Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/54

 210 COLLECTIVE REVIEWS

there exist for the child's intelligence no independent, isolated ob- jects in the outer world, and in which all sense-stimuli are regarded as endogenous and immanent ; this is the period of narcissistic Identification. Before the Ego can be formed, there must be drawn a boundary between the subjective and the objective. The desire to have secrets that are unknown to the parents is an important factor in the formation of this boundary. The most important rdle of all, however, in the development of the Ego is played by the TJbido. Man comes into the world as an organic unity in which Libido and Ego are not yet separated ; this is the stage of innate Narcissism. Starting from this undifferentiated condition, the Libido gradually attaches itself to the individual organs; these in turn, by means of an identification with one's own body, become fused into a whole, i. e. the 'Self or 'Ego'.

Holl6s (16), as the result of his experience with the formation of associations and the ability to remember these associations when formed, advances the theory that the degree of Self-Consciousness is closely related [to the relation between outer and inner per- ception ; there is a certain optimum in this relationship in which Self-Consciousness is clearest, while with the increasing predominance of one or other kind of perception Self-Consciousness becomes obscured and finally disappears. During the process of continuous association there comes into play — in addition to inner and outer perception— a |^third phase of consciousness, the characteristic of which consists in the gradual separation of the pre-conscious ele- ments from Self-Consciousness. In this way, during Self-Consciousness, there takes place, according to certain laws, a gradual enrichment of the Unconscious.

Loewenfeld — an unattached supporter of psycho-analysis — has written a work of a polemical nature, in which he endeavours to bring about the acceptance of the fundamental points of Freud's psychological theories (21). The identification of the 'psychic' with the 'conscious' is rejected as unjustifiable. 'Deep' and 'Super- ficial ' Psychology must become reconciled by riieans of the concept of the Subconscious. Loewenfeld's Subconscious is, however, wider in scope than Freud's Unconscious. The association experiment is regarded as being not altogether free [from certain objections. While emphasising the inestimable services rendered by Freud and while bringing forward a great number of facts to support the hypothesis of unconscious psychic processes, Loewenfeld rejects

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