Collected papers on the psychology of phantasy

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Preface

I have often been asked to publish the following papers in book form. I have at length done so, chiefly because they deal with points that are matters of constant inquiry.

In a collection of papers of this sort there is inevitably a good deal of repetition. I regret this, but it is always open to readers to skip passages, whereas those who are unfamiliar with the terms of analytical psychology will find the repetition not without value.

It will easily be seen by those to whom it is not already known, that I am an adherent of Jung's school of analytical psychology, but I have neYer concealed my great admiration of Freud's work, nor minimized the debt we owe to him for his opportune discovery of dream analysis, and for the formulation of his illuminating theories of neurosis.

The adherents of the Swiss School use Freud's technique of dream analysis, and do not repudiate any of his discovered facts, but they repudiate the claim of some of his disciples that he and his school are in possession of the whole truth. They are unable to believe that his interpretation of the facts is always as unimpeachable as the facts themselves.

The great value of dream analysis, and the real importance of the discovery, are attested by the fact that the results can be applied in many very different fields of work. The method has approved itself whenever investigators have had sufficient knowledge and skill to do justice to it.

The Freudians are anxious that the term psycho-analysis should be reserved for their special school. As a practical matter it is almost impossible completely to disentangle psycho-analysis from analytical psychology, because having sprung from a common root they are closely bound together.

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Just as analytical psychology is indebted to Freud for its origin, so in turn the Freudians are quietly incorporating in their writings some of the findings of the Swiss School. This may, be an unconscious assimilation, or it may equally well be that they are arriving independently at similar conclusions.

In my last reading of Freud's B Dream Interpretation " I was forcibly struck by the fact that many ideas are implicit in it which, when presented from outside, he and his disciples are fain to controTert. This implicitness is characteristic of a work of genius. That the author should be blind to much that is in his own creation is no new thing, and further discoveries must not be regarded as a breach of patent.

It was my good fortune to obtain my first insight into the unconscious mind with Dr. Jung's help, an experience which has earned my lasting appreciation. "While the following papers afford an introduction to his views, I do not pretend to represent them at all adequately. I have pointed out certain major differences between the two schools, but in any case, those who write on psycho-analysis or analytical psychology will inevitably bring their own subjective views to bear when they attempt to explain psychological theories- However desirous we may be to assume the contrary, analysts, and analytical writers, though presumably enlightened, are just as prone as others to the common human prejudices. Unless we are on our guard this can easily be the case, because analysis can never really empty the unconscious mind. Xew material is always being created, and fresh repressions can arise, particularly while we are giving too exclusive attention to those which are already unearthed.

Perhaps one of Jung's most valuable ideas is that of the compensatory function of the unconscious mind. He regards it as being the creative mind, and as having a balancing tendency also. Thus repression is not referred to sexuality and the primitive instincts alone, but to all the neglected and under-valued material belonging to the various psychological functions of thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Whatever is repressed, or under-expressed, links itself up with

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unconscious elements. From the psychic tension produced between what is conscious and what is unconscious, the phantasies arise, representing in symbolic form what is missing from conscious consideration. The symbols so created are functionally useful as indicating not only the cause of error, but the way of progress. Dream and phantasy are thus regarded as valuable functions of the psyche. In order to avail ourselves of these functions, reasonable contact with the unconscious mind is to be sought through analysis, and should be maintained when analysis is over. This view provides a most hopeful outlook for the future of psychotherapy.

I have called my book the "Psychology of Phantasy." It was not until I had collected these papers together that I realized how much the subject of phantasy had occupied me in the last four years. A candid friend, who is an academic psychologist, bade me refrain from using such a title, saying that the book had nothing to do with psychology. However, I have retained it, because to my mind the book deals with an aspect of phantasy to which academic psychology is paying considerable attention at present. At the same time I warn my readers they will find in it nothing about such matters as " the relation of imagination to perception," etc. I approach the subject solely from the standpoint of medical psychology, and from direct experience and observation of the unconscious mind. It would seem to me both unfitting and unnecessary to dwell upon a side with which the academic psychologist knows, so very much better than I, how to deal.

I take this opportunity of thanking my friends, Dr. Eleanor Bertine and Mrs. M. C. Clare, for their criticism and help, and also Miss Joan Corrie for kindly correcting the proofs.

48, Gobdon Squaee, W.C. 1.

October, 1920.

Contents

PAFEB PAGE

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Quotation fbom De. Jung ox " Psychological Types " . si