature of the situation

is

relationships in a special therapeutic

in individual psychotherapy also.

At

this point

I

feel obliged to state the reservation as

to method in psychotherapy to

ginning of this chapter.

I

which

I

referred at the be-

believe that there

able difference between psychotherapy in suggestion,

is

predominantly ana-

Analysts of quite different training and fundamental

beliefs will unite in regarding suggestion

inferior forms of treatment. is

Even

if

a place in psychotherapy for such

that suggestion

There

a consider-

and hypnosis are the principal methods em-

ployed, and psychotherapy which lytic.

is

which persuasion,

is

is

in a

way opposed

and hypnosis

as

they admit that there

methods they to the

a very real divergence of practice

will agree

aim of

analysis.

and personality

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

122

between those

therapists

and those who

rely

divergence

rests

ple example

use an analytical approach this

A

sim-

upon

may

who

predominantly on suggestion; and a different fundamental aim.

serve to illustrate this. Suppose that a

hypnotist suggests to a patient that he will become more

independent, more able to make his confident.

may appear it

If

independence

rests.

If

a

upon what

basis this

man becomes more

simply because another person it

more

decisions,

it

that a satisfactory result has been achieved. But

justifiable to inquire

is

own

the patient responds to these suggestions

tells

must be doubtful whether he

new-found

independent

him he ought

really

do

to

so,

wants to be more

independent, and even more doubtful whether his apparent

independence is

told

is

turity. It

will

be sustained. The

ability to

do what one

not good evidence of a development towards mais

the dominant position of the therapist and the

correspondingly submissive position of the patient which

makes suspect gestion; for to

techniques of psychotherapy based on sug-

dominate another person

is

to treat

him

as

than a whole person and, ultimately, to interfere with

less

his

all

development towards being a whole person

in his

own

right.

This

is

not to deny that suggestion plays a part in psy-

bound to do so; and even the most detached, impersonal, and unemotional anchotherapy of an analytical type.

alyst

It is

cannot avoid influencing the patient by tone of voice,

emphasis, and inflexion, and even by comparatively impersonal things such as the

room

in

which the patient

is

seen.

But the attitude towards the patient of the therapist

who

deliberately uses hypnosis

and suggestion

ent from that of the analyst, and to encourage the

is, I

is

very

differ-

believe, less calculated

development of the individual. Jung

states

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS

men

that

123

only react positively to those suggestions with

which they

and so implies

are secretly in accord anyway:

that the part played by suggestion in analytical psychother-

apy

is

unimportant, although admitting that

it

occurs. But

the difference in attitude of the analyst compared with that of the hypnotist as hypnosis,

is

which

important. rests

A

method of treatment such

upon the

prestige of the doctor

which inevitably keeps the patient upon an

may be

and

inferior footing,

of temporary service: but ultimately

fails

to encour-

age the separate development of the individual as a unique person, since

it

depends upon the patient accepting what

the doctor suggests, which

is

bound

him from

to prevent

forming a relationship with the doctor on equal terms.

The

analytical approach,

on the other hand, constantly

demands of the patient that he should himself solve his own problems, and does not require that he should agree with the doctor or take over his ideas. alyst

is

to

make

clear

The

function of the an-

what the problems

are,

not to provide

ready-made solutions; and the avoidance of didacticism

is

designed to encourage the patient's independence.

Marcus Aurelius obtained sible teachers;

for

Commodus

the best pos-

but the solicitousness of the most cultured

served only to produce the most vicious of

all

the

Roman

Emperors. Lord Chesterfield subjected his son to the most intensive correspondence course in manners of

which we

have a record: but Stanhope remained obdurately unaffected and continued to prefer his library to the world of

which

power and fashion

in

he should posture

successfully. Analysts

his father

was so anxious that

do well to shun

didactic types of psychotherapy, just as fathers are best ad-

vised to avoid trying to instruct their sons; for in either

case

the

recipient

of their

well-intentioned

but

ill-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

124

considered teachings

who this

are

rise

up

tell

wrath and

in

me how

most pertinent question there I

ical

may

you that you should

say,

to live?"

no adequate

is

"But

And

to

reply.

have suggested above that the effectiveness of analytpsychotherapy depends upon the relationship formed

between analyst and patient. This

is, I

factor underlying the diverse beliefs

believe, the

common

and practices of the

various analytical schools. This hypothesis can be further

extended by postulating that the degree of recovery which takes place in the patient

is

proportional to the degree of

maturity of the relationship which he

with the therapist.

symptoms

are

If

I

am

is

enabled to make

right in believing that neurotic

an expression not only of disharmony within

the individual himself, but also of a failure in the maturation of his relationship with others;

two ways of looking

at the

if

in fact these are but

same thing, then

that the gradual resolution of neurotic

it

must follow

symptoms

is

accom-

panied by an increasing maturity in the relationship be-

tween the patient and therapist which,

in

the most

favourable instances, culminates in their confronting each

human beings upon equal terms. No one is more aware than I am that such an outcome of psychotherapy is not always possible; but I like to know the direction in which I am aiming, even if many of my arrows fall other as whole

short of the mark.

All psychological schools of an analytic kind, and some others which are not (for example, those concerned with

learning theory) seem to agree that neurosis and psychosis are intimately related to disturbances in development.

The

Freudian school lays emphasis upon emotional disturbances in the early years of childhood; the Kleinians postulate difficulties in

Jung,

who

the

first

few weeks or months of

stresses the present

life;

and even

disharmony of the psyche

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS

125

and the pointers to the future which may be implicit on the patient's material, states that neurosis sided development of personality

is

due to a one-

which can be traced back

to the slenderest beginnings in childhood.

In an earlier chapter

we

discussed the dissociation and

rejection of those parts of the personality to be alien to the subject:

which were

felt

and we concluded that these

aspects of himself were rejected because the child

had come

to feel, rightly or wrongly, that they were incompatible with

the parents; and that, because he was not yet ready to be

independent of his parents, he was compelled to personality to

other words,

fit

it

tailor his

in with their supposed requirements. In

was postulated that a

partial dissociation of

the child's personality took place because he was either not accepted, or at any rate

came

to feel that he was not ac-

cepted, as a whole person, by the parents, and consequently

could not accept himself as a whole person.

One

result of

acceptance was that the

this (partially inevitable) failure of

child tended to identify himself with only that in himself

of which the parents seemed to approve, and to reject that in himself of it

which the parents seemed

was suggested that

it

to disapprove;

personality, chiefly consisting of aggressive pulses,

which gave

The can,

I

rise to

symptoms

come

life.

grosser degrees of dissociation of the personality

more accept himself more

to feel accepted to

and sexual im-

in later

development of a

believe, only be healed by the

relationship with another person

comes

in

which the patient

as a

whole and can therefore

as a

whole.

At

the beginning

bound

of the psychotherapeutic process the therapist

is

be more or

vis-a-vis

patient.

and

was these rejected aspects of the

The

less

in the position of a parent

fact that neurosis

is

to

the

a kind of immaturity or

childishness, as well as the fact that the patient

is

seeking

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

126

help from the therapist, inevitably puts the latter in a position of authority; although

it is

a position from

which he

hopes to descend progressively during the course of

ment.

one who

development and differentiation

its

separate individual and

which does not demand that

conform to a prearranged pattern. is

It is this

same

as a

shall

it

attitude

required of the psychotherapist; the attitude which

Jung describes lieve that

it

nor which

"unprejudiced objectivity."

as

is

I

do not be-

matters to which school the therapist belongs,

beliefs or theories

he holds,

if

pable of this attitude of objective love.

tude he

is

able to give the child that loving acceptance

is

which encourages

which

treat-

has already been suggested that a good parent

It

providing what

is

he himself

If

he has

is

ca-

this atti-

possibly the most important

requirement for the patient in any form of psychotherapy—

which development can proceed.

a milieu in lated

that

all

men

are

I

have postu-

seeking self-realization— the

full

flowering of the personality; and that such a flowering can

only take place in the sonal relationships.

It

fruitful soil of satisfactory interper-

may be

that

the therapeutist can provide this

it is

soil

the degree to which

which determines

his

above

this

therapeutic success or failure. If

am

I

right in supposing that

it

milieu in which he feels accepted as patient

is

seeking,

it is

who

it

is

not

why he needs

a

There are a great many peo-

are anxious to help others

are prepared to spend time

Moreover,

it.

all,

a whole which the

pertinent to inquire

psychotherapist to provide ple in the world

is,

and trouble over

uncommon

and who

their problems.

that during the course of

analytical psychotherapy the patient forms a relationship

with someone other than the therapist

who

proves of as

more help to him. Some therapists discourage such relationships on the ground that they interfere with the

much

or

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS

127

transference situation; but, as a general rule, any relation-

which

ship

lessens the emotional isolation of the patient

to be

welcomed provided that

he

liable to

is

it

is

not also one in which

is

be swamped. Psychotherapists tend to

feel

uneasy about the help proffered to their patients by friends, not because they wish to keep the therapeutic situation a closed one, but because they fear that the friend

may

into the trap of trying to order the patient's

for

rather than enabling ficult

enough

him

better to order his

own

the analysis of his

It is dif-

personality, to avoid interfering with

much more

it is

own.

fall

him,

he should be by

for the therapist, trained as

his patients: but

life

difficult for friends.

The

reason for seeking help from a psychotherapist rather than

from a friend

that the former

is

tively involved

is

less likely to

be subjec-

with the patient, and therefore more

likely

to be able to provide

what the patient needs. Moreover,

the psychotherapist

often confronted with people whose

friends

is

have long ago given up trying to make any intimate

relationship with them, since they have found cult to

do

contact

who

so. It

find

is

it

of others preclude

and

who

are

most

impossible to procure

them from ever

is

who

too dim-

need of human

it,

since their fears

getting close to anyone;

either rebuffs

them

from attempting or shrinks away.

perhaps especially the very introverted, schizoid pa-

tients that the psychotherapist finds

also

it

in

their acquaintances are apt to desist

intimacy with one It

those

most rewarding;

for

it is

both most

such people

greatest skill. Simple cases of anxiety

by anyone

who

difficult

who demand

and his

can often be helped

has the goodwill and time to give to them;

but really isolated personalities

demand an approach and

an understanding which can be acquired only through

spe-

cialized training.

The

relationship with the therapist

makes

possible the

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

128

healing of the dissociation within the patient; the accep-

tance of the previously unacceptable, the integration of the formerly inadmissible. But, the inquirer surely such repulsive aspects of

within

all

of us, that

Many

them.

and perverse

ask, there are

nature, such horrors

impossible to accept or integrate

it is

people are horrified by the

phenomena— the

psychopathologicai ous,

human

may

fantasies

which

catalogue of

grisly

murderous,

lurk in the

back bedrooms

may bring such but while insight may illumine,

of our minds. Analytical investigation into consciousness;

quently

fails

incestu-

to dispel these fantasies;

and the

things it

fre-

intellectual

appreciation of their infantile origins does not necessarily

speed maturation.

not the only possible course to admit

Is

and face the primitive the door and allow

no

vanced are

further expression?

correct,

it

is

origin.

if

and

they are unrelated to the whole, and therefore

The

devil only remains devilish

dissociated from the deity from

The

which

aggressive fantasies

of early childhood and which, life,

been ad-

follows that the horrifying and prim-

unrelated to other people.

he

far

aspects of the psyche only remain horrifying

primitive

if

firmly to close

however, the hypotheses which have so

If,

itive

it

and then

in ourselves

if

whom

they are

still

cause such distress to kindly characters

reality

not harm a

fly,

remain in

he took

his

are so characteristic

active in adult

who would

this primitive

in

form because

the person concerned has also remained childish, and has

never been able to

utilize

the aggressive energy which would

have become available to him at

an early stage

in his

if it

had not been disowned

development.

