Carl Gustav Jung

“ Even among people of intelligence who have great education and experience at their command, one sometimes observes a real blindness, a true systematic anæsthesia when an attempt is made to convince them of the doctrine of determinism. How often we notice that an old unpleasant impression will, in many people, produce an imperturbable false judgment that no logic, no matter how clear, can dislodge!
The effects of the complex extend not only over thought but also over action, forcing it continually in a very definite direction. ”

“ Reality sees to it that the quiet circles of egocentric ideation are frequently disturbed by strong feeling tones, so called affects. A situation threatening danger pushes aside the tranquil play of ideas and places in its stead a complex of other ideas of the strongest feeling-tone. The new complex then appears very prominently, crowding all the others into the background. It totally inhibits all other ideas, retaining only those direct egocentric ideas which fit its situation. Under certain conditions it can even momentarily suppress to complete unconsciousness the strongest contrary ideas. ”

“ As usual we also find in a patient near the complex of grandeur the one of injury or derogation. To the derogation also belongs the normal censorship of the grotesque grandiose ideas. That a censorship still exists seems a priori possible, for we see that patients who intellectually and emotionally are less well preserved than our patient still have an extensive insight into the disease. The censorship naturally contrasts with the grandiose complex which completely fills consciousness; it therefore probably acts from the repression by means of hallucinations. ”

“ Our lapses in talking are at critical points, that is, the words we say have a complex significance. We make mistakes in reading because we think that we see in the text words of the complex. Frequently the complex words appear in the peripheral field of vision [3] (Bleuler) . In the midst of our diversions we are surprised to hear ourselves sing or whistle a certain melody, the text of which can only seldom and with effort be found, and is a complex constellation; or we continue to murmur a word, frequently a technical term, or any foreign word, which also refers to the complex. ”

“ I should have already fifteen years ago paid out with gentlemen through the note factory, forever, as long as I live—therefore it is such a great loss if one has to die only a year earlier—since 1886 the oleum belongs to me—all those who pass through such suffering, should be advanced, have to be advanced to the note factory, to the payment—such innovations are all comprehended in the word monopoly just as there are people who have the powder monopoly. ”

“ Of great significance for the determination of various stereotypies is the complex of death-expectation which she attempts to appease by "affirming" an elixir of life. A person with vivid self-consciousness who was for any reason forced into such a hopeless and morally annihilating situation would probably dream in a similar manner. Every emotional and aspiring individual experiences moments of doubt and apprehension in the very hours of his keenest self-confidence, during which any reverses of his hopes seem exceptionally heavy. ”

“ From this it must be concluded that the complex takes a relatively independent position to the ego-complex, it is like a vassal who does not bow implicitly to the domination of the ego-complex. Experience also teaches that the stronger the feeling-tone of a complex, the stronger and more frequent will be the disturbances of the experiment. A person dominated by a complex of strong feeling is less able to react "smoothly," not only to association experiments but to all stimuli of daily life, for the uncontrollable influences of the complexes constantly exert hindrances and disturbances. ”

“ Gessler's head is set up here below, I saw it in the dream—Gessler is the greatest tyrant—I suffer under Gessler, William Tell is therefore the greatest tragedy in the world, on account of such personalities as Gessler—I shall tell you what he exacted of the people—he demanded that they should have always the same linen and clothing and never the smallest coin he was always for war, for battle—all cruelties, which these battles legalize—to cause, I suffer under Gessler, he is a tyrant, there are people who are quite inadmissible, of unnatural lack of reason and bloody cruelty. ”

“ The most insignificant objects are guarded like priceless jewels, corresponding to their value in the complex. The whole environment is considered sub specie amoris. Whatever does not suit the complex glides by; all other interests sink to nothing, hence there results a standstill and a temporary reduction of the personality. Only that which suits the complex excites affects and is psychically elaborated. All thought and action move in the direction of the complex. ”

“ The first association is a distinct complex-constellation, the last is a fragment of her fancies which always occupy themselves with great festal occasions.
Patient says: "If one has been great and then becomes little it is a loss." ”

“ What is not, however, understood at first sight is the unusually large number of complex-constellations. We see such an excess among the normal and hysterical only when the complex is extraordinarily accentuated, that is, when there is present a wholly fresh affect. But this is not the case with our patient, she is perfectly calm, she simply shows the results of the affects in the associations, the one-sided prominence of the complexes without the concomitant affective excitement. ”

“ We can readily understand why the content of the delusions and hallucinations are of such a nature and of no other; but why non-hysterical delusions and hallucinations should at all appear we do not know. Here at the basis of all there should be one physical cause embracing all the psychological ones. Let us assume with Freud that every paranoid form of dementia præcox runs according to the mechanism of hysteria, but why is the paranoid unusually stable and resistive, while hysteria is characterized by the great mobility of its symptoms? ”

“ A patient says: "It is as though I see things through a veil, a mist, or through a wall which separates me from reality." A normal person who is under the immediate influence of a great affect might express himself in a similar manner. ”

“ The preponderant part of all our thoughts and actions is really composed of small fragments which are infinitely and delicately determined by numberless moments lying entirely external to consciousness. To our ego-consciousness the association process seems to be its work, in its estimation the association process is dominated by the free will and attention, in reality, however, as is so nicely shown in the experiments, the ego-consciousness is only a marionette dancing on the stage by means of concealed automatic springs. ”

