Page:Freud - Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses.djvu/44

30 mechanism of the first. A strong impression transitorily re-established the unity of consciousness and the conversion takes the same route opened to it in the first. It is interesting to note that the symptom occurring second concealed the first so that it could not be distinctly perceived until the second was eliminated. The reversal of the succession of events to which also the analysis must be adapted seems to me quite remarkable. In a whole series of cases I found that the symptoms which came later covered the first, and only the last thing in the analysis contained the key to the whole.

The therapy here consisted in forcing the union of the dissociated psychic groups with the ego consciousness. It is remarkable that the success did not run parallel with the accomplished work, the cure resulted suddenly only after the last part was accomplished.