There are many people who,

for instance, suffer

obsessional thoughts of violence and

who

from

are frightened of

seeing or reading about any manifestation of violence fear

which

greatly

restricts

—

the forms of entertainment

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS

them

available to

in our civilization.

It

129

can regularly be

demonstrated that, in their daily relationships with each other, such people are too compliant, too yielding, too submissive.

The

symptoms

is

aggressive energy actually energy

which

is

locked up in their

which should be

finding ex-

life; and which would contribute to the achievement of a more adult attitude if it were allowed to do so. The more submissive the patient is in reality, the more aggressive will he be in dream and fantasy: the more he is able to make adult relationships on equal terms, the more

pression in

will the infantile, pathological,

and unacceptable aspects of

his aggressiveness disappear. It

is

the attainment of a

new

kind of relationship with others and with himself which ultimately heals the patient; and, in the

more severe

dis-

sociations of personality, this healing can only take place via the psychotherapist. therapist

more adult tion,

and

The changing

becomes a bridge which ties

it is

relationship with the

leads to the formation of

with people outside the therapeutic

this

the transference.

situa-

changing relationship which constitutes

CHAPTER

1

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE Opposition

is

william blake

true friendship.

1

In spite of innumerable expositions the subject of transfer-

ence remains controversial. There analytical psychotherapy

picion or with

ence

is

less

which

is

probably no aspect of

regarded with more sus-

is

understanding.

The

fact that transfer-

both spontaneous and inevitable; that

it

occurs

outside as well as inside the therapeutic situation; that

cannot be engineered, and that to induce this

is

but

even by

it

artificially

little

even

if it

it

it

would not be desirable

were possible to do so— all

appreciated by the public, by doctors, and

psychiatrists without analytical training.

The pop-

ular belief that analysis involves falling in love with the analyst,

and that therapeutic success depends upon

dies hard; and, in the face of such a belief,

ing that the analytical process

For

who would choose

is

it is

this,

not surpris-

regarded with suspicion.

deliberately to enter a situation so

fraught with danger, so apt for exploitation, and so potentially painful as falling in

love with an

unknown person

who, by the nature of that same situation, is unable to reciprocate? It would be idle to deny that, in the course of analytical psychotherapy, powerful feelings of both love and hate do often, though not invariably, become focused upon

130

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE the therapist: but,

enon

fully

is

if

131

the nature of the transference phenom-

apprehended, the fact of the emergence of

such feelings will be appreciated as a spontaneous and

phenomenon, which

evitable

state of the patient rather

the therapist,

who

springs from the subjective

than from the machinations of

indeed would be thankful to be spared

the labour of dealing with such

That transference appreciated; and

in-

difficult manifestations.

a form of projection

is

we owe

to Freud the original

is

generally

and

illumi-

nating concept of the projection of parental figures upon the therapist. in this

way

It is

not surprising that the

are, in

the

first

figures projected

instance, chiefly parental, al-

though the image of any person who has been emotionally

may

important to the patient

also appear: for, as suggested

between patient and

in the last chapter, the relationship

therapist

is

bound

to be emotionally comparable to that

between child and parent, for

which the patient

when

is

at least as regards the

seeking help.

faced with difficulties which

and, although a patient respects, his

may be

We

are

we do not

all

problems children

understand,

adult and mature in

many

emotional problems will disclose the child con-

cealed behind the adult exterior. Moreover, to state that our relationship to

it

is

a truism

an unknown person

is

con-

we have had in the new person, especially

ditioned by the kind of relationships past. It

is

one from

impossible for us to meet a

whom we

hope

for help, without

some degree of

prejudice derived from previous experience.

It is

common

to find out our opinion of a

new acquaintance changes

we

and

get to

know him

better;

this

change

is

as

not simply

the result of finding out more about him, but of correcting the partially distorted picture of

him which our imagination ideally we should ap-

had already constructed. Perhaps

proach a stranger without preconceptions; but, in practice,

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

132

our image of him

is

complex one, compounded

a

from our experience of people

and

in the past,

from our needs and hopes of people in the

partly

partly also

future.

In the therapeutic situation, the more disturbed and isolated the patient, the

more "parental"

will his projec-

upon the therapist tend to be. It has so far been assumed that neurosis is a state of inner disharmony which reflects a disorder of interpersonal relationships; and that tions

can ultimately be traced to a

this disorder

failure of rela-

tionship between the child and his parents.

been pointed

out,

has already

It

and may here be emphasized, that

this

is

not a simple matter of blaming the parents for everything that goes

wrong with the

child's

development, but of an

extremely complex interaction between differing personalities

which

always relative, not absolute. For instance, a

is

may complain

patient

of his father being restrictive and

tyrannical whereas the father might affirm that, since the

patient never

was

little

made any attempt

chance of

to stand

up to him, there

his being regarded in

any other

faults,

human

The more complete, however,

situation.

and

on both

There are always

virtues,

light.

sides in

any

the failure

of the relationship between the child and his parents, the less will

own

potentialities

satisfactory object-relationships;

and the more

the former be able to realize his

and to make

will he be arrested in a stage of development where every

person to

One ment,

as

whom he turns for help will be regarded as a parent. of the most striking features of

human

compared with that of other animals,

period of immaturity of the young; and

which renders man sible his greatest

it

is

The

child

is

the long

probably this

liable to neurosis as well as

achievements.

is

develop-

making

for

many

pos-

years

bound to consider himself as feeble, and adults as powerful, and one characteristic of emotional immaturity in later life

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE is

133

that the subject believes himself to be comparatively

weak, while regarding the object If

as

comparatively strong.

a person believes himself to be relatively

helpless,

he may react to other people

He may

posite ways.

protection, or he

in either

weak and of two opand

cling to others as affording help

may avoid them as threatening dominaThe developing child usually shows

tion and restriction.

these two attitudes quite clearly.

he

will

When

hurt or frightened

run to the mother for aid and comfort; but,

if

she

threatens his independence by being overprotective or dictatorial,

he

will react

with avoidance and anger. The child

both needs objects, and

and

this

is

fears

being dominated by objects;

one fundamental reason

for the

ambivalent na-

ture of the parent-child relationship.

In the transference situation these alternative attitudes are faithfully reproduced and, although both in every patient,

it is

usual for

can be detected

one or other to predominate.

Any experienced psychotherapist will be familiar with the fact that there are two extreme types of patient who cause him particular difficulty. One type is always struggling to get closer to him, clings desperately to him,

and

involved in the analytical situation.

him off, is

is

apparently intensely

The

other

tries to

keep

avoids any personal relationship as far as possible, and

apparently quite indifferent to his therapeutic

former behaves as

moment; the

if

the therapist might abandon

latter as

if

efforts.

him

at

The any

the therapist perpetually threatened

his separate existence.

These opposing attitudes are but one manifestation of a dichotomy which, I believe, runs right through the various types of psychiatric disorder and which various guises in the works of different approaches.

The

many

first

is

familiar under

psychiatrists with very

attitude

is

characteristic of

the more extra verted, the second of the more introverted

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

134

personality.

By

most complete and searching descrip-

far the

tion of these opposing types chobgical Types.

I

am

to be found in Jung's Psy-

is

not here attempting to recapitulate

or summarize Jung's work, but rather to examine in the light of

it

what

I

conceive to be a difference in the basic

attitude to objects as

it

appears in the transference situa-

on the development

tion, since this throws a light

of object-

general. Jung is more concerned with normal than with neurotic psychology, whereas, in the

relationships

in

dichotomy which

I

am

attempting to portray,

I

am

spe-

concerned with the persistence of childish attitudes

cifically

towards objects; in other words, with psychopathology. In order to underline this, attitude

depressive,

schizoid.

Both

I

more extraverted

shall call the

attitude

are essentially negative attitudes based

but the type of fear

fear,

I

and the more introverted

is

different in

have come to regard the

each

fear of being

the object as characteristic of the types

upon

case.

abandoned by

who can be

de-

scribed under the headings extraverted, hysterical, cycloid,

manic-depressive. In contrast, the fear of being dominated

by the object

is

the basic fear of the types characterized as

introverted, obsessional, schizoid, schizophrenic. In an earlier

chapter

I

men need

suggested that

each other on equal terms

as

alize their full potentialities:

relationships with

whole people

and

I

in order to re-

also suggested that there

could be a failure to achieve such a relationship by one of the two people becoming identified with and incorporated in the other,

and hence

failing to

maintain a separate ex-

istence. In the transference situation,

superior position,

it

is

owing

to his initially

unlikely that the therapist will be

incorporated by the patient; but there

is

a danger that the

patient will lose his identity in that of the therapist, and is

this

which the schizoid patient

principally fears.

it

The

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE preservation of the integrity of the personality

135

demands that

there shall be relationships with others; but essentially that

these relationships shall be

The

fear of being

on equal

terms.

dominated and overwhelmed by the

object results in the schizoid subjects keeping away from

any close relationship, and accounts

tachment and sons,

who

air

for the apparent de-

of superiority exhibited by schizoid per-

no need of them. There is

give the impression that they have

other people, and no particular regard for

considerable difficulty in both giving and receiving affection; for to the schizoid subject the establishment of affec-

tionate ties with others to put

him

is

always dangerous, since

it

seems

in their power. Fairbairn, in his brilliant delin-

why come

eation of the schizoid character, states that one reason

the latter

is

unable to show affection

to believe that his love I

am more

is

is

that he has

bad and even damaging

to others.

impressed with what might be called the para-

noid side of the picture, the fear that showing affection may lead to the subject's personality being invaded or domi-

nated.

and

I

entirely agree with the

view expressed by both Jung

Fairbairn, that the values of the introverted schizoid

subject are heaped up in his inner world,

and that he there-

fore tends to undervalue the object. This

people are apt to for

we

make an

to feel that

all like

initially

we

why

schizoid

unpleasant impression;

are valued,

certing to be confronted by a person satisfaction.

is

and

who

it

is

discon-

denies us this

have the impression, not yet confirmed, that

I

the schizoid subject,

when he

is

phobic,

is

more

likely to

be claustrophobic than agoraphobic, in accordance with his

tendency to fear and resent

treatment

it

is

restriction. In the course of

easy for the therapist to underestimate the

patient's progress;

and he may sometimes be surprised to how much improvement he

hear from relatives or friends

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

136

is

The

showing.

projection upon the therapist which con-

stitutes the negative aspect of the transference will

of a parent

who

is

liable to

be that

dominate, to overwhelm, and

ultimately to destroy the patient: and the patient's progress

be dependent upon the extent to which

will

this projection

can be withdrawn. The principal danger of the schizoid that he

becomes so isolated from other people development as an individual cannot proceed.

subject

is

that his

The

fear of being

abandoned by the object

depressive subject clinging to people at

he

easily

all costs.

