What follows is a description of the three forms of neuroses that are enumerated by Freud; namely, anxiety hysteria/phobias, hysterical neurosis and obsessional neurosis. My aim here is also to clarify the specific mechanisms of defense that are mobilized in the various neuroses and the stages of their development.
The symptom formations of each of the neuroses are the answer to a basic problem for the psyche, which is that of how to minimize unpleasurable affects that are caused either by the external world or by the accumulation of biological drive energy. This imperative for minimizing negative affects Freud calls the “pleasure principle.” Each of the neuroses thus represents a solution to a problem with which the psyche is confronted in its effort to maintain itself as an organic unity through time and space. The principle tools or mechanisms that the psychic apparatus utilizes in the construction of its defenses are flight, substitution, displacement, splitting, and repression.
Each of the neuroses, as we will see, begins with a conflict: in anxiety hysteria, the conflict concerns the qualities of an important object that is at once threatening and inescapable; in hysterical neurosis, the conflict arises as an opposition between reality and an idea that is unserviceable within reality; and, finally, in the obsessional neurosis, the conflict arises at the level of the drives themselves and then insinuates itself into the world of objects.
To begin, I will enumerate some of the tools or “mechanisms” that are used in the construction of neurotic defenses. After this, I will move on to a description of the stages in the construction of each of the neuroses. I will then proceed to a discussion of the relative success or failure of these defenses, and whether they are sufficient as solutions to the conflicts that generate the neuroses. This will also provide the occasion for a discussion about the nature of repression and whether its origins can be found in social relations or whether it is already at work at the biological level before it expresses itself in social relations. I will conclude with a discussion of the way that the respective neuroses exert themselves upon the mind and body of the hysterical neurotic, and, in the case of the obsessional neurotic and anxiety hysteria, the way that they also express themselves as a need to transform the wider social world.
The Tools of Defense
Flight is the simple maneuver of physically removing oneself from an external source of unpleasure. Because flight from internal excitations caused by the drives is impossible, the psychic apparatus must find ways to evacuate drive tensions in the external world. To this end, it constructs mental structures that function to store up, channel and ultimately to release into the external world these internal quantities of drive energy, thus avoiding the unpleasurable excitations that are a consequence of dammed up drive energy.
Substitution is the process by which one object representation is traded for another. To the mental structures that have been constructed to release drive energies corresponds object representations that orient the release of drives. When these objects are unavailable and the chosen paths of release are obstructed, the psychic apparatus makes a substitution regarding the object representation toward which the drives are oriented. Substitution can also be performed at the level of motor images, which are mental representations of bodily actions that are calculated to produce satisfaction.
Displacement is the process by which drive energy (see the term, ‘cathexis’ below) is transferred from an object representation that does not allow for the release of drive energies in the external world to one that does. Wherever there is substitution, there is at least a partial displacement of drive energy. In the neuroses, substitution does not manage to fully displace drive energy from the primary object representation that is unserviceable in reality. Some investment of libidinal drive energy remains absorbed in or ‘fixated’ with the original, unserviceable object representation, and this is what precipitates the disturbances of the neurosis (with the exception of the anxiety hysteria, for reasons discussed below). Neurotic substitution merely places an intermediary between the primary cathected object representation and the aim of the drive through which it can find satisfaction that is acceptable for consciousness and surpasses the mechanism of repression. While the substitute object representation is allowed to pass into consciousness as something desirable, the desire for the primary object representation remains in the unconscious. This means that wherever there is neurosis, there is only a partial displacement the investment of drive energy away from the original, unacceptable object representation to the new acceptable one.
Repression is the process by which ideas, representations, and processes that have proven to be dangerous are held back from consciousness. Repression also plays an important role in the displacement of drive energy from the unserviceable idea, representation, or process to one that can be actualized under the conditions of reality. It is thus responsible for maintaining the new arrangement in which the original object representation or motor image has been substituted for one that is serviceable in reality. Like all of the tools of defense, its aim is to eliminate the negative affect to which the psychic apparatus is subjected.
Splitting is the mental process by which the elements of an idea or object representation are dissected into its respective parts, thus preparing the way for their reapportionment according to the mechanism of repression, substitution, or displacement.
A brief few words about psychoanalytic metapsychology and terminology: Just as external dangers represents a threat to the homeostasis of the body, so also does the excessive accumulation of internal drive energy. These concepts are dynamic in that they concern the forces that exert pressure on the psychic apparatus, whether from within or from without. Freud uses the term cathexis to describe the specific amounts of drive energy that are invested in an idea, object, or psychic process. Cathexis is an economic concept that concerns the way the psyche distributes, stores and releases its quantities of drive energy. Ideas are object representations and motor images that are projected to produce satisfaction by releasing drive energy. Fantasy is the process of the mental rehearsal of the realization of ideas in reality. All processes concerning the management of internal quantities of drive energies can be either conscious or unconscious. Because they concern the relative levels of the psychic processes, the latter are topographical concepts.