“ Dementia præcox has here pierced the investment of consciousness, that is, destroyed the function of the clearest purposive associations, so that it is now possible to see from all sides the automatic workings of the unconscious complexes. What the patient and we see are only the complicated, distorted and displaced products of complex-ideations which are analogous to our dreams, wherein we only see the dream-picture but not the complex-thought hidden beneath it. Thus the patient takes her dream productions also as substantial and claims that they are realities. ”

“ Every emotional event becomes a complex. If it does not meet an already existing kindred complex it is only of momentary significance, and gradually sinks with lulled emotional tone into the latent mass of memory where it remains until a kindred impression reproduces it. But if an emotional event meets an already existing complex, it reinforces it and for some time assists it in gaining the upper hand. The clearest examples of this kind are to be seen in hysteria, where apparently insignificant things may lead to strong emotional outbursts. ”

“ He contents himself with noting that the patient entertains such and such hallucinations and delusions, and such and such mannerisms, without examining the causal relations. Those who work among the insane know that no two cases of dementia pæecox are alike; there is always a difference in the grouping and relationship of the symptoms, every case having its own individuality. Kraepelin, like his predecessors, totally ignores individual psychology, a thing absolutely essential for the understanding of the psychosis, just as the microscope is for pathology. ”

“ Patient especially feels precarious because the doctor never wishes to hear anything regarding the payment which she demands at each visit. She then mostly complains about the selfishness of humanity who only think of themselves and "always continue to work on" without thinking of the payment. The dreamlike intermezzo of the two men who were twisting two cords in the loft and "always continued to work" without thinking of caring for patient can be conceived as a symbol for the indifference with which patient is here treated. ”

“ The psychological mechanisms of dreams and hysteria are most closely related to those of dementia preæcox. A comparison with dreams is therefore not too daring. In dreams we see how reality is spun with fanciful creations, how the pale memory pictures of the waking state assume tangible forms, and how the impressions of the environment adapt themselves to the sense of the dream. The dreamer finds himself in a new and different world which he has projected out of himself. Let the dreamer walk about and act like one awakened and we have the clinical picture of dementia præcox. ”

“ The repression may even under normal conditions be so strong that there exists a hysterical amnesia for the complex; that is, there is a feeling of an emerging idea, of a significant connection, but the reproduction is held back by vague hesitation. There is a feeling as though one wished to say something which immediately slipped away. That which slipped away is the complex-thought. Occasionally there appears a reaction which unconsciously contains the complex thought but the test person is blind to it, and it is only the experimenter who can lead him on in the right way. ”

“ Knowing how the incongruity is brought about in hysteria, is it still necessary that we should accept a totally new mechanism in dementia præcox? In general we know by far too little about the psychology of the normal and hysteric [59] to dare to accept in such an untransparent disease as dementia præcox, a totally new mechanism unknown to all psychology. One should be economical with new principles of interpretation. It is for this reason that I repudiate the clear and ingenious hypothesis of Stransky. ”

“ The waking state of our patient just like that of the poet, is filled with fanciful formations, while in somnambulists the extension and the elaboration of the system mostly results in the dissociated "other" state of consciousness. But just as somnambulists prefer to translate into exquisite fantastic and many mystic forms, and often allow their pictures to fade into dreamlike imperfections, so does our patient preferably express herself in monstrous and grotesquely distorted metaphors, which resemble much more the normal dream with its characteristic absurdities. ”

“ The psychotic furnishes the partially or completely deranged feeling of his ego with a symbol, but unlike the normal he does not compare this feeling with other processes or objects, but it is stretched to such an extent that the picture which he has brought in for comparison he allows to become a reality, a subjective reality which in the judgment of others is a delusion. ”

“ As soon as the patient's associations reach the realms of the complex, the hierarchy of the chief ideas ceases and the stream of thought moves in dreamlike analogies, which, in the self-evidence of dreams, is put on an equal value with reality. The complex works here automatically following its laws of analogy. It is equally freed from the dominations of the ego-complex, and for that reason it is impossible for the ego-complex to properly direct the complex associations. ”

“ Just as we are able to distinguish in every sensation of light, even in the very simplest one, between quality, intensity, and saturation, so we may speak of processes of cognition, of feeling, of will, though we are well aware that no psychic process exists to which all three qualities are not common, even if it is now one, now the other that is in the foreground. ”

“ Whenever we are dominated by a complex it is only the ideas belonging to it which possess a full tone, that is, they alone possess perfect clearness, all other perceptions originating either from within or without are subject to an inhibition, through which they become indistinct, that is, they lose some feeling-tone. ”

“ It is not difficult to see how patient is Switzerland: Switzerland is free—patient "came here free," hence she should not be confined. The tertium comparationis "free" leads to a "contamination" with Switzerland. Similar but more grotesque is the neologism "I am a crane." "He who is free from debt," etc., is the familiar quotation from the "Cranes of Ibykus." Patient therefore identifies or "condenses" herself very rapidly with "crane." The analysis thus far given concerns only symbols, of the unusualness, power, health, and virtue of patient. ”

“ The most lucid examples are always furnished by the sexual complexes. Let us take as an instance the classical state of being in love. The lover is possessed by his complex. All his interests hang only on this complex and the things belonging to it. Every word, every object recalls to him his sweetheart (experimentally even apparently indifferent word stimuli excite the complex) . ”

“ If even a normal individual is not always clear about the causes of his ill-humor, how little can we know when confronted with the mind of a precocious dement? On account of the evident inadequacy of our psychological diagnosis, we must be very careful about the supposition of a real incoördination in the sense of Stransky. Although judging from clinical appearances there are frequent incongruities, they are by no means exclusively limited to dementia præcox. In hysteria, likewise, the incongruity is an every-day occurrence. ”