Above

left

himself too closely with them. His chief difficulty

tify

showing any aggression towards

have to be placated

him

all,

alone— and hence he becomes emotionally involved with others and tends to iden-

frightened of being

is

leads to the

(it

is

in

his fellows, for they always

in order that they

may not abandon

has already been pointed out that a certain aggres-

siveness

is

necessary for the maintenance of a separate ex-

istence as a personality).

The

object tends to be overvalued,

and the subject undervalued, with the consequent danger

may come to feel himself worthless and become dangerously depressed. (In this regard it is worth repeating the clinical observation which has been frequently made that patients recovering from an attack of depression tend to become aggressive to those who are lookthat the subject

thus

ing after them.) Since the object

make he seems more tends to

a pleasant

first

likely to suffer

overvalued, the subject

left

it

is

he

is

phobic, claus-

alone in an empty space

cribbed, cabined,

course of treatment,

If

from agoraphobia than

trophobia, since he fears being

more than being

is

impression.

and confined. In the

easy for the therapist to over-

estimate the patient's progress owing to the latter's anxiety to please him.

The

projection

upon the

therapist

which con-

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE

the negative aspect of the transference will be that of

stitutes

who

a parent

is

abandon the

to

liable to

subject;

withdraw support, to disappear, and

and the

patient's progress will be de-

pendent upon the extent to which

The

drawn.

he becomes to

this projection

can be with-

principal danger of the depressive subject lost as a personality, in that his

he disappears will

that

is

dependence leads

an over-identification with the object, with the

It

137

result that

as a separate entity.

be observed that the schizoid subject

overwhelmed, and so tends to become

being

whereas the

isolated;

depressive subject fears being isolated and so

fears

may become

overwhelmed.

These fundamental in the patient's

flected

which

some

towards objects are

attitudes

relationship with the

in the initial stages of treatment

is

bound

re-

therapist,

to be in

respects a repetition of his relationship with his par-

ents. It has

had been

been assumed

that,

perfect, the subject

if

that earlier relationship

would have developed

in

an

and hence would not be presenting himself treatment; and it follows from this that these transfer-

ideal fashion, for

ence projections upon the therapist are essentially negative.

To 4

put this in a different way, the patient must have had

'bad" parents, at least relatively to himself, or he would

not be a patient; and, since he

by his

past,

is

upon the

parents

As

he

equally

is

bound

bound

therapist.

the therapeutic situation develops

the patient will

come

it

is

is,

above.

and

The

in

is

hoped that

which he

is

emo-

him to have a which he is accepted

possible for

relationship with a parental figure in

he

it

to realize, through repeated

tional experiences, that

as

to be conditioned

to project images of such

safe

from the dangers outlined

negative parental projection will be withdrawn

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

138

new

in so far as this

and

established; tient

comes

It

it

is

relationship with the analyst

to accept himself as

is

becomes

by means of this process that the pa-

he

is.

As

Fairbairn 2 states:

the patient's relationship to the analyst

that mediates the "curing" or "saving" effect of

psychotherapy.

treatment

is

Where

long-term psycho-analytical

concerned, what mediates the "cur-

ing" or "saving" process more specifically

development of the patient's relationship alyst,

through a phase in which

earlier

the

is

to the an-

pathogenic

relationships are repeated under the influence of

transference, into a at

is

once

new kind

of relationship

and adapted

satisfying

which

to the circum-

stances of outer reality.

The

gradual discovery that the therapist

able to accept the patient as he resolve the negative transference, pist as a

"good" rather than

considered that this immaturity, since he

still

a

is

and

genuinely

to regard the thera-

"bad" parent.

It

might be

leaves the patient in a state of

is still

theoretically related to the ther-

apist as child to parent. In practice, since

lack of this

is

enables the latter to

it is

precisely the

"good" relationship with the parent which has and laid

led to the dissociation of the patient's personality,

the foundations of his neurosis,

it

is

usual to find that the

patient does not remain in the dependent position, and that his growth towards maturity proceeds pari passu with

the development of his

new

This generally becomes

less parental, in accordance with

relationship to the therapist.

the idea previously advanced, that a good parent tially a It

parent

who can encourage and

is

essen-

tolerate separation.

might be concluded from what has been

said that the

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE whole of the therapeutic process consisted

in the with-

drawal of negative projections from the therapist.

were

therapy would

so,

no reason

If this

be impossible, for there would be

for the patient to

continue in a situation which

was nothing but a repetition of the

"good" parents

139

past. Positive

upon the

images of

and

it

seems probable that these images have two sources. First,

it

are also projected

can confidently be asserted that no parent

and

however distorted the

that,

may have been, he pression of

he

patient's early experience

will probably

it is

like to

have retained some im-

have a good parent by

Second,

this.

it

animals deprived of

a

A

and there

be a tendency for people to imagine and to seek

out what has been missing in their

lick.

whom

seems highly probable that Jung

right in regarding the psyche as self-regulating;

will thus

as

wholly "bad,"

accepted, even though his conscious recollection

felt

may deny is

what

is

analyst,

own development

salt will travel

practical demonstration of this

miles to find a

was afforded

just salt-

me

by

an orphanage where the majority of the children

visit to

could not remember their mothers, and in most instances

know who

did not this,

all

they were.

I

was told

that, in spite of

the children had invented mothers, whose exis-

tence was usually substantiated with a wealth of fantasy. In the case of patients whose early relationships have been very

much

disturbed or absent,

it

is

not unusual to see a

compulsive search for the missing parent, whose image may

be projected upon many different people, including the therapist;

and

I

take this to be a compensatory activity of

the psyche to remedy jection

is

whom

The

own

deficiency. This type of pro-

comparable to that already described

in pre-adolescence,

people

its

it

when

needs for

as occurring

the child seeks out and idealizes its

own development.

degree to which the patient regards himself as

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

140

weak, and the therapist

as powerful,

is

one measure of the

severity of the patient's failure to mature: the degree to

which he regards the "bad"

is

therapist as wholly

Those with experience tients will recognize that

ence, and that this

it is

who

original expectation)

such patients (contrary to Freud's

exhibit the most intense transfer-

may occur with bewildering

rapid-

All transference relationships are necessarily ambivalent,

just as is

in the analysis of psychotic pa-

extremely unstable in that alterations in

is

the picture of the therapist ity.

"good" or wholly

another.

it is

inevitable that a child's relationship to

ambivalent: but

it is

parents

its

characteristic of the transference

formed

by the most severely disturbed patients that there can be a

sudden alternation between the extremes of positive and negative, so that

on one occasion the

and on another

These incompatible images tient

on the one hand, and

clearly derived

"good"

is

is

treated as a god,

reflect

his fears

the hopes of the pa-

on the

other:

and are

from early childhood, when a parent was

in so far as

in so far as pist

therapist

as a devil.

he

gratified the child's wishes,

and "bad"

he frustrated them. In a phase when the thera-

regarded as bad, the patient will often break off treat-

ment or threaten suicide, only to return at a later stage demanding an increased number of appointments and affirming the absolute necessity of seeing the therapist as fre-

quently as possible. This type of transference indicates a failure to

develop beyond a primitive stage of infantile de-

pendence

in

which,

as

I

have already attempted to describe,

people are regarded entirely from the subjective point of

view and not

at all as separate entities in their

own

right:

and patients at this stage may require the additional support and freedom from the problems of daily life which can be given by admitting them to hospital.

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE

The images

projected

upon the

are extremely primitive and, as like personifications of

being.

I

is

therapist by such patients

have implied above,

good and

No human mother

141

than any actual

evil

more

are

human and so

so wise, so understanding,

beneficent as the

Mother of God: nor could any mortal woman

be

demanding, and

as vengeful, as

as destructive as Kali.

images of the good and evil mother can be found

world in various forms; and

this

it is

all

These

over the

kind of fact which led

Jung to advance his theory of archetypes. Psycho-analysis, stressing the helplessness of the infant, solipsistic

view which

it

and the

necessarily

must have of objects, conceives that

these primitive images originate in actual pathogenic experi-

ences of infancy and become established as "internal objects" in the infant psyche. Analytical psychology,

hand, would regard such images

on the other

as archetypal, as underlying

the normal experience which any infant has of

and would only consider life as

It

mother,

its

their continued projection in adult

pathological.

does not seem to

me

of paramount importance, at

any rate in the practice of psychotherapy, whether one believes

in the

such phenomena to be the result of very early events life

of the infant or as the expression of inborn char-

acteristics of the

human

psyche.

What

is

important

recognition that the projection of these images

is

an

is

the

indi-

cation of a lack of any real relationship with the person

who nor for

carries the projection. devils, but

good nor

human

Actual people are neither gods

beings

who

are neither so powerful

for evil as these terms imply;

when we have no

real contact

and

it

is

only

with another person that we

can project upon them so wholeheartedly. In war-time,

when

the majority of people feel at the mercy rather than

in control of events, there

childish condition in

is

a general regression to a

which projections of

this

more

kind are

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

142

The enemy, blackened by propaganda, become devilish, whereas the leader of one's own side can do no wrong. But the enemy will remain wholly evil only so long as there is no fraternization with them; and the saviour of his people had better keep aloof from them if he wishes to preserve his moral superiority. Professor Cohn, in The almost universal.

3

and

Pursuit of the Millennium, has demonstrated that misery social disintegration

saviour

who

evoke a collective tendency to seek a people to millenniary

will lead his

bliss:

and,

whereas the saviour and his followers are wholly good, those

who oppose him

are wholly bad. This

is,

as the

author

in-

on a mass scale. phenomenon springs from misery

dicates, a paranoid system Just as the collective

and

social disintegration, so the personal manifestation of

it

in the transference situation demonstrates the patient's pro-

found isolation and lack of any adult contact with others.

But the therapeutic relationship wholly consist of projections:

tween two people which

is

relationship based entirely

therefore

no

relationship at

it

is

is

one which does not

also a relationship be-

taking place here and now.

on projection all:

and

I

whom

The

psychotic, and

cannot agree with the

popular conception that the therapist screen upon

is

A

is

merely a blank

the patient can project his fantasies.

question of whether the relationship between patient

and therapist is a real one, or whether the therapist's apparent concern for the patient is simply assumed for the purpose of therapy,

is

who have never been

often raised, especially by patients able to trust anyone and

threatened by an offer to help. So far as

from

my own

experience,

I

to care for his patient in a genuine basis for treatment.

tive

way

is,

I

Caring

believe,

I

would say that for

way

is

am

who

feel

able to judge

for the therapist

the best possible

another person in an objec-

both possible and

desirable,

and

is

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE entirely different

143

from being involved with them emotion-

ally in a subjective fashion. If

either by projecting

upon

the therapist

his

so involved,

is

patient or by

identifying

with him, he may be described as exhibiting countertransference. If

his

a child

own

right,

is

to develop satisfactorily as

it is

a vested interest in him. Parents their children

an individual

in

necessary that his parents should not have

who

identify themselves with

and demand that the children

be

shall

as like

themselves as possible are simply loving themselves narcissistically,

not the children. Parents

who demand

that the chil-

dren shall be different from themselves in the sense of achieving more, or being better than themselves, are projecting into the children their

own

unrealized potentialities and,

by living vicariously in the children, are as separate entities.

tion

is

ultimately self-love, not love

differentiation. tively

if

failing to regard

Love based on projection and

The

them

identifica-

which speeds growth and

parent needs to love his children objec-

they are to develop happily: the psychotherapist

should have a similar attitude to his patients

if

they are to

become more mature. In other words, the psychotherapist needs to be free from counter-transference.