The Stages in the Construction of the Neuroses:
What follows is an attempt to describe each psychoneuroses in terms of the stages in the construction of its specific defenses. Each stage involves the deployment of some combination of the mechanisms of defense that are described above. In some cases, I have filled in examples of substitutions to provide clarity. The reader should bear in mind that these are just examples of possible substitutions, and that object representations or motor images will vary widely from one individual to the next.
Anxiety Hysteria, the Phobias:
Stage 1: there is realistic anxiety and flight in the face of unpleasure vis-a-vis a dangerous but beloved object.
Stage 2: Because this danger proceeds from an object from which the child cannot totally escape (e.g. threatening father), a defense is constructed against the persistence of the negative affect of fear. The representation of the object is unconsciously dissected, and a substitution occurs whereby the the dangerous dimensions of the object are attributed to a remote object. This moderates anxiety if only because the phobic object is more remote than the primary object (e.g. dog is substituted for dangerous father). The dangers may be real, but more often they are fantasies, as they are with castration anxiety. In the case of Little Hans, the little boy has fantasies of stealing his father’s big penis in order to win the exclusive affection of his mother, and he images that this will provoke retaliation from his father. It is the fear of retaliation that generates so much anxiety. The dangerous representation is then substituted for another. (See Freud’s case study about Little Hans.)
Stage 3: The surroundings are controlled in order to prevent release of unpleasure. After substitution is accomplished, there is perceptual vigilance (anticathexis) against the substitute object which promises the release of unpleasure. Unlike the other neuroses, anxiety hysteria is not essentially related to the sexual function. Anxiety hysteria encompasses cases in which danger, rather than sexual pleasure, from the object is the primary concern. Because one cannot finally escape from the father, the dangerous component of his mental representation is split off and put into another object representation, which, in turn, generates the phobic reaction.
Hysterical Neurosis:
Stage 1: There is anxiety and flight in the face of disappointment or unpleasure vis-a-vis object.
Stage 2: the idea is not given up, but undergoes repression as a defense against negative affect resulting from disappointment or unpleasure vis-a-vis object (father). Here, the substitution takes place at the level of motility. The affect is not allowed to mobilize motility in service of satisfaction vis-a-vis the object, but instead manifests in nervous disturbances. Unlike anxiety hysteria, where the substitution involves a perfect trade off between one object representation and another (father for dog), in hysteria the substitution occurs at the level of the program of bodily action. Just as the repressed returns as the substitute object for anxiety hysteria, here it returns as pronounced nervous disturbance in the bodily apparatus. This defensive solution also eliminates the need for control of environment that it is to be found in both the phobias and obsessional neurosis. The anticathexis occurs at the border between consciousness and the unconscious rather than at the level of perception as vigilance or watchfulness.
Obsessional Neurosis:
Stage 1: There exists a component drive that aims at objects toward which it is ambivalent. What this means is only that the objects toward which the drive is oriented generate a mixture of pleasure and disgust. Because it is the drive itself that is the source of this neurosis, the conflict at the core of this neurosis does not concern the representation of a single object as they do in anxiety hysteria (e.g.,the terrifying father) and hysterical neurosis (e.g., the father as sexual object). Rather, they concern a series of objects to which the drive relates (e.g., feces). Thanks to this ambivalence, reaction formation develops in relation to the series with which the drive is concerned. Disgust produces vigilance (cathexis of perception, anticathexis) against the offensive object series. The fact that the drive itself mobilizes the first movement of repression demonstrates that repression is not object-libidinally dependent. Here, the object cannot be the cause of the initial movement of repression ( e.g., father’s strict prohibitions). Rather, the object (feces) provides the occasion for the mobilization of primary repression–i.e., for reaction formation and feelings of disgust that are built into the drive itself. While the object series with which this process is concerned can be libidinized, it is nevertheless a general process that can also operate upon material that is not libidinally invested. Indeed, an intense libidinal investment in this object series is what explains the need for additional defenses. In such cases, the strength of disgust proves to be insufficient to overpower the pleasurable affects that arise in relation to the object series.
[Note: The account according to which the drive itself produces the first movement of repression has significant implications for the question of whether the origins of repression are purely social. Even today, there are many sociologists complain that repression is entirely a function of social relations. Similarly, there are many feminists who believe that repression is a straightforward consequence of men’s patriarchal control. Men, they claim, are obstructing the path to pleasure by fiat. If patriarchy is dismantled and these impositions are prohibited, then this will result in the end of repression and boundless sexual enjoyment. Against such a view, Freud claims that, insofar as it begins with the drive itself, repression is first of all an organic rather than a social process. Insofar as this drive is among our basic evolutionary endowments, it is to be found in everyone, if only in varying degrees of strength. Repression does, however, become social force, but only at a later stage in the development of the obsessional neurosis, as we will see below.]
