Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/35

 PSYCHO-ANALYTieM. ©NERVATIONS ON TIC 27

"Monasterism" also, the tendency to work oflf ones feelings in seclusion, may originate in onanism. ^

In this connection we return to the observations of Gowers and Bernhardt that tics often increase in power at the time of early puberty, pregnancy and childbed, at the time therefore of increased stimulation of the genital regions. Finally if we take into con- sideration the coprolalia, streaming into anal-erotic obscenities, paraded by many tic patients * and their tendency to Enuresis (noctuma and diuma) to which Oppenheim draws attention, we cannot avoid the impression that the significant "displacement from below upwards" so strongly emphasised in neurotics as well as in normal sex development plays no inessential part in the formation of tic.

One can link up this fact with the possibility of tracing back the origin of Tic to an increase of narcissism (which has been a prominent feature of our considerations so far) in the following manner : In the case of "pathoneurotic tic" the injured or stimu- lated part of the body (or its psychic representative) is charged with excessive interest and libido. The quantity of energy required for this is drawn from the greatest libido reservoir, the genital sexuality, and this must of necessity be accompanied by a decrease of potency in the normal genital sensations. This results in a dis- placement of not only a certain quantity of energy from below upwards but also a displacement of quality (innervation-character), hence the "genitalisation" of the parts attacked by tic, (excit- ability, tendency to rhythmical rubbing, in many cases definite orgasm). In cases of tic of "constitutional narcissists" the primacy of the genital zone generally appears to be not quite firmly esta- blished, so that even ordinary stimuli or unavoidable disturbances result in a similar displacement. Onanism would thus still be a half

' The word "tic" is according to Meige and Feindel an "onoraato- poetikon". It is like a short sound. Zucken, Tieken, Tic in German ; tic, Hguer tiqui in French; tug, tick in Enfi[lish; ticckio in Italian; tico in Spanish, all have the same root and the same onomatopoetical origin (M. and F., Op. cit., p, 29). We must remember io this connection that in consequence of a pecu- liar and general acoustic synaesthesia the palpitation of the erection of the clitoris is described by the majority of women as "klopfen" (knocking).

' There are also otherwise healthy people who are impelled to speak their thoughts at once, e. g. murmur when reading or talk to themselves. According to Strieker every thought is accompanied by a slight innervation of the motor organ of speech.