The

essential feature of counter-transference

that the

is

patient becomes of emotional importance to the therapist in a subjective rather

than in an objective way.

I

have

already expressed the belief that the therapist needs to care for his patients in a itations,

comes

and no one can

to consult him.

is

We

all

have our lim-

like or care for every patient

Where

who

long-term psychotherapy

is

trial

period will usually reveal whether or not

likely to

be any insurmountable incompatibility.

concerned, a there

genuine fashion.

Psychotherapists must be able to care for their patients; but there

is

a world of difference between caring for

someone

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

144

and becoming emotionally involved with them. What are the ways in which counter-transference can show itself? Perhaps the commonest

difficulty

is

identify himself with his patient. This

to

happen with patients who

himself, or

who happen

for the therapist to is

especially likely

are temperamentally similar to

have the same kind of emotional

to

problems from which he himself has

suffered. If this occurs

the patient will lack any real relationship with the therapist, for the latter,

to

though intensely sympathetic with him,

is

bound

to provide that degree of difference from the patient

fail

without which the entity.

A

bond of

latter

cannot discover himself as a separate

identity

ness—an interaction

in

is

a

bond of mutual unconscious-

which two people simply

reflect

each

other and support each other, but in which no development is

possible, since there

ther to

is

not sufficient differentiation for

become more aware of his

A second type of difficulty projects

He

some unrealized

is

ei-

separate identity.

that in

which the

therapist

part of himself into the patient.

then becomes too anxious that the patient

what he himself has been unable

to achieve.

shall fulfil

Most people,

including psychotherapists, have unrealized potentialities, or feel that

if

only (fatal phrase) their course in

slightly different they

ent, or

would have achieved

a greater success in

other than that which they have chosen. psychotherapist to

become

tient's personality

which

had been

It is

differ-

some

field

easy for the

fascinated by aspects of the pa-

are in fact unrealized parts of his

try and which properly belongs to

own: and thus to

life

themselves would have been

steer the patient in a direction

his

own

personality and not to

that of the patient. Falling in love with the patient

most

is

a danger of

psychotherapists are well aware, but to

which

which they

nevertheless occasionally succumb. Such a misfortune

is

fa-

TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE

the progress of treatment since, owing to the nature

tal to

of the therapeutic relationship, a sexual

and patient

apist

145

is

bound

bond between

to be incestuous,

and

ther-

to interfere

with the development of the patient's personality in precisely

the same way as

parent-child incest

More

subtle

is

we have

liable to do.

is

the danger that the psychotherapist will

use the patient to bolster his as

someone

to

already indicated that

show

own

therapist has ideas of his

self-esteem,

and

him

treat

even to dominate.

off to, or

If

own, he may use the patient

the as a

proof of a theory and encourage the production of interesting psychopathological material

which he can use

for writ-

may

ing papers and books. Occasionally a psychotherapist

be a fanatic

who

wishes to convert his patient to a partic-

and thus

ular philosophy or set of beliefs,

to indoctrinate

him, rather than encourage him to find his

own

construct his

philosophy of

life.

own way and

This possibility

is

dis-

cussed in the next chapter. It is

desirable,

scious of,

however, for psychotherapists to be con-

and prepared to

state, their

fundamental

Since a man's convictions are bound to

and

his attitude towards others,

it

is

affect his

beliefs.

conduct

possible for a patient

to be influenced by the beliefs of the psychotherapist,

though these have never been there

may be

a stage at

which

explicitly stated. it

is

even

Moreover,

necessary for the psy-

chotherapist to say quite openly what he believes in order that the patient differentiation.

may be

One

able to reach a further stage of

cannot differentiate oneself from an

enigma; and, although

I

am

convinced of the necessity of the

therapist keeping himself entirely in the

nearly

all

the time he spends in therapy,

also recognize that

when he may have to reveal more of the patient can make further progress.

there are times in order that

I

background during

himself

CHAPTER

12

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION But

the

power of instruction

is

seldom of much

except in those happy dispositions where

superfluous

It

it

efficacy,

is

largely

gibbon

.

1

has been suggested above that the efficacy of analytical

psychotherapy depends upon the development of the

rela-

tionship between the therapist and his patient; and that

the degree of therapeutic success

is

proportional to the de-

gree of maturity attained in this relationship. lationship has already been defined as one in

A

mature

re-

which neither

submits to or dominates the other; in which each treats the other as a whole person in his

own

right;

and

in

which

each accepts and respects his differences from the other. this hypothesis

is

correct,

it

follows that such therapeutic

may be obtained does not depend upon

success as

If

the ac-

ceptance by the patient of the therapist's convictions, but rather

upon the patient reaching

which he his

own This

feels free to

make up

a stage of

his

development

own mind and

in

to reach

convictions. is

not to imply that the therapist should himself

were possible; for he would

have no convictions, even

if

then be a nonentity with

whom no

lationship.

It is

this

one could make a

re-

indeed important that the therapist should

have a point of view of

his

own and 146

that he should be as

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION aware of

right to

But the

whom

the patient can relate.

fact that the therapist holds a certain point of

view does not mean that life

only so can he be a personality

as possible; for

it

own

in his

147

this particular

way of looking

at

has to be implanted within the patient for therapeutic

and

success to be achieved;

it is

actually a sign of failure

if

the patient emerges from the analytical situation merely

echoing the psychotherapist's opinions. successful,

it

If

psychotherapy

independent entities and, therefore, to find their of

in terms of their

life

is

encourages people to be more themselves as

own

inherited dispositions.

own way The idea

of indoctrination, of implanting dogmatic beliefs,

is,

or

should be, entirely foreign to the spirit of any form of analytical psychotherapy.

Nevertheless, some psychiatrists have compared the analytical process to a

conversion experience, and have sup-

posed that such effectiveness as they concede

it

to possess

depends upon the indoctrination of the patient with a

set

of dogmas derived from the analytical school to which the

psychotherapist happens to adhere. In other words, they suggest that a successfully treated patient religion;

intent as to Is

a convert to a

is

and that the therapist must be a fervent believer,

on acquiring

imbue

who desires nothing so much with his own dogmatic beliefs.

proselytes,

his patients

analytical psychotherapy really brain-washing of a

more humane

variety?

peutic relationship, are

By exposing patients

we

individuality, putting our

verting them?

The

in fact depriving

own

way of

life.

Is

of their

ideas into their minds, con-

indoctrinator

to compel his victim to accept a to a different

to the thera-

them

tries,

by force

dogma and

if

necessary,

to convert

him

the psychotherapist, however

well-intentioned, pursuing the same path and achieving by kindlier

means that conversion which the indoctrinator

at-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

148

tempts to ensure by forceful persuasion?

drop our attempts at analysis.

If so,

we had

better

surely better that people

It is

should be allowed to continue in neurotic misery than that they should have their freedom interfered with to this extent. It is

he cannot avoid influencing

to be, is

obvious that, however detached the therapist

Even

his patient.

tries if

he

scrupulous in eschewing the use of direct suggestion, his

attitude to

the kind of person he himself

life,

communicated

to the patient

to obtrude his

own

however

personality.

carefully

The popular

is,

he

will tries

be not

picture of the

analyst as a completely impersonal interpreter of behaviour,

who

whom

simply a blank screen upon

is

project images of people from his past,

can be sustained in

reality.

There

also

is

is

the patient can

not one which

an actual relation-

ship between patient and therapist at the time of meeting;

and there can be no actual relationship between human beings without mutual influence. Indoctrination, however, unlike analytical psychotherapy,

is

not a matter of mutual influence but of the complete

domination of one person by another. authority

hand and who,

who a

is

more or

less

trination

is

presupposes an

which

didactic,

is

on the one

misguided victim on the other,

like the guests of Procrustes,

a rigid structure

It

in possession of "the truth"

is

unlikely to

coercive,

forced to conform to

fit

him

exactly. Indoc-

and authoritarian.

It

is,

therefore, entirely opposed to the kind of development of

the individual personality which,

aim

I

have suggested,

is

the

of analytical psychotherapy.

Although

I

do not believe that the psychotherapeutic

upon or should involve indoctrination, some excuse for those who, knowing little of ana-

process depends

there lytical

is

methods, have advanced such a view: for the behav-

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION iour of certain

patients

on the

analysts

149

on the one hand, and

other, might be thought to imply

certain it.

The

tendency of psychotherapists to form esoteric groups has already been admitted, and deplored, in an earlier part of

book: and

this

it

true that

is

verts to a religion

whose

some

analysts resemble con*

to the exclusion of any other activity.

who who

communicate

are unable to is

not of their persuasion;

Such

are the analysts

with anyone

effectively

who

on

insist

children being analysed from an early age; selves

by their faith

lives are enthralled

who

their are

own

them-

permanently "in analysis" with one or other of their

colleagues;

and who,

spending ten or more hours of

after

the day treating patients, seem unable to find any more agreeable

way of spending an evening than by attending an

analytical meeting.

Behaviour of that those

who

this

kind

is

practise any

likely to give rise to the idea

form of analytical psychother-

apy are fanatics intent on forcing their patients to accept doctrinaire assertions. Nevertheless, there

that

I

know

is

no evidence

of to support the hypothesis that patients

who

have been treated by even the most fanatical of analysts necessarily continue to subscribe to the particular views ei-

ther of the therapist to

which the

who

latter

themselves there groups; but the

is

has treated them or of the school

belongs.

Amongst

psychotherapists

certainly a tendency to form esoteric

number and

variety of such groups,

and the

frequent disagreements both within and between them, do

not suggest that dogmas are handed

down unchanged from

generation to generation as they are in some religious and political sects.

The

many splinter may be thought

very fact that there are so

groups within the various analytical schools

to imply that the analytical process leads not to uniformity

but to a greater diversity of

belief.

"Quot homines,

tot sen-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

150

tentxat'

is

an aphorism which

confirmed rather than un-

is

dermined by psychotherapy: and different groups of analysts

is

common

ground between

to be found, not in their the-

oretical assumptions, but in their attitude to the individual. It is

not only the behaviour of certain therapists which

gives rise to the suspicion that analysis

some

doctrination:

patients also

having been indoctrinated, last

chapter

it

at

may

is

a process of in-

give the impression of

any rate temporarily. In the

was pointed out that there were two extreme

types of patient

who

could be distinguished by their attitude

to the therapist: those

whose basic

fear

was of being aban-

doned, and those whose principal dread was of being over-

whelmed. These two in all

fears

seem

men, although one may

to be present to

be,

and

usually

some extent is,

far

more

in evidence than the other. Their existence accords well

with the hypothesis already presented, that the satisfactory

development of personality requires that the individual

shall

have relationships with other individuals, but that these relationships

need to be of a kind which allows

his assertion

of his uniqueness. In general

it

is

true to say that the

more extraverted

number of contacts with other may be of a rather superficial protect him from complete isolation.

patient generally has a fair

people; and, although these kind, they at least

Such people are liable to identify themselves with the therapist and thus, for a time, adopt his point of view as if it were their own: but the

fact that there are other people of

emotional importance in their

lives dilutes the effect of this

and makes the resolution of the positive The more introverted paisolated, but not as a rule markedly dependent; and

identification

transference comparatively easy. tient

is

so

not generally in

is

much danger

of over-identification

with the therapist or of taking over his

beliefs wholesale.

