"Hers, I feel sure now, is what is known as one of the so-called
'border-line cases,'" he continued. "It is clearly a case of
hysteria--not the hysteria one hears spoken of commonly, but the
condition which scientists know as such. We trace the impulses
from which hysterical conditions arise, penetrate the disguises
which these repressed impulses or wishes must assume in order to
appear in the consciousness. Such transformed impulses are found
in normal people, too, sometimes. The hysteric suffers mostly from
reminiscences which, paradoxically, may be completely forgotten.

"Obsessions and phobias have their origin, according to Freud, in
sexual life. The obsession represents a compensation or substitute
for an unbearable sexual idea and takes its place in
consciousness. In normal sexual life, no neurosis is possible, say
the Freudists. Sex is the strongest impulse, yet subject to the
greatest repression, and hence the weakest point of our cultural
development. Hysteria arises through the conflict between libido
and sex-repression. Often sex-wishes may be consciously rejected
but unconsciously accepted. So when they are understood every
insane utterance has a reason. There is really method in madness.

"When hysteria in a wife gains her the attention of an otherwise
inattentive husband it fills, from the standpoint of her deeper
longing, an important place, and, in a sense, may be said to be
desirable. The great point about the psychanalytic method, as
discovered by Breuer and Freud, is that certain symptoms of
hysteria disappear when the hidden causes are brought to light and
the repressed desires are gratified."

"How does that apply to Mrs. Cranston?" I queried.