Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/24

 278 MICHAEL JOSEPH EISLER

fun, saying 'now go to the devil'. When the small boy was a nuisance, he would address him very similarly, cursing him gently. The complex could be recognised in occasional instances in later life. When a school-boy, he eagerly collected money, in order to be able to buy a toy steam engine. The complex appears as re- action-formation as fear of thunder and lightning (Brontephobia). Later it was expressed as interest in weather and its changes. I remarked in connection with the saving-phantasies (the dream of the fire) that he was inclined to imagine he possessed a certain prophetic talent, and this can now be readily correlated with the flatus-complex. He always gave as surest evidence in favour of this that he always knew exactly when a guest was coming (guest = child = faeces = flatus).

An equally highly pleasurable sense of smell held sway along with anal erotism. No reaction in the form of hypersensitivity to scents has however yet appeared corresponding to its extensive infantile development. Excreta never disgusted him, but the smell of a carcase did so, and made him lose his appetite. How intim- ately the childish death-phantasies were related to this sense may be illustrated by two examples. He notices the smell of dead bodies even outside the house, should chance direct him to the prox- imity of such a place. He was once enabled, through the good offices of a friend, to visit an autopsy chamber, where he saw an incision which had been begun on the corpse of a woman. The fatty abdominal wall had already been divided in the mid-line. For two years after, he was unable to enjoy fat beef. He avoided mutton altogether, on account of its strong smell.

For the sake of completeness I shall now proceed with the analytic revelations with regard to his sadistic tendencies, supple- menting the occasional examples already adduced. These were of so powerful development that two methods were employed in the process of their adaptation. A portion was transformed into masochism — the Ego serving as object of the sadistic impulse — and becoming bound up, as we have frequently noticed, with the tremendous anal-erotic complexes he thus became passive. A no less significant portion could however not avail itself of this outlet, and persisted actively as pity, a reaction-formation to the instinct.1 This contributed as a factor in the first neurotic illness, seven years ago; he was then incapable of bearing the sight of


 * Freud : ' Triebe und Triebschicksale ', etc.

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