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION

151

who exhibit both characwho are both extremely iso-

But there are a few patients teristics in

profound measure,

and extremely dependent. Such people, because of

lated

their isolation, find in the therapist the only person

means anything

to

who

them. At the same time their depen-

dence makes them identify with him and hang on

his every

word. Sometimes they alternate between trying to get as close as possible to the therapist for fear that

he

will aban-

don them, and withdrawing as far as they can for fear of being crushed by him. Such patients seem to be those who have never had any secure relationship with either parent, or indeed with any

human

being; and to them, for a time,

the therapeutic situation

is

all-important, just as for the

infant at the beginning of

life

the relationship to the mother

is

vital. It

come

is

probable that this small group of patients do be-

temporarily indoctrinated, in the sense of identifying

themselves with the analyst's ideas, in the same way that a small child at beliefs of rily,

this

deepen

its

first

adopts the standards and takes over the

parents: but,

if

treatment proceeds satisfacto-

phase will pass, for the patient will extend and

his relationship

fear of differing

with other people, and also lose his

from the therapist,

just as a child

secure becomes less and less afraid of differing ents.

on

Not

all

who its

is

par-

such patients are curable, and some may go

what has been missing

indefinitely looking for

early

from

development.

It is, I

believe, this group

in their

who may,

in

default of achieving any real relationship with another per-

son, hold

on

to Jungian or Freudian or any other variety of

psychological theory as

if it

were a dogmatic

give rise to the impression (since

about tion.

it)

it

that the analytical process

is

they

is

faith;

who

and thus

talk

most

one of indoctrina-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

152

Since the Americans became disturbed

men who

portion of

collaborated in

enemy while imprisoned

the

high pro-

at the

some way or other with Communist methods

in Korea,

The

of indoctrination have been exhaustively studied. sults of these studies are actually reassuring to

who

therapist

is

alarmed

at the

re-

the psycho-

thought that he may be

indoctrinating his patients rather than aiding their devel-

opment

as individuals.

The

figures

show that

diffi-

men who

the promise of alleviation, to persuade some

unprepared for

emy

this

But, contrary to popular supposition,

it

and the

him

to

forced to

is

far

is

produce a permanent change in a man's

There

are

treatment to collaborate with the en-

to the extent of signing peace pledges

vert

not

it is

under appalling conditions, by the threat of torture or

cult,

like.

from easy to

beliefs or to

con-

an alien point of view. evidence that even those Americans

make

who were

the statements that the U.S.A. was using

germ warfare did not believe what they were in a study of these

saying: and,

men, Winokur concluded that the 2

sub-

jects

knew

guilt

which was aroused by the making of the statements

that they were

making

false statements,

but "the

was handled by the mechanism of rationalization in which the subjects questioned whether telling

could be harmful to their

own

lies

to the

enemy

country."

Less than five per cent of the soldiers exposed to

Com-

munist indoctrination in prison camps in Korea came back

convinced Communists; and, of these, a number were

known

to be sympathetic to

Korea, and a vious

Communism

number have probably

way of thinking since

before going to

reverted to their pre-

their return.

Both the Ameri-

cans and the British agree that the indoctrination programme in Korea was ineffective in producing converts to

Communism.

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION

153

However, the cases which have caused most concern

men who made

are those of

spectacular confessions of guilt

and

in the Russia treason trials,

who emerged from Chinese their captors.

It is

also those of the prisoners

prisons singing the praises of

these cases which have given rise to the

fear that there exists

some

infallible

method

of

4

'brain-

washing," of extracting one set of ideas from a man's head

and replacing them with another. In fact,

only a very small minority even of impor-

it is

tant political prisoners lic trials

who

are

deemed

fit

to appear at pub-

in Russia. Hinkle and Wolff, 3 in their admirable

Communist methods, point out that there are many reasons why a prisoner should sign a confession and repeat it in court. He may think that no one will believe it in any

study of

case, or that

he

will

be released and can then repudiate his

confession. There are even "instances of prisoners

who

signed depositions largely out of sympathy for their interrogators because they felt that they

proper deposition thors have

made

would be punished

were not forthcoming." The same

a study of those

who,

after

if

a

au-

prolonged de-

tention in Chinese prisons, have emerged saying that their

imprisonment was deserved and a valuable experience, and

who thus appear to have been thoroughly indoctrinated. It is now known that such people form a small and special group described

as

emotionally rootless. They were

ple in rebellion against their parents

all

and the way of

peo-

life

of

the segment of society to which their parents belonged.

They

all

spoke Chinese and were anxious to remain in

China: and they were familiar with Marxism already, even if

not actually members of "fellow-traveller" groups. Hinkle

and Wolff conclude: "Thus

it

is

quite erroneous to think

that those who have experienced prison indoctrination in Communist China emerge as thoroughly indoctrinated

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

154

Communists who express praise and admiration for their captors. Such people are as unusual as the public confessors in Russian purge trials." It

may be

that the small percentage of people

converted by Communist indoctrination have

common

with the patients described above as showing both

extreme isolation and extreme dependence. this

who are much in

To determine

would require further research; but the two groups

one

tainly share

characteristic feature— the

cer-

lack of any

strong attachments in their past lives. It

must come

as a relief to

everyone

freedom of the individual to know

if

tell lies,

man

or so stu-

he cannot distinguish truth from falsehood,

he returns to a normal environment, he

tainly recover his judgement,

once again be his

values the

that, although a

can be temporarily broken, compelled to pefied that

who

own way

free to

of

life.

form his

A

come back

own

yet,

will almost cer-

to himself,

and

conclusions and choose

study of the literature of indoctri-

nation induces the realization that the toughness and powers

of recovery of the

human psyche

are

even more

remarkable than had been supposed; and the contemplation of so

much

horror

is

relieved by the vision of such

resil-

ience. It is

certainly possible that those

cal psychotherapy

who undergo

become imbued with

humanism—for example,

analyti-

a kind of liberal

with the idea, implicit in any psy-

chotherapeutic procedure, that the individual or with the belief that love

is

is

important;

better than hate, or freedom

than tyranny. They may even be indoctrinated with the notion that indoctrination

is

an unwarrantable

infringe-

ment of human liberty. But it seems highly unlikely that more than a very small proportion of patients become devoted "Freudians," or "Jungians," or "Kleinians," and any

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION

who do must be accounted is

155

therapeutic failures. Conversion

certainly a subject of psychological interest; but as a

method of treatment

it

has nothing to

commend

it

to the

psychotherapist. In fact, the total acceptance of a creed

which was previously unacceptable must arouse cions.

The

instability, sal to

reversal of a

and

it

his suspi-

man's basic tenets argues a certain

can never be certain that a further rever-

the original condition will not occur.

exhibit fanaticism and dogmatism

switch their allegiance, just as

it

is

who

are

those

It is

those

most

who

who

likely to

exhibit the

most powerful feelings in the transference situation who

most

easily reverse their picture of the analyst.

Dogmatism and fanaticism

mony

are signs of

an inner dishar-

of personality, of a precarious adjustment which

is

own beliefs and those of others which characterizes the man who is at peace with himself. Maturity requires that a man shall know his own mind and be aware of his own convictions; but the more he achieves the realization of his own personality the the very opposite of the calm acceptance of his

less

bigoted will he generally become.

CHAPTER

13

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY The

greatest thing in the world

to

is

know how

I

believe that each

to

belong

montaigne

to ourselves.

human

being, in spite of sharing

1

many

endowed with

characteristics with his fellows,

is

a unique personality. Just as

living things grow, develop,

and come to be whatever

all

their inherited structure prede-

termines that they shall be, so a of which he

may be

genetically

man

is

urged on by forces

largely unconscious to express his

uniqueness, to be himself, to realize his

That

it is

genetic variation which

for differences in personality

what

is

inherited and

how

is

own

personality.

ultimately responsible

seems certain;

for,

although

remains obscure, the differences

are too wide to be accounted for by It

own

environment alone.

has already been pointed out that

it is

the long period

of men's immaturity compared with that of other animals

which makes

possible the achievements of civilization; for

a prolonged immaturity implies a continuing plasticity

an extended capacity to sible the

partial

learn. His large brain

and

makes pos-

complexity of man's psychic structure, and his

emancipation from the tyranny of instinct

is

depen-

dent upon this complexity. For, although the broad outlines of his behaviour are laid

down and he can never

from the confines of his biological 156

endowment, man

escape is

less

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY bound by

rigid instinctual patterns

The fundamental, men;

parently indefinite. instinct

compels

same way. The

than any other animal.

common

archetypal themes are

the individual variations

A bird or to

it

157

upon these themes

insect

to all are ap-

rigidly confined,

is

do exactly the same things

and

in the

relative simplicity of the nervous system

enforces stereotypy of behaviour; and so birds and insects of the same species are practically indistinguishable from

each other. Men, on the other hand, though sharing the

same basic

instincts,

because of their complexity, express

these instincts in varying, indirect,

and subtle ways; and so

exhibit that differentiation from each other personality.

Although

in the species as a

whole the

limited by inheritance.

No

one can

tell

son a baby will become; but within continuing which will lead to

its

what

sort of a per-

becoming

itself

alone;

Something

human ovum determines that it human foetus and nothing else; it seems

within the

is

possi-

a mysterious process

it

to the emergence of a new, a unique individual.

into a

call

of variation are infinite, in the individual they are

bilities

is

which we

will

develop

that there

a similar pre-formed organization independent of con-

sciousness

which

is

struggling to emerge

and which

will

ultimately manifest itself as the mature personality.

But the protracted immaturity of the human child

means

that, for

many

years,

he

is

consequently liable to influence. security of

He

an objective love which

which, by accepting him as he himself in the

full

weak and

is,

is

helpless

needs, above

all,

and the

unconditional, a love

enables

him

flower of his individuality.

to

If

become

such love

were unequivocally available, perhaps his development could proceed without hindrance and his mature personality

emerge without conflict and without

child

is

distortion.

ever so fortunate; and some deflection from

But no its

own

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

158

true path

is

therefore inevitable,

ity

however benevolent

own

parents and however robust his

nature.

his

The complex-

of his psychic structure makes possible dissociation and

repression; his helplessness ensures his conformity,

a condition

and so

created in which parts of his personality are

is

denied expression and he becomes, and may remain, something

"There

fully himself.

is

no one whose

development proceeds wholly without

inal

we

than

less

are all partially neurotic,

all,

in

lib id-

a hitch";

some degree,

less

and than

entirely ourselves.

The

difference

between people who

are sufficiently neu-

rotic to seek, or to need, psychotherapeutic help,

and that

man is one of degree, not no one who has not at times

mysterious being the "normal" of kind; and there can be suffered rotic

from the inner disharmony which gives

To

symptoms.

chic conflict.

is

be neurotic

is

to suffer

neu-

from intrapsy-

a subjective state manifesting itself in

symptoms of which none but the victim may be

subjective

aware.

