CHAPTER VII

PSYCHOANALYSIS 206

Doctors know too little of psychology, and psychologists of medicine--Strong prejudice aroused by Freud's conception of the importance of the sexual moment--The commoner prejudices discussed--Psychoanalysis not a method of suggestion or reasoning--The unconscious content is reached _via_ the conscious--Case of neurotic man with ergophobia for professional work--Case of neurotic woman who wants another child--Resistances against the analyst--Dream analysis the efficacious instrument of analysis--The scientist's fear of superstition--The genesis of dreams--Dream material is collected according to scientific method--The rite of baptism analysed--When the unconscious material fails, use the conscious--The physician's own complexes a hindrance--Interpretations of Viennese School too one-sided--Sexual phantasies both realistic and symbolic--The dream the subliminal picture of the individual's present psychology--Symbolism a process of comprehension by analogy--Analysis helps the neurotic to exchange his unconscious conflict for the real conflict of life.