Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/9

 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

OF

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS

VOLUME II MARCH 1921 PART 1

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON TIC¹

S. FERENCZI, Budapest.

1

Psycho-Analysis has done very little so far towards investigating that very common neurotic symptom which, following French nomen- clature, goes under the general term of "Tic" or "convulsive Tic".* In the notes appended to the account of "Technical Difficulties in the Analysis of Hysteria" * in a case I had for treatment, I gave a short digression on this subject, and expressed the opinion that many Tics may turn out to be stereotyped equivalents of Onanism, and that the remarkable connection of Tics with Copralalia when all motor expression is suppressed might be nothing else than the uttered expression of the same erotic emotion usually abreacted in symbolic movements. On the same occasion I drew attention to the close relation between stereotypies and symptomatic acts (in sickness and in health) on the one hand and the Tics, or rather Onanism, on the other. For instance, in the case cited above, these muscular actions and skin irritations carried out apparently without thought and believed to be without meaning were able to seize the whole

¹Translated by Sybil C. Porter.

³See J. Sadger, "Ein Beitrag zum Verstandnis des Tic." ''Int. Zeitschrijt'' f. Psychoanalyse, 1914, B. II, S. 354.

³Hysteric und Pathoneurosen, Internat. psa. Bibliothek, Nr. 2, S. 48.

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