Introducing Freud: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Oscar Zárate

Traumatic memories are pathogenic, disease-creating. This was a revolutionary anti-mechanist notion which implied that a psychical (strictly mental) agent directly influences the physical processes of the body.

Traumatic memories do not ‘wear away’ normally but remain an active and unconscious force motivating behaviour. (What cannot be remembered cannot be left behind.)

Symptoms stimulated by the unconscious will disappear if abreaction occurs. Abreaction is the process of releasing a repressed emotion about a previously forgotten event. The problem of therapy is to get the patient to relive the original traumatic experience which caused the symptom. 8. Therapy will be difficult because every symptom is over-determined. It is caused by, and is the characteristic of, several psychological events.

Humans may seek pleasure instinctually. But they will actually spend more effort on avoiding pain. Reality provides far more opportunities for experiencing pain than pleasure. So most people will sacrifice pleasure if civilization, in return, can provide them with less suffering.