Machinery of the Mind, part 4 - Dion Fortune
Chapter 13: Sublimation
Should an instinct be denied its expression and all ideas connected with it be repressed into the subconscious, trouble will ensue. The lower reaches of a river can be emptied by the simple expedient of placing a dam across its channel, but this does not solve the problem of the surplus water, which gathers head behind the obstruction till it bursts its banks and makes a morass of the upper reaches. If it is necessary to deflect a river from its bed, then an alternative course must be provided, for the water continues to come down from the hills and must by some means be disposed of.It is precisely this engineering problem that the psychotherapist has to deal with. We know that a large percentage of mental and nervous disorders are caused by the repression of the sex instinct. This great instinct, in its mental and physical aspects, is so fundamental and so powerful that it cannot with safety to the individual be entirely repressed, nor with safety to society be given free rein, and we are on the horns of a dilemma, for social laws demand that it shall only be expressed under very limited conditions those of legal marriage, and even then not to an unlimited extent; and nature demands that it shall be expressed as soon as the physical organs of its manifestation are sufficiently developed to function.The average man solves this problem for himself by conniving at the maintenance of a pariah class of women whose very existence is socially ignored and is a fertile source of misery, disease, and crime; but for women, unless they are prepared permanently to join the pariah class, a social safety valve does not exist, and we find among them a much higher percentage than among men suffering from those nervous troubles that are due to a repression of the sex instinct, and this also applies to men who, whether from idealism or fear of disease, do not avail themselves of a compromise.This problem would prove as intractable in the future as it has in the past were it not that we now know that the law of transmutation of energy from one form to another is as true for psychology as it is for physics, and sex force can be utilized for other purposes than physical reproduction. This process of conversion is technically known as SUBLIMATION.This is one of the most important discoveries of modern psychology, for it provides the solution to grave social problems that menace the fabric of civilization.How, in actual practice, can this result be achieved?First, by altering our entire attitude toward sex, and realizing that a problem is not solved by ignoring its existence. Secondly, by taking the sex problem out of the domain of the subconscious into the conscious mind and frankly facing it, and acquiring dominion over it by the practice of thought control, transmuting our emotions instead of repressing them; and thirdly, by providing a channel of creative interest down which may flow the energies we wish to deflect from their primitive channel of manifestation.The key to the whole problem lies in this, the life force flows to the point of interest. If the interest and attention are centered upon physical sensation, then the life force will flow, or attempt to flow, through the channel of the reproductive organs, or if denied manifestation, will keep up a constant irritation and stimulation; but if the interest be shifted to an emotional or mental level, then the life force will find an outlet in creative activity upon these levels and drain the pressure from the physical.The mental and physical habits of a lifetime are not easily broken, but if the thoughts be patiently and persistently kept away from physical sensation and concentrated upon external interests, the law of mental and physical habit will come to our aid, and the life force will learn to flow through its new channel with safety to the individual and benefit to society.The process of thought control must not be confused with the dissociation of ideas. In dissociation we are dishonest with ourselves, denying that certain qualities exist in our natures; the ideas connected with them are repressed into our subconsciousness, and it is the involuntary subconscious censor that holds them down; whereas in thought control we admit the primitive side of our natures and set to work to train it, and because we know that dwelling upon mental pictures of a sexual nature produces a physical reaction, we exclude these ideas from consciousness; but in this case the repression is not into the subconscious mind, but into the foreconscious, and it is one of the voluntary censors that enforces the command and remains under our control.The distinction between repression and dissociation must be clearly borne in mind in all re-educational work. A certain amount of repression is unavoidable in a social life; for each individual sacrifices something of his personal desires for the sake of the benefits of co-operation with his fellows, and the energy thus sacrificed is turned to social purposes. Dissociation, however, is always a pathology, and should never be allowed to occur.
