Page:Freud - Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses.djvu/229

Rh However, let us remember that one must not face the world as a fanatical hygienist or therapeutist. Let us admit that this ideal prophylaxis of neurotic diseases will not benefit every individual. A great many of those who today are taking refuge in the disease will not be able to stand the test of the conditions of the conflict postulated by us, they will soon perish or do some mischief greater than their own neurotic disease. The neuroses really have their biological functions. They are protective measures and are justified socially. Their "morbid gain" is not always purely subjective. Who among you has not looked behind the causation of a neurosis and was not forced to admit that the neurosis was the mildest issue of all the possibilities of the situation? And should we really sacrifice so much for the eradication of the neuroses, if the world is filled with other inevitable misery? Should we therefore give up our efforts to explain the secret meaning of the neurosis as being in the end dangerous for the individual and for the workings of society, and should we waive the right of drawing practical conclusions from a fragment of scientific knowledge? No. I believe that notwithstanding all, our duty moves us to another direction. For the morbid gain of the neurosis is on the whole harmful for the individuals and for society. The misfortune that may result in consequence of our explanation work can surely only strike individuals. The return to a more truthful and more worthy state of society will not be too dearly bought at this sacrifice. But above all: all the energies which are now consumed in the production of neurotic symptoms in the service of a phantastic world isolated from reality, all these energies, even if they cannot contribute to the good of the world will nevertheless help to reenforce the cry for that change in our civilization in which alone we see salvation for posterity. I should therefore like to dismiss you with the assurance that you perform your duty in more than one sense if you treat your patients by psychoanalysis. You not only work in the service of science by making use of the only and never returning opportunity for fathoming the mysteries of neuroses. You not only give the patient for his suffering the most effective treatment now at our disposal, but you also contribute your share to that enlightenment of the multitude from which we expect, indirectly, the most thorough prophylaxis against neurotic diseases.