It

rise to

The

existence of a severe degree of neurosis does not

preclude considerable success, in the sense of conventional

achievement; in

fact, certain types of success

can probably

not be attained without a compulsive drive for power which

most psychiatrists would regard correlation

as pathological.

between neurosis and

There

intelligence, nor

is

no

between

many inefwho are not neurotic, just as who are far from ineffective. But

neurosis and practical effectiveness. There are fective people in the world

there are

many

neurotics

inquiry into the interpersonal relationships of neurotics reveals a lack of maturity, a failure to progress ish

beyond a

child-

preoccupation with being worse than, or better than,

others;

an

inability to love

and be lovable; a

failure to

achieve that relationship of whole person to whole person

which

is

the outward sign of an inward integration.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

159

"Neurotics are persons whose real actions are blocked." 2 In other words, they are people whose personalities are only partially manifested,

and neurotic symptoms

are essentially

due to a conflict between the attempted emergence of the

and the

true individual

No

fears

which

child can conceivably have

opment; but,

if

forbid this emergence.

an

ideally

things go reasonably well, he will, as he gets

older, gradually discover

and accept

him

own nature. his own powers

emerge from identification with

to

His

his

increasing security and recognition of able

smooth devel-

his parents

en-

and

to dispense with those introjected aspects of their psychol-

own with new

ogy which do not accord with his projecting

upon and

identifying

tions

from

in adult

We

grad-

is

potentialities, to

own personality, and to correct such divagaown path as have been imposed upon his The degree to which this process of self-

his

immaturity. realization

people he

own dormant

ually able to disclose his

discover his

inner nature. By

completed determines the degree of neurosis

is

life.

know

that

called objective

if

all

children need that love which

I

have

they are to develop satisfactorily: but

we

are far from understanding all the complexities of the in-

teraction between heredity

mines how much realizing his

men

as

own

difficulty

and environment which

the individual

personality. In spite of the

Kretschmer and Sheldon, in

reliable yardstick of innate

in

work of such

spite of the typology

of Jung and the researches of the geneticists,

no

deter-

may encounter

human

we have

as yet

differences,

no

knowledge which would enable us to predict and make provision for the differing requirements of different tempera-

mental endowments. Parents and children may be very variously constituted; but,

if

there obtains between

them

a

love which accepts and welcomes differences, the majority

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

160

of emotional difficulties will be solved in the course of the child's

to

fail

development; and such parts of his personality

as

emerge or are disowned within the home

be

evoked by the contacts he makes outside the child has

him

ficult for

rosis

which

It

is

become

however,

it

to be dif-

not outgrown may

a condition of neu-

persist.

may prove

at this point that the psychotherapist

is

of value.

he

If

accept and

is

adequately trained, he should be able to

make contact with

a wider range of personalities

than the average person. Moreover, the therapy

If,

sufficiently disturbed for

new attachments,

to form

it.

is

his

own

with someone whose is

fact that psycho-

chosen profession renders tolerable and even

exciting the adventure of attempting to

and who

will

make

a relationship

efforts in this regard

have

failed,

therefore unable to progress in his

own

devel-

One cannot foretell how far any individual will be progress towards his own maturity; but the psycho-

opment. able to

therapist, least

if

he

is

sufficiently at

peace with himself, can at

provide the background of emotional security against

which further development his essential function.

which he holds,

is

possible;

and

this

is, I

The technique he employs,

are probably of comparatively

believe,

the views

little

impor-

tance; the attitude he has to the patient and the relation-

makes with him

ship he Is

it

possible for a

to strive to

man

ever to belong to himself, as

know who he is, to be no less, be no more, than his endowment demands

Montaigne expresses and

are vital.

it;

to

of him? Jung says, 3 "Personality

is

the supreme realization

of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being.

high courage flung in the face of tion of ful

all

life,

It is

an act of

the absolute affirma-

that constitutes the individual, the most success-

adaptation to the universal conditions of existence

coupled

with

the

greatest

possible

freedom

for

self-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

161

determination." These are fine words; but are they any more

than that?

Can

a

man

ever really achieve unity and whole-

we simply spinning empty phrases, toying with phantom ideals, which may arouse our ardour without afness; or are

fecting our behaviour?

do not believe that anyone ever

I

reaches a condition of complete inner harmony; but those

who seem

to approach

most nearly to

this ideal share cer-

tain attributes. Jung says:

4

definiteness, wholeness,

and ripeness": and

'There

is

no personality without

one might add consistency, freedom from com-

acteristics

and maturity of interpersonal

pulsion,

to these char-

whose public and private

relationships. People

can

lives are widely discrepant

hardly be said to be integrated; and maturity demands that

the personality shall be recognizably the same under varying

The

circumstances.

an alien

force,

and neurotic realize his

sense of compulsion, of being driven by

which attends neurotic

own powers and

achieve the best one

is

striving for

when

sexuality, disappears

a

man

is

power

able to

to express his sexuality.

capable of

is

To

from the

to be freed

'

compulsion to do 'better than": to be able to give and to receive love in a mature relationship

is

to be freed

from

compulsive sexuality.

We

are

from our but

we

both limited and

instincts,

and we can never escape

free,

which must,

therefore, find expression;

attain the greatest freedom

limitations. If

we do not

strive to

when we

recognize our

be superior

to,

we

shall

not be dominated by, our instinctive dispositions. That the

achievement of personality interpersonal relationships

and the man who

is

icily

is

is

characterized by maturity of

a principal

remote

theme of

dent upon, his fellows cannot be regarded his full stature as a

observation,

human

this

book;

from, or slavishly depenas

having reached

being. But, however detailed our

we cannot from

outside

comprehend what

is

162

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

essentially

an inner experience.

point out that neurosis

have been

I

at pains to

and

a subjective state,

is

that, al-

though certain aspects of a person's behaviour may enable

one

to deduce

self

can know the extent to which he

an inner disturbance, only the subject him-

Similarly, the sense of being at

true to

and

in

is

harmony with one's own

it is

recognize

when

a

man

oneself, of being

nature,

is

ultimately

we may think

a subjective experience; and, although

we can

riven by conflict.

one with

that

has attained this condition,

who knows

really only the individual himself

his

own

truth.

At the beginning

of this chapter

postulated a pre-

I

formed organization independent of consciousness which in the child

is

struggling to emerge,

and which

Some such working is

hypothesis seems inescapable, since

clear that consciousness

person. Part of the

know

in the adult

mature personality.

will ultimately manifest itself as the

it

can never comprehend the whole

human

condition

ourselves completely; for

we

is

that

we can never

are both observer

and

observed and must, therefore, in some degree perpetually elude our

we

own

surveillance.

However much

insight

we

have,

can never see the whole of ourselves, never be conscious

of the totality of our being.

It

cannot therefore be con-

sciousness alone which directs the course of the individual

towards his ing

if it

own

maturity; and, indeed,

live out their lives

without showing

sessing consciousness in the

The

human

would be

surpris-

pole to neurosis, that there is,

much

evidence oi pos-

sense at

all.

subjective sense of being at one with oneself, of

possessing that inner serenity

which

it

were, since other living things grow, develop, and

as

is

it

is,

which stands

in fact, often

at the opposite

accompanied by a

feeling

something superior to the ego, something were, directing the course of the individual's

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY development and to which If

such phrases

of one's

own

as

163

behoves him to pay attention.

it

"personal integrity," "fidelity to the law

being," being "true to oneself" are anything

more than catchwords, one is bound to postulate some totality of the personality which is greater than that ego with which we habitually

identify ourselves; for,

a

if

either true or untrue to himself, the self to

man can which he

be is

either true or untrue cannot be identical with that execu-

him

tive part of

ego,

which these epithets

to

will recognize his

Jung

concept of a

which represents the individual

ply that aspect of himself of

apply. Readers of

self,

superior to the

in his totality, not sim-

which he happens

to be con-

scious.

Those

uncongenial,

when

whom

to

such a concept

is

strange, or initially

may perhaps be more prepared to entertain it we often use such ideas in another

they recall that

context.

A work of art such

as a

novel or a symphony

is, if

of high calibre, often referred to as possessing the qualities of inner coherence and inevitability.

We feel

that only this

phrase could have followed that; that this incident, and no other, could appear at a particular point, that only thus

could the work be ended. There zation or inner structural pattern

the work as a whole and

and the

it

is

sum

is

its

parts

which

it

appears, an organi-

which somehow embraces

superior to

partly this sense of the

of

is,

its

individual phrases;

whole being greater than

excites our admiration.

The nu-

merous descriptions of the creative process afforded us by artists

test

of

all

kinds,

and indeed by

the fact that the

artist

himself

scientists also, is

often unaware of

his creation will finally manifest itself,

to find If,

the

how

surely

its

end

is

amply

at-

how

and may be surprised

foreshadowed in

its

beginning.

however, we admit such a hypothesis to our view of

human

psyche,

we

are certainly inviting criticism of the

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

164

most devastating kind. History can parade before us an im-

mense number of deluded cranks who have felt themselves to be the agents of a superior force, and who have justified their for

most abominable actions by placing the

them on God, on

whom

Fate, or

on some

responsibility

lesser

luminary by

they believed themselves to be guided or inspired.

Aldous Huxley, 5

in his brilliant essay "Justifications," tells

us of the Swiss Anabaptist,

manded

as

Thomas Schucker, who, com-

he believed by the

deity, cut off his brother's

head with a sword in the presence of a people.

Was Thomas Schucker

large

number

being true to himself,

of

fol-

was he simply acting out

own development, or an infantile fantasy? He himself

asserted the former view;

most of us would incline to the

lowing the predestined path of his

latter:

lem.

but this extreme example raises an interesting prob-

we admit

If

the hypothesis of a self to which the in-

dividual can be true, are to distinguish

we not

inviting delusion

and

failing

between the maturely integrated individual

and the psychotic?

Once

again

we meet

the curious link which joins the

opposite poles of the development of personality, and to

which

I

referred in

an

sense, a whole; for, in

earlier chapter. its

The

infant

solipsistic isolation,

is,

in

one

it is itself,

no

6

no more. "Nearest then to Tao is the infant." But its upon the fact that its only relationship with people is one of total dependence, which, in the less,

entire spontaneity rests

most primitive

stage,

is

not a relationship

people are not distinguished as part of the subject.

as separate objects

still

in

an

but treated

This attitude towards objects

characteristic of the psychotic,

emotionally

at all, since other

who may be assumed

infantile stage of

is

also

to be

development; and

our theoretical difficulty over such people as

Thomas

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY Schucker may be resolved beliefs

if

we pay

165

attention not to their

but to their object relationships.

