Reik - Surprise and the psycho-analyst : on the conjecture and comprehension of unconscious processes

The International Library of Psychology

SURPRISE AND THE PSYCHO-ANALYST

The International Library of Psychology

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

In 21 Volumes

THEODOR REIK

First published in 1936 by

Routledge, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.

Reprinted in 1999 by

Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1936 Theodor Reik

Translated from the German by Margaret M Green

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

Surprise and the Psycho-Analyst

ISBN 0415-20969-2

Cognitive Psychology: 21 Volumes

ISBN 0415-21126-3

The International Library of Psychology: 204 Volumes

ISBN 0415-19132-7

DEDICATED IN TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP, TO

DR. I. E. G. VAN EMDEN

T HIS book is an attemptso far as I know, the firstto describe what is required of an investigator into the unconscious mental processes of another person, and what he achieves. By describing the psychological process of cognition from within, I intend at the same time to trace the way from conjecturing to comprehending the unconscious processes.

I shall not treat the processes of conjecture and comprehension of unconscious phenomena on the same footing. I shall establish the process of conjecture as far as my knowledge goes. As regards the process of comprehension, I shall only discuss its initial phases, its primary intent and psychical mechanism. This discrimination is due to the different part which the unconscious plays in the two processes; it is, of course, greater in the reconnoitring phase of conjecture than in the stage of cognition, in which the performances of the unconscious mind are apprehended with the resources and methods of conscious thought. I am concerned with the investigation of the unconscious and preconscious phases, leading from the perception of a psychical phenomenon to its comprehension.

Undoubtedly there are at the present time various schools of psychology occupied in the investigation of unconscious psychical phenomena. Yet there can no longer be any question but that psycho-analysis denotes that school which has penetrated furthest into the unexplored regions of the science. If we wish to know what goes on in the psychologist who grasps the unconscious processes in another, we must first depict the nature and direction, the preliminary conditions and aims, of the processes in question. In the present case, since I may assume a knowledge of the results attained by psycho-analytical research, this part of the inquiry is superfluous.

Nor am I concerned with a systematic restatement of the methods of analysis, but with its psychological prerequisites. The reader will, therefore, hear nothing of the theoretical assumptions and the nature of the method of penetrating into the unconscious depths, nothing of the principle of psychical determinism, of associations, the manipulation of dream interpretation, nothing of the technique of psycho-analysis in the sense in which we ordinarily understand it.

The methods of psycho-analysis have been frequently and fully described. We have a series of works on the subject, from Freuds early papers to the recent book by Imre Hermann.

From the present work I have deliberately excluded everything that has already been treated in the scientific literature of psycho-analysis; only such questions will be dealt with as, to the best of my knowledge, have not yet been discussed by psycho-analytical writers in a manner adequate to their importance. That does not imply that I intend to confine myself to original matter. Not everything contained in this book is new. What is new, is that it is stated. In this senseand only in this sensethe present work seeks to point to new roads in the technique of psycho-analysis.

In touching upon the subject of psycho-analytical technique, it will be well, I think, to utter a kind of warning