Wilhelm Reich, The Sexual Revolution : Toward a Self-Governing Character Structure

Wilhelm Reich, The Sexual Revolution : Toward a Self-Governing Character Structure

PART ONE

The Fiasco of Compulsory Sexual Morality

The
editor
of
The
Yarn
RoU,
who
posed
the
question
"Why
are
we
alive?",
apparently
likes
to
move
around
in
the
tangled
shrubbery
of
philosophy.
But,
on
the
other
hand,
he
may
be
in
the
throes
of
great
fear
and
trembling
as
he
contemplates
the
futility
of
human
life.
If
the
first
is
the
case,
it’s
good;
if the
second
is
the
case,
it’s
bad. And
for
this
reason
the
only
answer
to
that
question
is:
"Man
must
live
for
the
sake
of
living,"
even
if
this
sounds
strange
and
single-minded.
For
man,
the
whole
purpose,
the
whole
meaning
of
life,
lies
in
life
itself,
in
the
process
of
living.
To
comprehend
the
purpose
and
meaning
of
life,
one
must
above
all
love
life
and
become
totally
submerged
in
the
turmoil
of
living;
it
is
only
then
that
one
can
grasp
the
meaning
of
life
and
understand
why
one
is
alive.
Unlike
everything
that
man
has
created,
life
requires
no
theory;
he
who
understands
the
sheer
experience
of
living
will
by
the
same
token
understand
the
theory
of
life.

FROM
THE
DIARY
OF
THE
STUDENT
KostyA RYABTSEV

I

The
Clinical
Foundation
of
the
Sex-Economic
Critique

1.

FROM
THE
MORALISTIC
TO
THE
SEX-ECONOMIC
PRINCIPLE
The
sex-economic
views
presented
here
rest
on
clinical
observations
and
experience
with
patients
who
undergo
a change
in
their
psychic
structure in
the
course
of
a successful
character
analysis.
The
question
will
be
raised,
and
rightly
so,
whether
what
we
have
learned
about
restructuring
a neurotic
person
can
be
applied
forthwith
to
the
problems
of
restructuring
and
reeducating
large
groups,
or
masses,
of
individuals.
Rather
than
offering
theoretical
reflections,
we
shall
let the
facts
speak
for
themselves.
For
the
irrational,
unconscious,
purposeless
phenomena
of
in¬
stinctuallife
can
in
no
way
be
understood
unless
we
are
guided
by
our
experience
with
the
individual
neurotic.
This
is
basically
no
different
from
the
procedure
used
in
fighting
an
infection
of
epidemic
proportions that
is,
we
closely
examine
the
individual
victims
and
investigate
the
bacillus
as
well
as
its
effects,
which
are
the
same
for
all
victims
of
the
epidemic.
The
comparison
may
be
carried
further.
In
an
epidemic,
an
external
factor
damages
a
previously
healthy
organism.
With
cholera,
for
instance,
we
would
not
be
content
with
healing
the
individual
victim
but
at
the
same
time
would
isolate
and
destroy
the
source
of
the
epidemic-causing
bacillus.
In
the
unhealthy
emotional
behavior
of
the
average
person,
we
can
see
similarities
with
our
patient’s
symptoms:
general
sexual
timidity,
the
force
of
moralistic
de¬
mands,
which
are
at
times
transformed
into
undisguised
brutality
(e.g.,
storm
troopers);
the
inability
to
imagine
that
the
gratifica¬
tion
of
drives
can
be
reconciled
with
constructive
work
achieve¬
ment;
the
belief,
which
is
considered
natural,
that
the
sexuality
of
children
and
adolescents
is
a morbid
aberration;
the
inconceivability
of
any
form
of
sexual
life
other
than
lifelong
monogamy;
the
distrust
of
one’s
own
strength
and
judgment
and
the
concomitant
longing
for
an
omniscient,
all-guiding
father
figure,
etc.
Average
individuals
experience
basically
the
same
conflicts,
al¬
though
the
details
may
differ
according
to
each
person’s
unique
development.
If
we
would
apply
what
we
learn
from
the
indi¬
vidual
to
the
masses,
we
can
use
only
those
insights
which
relate
to
conflicts
that
are
typical
and
generally
valid.
It
is
then
quite
correct
to
apply
conclusions
drawn
from
the
processes
involved
in
the
restructuring
of
individual
patients
to
the
restructuring
of
the
masses.
The
emotionally
sick
come
to
us
with
typical
symptoms
of
emotional
disorder.
The
patient’s
capacity
for
work
is
always
more
or
less
impaired,
and
his
actual
accomplishments
corre¬
spond
neither
to
the
demands
he
makes
on
himself
nor
to
those
society
makes
on
him,
nor
even
to
the
abilities
he
feels
he
pos¬
sesses.
Without
exception,
sexual
gratification
is
sharply
dimin¬
ished,
if
not
absent
entirely.
In
the
place
of
natural
genital
gratification
we
invariably
find
nongenital
(pregenital)
forms
of
gratification;
e.g.,
sadistic
fantasies
about
the
sexual
act,
rape
fantasies,
etc.
One
becomes
unequivocally
convinced
that
the
development
of
the
patient’s
character
and
sexual
behavior
is
always
clearly
outlined
by
the
fourth
or
fifth
year
of
life.
The
emotional
disturbance
in
social
or
sexual
achievement
is
sooner
or
later
evident
to
any
observer.
Under
the
condition
of
neurotic,
i.
sexual
repression,
every
patient
carries
within
himself
the
insol¬
uble
contradiction
between
instinctual
drive
and
moralistic
com¬
pulSion.
The
moral
demands
that,
under
the
constant
pressure
of
social
influence,
he
places
on
himself
intensify
the
blocking
of
his
sexual
and
general
vegetative
needs.
The
greater
the
damage
to
his
genital potency,
the
wider
the
discrepancy
between
the
need
for
gratification
and
the
capacity
for
it.
This,
in
turn,
increases
the
moral
pressure
necessary
to
suppress
the
dammed-up
drives.
Since
the
essential
parts
of
the
entire
conflict
are
unconscious
and
therefore
cannot
be
understood
by
the
affected
person,
he
is
also
completely
unable
to
solve
them
by
himself.
In
the
conflict
between
instinct
and
morals,
ego
and
outside
world,
the
organism
is
forced
to
armor
itself
against
both
the
instinct
and
the
outside
world,
to
restrict
itself.
This
"armoring"
results
in
a more
or
less
reduced
capacity
for
living.
It
is
relevant
to
emphasize
that
the
majority
of
people
suffer
from
this
rigidity.
It
is
by
far
the
most
important
source
of
loneliness
in
so
many
people,
despite
community
living.

