Mental conflicts and misconduct / by William Healy.

  • William Healy (psychiatrist)
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mental conflicts and misconduct / by William Healy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    object to application of the word psychoanalysis to the work of those who do not in fairly full measure fol- low the theories and practices of the master. On the other hand, some of us who are not complete psycho- analysts in that sense, do not wish to mislead and make it appear as if our studies implied the use of the fine technic of interpretation and the extremely pro- longed mental analyses which the principal exponents of the Freudian school deem desirable in their explo- ration of the neuroses. Whether or not practical results are obtainable through studies of misconduct by less thorough-going analysis, I leave the reader to judge later for himself; just here the point is that our work is not based on psychoanalysis to the ecom- plete Freudian extent. It seems much better for our purposes, then, to follow the suggestion of Meyer Solomon,! and speak of mental analysis —a_ phrase that can be “adopted without offense to anybody.” For a clear general statement of the method of mental analysis I can do no better than cite from an expert analyst, Doctor Putnam:? “The psychoanalytic method is the name given to the special means by which the memory is aided to penetrate into the for- gotten portions of one’s life, with the view of bringing to the light of clear consciousness the details of emo- tional conflicts which, in spite of being out of sight, exert an influence, often of an unfavorable sort, on the development of character and temperament, as well as on the motives, the habits, and the thoughts.”’ Though this definition is admirably stated, for our ends we might paraphrase the first part of it and state that: 1 Meyer Solomon, “On the Use of the Term Psychoanalysis and Its Substitute.” Medical Record, New York, September 18, 1915. 2 James Jackson Putnam, M.D., ““Human Motives’’, p. 68.
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