Stage 2: There is the formation of the obsessional idea and the struggle against it. This struggle against the original series of objects through which the drive seeks to realize its aim produces substitution and, in turn, the substituted object series now becomes the object of attentiveness or surveillance. This substitution often consists of the substitution of primary object series for an expanded object series that includes the original series. The series of feces is, for example, substituted for the expanded series that includes not only feces but also dirt and other kinds of filth.
Stage 3: Just as with the phobias, the anticathexis pertains to the external world where the new series of objects exists and perception is cathected, producing vigilance against the offending object series. Control of external reality now function to reinforce what already occurred with primary repression in terms of reaction formation (disgust with the initial object series). A further similarity to the third stage of defense in the phobias is that restrictions upon the environment are created and enforced (‘alloplastic’ solutions). However, unlike the primitive fright mechanisms that occur in the presence of the phobic object, these restrictions and prohibitions operate in a logical manner and generate a totalizing system of codes and regulations–that is, the world is organized according to principles and rules that pertain to the object series. This logic can manifest in a narrow sphere such as in one’s home, or it can be extended to the totality of the social sphere, where the offending object series must either be put in its proper place or eliminated altogether (when Hannah Arendt refers to “the tyranny of logicality” in the final pages of The Origins of Totalitarianism, she describes this ‘logic’ of obsessional neurosis when it is taken to extremes.) Because tertiary repression cannot eliminate the drive’s basic ambivalence, the potential for pleasure with the object series in which the drive is invested constantly resurfaces anew. What results is a vicious cycle in which newer and further reaching prohibitions and restrictions become necessary.
The Success of Symptom Formations in the Respective Neuroses
In both hysteria and the phobias, there is perfect success in terms of the establishment of a defensive solution. When we say that the symptom is identical with the substitute in the hysterical neurosis, we mean that the symptom, which in this case involves various bodily convulsions induced by what appears to be unstructured nervous energy (‘conversion’ symptoms), evacuates all of the affective energy associated with the repressed idea (e.g., sexual union with father). The repressed now returns only as these convulsions, which we call ‘conversion.’ In anxiety hysteria, likewise, the symptom (irrational fears of an object series such as dogs) functions to neutralize the affective energy associated with the repressed idea (danger of father). Here, the repressed returns as flight from the substituted object series. In both cases, this produces a perfect closure that does not necessitate further defensive solutions. The excess of negative affect is perfectly neutralized by the symptom. (What we mean by “perfect success”in this context is that there is a symmetry between psychic problem and psychic solution. Of course, these solutions invariably generate disturbances at the level of consciousness. In this restricted sense, these solutions are anything but perfect successes.)
Obsessional neurosis does not exhibit this perfect closure between substitute formation and symptom. Since the initial reaction formation has proven insufficient for the complete repression of the pleasure associated with the drive, additional defensive measures must be added to the organic reaction arising out of instinctual ambivalence. The failure of repression stems from the way that the libido has seized upon the ambivalent object series as an opportunity for sexual pleasure and refuses to give it up. Spontaneous feelings of disgust, for example, have proven insufficient to neutralize the obsessive idea about maximizing pleasurable affects vis-a-vis the object series. The return of the repressed thus manifests in the obsessive idea and in the struggle against it– a struggle that takes the form of renewed anticathexis, substitution with expanded object series, and imposition of additional prohibitions and restrictions within the broader social world regarding it. Even after this imposition, however, the return of the repressed often occurs yet again, both within and at the margins of the field that has been purged of the offensive object series. When, for example, meticulous personal hygiene proves insufficient as a defense against the anal drives and its forbidden objects, one must go further and undertake public hygiene initiatives that promise the elimination of the offensive object series from the wider social world. When the potential for pleasure reasserts itself once again in the new series, new substitute formations are to be created to which new restrictions and prohibitions will apply. As mentioned above, the creation of new substitutive formations and the corresponding imposition of restrictions and prohibitions can become a relentless process involving ever-enlarging concentric circles of interdictions that orbit and expand the original series. (The Nazi’s opposition to pure sadism can be examined in this light. Nazi sadism was always couched in an overarching concern for “hygiene.”)