Chapter 14: Maladaptation to Environment and Psychopathology
The classification of diseases was carried out at a time when the body was regarded as the whole of man and the mind looked upon as an unimportant by-product whose influence was negligible. Modern discovery, however, has radically changed our outlook.Much mental disease has a physical origin and should not be classified as mental at all. To this class belong the mental disturbances arising from disease of or injury to the brain; womb trouble; poisoned blood conditions and the faulty functioning of the ductless glands, whose place in our economy is so important and so little understood; and many other causes of a like nature.Setting aside this type of disease, with which psychology, strictly speaking, is not concerned, we find the true mental diseases fall into a first broad division, those which are congenital and those which are acquired. In congenital disease an abnormal individual breaks down in a normal environment, and in acquired disease a normal individual breaks down in an abnormal environment. In both cases the results are the same, but treatment and prospect of recovery are very different.The boundary line between a healthy and diseased mind is not easy to draw, but we may reckon a mind diseased when it fails to react normally to its environment; thus, if happenings which should stir us deeply leave us unmoved, or we are upset by things which should have no power to disturb us, we may consider our mind is not working well. Let it never be forgotten, however, that mental disturbance ranges from irritability, depression, and bad memory, to its extreme manifestations in the different forms of insanity.The division between nervous and mental disease is even harder to draw, but for all practical purposes the sense of reality may be utilized as a dividing line; as soon as he loses his sense of reality a man passes the boundary line of insanity. The neurotic knows that there is something wrong with him, but that the world is all right; the lunatic believes that he is all right, but that there is something wrong with the world. It is the constant aim of the mind to maintain harmonious relations between the individual and the environment; to secure an adjustment to, and to make the best of, the constantly varying conditions to which the organism is subjected. If it fails to do this, the law of the survival of the fittest comes into action and automatically eliminates the unfit whose who have failed to adapt themselves to the conditions in which they live. Failure to adapt may be due to one of two causes: the individual may be abnormal,or the environment may be abnormal.Modern social conditions in a civilized community tend to prevent the automatic elimination of the unfit and to permit them to live on. With physical failure to adapt, due to malformation or lack of stamina, we will not deal here, but will confine ourselves to the problem of adjustment on the mental level.If there is difficulty in making a mental adjustment to environment and finding contentment and peace of mind, then the individual is faced by a peculiar problem, he is allowed to continue his physical life, but cannot find mental peace. In order to obtain relief from this intolerable condition, certain devices are unconsciously resorted to. These devices are of the nature of buffers or shock absorbers, and provided the individual does not deviate too much from the normal type, which is adapted to the environment, and that the environment likewise does not differ too much from the type for which the individual was designed, then these devices effectually protect his feelings from the rude shocks of circumstances and enable him to keep his poise and peace of mind. If, however, the strain thrown upon the psychic shock absorber is too great for it adequately to absorb, then the rebound of the buffer-springs throws the machinery of the mind out of gear and makes itself felt in nervous and mental disorders. Like physical disease, mental disease is Nature’s effort at repair which overreaches itself.This, then, is what constitutes mental disease (the organic insanities being excluded from this definition) the reaction of the mind to what it cannot assimilate. It must not be thought, however, that mental disorder necessarily means insanity. Any faulty functioning of the mind comes under the heading of psycho-pathology, and just as the diseases of the body range from a passing indisposition to some fatal organic disease, so the diseases of the mind range from irritability and forgetfulness to the complete collapse of lunacy.
Chapter 15: Conflict
As we have already seen, our life is motived by three great instincts. A moment’s thought, however, will cause us to realize that, as these instincts are diverse in their aims, they may sometimes find themselves in opposition to one another; this condition is known to psychologists as CONFLICT, wherein one instinct can only be gratified at the expense of another. For instance, a man may be starving, and be tempted to steal in order to satisfy his hunger. Here we see a conflict between the self-preservation and herd instinct, for if he steals, he may lose his place in the herd, and if he does not steal, he may lose his life, and it is astonishing how many will choose the latter alternative, proving the power and fundamental nature of the herd instinct. The man will be torn two ways, and can only gratify one instinct at the expense of the other. Or, again, he may fall in love with a woman who is denied to him by the marriage laws of his country. Here we see a conflict between the sex instinct and the herd instinct. Or he may fall in love with one whom it would be disadvantageous socially or professionally for him to marry, and here we see a conflict between the sex and self-preservation instincts.Now, in each of these cases a large amount of force is locked up and rendered unavailable for the general purposes of the life, for a head-on collision between instincts is involved, and each employs the whole of its energy to neutralise the force of the other, and the whole life comes to a standstill while the battle is fought out. It is notorious that an individual in such a dilemma can come to no decision, take no decisive action, in any department of his life. Some solution has to be arrived at, and any solution is better than a continuation of the conflict, the pain of which is intolerable.First, the man may think the whole matter out, and, acting according to his nature, give the victory to one or other of the combatants, leaving the vanquished instinct to seek adjustment as best it may. It requires great strength, however, to take such a stand, and many are not able to do it. Some seek a solution of the problem by keeping the instincts in separate compartments of the mind, and never comparing their special pleadings, as did a science teacher known to the writer, who on weekdays taught the doctrines of evolution, and on Sundays the doctrine of special creation, and when questioned on the matter, burst into a towering passion and refused to discuss it.A third solution, however, is very often found by the perplexed mind, and that is known as dissociation.Now, REPRESSION and DISSOCIATION are two terms current in modern psychological parlance, and the writer has often heard them used as if they were interchangeable terms, but this is not the case. Repression means that certain ideas are put into the subconscious mind and not permitted to return to consciousness, but dissociation means that some of these ideas, instead of lying quiet in the subconscious, split off from the integration of the personality and function independently. These two factors of mentation will be studied in detail in the following chapters.
