Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud
page 8 of 174 (04%)
page 8 of 174 (04%)
|
a "sublimation" of infantile instincts, and especially certain portions
of the sexual instinct, to other ends than those which they seemed designed to serve. Art and poetry are fed on this fuel and the evolution of character and mental force is largely of the same origin. All the forms which this sublimation, or the abortive attempts at sublimation, may take in any given case, should come out in the course of a thorough psychoanalysis. It is not the sexual life alone, but every interest and every motive, that must be inquired into by the physician who is seeking to obtain all the data about the patient, necessary for his reeducation and his cure. But all the thoughts and emotions and desires and motives which appear in the man or woman of adult years were once crudely represented in the obscure instincts of the infant, and among these instincts those which were concerned directly or indirectly with the sexual emotions, in a wide sense, are certain to be found in every case to have been the most important for the end-result. JAMES J. PUTNAM. BOSTON, August 23, 1910. [1] Translated by A.A. Brill, NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH SERIES, NO. 4. [2] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York, and Allen & Unwin, London. [3] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York. [4] Translated by A.A. Brill, Moffatt, Yard & Co., New York. |
|