Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/11

Rh does not apply to it. The circumstance of Tic being peculiar among neurotic phenoma gives strong support to the idea of Freud regarding the heterogeneous (organic) nature of this symptom.

I was helped in the next step forward by a quite different set of data. A patient (an obstinate Onanist) practically never ceased to carry out certain stereotyped actions during analysis. He kept on smoothing his coat to his figure, frequently several times to the minute; in between he assured himself of the smoothness of his skin by stroking his chin or he gazed with satisfaction at his shoes which were always shining and polished. His entire mental attitude, his self-sufficiency, his affected speech couched in balanced phrases to which he was his own most delighted listener, marked him out as a narcissist contentedly in love with himself, who—impotent with women—found his most apposite method of gratification in Onanism. He came for treatment only at the request of a relative and fled from it in haste at the first difficulties.

Although our acquaintanceship was so short it made a decided impression on me. I began to occupy myself with the question of whether the different orientation of the tics mentioned above originated in their being in fact signs of narcissistic disorder that are at the most attached to the symptoms of transference neurosis, but are not capable of fusing with them. I am not taking into account the opinion expressed by many authors that there is a marked distinction between a stereotypy and a tic. In a tic I have seen and continue to see nothing but a stereotypy performed with lightening rapidity, in an abbreviated way, and often only symbolically indicated. The following observations will reveal Tics as the derivatives of stereotypies.

In any case I began to watch Tiqueurs that I met in everyday life, in consultation, or in treatment, with regard to their narcissism. I recalled several pronounced cases I had seen medically before I practised Psycho-Analysis and was quite astounded at the amount of confirmatory evidence that literally poured from these sources. One of the first cases I now encountered was a young man who had a repeated twitching of the face and neck muscles. I watched him from a neighbouring table in a restaurant and observed how he behaved. Every few moments he gave a little cough and fidgeted with his cuffs till they were absolutely in order with the links turned outwards. He corrected the sit of his stiff collar with his hand or by means of a movement of the

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