Character analytic
treatment
is
intended
to
free
the
vegetative
energies
from
their
bindings
in
the
armor.
At
first,
this
strengthens
the
asocial,
perverse,
cruel
impulses
and,
along
with
them,
social
anxiety
and
moral
inhibition.
But
if
childhood
ties
to
the
parental
home,
with
its
early
traumatic
associations
and
sexual
prohibitions,
are
simultaneously
dissolved,
then
more
and
more
vegetative
energy
will
How
toward
the
genitals.
In
other
words,
the
natural
genital
needs
acquire
new
life
or
appear
for
the
first
time.
If,
as
a result,
genital
inhibitions
and
anxieties
are
removed,
if
the
patient
thereby
attains
the
capacity
for
full
orgastic
gratification,
and
if
he
is
fortunate
enough
to
find
a
suitable
partner,
we
can
regularly
observe
a far-reaching
and,
in
many
instances,
astonishing
change
in
his
overall
behavior.
The
most
important
aspects
of
this
are
the
following.
If
the
actions
and
thoughts
of
the
patient
were
formerly
conditioned
by
the
more
or
less
acute
anq
disturbing
effects
of
unconscious,
irrational
motives,
now
his
reactions
are
in
tune
with
reality
and
irrational
motives
recede.
Thus,
in
this
process,
the
tendency
toward
mysticism,
religiosity,
infantile
dependence,
superstitions,
etc.,
disappears
spontaneously,
without
any
at¬
tempt
on
the
part
of
the
physician
to
"educate"
the
patient.
If
the
patient
had
been
severely
armored,
devoid
of
contact
with
himself
and
his
environment,
or
capable
merely
of
substi¬
tute,
unnatural
contacts,
he
now
achieves
an
increasing
capacity
for
immediate
contact
with
both
his
impulses
and
his
surround¬
ings.
The
result
of
this
process
is
the
subsidence
of
the
former
unnatural
behavior
and
the
appearance
of
natural,
spontaneous
functioning.
In
most
patients
we
observe
a double
state.
Outwardly,
they
appear
somewhat
odd,
but
we
can
sense
a
healthy
quality
through
the
sickness.
Today
the
so-called
individual
diffences
among
people
represent
basically
a stifling
neurotic
behavior.
But
these
differences
disappear
in
the
process
of
getting
well,
to
give
way
to
a
simplification
of
overall
behavior.
As
a result
of
this
simplification,
these
persons
become
similar
in
their
basic
traits,
without
losing
their
individuality.
For
example,
every
patient
conceals
his
work
disturbance
in
a very
specific
way.
If
he
loses
this
disturbance,
if he
gains
self-confidence,
he
also
loses
all
those
character
traits
which
compensated
for
his
sense
of
worthless¬
ness.
Self-confidence
based
on
free-flowing
work
accomplishment
is
similar
among
all
men.
A
person•s
attitude
toward
sexual
life
is
influenced
in
the
same
manner.
For
example,
someone
who
represses
his
sexuality
develops
his
own
particular
forms
of
moral
and
aesthetic
self¬
protection.
H
the
patient
regains
contact
with
his
sexual
needs,
his
neurotic
differences
vanish.
The
attitude
toward
a
natural
sexual
life
becomes
more
or
less
the
same
among
all
individuals
– particularly
in
the
affirmation
of
pleasure
and
the
loss
of
sexual
guilt
feelings.
The
formerly
insoluble
conflict
between
instinctual
needs
and
moral
inhibitions
resulted
in
a sickness
in
which
the
person
had
to
act
according
to
the
criteria
of
an
established
norm
outside
himself.
Everything
he
did
and
thought
was
measured
by
the
moral
standard
that
had
been
created
for
him;
at
the