In the introduction acterized not so

suggested that a delusion

I

much by

tional intensity with

its

which

is

char-

truth or falsity as by the

emo-

it

is

held:

it

is

a citadel to be

defended against other people, not a hypothesis which can be discussed with them. liefs

Many

reasonable people hold be-

which other reasonable people may regard

monopoly of the truth and that everyone their sanity

is

as fantastic;

do not think that they alone have a

but, provided they

else

about a man's delusions

He Knew He was

Right, a title

aptly underlines the essential feature of paranoia.

one

is

right

wrong,

is

not in question. Trollope 7 entitled his novel

is

to disregard the beliefs of others

which

To know

and to

fail

them as persons in their own right, entitled to their own views. Thomas Schucker knew that he was right, but we may doubt whether his brother would have shared his conviction if he had realized what was to happen to him. to treat

A

tolerant scepticism,

an

ability to

as well as those of other people,

fanaticism, insanity,

and an

is

doubt one's

own

ideas

a good test of maturity:

infantile attitude to others are

closely related. Self-realization, so far as

anyone ever achieves

it,

is

manifested by the widest exercise of the individual's potentialities

combined with the attainment of a mature

ship with others. Subjectively,

it

relation-

seems to be attended by a

sense of being fully adapted to, rather than attempting entirely to direct,

latter attitude

the course of one's

is,

own development.

in the wide sense in

word, religious: for

it

which Jung

implies that the individual

is

This

uses the

acknowl-

edging his ultimate dependence upon forces which

may be

depicted as either inside or outside himself, but which are

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

166

The

nevertheless not of his making.

use of the word "reli-

gious" generally causes alarm to those

the outmoded idea that there patibility

is

who

adhere to

still

some fundamental incom-

between religion and science; but

it

perhaps

will

them to realize that, in seeking to understand these phenomena, we do not have to postulate a deity ensconced within the psyche which directs the course of development. reassure

Shakespeare 8 could ends, rough-hew therapist

may

say:

'There's a divinity that shapes our

them how we

modern psycho-

prefer to use the terminology of cybernetics.

Physiologically the body structure which, until

No

will": the

is

an enormously complicated

final dissolution,

its

is

self-regulating.

automatic factory, no calculating machine can

rival the

complexity and the subtlety by which the internal environ-

ment of the body is kept constant so that each individual cell may function at its optimum efficiency. Wiener, 9 in his book Cybernetics, gives many examples of such selfregulating mechanisms. The control of body temperature, the regulation of heart-rate and blood-pressure, the main-

tenance of the hydrogen-ion concentration and the calcium content of the blood

at the appropriate levels are

many examples. These

of

by means of negative feed-backs: that a

is

to say that,

when

one

direc-

change in the internal environment occurs

tion, processes are set in

again:

whole

series of

an increase in the

actions to occur

limits.

A

a

change

body temperature

changes which tend to lower

it

alkalinity of the blood causes re-

which encourage the excretion of

and the retention of narrow

in

motion which encourage

in the opposite direction. Thus, a rise in sets off a

but a few

self-regulating devices function

acid, thus maintaining the

perpetual oscillation

is

pH

alkali

within

constantly taking

place around an ideal state of equilibrium, a opposites. This condition of homeostasis

mean between

is

always being

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY sought but never quite attained, is

or, if

167

temporarily achieved,

immediately departed from again, because either the ex-

ternal or the internal

environment changes. The body may

be said to "know" what

best for

is

itself;

but

it is

a knowl-

edge without consciousness, and the goal of homeostasis

is

sought automatically without the deliberate direction of a conscious ego.

seems probable that the psyche

It

similarly consti-

is

own

tuted,

and that

it

rium.

We

to Jung the valuable hypothesis that the

psyche

owe

is

automatically seeking

self-regulating.

is

He

its

believes that,

in

equilib-

many

in-

and other manifestations of unconscious,

stances, dreams

spontaneous mental activity are attempts of the mind to correct

own

its

errors— a hypothesis which necessarily im-

plies a "right" state of affairs

from which divergence can

take place. In the practice of psychotherapy this theory

is

of great value in the interpretation and understanding of

and

clinical material;

examples of

how

it

would be possible to give many

dreams, fantasies, and neurotic symptoms

tend to counterbalance and correct a one-sided conscious attitude.

Those who

demic and

clinical

regret the divergence

between aca-

psychology will be glad to recognize that

the compensatory function of the unconscious esis

which can be

tested,

is

a hypoth-

and one which has already been

the subject of experimental investigation. 10 I

have made the assumption that each human being

endowed with realization. is

a unique personality

The

which

is

seeking

man

own

hypothesis of a psyche which, like the body,

self-regulating lends support to the idea that

for a

its

is

to discover his

own

personality

and

it is

possible

to belong to

himself. Just as too wide a divergence from physiological

equilibrium leads to discomfort, disease, and death; so the

attempt to be what one

is

not, or the failure to be

what

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

168

one

is,

lead to internal conflicts, neurosis, and emotional

isolation. I

believe the development of personality to be a natural

process which, ideally, follows

conclusion. But, since

throughout

its

the

full

is

extent upon

interfered with. tive love that

it

It is

only

its

human

if

own

course to

also a process

relationships,

it is

easily

a child has experienced objec-

becomes an adult capable of

it

own

its

which depends

loving;

and

development of personality can only take place in

a setting of adult loving and being loved. In seeking to define the fundamentals

chotherapy

rests,

I

upon which the

a belief in the integrity of the personality

of

human

practice of psy-

find myself returning again

relationships.

and again to

and the

limitations imposed by inheritance preclude each

from seeing more than a small part of

anyone can do

is

validity

Truth has many aspects; and the

it.

one of us

The most

to be faithful to that aspect

that

which he

own interpretation of the truth; but our very differences may link us more closely when we recognize that the man who is capable of the deepest human relationship is the man who is most himself

is

able to see.

surely himself.

Each of

us has his

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INTRODUCTION 1.

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2.

(Methuen, 1897), Vol.

Butterfield, Herbert,

Ill, p.

Christianity

Fall of the

Roman Em-

24.

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Bell,

1949), p. 46. 3.

Vallentin, Antonina, Einstein (Weidenfeld and Nicol-

London, 1954), p. 105. Heim, A. W., The Appraisal of

son, 4.

Intelligence

(Methuen,

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Whitehead, A. N., Science and

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the

bridge University Press, 1928), p. 9. 6.

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Eddington, A.

S.,

Physicist's

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and

the

Psyche (Routledge and

Kegan

Paul, 1955), pp.

151-2. 9.

Huxley, Aldous, T. H. Huxley as a Literary millan, Huxley

Memorial Lecture, 1932).

169

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(Mac-

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

170

CHAPTER

1:

SELF-REALIZATION

1.

Streeter, B. H., Reality (Macmillan, 1935) pp. 313-14.

2.

Richter,

Derek

Perspectives

(Ed.),

in

Neuropsychiatry

(H. K. Lewis and Co., 1950), p. 79.

CHAPTER 1.

2:

THE RELATIVITY OF PERSONALITY

Eddington, A.

S.,

The Nature of the Physical World (Cam-

bridge University Press, 1928), p. 144. 2.

Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Phibsophy (Allen

3.

Donne, John, "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions," from the complete poetry and selected prose, ed. John

andUnwin,

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Hayward (The Nonesuch 4.

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5.

J.

M. Dent,

1955),

Freeman and McGhie, "The Psychopathology of SchizoMed. Psychol, pp. 30, 187. Fromm, Erich, The Fear of Freedom (Routledge and KeBrit. ).

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p. 15.

Woolf, Virginia, The

Common

Reader (Hogarth Press,

1925), p. 262. 8.

Maclay,

W.

S.,

Guttmann,

E.,

and Mayer-Gross, "Spon-

taneous Drawing as an Approach to some Problems of

Psychopathology," Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1938.

CHAPTER

3:

THE MATURE RELATIONSHIP

Martin,

1.

Buber,

2.

Brierley, Marjorie,

(T.

I

and

O. T. Clark, 1953),

Thou,

R.

G.

Smith

p. 28.

Trends

Press, 1951), pp. 192-3.

transl.

in

Psycho- Analysis (Hogarth

REFERENCES

3.

Jung, C. G., Modern

Man

in

171

Search of a Soul (Kegan Paul,

1941), p. 270. 4. Fairbairn,

W. Ronald

D., Psycho-Analytic Studies of the

Personality (Tavistock Publications, 1952), p. 145. 5.

ibid., p. 32.

6.

ibid., p. 55.

7.

ibid., p. 47.

8.

Fromm,

Erich, The Fear of Freedom (Routledge

gan Paul, 1950),

CHAPTER

4:

and Ke-

p. 228.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY

1.

Confessions of

2.

Ch. XX, p. 64. Freud, Sigmund,

Augustine (Methuen,

St.

1929),

Bk

I,

Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

(Allen and Unwin, 1943), p. 264. 3.

Waley, Arthur, The

Way

and

Its

Power (Allen and Un-

win, 1949), p. 55. 4.

Freud, Sigmund,

New

Introductory Lectures on Psycho-

Analysis (Hogarth Press, 1937), p. 139. 5.

ibid., p. 124.

6.

ibid., p.

139.

7. Freud, Sigmund, Outline of Psycho-Analysis (Hogarth

Press, 1949), p. 7. 8.

Money-Kyrle, R.

E., Psychoanalysis

and

Politics

(Duck-

worth, 1951), p. 49. 9.

Fairbairn,

W. Ronald

D., Psycho-Analytic Studies of the

Personality (Tavistock Publications, 1952), p. 106. 10. Fairbairn,

W. Ronald

of Hysterical States,"

on the Nature Med. Psych., 1954, XXVII,

D., ''Observations Brit. ].

p. 107.

11.

The Gospel According

to St.

Matthew,

18, 3.

172

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

CHAPTER

5:

1.

THE EMERGENT PERSONALITY

Huxley, Aldous, Proper Studies (Chatto and Windus, 1933), p. 99.

2.

Mayer-Gross, Slater, Roth, Clinical Psychiatry (Cassell, 1954), p. 190.

3.

ibid., p.

277.

4.

ibid., p.

279.

5.

ibid., p.

220.

6.

Freud, Sigmund, Introductory Lectures on Psycho- Analysis

(Allen and Unwin, 1943),

W.

p.

346.

H., The Varieties of Temperament (Harper,

7.

Sheldon,

8.

Kretschmer, Ernst, Physique and Character (Kegan Paul,

9.

Tanner,

1942).

1936). J.

M., "Physique, Character, and Disease," The

Lancet, 1956, p. 637.

CHAPTER 1.

6:

IDENTIFICATION

AND INTROJECTION

Bowra, C. M., The Greek Experience (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1957), p. 198.

2.

Jung, C. G., Psychological Types (Kegan Paul,

1938),

p. 551. 3.

Fairbairn,

W. Ronald

D., Psycho-Analytic Studies of the

Personality (Tavistock Publications, 1952), p. 47. 4.

Bowley, John, Child Care and guin Books, 1957),

Two

the

Growth of Love (Pen-

p. 58.

on Analytical Psychology (Rou-

5.

Jung, C. G.,

6.

and Kegan Paul, 1953), p. 141. Fromm, Erich, The Fear of Freedom (Routledge and Ke-

Essays

tledge

gan Paul, 1950),

p. 15.

REFERENCES

CHAPTER

7:

PROJECTION

AND

173

DISSOCIATIOIN

1.

Terence, Heauton timorumenos,

2.

Jung, C. G., The Undiscovered

I,

i,

25.

Self (Routledge and Kegan

Paul, 1958), pp. 77-8.

CHAPTER 1.

Plato,

8:

IDENTIFICATION

The Symposium,

Books, 1951), 2.

Frazer, Sir

3.

Forster, E.

tion,

AND PROJECTION

transl.

W. Hamilton

(Penguin

p. 78.

James G., The Golden Bough (Abridged

Macmillan, 1922), M.,

Two

p.

edi-

692.

Cheers for Democracy (Arnold, 1951),

p. 24.

