Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/42

 296 H. VON HUG-HELLMUTH

of the room, we can see clearly the working of the unconscious. It also shows us an important difference in the course of psychic functionings in the grown-up and in the child. Whereas in the ana- lysis of the adult, we aim at bringing about full insight into un- conscious impulses and feelings, in the case of a child, this kind of avowal expressed, without words, in a symbolic act, is quite sufficient. We learn, indeed, from the analysis of the child that in him the psychic events take place in quite different layers from those of the grown-up, that they may be more closely or more remotely connected with each other and that in the child many impressions leave clearly-marked traces in spite of never having reached the threshold of consciousness. Even analysis does not make conscious these fragmentary memories of 'primordial scenes '^ the blending of new impressions with these former takes place, perhaps, in the preconscious, and it is left to later experiences at a higher stage of development to bring them into consciousness. This would supply a further explanation of the fact that the very earliest impressions which are very much alike for all human beings (such for example, as the methods of upbringing) lay the foundation for neurosis in some whilst others pass through them unharmed.

It is most rare for the young patient to put out his psychic feelers, or to talk freely during the first treatment hour, since he is full of mistrust towards his analyst, who is the father- or mother- imago, unless it so happens that an extreme bitterness against his parents or brothers and sisters compels the child to break out into complaints and abuse. In such case, it is necessary to mani- fest to the young patient the greatest forbearance and a full con^ sideration of his troubles.

The communications or symptomatic actions in the first treatment hour are of the greatest importance, for they demonstrate the nuc- lear-complex of the infantile neurosis.

A fifteen year old boy came to me for analytic treatment on account of severe anxiety conditions, which he himself speedily declared to be 'anxiety of anxiety'. The first thing he said was: and again after that, the next best are Jews, and the rest are Gentiles.' By this formulation the boy betrayed his ever-gnawing feeling of reproach against the father, who owing to marriage with a Gentile, had become a convert from Judaism to Protestantism.
 * In our form at school, the two best pupils are Jews, I come next,

» Cf. Freud: 'A Child is being Beaten", Ti& Journal, Vol. I, p. 380.