same
time
he
protested
against
it.
If,
in
the
course
of
restructuring,
he
recognizes
not
only
the
necessity
but
also
the
indispensability
of
genital
gratification,
the
moral
straitjacket
drops
off
along
with
the
damming
up
of
his
instinctual
needs.
H
previously
the
pressure
of
morality
had
strengthened
the
drive
or
made
it
antisocial,
and
this
had,
in
turn,
required
a
stronger
moral
inhibition,
now
the
equalizing
of
the
capacity
for
gratification
with
the
strong
drives
destroys
the
moralistic
regulation
in
the
patient.
The
formerly
indispensable
mechanism
of
self-control
also
disappears
because
vital
energies
are
withdrawn
from
the
antisocial
impulses.
There
is
scarcely
anything
left
to
be
con¬
trolled.
The
healthy
person
is
virtually
without
compulsive
moral¬
ity,
but
neither
does
he
have
any
impulses
that
would
require
a
restraining
morality.
Any
residual
antisocial
impulses
are
easily
controlled
if the
basic
genital
needs
are
gratified.
This
is
evident
in
the
daily
conduct
of
the
orgastically
potent
individual.
Sexual
intercourse
with
prostitutes
becomes
offensive;
any
existing
fantasies
of
murder
or
rape
lose
their
force
and
significance.
To
force
a partner
into
a
love
affair
or
to
rape
her
becomes
bizarre
and
unthinkable,
just
as
do
any
impulses
to
seduce
chil¬
dren
that
may
have
existed
previously.
By
the
same
token,
former
anal,
exhibitionistic,
or
other
perversions
also
recede,
along
with
social
anxiety
and
guilt
feelings.
The
incestuous
ties
to
parents
and
siblings
lose
their
interest,
freeing
energies
hitherto
re¬
pressed.
In
brief,
the
processes
mentioned
here
are
all
to
be
regarded
as
a sign
that
the
organism
regulates
itself.
It
has
been
shown
that
people
with
the
capacity
for
orgastic
gratification
are
considerably
better
adjusted
to
monogamous
relationships
than
those
whose
orgastic
function
is
disturbed.
However,
their
monogamous
attitude
rests
not
on
inhibited
po¬
lygamous
impulses
or
moralistic
considerations
but
on
the
sex¬
economic
ability
to
experience
pleasure
repeatedly
with
the
same
partner.
The
prerequisite
is
sexual
harmony
with
the
partner.
(In
this
respect,
no
difference
between
men
and
women
could
be
clinically
established.)
But
if
no
suitable
partner
is
available,
as
seems
to
be
the
rule
under
the
prevailing
conditions
of
sexual
life,
the
tendency
toward
monogamy
turns
into
its
opposite,
namely,
into
the
uncontrollable
search
for
the
right
partner.
If
that
partner
is
found,
the
monogamous
behavior
is
spontaneously
restored
and
is
maintained
as
long
as
sexual
harmony
and
gratification
last.
Fantasies
and
wishes
for
other
partners
are
either
very
weak
or
else
ignored
because
of
the
interest
in
the
current
partner.
However,
the
relationship
collapses
irretrievably
if
it
becomes
stale
and
if
another
companion
promises
greater
pleasure.
This
unshakable
fact
is
the
insoluble
contradiction
in
the
sexual
organization
of
modern
society,
encumbered
with
economic
obligations
and
considerations
for
children
which
op¬
pose
the
principle
of
sex-economy.
For
this
reason,
it
is
the
healthiest
people
who
suffer
most
severely
under
the
conditions
of
the
sex-negating
social
order.
The
behavior
of
orgastically
disturbed
people,
i.e.,
the
major¬
ity,
is
diHerent.
Since
they
feel
less
pleasure
in
the
sexual
act
or
._-

