Since negative, unconscious memories cannot be expressed normally, their emotional energy or affect is dammed up — strangulated. 6. The strangulated affect is ‘converted’ into the physical symptoms of hysteria by unconscious stimulus. 7. 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
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