Chapter 16: Repression
Repression is a refusal to permit an idea to enter consciousness. The instant it looms up upon the fringe of consciousness the attention is resolutely turned away from it. This device is resorted to when an idea enters the mind which is repugnant to our character, when we find ourselves thinking thoughts which are out of harmony with the general tone of our nature. Unwilling to admit to ourselves that we have such a side to our dispositions, we turn away from the repulsive images; but as it is impossible to erase from the mind any idea which has once entered it, we endeavor to store these ideas, since they must be stored somewhere, in that part which is furthest away from consciousness, and so, to use the technicalities of the psychologist, we repress them into our subconscious.When it is remembered that every child is born into the world a little savage, and that it is only by education he achieves civilization, it will readily be seen that our primitive nature is not a thing which our cultivated self can regard with any complacency. That the untrained child is selfish and dirty, we are all aware; and that we ourselves, before our training had time to take effect on us, were also selfish and dirty, we cannot with logic deny; but a merciful veil of forgetfulness has been drawn across this period, for we have developed into something so different from what we were that our primitive self is utterly repugnant to us, and repression is resorted to to prevent this unpleasant ghost of our original natures from intruding upon our self-esteem.All ideas of an uncivilized type which enter the mind are apt to call forth a certain amount of response from us—hence the success of the smutty story—for the primitive side of our natures is not dead, and stirs in its sleep if a note of the same pitch is sounded in its hearing; therefore ideas which wake our lower nature are quickly repressed into the subconscious lest they should be translated into action. Repression is essentially the mechanism of self-disgust.It is still an open question whether repression is normal or abnormal; whether it is part of the functioning of the healthy mind, or whether it is to be regarded as a psychic corn or callosity, an endeavor on the part of nature to reinforce a point of pressure, which, though intended as a defense, is apt to become a disease.The part played by consciousness in repression is equally an open question. In my opinion, an idea must be present to consciousness before its nature can be apprehended and the judgment formed which leads to its banishment.There is no question but that, if we were strong enough, we could deal with these problems in the conscious mind by means of thought control, and that repression is only resorted to when the first line of defence has gone down before the onslaught of the lower side of our natures.Repression may therefore be looked upon as a reaction due to weakness; the mind that was perfectly adapted to its environment would assimilate all experiences and grow stronger in the process.
Chapter 17: Dissociation
While the device of repression may adequately deal with many of the unwelcome thoughts that intrude themselves upon us, it is not capable of doing so in every case, and then the process is carried a stage further, and DISSOCIATION takes place.Dissociation is pathological forgetting. Emotion is the life of an idea. In ordinary forgetting a memory sinks into the subconscious because insufficient interest is attached to it to enable it to remain in consciousness; if, however, an idea associated with some strong emotion is repressed into the subconscious, that emotion will, as it were, vivify it, and cause it to have an independent life of its own; it splits off from the personality and is said to be dissociated.It will be noted that in our study of memory we saw that ideas never remain solitary, but tend to form associations among themselves, or, as they are technically termed, complexes. The dissociated idea is no exception to this rule; not only does it form alliances with its fellow prisoners, but its chains of associations manage to evade the censor and ramify through the other levels of the mind with far-reaching consequences, giving rise to much of the illogicality and unreasonableness which disturb our attempts at rational thinking. We have already noted that a complex is a group of ideas held together by some emotionally toned interest; and as all emotion has its root in an instinct, it follows that all complexes must be affiliated to one or other of the instincts; as they sink into the subconscious they therefore go down the channel of the instinct to which they belong, and as they are swimming against the current they tend to block the flow of that particular instinct and to causeit to express itself through the subsidiary channel which they are endeavoring to open up.It can readily be seen that serious consequences must arise from an obstacle lodged in the fairway of so great a force and drawing to itself, under the law of association of ideas, all thoughts that may enter the mind on the same subject, or that have a real or symbolic resemblance to it. As has been truly said, the subconscious grows at the expense of the conscious, and the balance of the mind is upset; the thrust of life, the source of all energy, instead of flowing freely from level to level, is blocked by the complex and held up in the subconscious, causing the pressure on that level to rise to danger-point, while the conscious mind is sapped of its vitality, producing an individual of imperative and chaotic needs, which he is unable to formulate, even to himself, and with no power to give them expression or obtain their satisfaction.
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