By the method of outward projection they frequently place the responsibility on some foreign agency. Externally "thought-deprivation" is manifested in the form of "obstructions."[1] The examiner suddenly receives no answer to his questions and the patient then states that he is unable to answer as his thoughts were "taken away." The association experiments taught us that long reaction times and incorrect reactions ("mistakes") regularly appear where one deals with a complex-reaction. The strong feeling-tone inhibits the associations. This phenomenon more intensified is also found in hysteria where at critical points the patient "can simply think of nothing." This is almost thought-deprivation. The same mechanism is found in dementia præcox; here too thought is inhibited at complex-locations (be it in experiments or conversation). This can easily be seen in suitable cases when we at first speak about matters indifferent to the patient and later about things referring to the complexes. With the indifferent material the answers follow smoothly, while with the complexes one obstruction succeeds the other; the patients either refuse to answer or give deliberately affected evasions. Thus, no matter how patiently one tries, it is impossible to obtain detailed statements from a patient about her husband with whom she has lived unhappily, whereas about anything else she gives ready and detailed information.
Another phenomenon to be considered is impulsive thought. Singular and even senseless ideas crowd themselves into a patient's mind, about which he is obsessively forced to deliberate and ponder. An analogy to this we find in psychogenic obsessive thoughts. The patients regularly realize the absurdity of the thoughts, but are unable to repress them.[2] The thought influences also manifest themselves as "inspirations."
- ↑ "Theories," like those, for instance, of Rogues de Fursac, only verify the fact. "The most suitable term is perhaps that of psychic interference. The two opposed tendencies annul each other, as contrary waves do in physics." (Cited after Claus: Catatonie et Stupeur, Bruxelles, 1903.) See also Mendel: Leitfaden der Psych., p. 55.
- ↑ An analogy of this is Janet's "rêverie forcée" in his "Obsédés," l. c., p. 154: "J. feels that at certain moments all his life concentrates itself into his head, that the rest of his body is as if asleep, and that he is forced to think enormously without being able to stop himself. The memory becomes extraordinarily and excessively developed so that it