Remembrance of Things Past, transl. Scott MoncriefT (Chatto and Windus, 1949), Vol. VII, p. 21.

4.

Proust, Marcel,

5.

ibid., p. 20.

CHAPTER

9:

HETEROSEXUAL LOVE AND

RELATIONSHIP 1.

2.

Song from The Indian Queen, words by Dry den and Howard, music by Henry Purcell. Plato, The Symposium, transl. W. Hamilton (Penguin Books, 1951),

3.

CHAPTER 1.

p. 75.

Mead, Margaret, Male and Female (Gollancz, 1950).

10:

Forster, E.

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS M., Howards End (Arnold, 1910), pp. 183-4.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

174

CHAPTER 11: TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE 1.

Blake, William,

'The Marriage

Poetry and Prose of William Blake

Heaven and

of

(Nonesuch

Hell,"

Press, 1927),

p. 201. 2.

Fairbairn,

W. Ronald

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the Object-relations Theory of the Personality,"

Med. 3.

XXVIII,

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Cohn, Norman, The and Warburg, 1957).

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p. 156,

Pursuit of the Millennium (Seeker

CHAPTER 12: PSYCHOTHERAPY AND INDOCTRINATION 1.

Gibbon, Edward, The Decline and pire

2.

(Methuen, 1897), Vol.

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Fall of the

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p. 84.

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No.

In-

A.M. A. Ar-

and Psychiatry, August 1956, Vol. 76,

2.

CHAPTER

13:

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY Trechmann (The

1.

The Essays of Montaigne,

2.

Fenichel, Otto, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis

Modern (W. 3.

W.

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Norton,

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p. 171.

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5.

175

Huxley, Aldous, The Olive Tree and Other Essays (Albatross Collected Edition, 1937), p. 91.

6.

Waley, Arthur, The win, 1949),

7.

Way

and

Its

Power (Allen and Un-

p. 55.

Trollope, Anthony,

He Knew He was

Right (Oxford

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Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, Act V, Sc.

2.

9.

Wiener, Norbert, Cybernetics (Technology

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10. Bash, K.

wend., 1952,

II,

282-95.

1

11

INDEX

Abandonment:

Buber, Martin, 31

fear of, 73, 74, 75, 133, 150

Butler, Samuel, 14

fear of in depressive type, 134,

Butterfield, Herbert, 2

136

Abraham,

Karl,

59-60

Castration complex, 102

Character and physique, 62-3

Acceptance: 125

failure of,

Chesterfield, Lord, 123

of baby, 51

Child:

of child, 65

acceptance

Aggression, 46, 128, 129

aggression

and dependence, 47, 85 and

47-8, 85, 86-7

and parent, relationship between, 63-4, 76, 85-6, 132, 133

47

frustration,

65

of,

of,

and immaturity, 48

basic

dissociation of, 86, 87

fascination of, 50

of child, 47-8, 85, 86-7

36

long immaturity

Art, 163

of,

132-3, 156,

157

and communication, in psychosis, 28-9

W.

of,

identification of, with parent, 143

Agoraphobia, 135, 136

Ashby,

need

27, 28

projection on, by parent, 143

spontaneity

of,

51-2

Christ, 29, 42, 52

R., 18

Claustrophobia, 135, 136

Cohn, Norman, 142

Baby:

acceptance

Collective unconscious, 60

of, 5

identification with mother, idyllic unity of, 42,

inner world

of,

omnipotence sexuality of, 5

70

,

Conrad, Joseph, 25-6 Counter-transference, and transference, 130-45

Cybernetics, 18, 166

87

solipsism of, 68-9, 164

wholeness

68

41

of, 1

45

Dissociation:

and projection, 79-92

of, 7

128

Blake, William, 130

healing

Brain-washing, 147

of aggression, 86

Brierley, Marjorie,

31-2

of personality, 84, 125

Bowlby, John, 69, 70

Bowra,

CM.,

67

of,

of sexuality, 87, 91

Domination, 34, 37-8, 39, 133

177

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

178

Domination, (continued)

Howard,

Sir Robert, 107

fear of, 150

Huxley, Aldous, 53, 164

fear of in schizoid type, 134, 135

Huxley, T. H., 10

Donne, John, 23

Hypnosis, 121-3

"Doodles," 28

Hypotheses:

Dryden, John, 107 Eddington, A.

compared with delusion, 4-5 in physical sciences, 6-7 21

S., 8,

of psychologist, 3

Einstein, Albert, 3

of psychotherapist, 1-2, 12

Epilepsy, 58

of self-realization, 21

Erewhon, 14 Extraversion, 61, 93

66

Identification,

and introjection, 67-78 Fairbairn,

W.

R. D., 23-4, 33-7,

45-6,61,68, 135, 138 Fascination, 96, 114, 117

of child, 50

definition of, 67

of parents and children, 68, 143

Fenichel, Otto, 31

of therapist with patient, 144

Forster, E. M., 100,

119

primary, 72

with adult, 107

Free-will, 9

Freud, Sigmund, 16, 42-5, 59-60,

Erich, 27,

with the mother, 68 Immaturity, 41

124, 131, 140

Fromm,

and projection, 93-106 and submission, 34

37-8

and aggression, 48 long, of

Frustration:

human

and aggression, 47 and self-discovery, 72

of parents, 48

of sexual instinct, 114

Incest, 87-9, 145

child, 132, 156,

157

Individual:

Gibbon, Edward,

1,

146

Goal-seeking, 17-18

and criminal law, 14-15

in cybernetics, 18

and state, 15 development

of individual, 18

goal-seeking

of, 12, 16,

of,

in isolation, 24-6,

Handel, George Frederick, 94 Hate and love, relation between,

44,50 Heim, A. W., 4 Helsenberg, W., 7-8 Heterosexuality and relationship,

107-18 Hinkle, 153

Homosexuality, 81, 98-106, 108

22,

36-7

18

28-9

13-14

in medicine,

lack of self-sufficiency of, 23, 25 totality of, 162,

value

of,

163

13

Indoctrination:

and psychotherapy, 146-55 Communist, 152-4 in Korea, 152

Introjection, 66

INDEX and

identification,

67-78

179

Personality:

and constitution, 61-2

Introversion, 61, 93

development Jung, C.

C,

16,33,34,36-7,

11,

60-1,63,67,72,84, 122-3, 124-5, 134, 135, 139, 141,

159-61, 163, 165, 167

of, 12, 16,

40-52

dissociation of, 84, 125

influence on, environmental or genetic, 53

156-68

integrity of, 134-5,

latent potentialities in, 94, 97

Klein, Melanie, 44-5, 47, 124

Korea, indoctrination

152

in,

Kretschmer, Ernst, 62, 159

maturity

161

of,

realization of, 17, 21 relativity of,

uniqueness Love:

unity

and hate, relationship between,

44,50

21-30, 65

of, 17,

167

42, 45-6, 161

of,

Physique and character, 62 Plato, 93

Symposium

objective, 126, 159, 168

110-13

of,

Power, 35, 85

Marcus Aurelius, 130 "Mature Dependence," 24, 33

Projection, 66, 93

and dissociation, 79-92 and

Maturity: assertion in,

identification,

between

49

development and, 16

93-106

116

between parents and children,

of object-relationships, 35-6

143

between therapist and

of personality, 161 of relationship, 31-9, 40, 49, 146

varying concepts

lovers,

of,

16-17

in transference, 131

Montaigne, Michel de, 156, 160

Proust, Marcel, 103-4

Mozart, Leopold, 94

Psyche:

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 94

patient,

140-4

primitive aspects

of,

128

self-regulating, 63, 139, 167

Omnipotence,

infantile,

70-1

toughness

of,

154

Psychological types, 134 depressive, 61, 134

Parents:

and

child, relationship

between,

63-4, 75-7, 85-6, 132, 133

"goodness and badness"

of, 19,

139-40

extravert, 61,

133-4

introvert, 61, 127,

133-4

schizoid, 61, 127, 134

Psychosis:

28-9

identification with, 68, 143

and

immaturity

manic-depressive, 54

of,

48 48

paranoid, 80

child, 143

Psychotherapist:

narcissistic wishes of,

projections Pauli,

of,

W., 9-10

on

art,

attitude to patient of, 11, 12, 39

THE INTEGRITY OF THE PERSONALITY

180

genetics of, 55-6

Psychotherapist, (continued) basic assumptions of, 2, 12

in twins,

convictions

isolation in, 24,

of,

146

emotional problems

of,

59

60

loss of identity in,

identification of, with patient,

144

25

relationships in, 26

Science: basic hypothesis of, 6-7

objectivity of, 7, 126

projection from, and

on

patient,

140-4

causality and,

8-9

subjectivity of,

relationship with patient, 120-1,

124, 142

school

58

9-10

Sexual fantasy, 82-4, 107-8

Psychotherapy: analytical

in,

and neurosis, 138-9

119

of, 11,

7-8

unproven assumptions Self-realization, 12-20

and other methods,

121-5

Sexual frustration, 114

Sexual maturity, 17, 33, 116-18

and conversion, 147

Sexuality, 161

and indoctrination, 146-55

dissociation of, 87, 91

length

in adolescence, 90,

of,

12

120

results o(, 16,

infantile,

99

51,87

Shakespeare, William, 166

W.

Rank, Otto, 43

Sheldon,

Relationship:

Streeter, B. H., 12

H., 62, 159

and heterosexuality, 107-18 Tanner,

genital, 17, 33 in schizophrenia,

maturity

of,

M., 62-3

Terence, 79

31-9, 49, 146

of child and parent, 64, 76, 85, 86, 132, 133

of psychotherapist and patient,

Transference:

ambivalence in, 133, 140 and counter-transference, 130-45 as projection, 131

120-1, 124, 142 relativity of,

J.

"Tao," 42, 164

26

Trollope, Anthony, 165

65

therapeutic, 11, 32-3

Uncertainty principle, 7

Russell, Bertrand, 21, 22

St.

Whitehead, A. M.,

Augustine, 40, 84-5

causation

of,

60

Winokur, G., 152

57-8

disintegration of personality

5

Wiener, Norbert, 166

Schizophrenia, 80, 115

in,

Wolff, 153

Woolf, Virginia, 27-8

Both parties to the therapeutic relationship will find much to challenge and encourage them in this thoughtful, thought-provoking work by eminent psychiatrist Anthony Storr, the widely acclaimed author of Solitude.

The

Integrity of the Personality is rooted in the conviction that the particular psychoanalytical school to which a therapist belongs is

less

ability to

important to the outcome of treatment than his or her

nurture the patient. Tolerant and impartial, Dr. Storr draws

on Freudian, Jungian, and other psychological approaches

own

construct a statement of his

basic assumptions about

to

human

nature and the goals of the therapeutic process. In doing he illuminates the development of the human personality, the process by which we become our individual human selves, and demonstrates that healing takes place in a matrix

so,

where analyst and analysand meet

as equals.

Essential reading for therapists and their clients,

The Integrity of the Personality

is

eloquent

capacity to change and grow, and in

in its belief in

its

have the courage to

the

support of those

human who

try.

"Unfailingly judicious, undogmatic, humane, and modest. True expertise, he knows, leavens reasons

with compassion."

Newsday

37585

o

"70999"01000 M

7

ISBN D-3MS-375A5-A

Cover printed

in

USA