The Need to Transform the External World
The hysterical neurosis does not modify the social world by imposing renunciations and restrictions within the surrounding social world. Whereas both the phobias and obsessional neurosis result in an effort to control the surrounding external world that occurs in more advanced stages of repression, the hysterical neurotic constructs her defenses through the repression of the object representation. While the idea is held back from consciousness by repression, the affect passes into the motor apparatus. The hysteric thus opts for regression of the ego to a stage before the development of the instruments by which human beings transform their world in accordance with their desires–namely, the faculties of language and motor coordination. The hysteric’s defensive solution takes place exclusively in her own body, without modification of the surrounding environment. In this sense, the defense is autoplastic.
Ego regression is not unique to hysteria. Traumatic neurosis also involves ego regression. In both cases, the neurotic does not make positive demands of external world. If there is a demand that is made at all, it is the negative demand to be cared for. The lapse of the ego into a regressed state prior to the separation of perception and the unconscious, which preceded the development of speech and censorship, renders the neurotic passive and unavailable to meet the demands of reality that have been imposed from without. The ego functions by which ideas are synthesized with precise motor actions calculated to realize these ideas are relinquished in favor of an earlier developmental moment which is prior to this synthesis. Insofar as this early moment is one in which ideas have yet to synthesize with motor images, well-defined channels for affect evacuation are not yet established. Affect is instead evacuated by motor convulsion, as can be seen with babies who have developed neither motor control nor the power of representation.
The development of hysterical neurosis is often precipitated by the imposition of stringent restrictions and prohibitions surrounding sexuality–the very restrictions and prohibitions that result from tertiary repression of the obsessional neurotic. Borrowing from object relations theory, we can see that development of hysterical neurosis will probably be aggravated by an obsessional neurotic parent in whose world the would-be hysteric must live, a parent who, in accordance with their own neurotic tendencies, compulsively controls the other. Under the inhospitable conditions of a generalized “tertiary repression” that has been inscribed within the social or familial milieu, it becomes all but impossible for the hysteric to work through the conflicts that produce her illness without the aid of transference neurosis in the safety of the psychoanalyst’s room. Oppressive social conditions reinforce the repression of the offending idea and render the generation of symptoms inevitable as the only solution. Likewise, as the obsessional parental imago with his restrictions and prohibitions is introjected into the superego, the conflict that produces the neurosis intensifies. Short of working through the conflict, this psychic impasse can only be surpassed by a compromise formation allowing for the return of the repressed in conversion disturbances.
Unlike hysterical neurosis in which ego regression is selected as defense, obsessional neurosis involves regression to a fixation point in the course of libidinal development. i.e., libido regression. Of central importance here are constitutional factors that must have predisposed the neurotic to extraordinarily intense affects in one of the libidinal stages of development and, more precisely, in the erogenous zones that are privileged within them. Unlike hysterical neurosis, the obsessional neurosis does not primarily concern the object but rather the drive itself, which governs the selection of objects. An inordinately strong drive that has its origins in the constitutional factors of inheritance must play some role in the emergence of this neurosis. We can wonder whether these inheritances are not residues of the acquisition of our ancestors and thus hard-wired phylogenetic dispositions that pre-exist and structure ontogenetic development.
Just as the hysterical neurosis is likely to be provoked to some extent by the restrictions and prohibitions imposed by the obsessional neurotic, so also is the obsessional neurotic’s condition exacerbated by environmental factors. What provokes strong reactions in the obsessional neurotic, as we have seen, is an object series that elicits strong feelings of ambivalence characterized by both negative and positive affects. The enjoyment of this object series by others within the surrounding environment is no less problematic for the obsessional neurotic who will, against his own conscious wishes, find himself identifying with the others in their enjoyment. A prevalence of “perversion” within the social field generates strong reactions in those who are already grappling with ambivalence concerning the object series. The enjoyment among others of the very object series that the obsessional neurotic spends so much effort trying to suppress within himself will intensify the obsessional neurotic’s need to extend the restrictions that apply for him to the “perverse” others, and to suppress the enjoyment of the prohibited object series not only in himself but also in these others.
I have placed the word, ‘perversion‘ in quotes in the previous paragraph so as to emphasize the historicity of this term. The psychopathologies that are common within a specific social arrangement and the ways that these pathologies are defined will change over time, and always in a co-constitutive manner. The obsessional neurotic is more likely than others to find around every corner some offense to propriety. Where the threshold between perversion and licit pleasure is located within a given social order will therefore be influenced by whether obsessional neurosis has become more or less common within the social field, and a civilization with a large number of obsessional neurotics will probably be one that has a more expansive definition of perversion. The location of this threshold is also likely to be influenced by the fact that those with obsessional neurosis will naturally gravitate toward positions of power and authority from which they can influence what gets classified as perverse. Institutional and bureaucratic ambition is often a manifestation of tertiary repression.
Brussels, Belgium
Allen Thomas Jones Ph.D 