Page:The theory of psychoanalysis (IA theoryofpsychoan00jungiala).pdf/27

 of early traumatic events. Freud's research penetrated most deeply. He was the first, and it was he alone, who discovered that a certain sexual element was connected with the shock. It is just this sexual element which, speaking generally, we may consider as unconscious, and it is to this that the traumatic effect is generally due. The unconsciousness of sexuality in childhood seems to throw a light upon the problem of the persistent constellation of the primary traumatic event. The true emotional meaning of the accident was all along hidden from the patient, so that in consciousness this emotion was never brought into play, the emotion never wore itself out, it was never used up. We might perhaps explain the effect in the following way: this persistent constellation was a kind of "suggestion à échéance," for it is unconscious and the action occurs only at the stipulated moment.

It is hardly necessary to give detailed examples to prove that the true nature of sexual manifestations during infancy is not understood. Physicians know, for instance, how often a manifest masturbation persisting up to adult life, especially in women, is not understood as such. It is, therefore, easy to realize that to a child the true nature of certain actions would be far less conscious. And that is the reason why the real meaning of these events, even in adult life, is still hidden from our consciousness. In some cases, even, the traumatic events are themselves forgotten, either because their sexual meaning is quite unknown to the patient, or because their sexual character is inacceptable, being too painful. It is what we call "repressed."

As we have already mentioned, Freud's observation, that the admixture of a sexual element with the shock is essential for any pathological effect, leads on to the theory of the ''infantile sexual trauma''.

This hypothesis may be thus expressed: the pathogenic event is a sexual one. This conception forced its way with difficulty. The general opinion that children have no sexuality in early life made such an etiology inadmissible, and at first prevented its acceptance.

The change in the shock-theory already referred to, namely, that in general the shock is not even real, but is essentially a