¬
can
do
without
a sexual
partner
for
greater
periods
of
time,
they
are
less
selective:
the
act
does
not
mean
very
much
to
them.
Here
promiscuity
in
sexual
relationships
results
from
sexual
disturb¬
ance.
Such
sexually
disturbed
people
are
more
capable
of
adapt¬
ing
to
a lifelong
marriage;
however,
their
fidelity
rests
not
on
sexual
gratification
but
on
moral
inhibitions.
If
a
patient
regaining
his
health
succeeds
in
finding
a
suitable
partner,
all
nervous
symptoms
disappear
and
he
can
order
his
life
with
an
astonishing
ease
previously
unknown
to
him.
He
can
resolve
his
conflicts
without
neurosis
and
develop
self-confidence
in
regulating
his
impulses
and
social
relationships.
He
follows
the
pleasure
principle.
The
simplifying
of
his
attitude
toward
life,
in
action,
thought,
and
feeling,
removes
many
sources
of
conflict.
At
the
same
time, he
acquires
a
critical
attitude
toward
the
prevailing
moral
order,
thus
demonstrating
that
the
principle
of
sex-economic
self-regulation
opposes
that
of
compulsory
moral
regulation.
In
today’s
sexually
depraved
society,
the
healing
process
frequently
runs
into
almost
insurmountable
obstacles-particu¬
larly
the
paucity
of
sexually
healthy
people
who
might
become
partners
for
patients
who
are
approaching
health.
Beyond
that,
there
are
the
general
impediments
of
a compulsive
sexual
moral¬
ity.
One
might
say
that
the
genitally
healthy
person
turns
from
an
unconscious
into
a conscious
hypocrite
toward
those
institutions
and
social
conditions
which
impede
his
healthy,
natural
sexuality.
On
the
other
hand,
some
develop
the
faculty
of
changing
their
environment
to
such
an
extent
that
the
effects
of
today’s
social
order
are
diminished
or
removed
altogether.
I have
had
to
limit
myself
here
to
the
briefest
of
descriptions
and
I refer
the
reader
to
my
extensive
investigations
in
The
Function
of
the
Orgasm
and
Character
Analysis.
Clinical
experi¬
ence
has
permitted
me
to
draw
basic
conclusions
about the
social
order.
The
wide
scope
of
these
conclusions
for
the
prophylaxis
of
neuroses,
the
fight
against
mysticism
and
superstition,
the
old
problem
of
the
apparent
contradiction
between
nature
and
cul¬
ture,
instinct
and
morals,
was
at
first
surprising
and
confusing;
but,
after
years
of
reexamination
on
the
basis
of
ethnological
and
sociological
material,
I became
convinced
that
the
conclusions
based
on
the
structural
change
from
the
moralistic
principle
to
that
of
sex-economic
self-regulation
are
correct;
they
were
confirmed
everywhere.
If
a social
movement
were
to
succeed
in
changing
social
conditions
in
such
a
manner
that
today’s
sex
negation
would
be
replaced
by
general
sex
affirmation
(with
all
its
eco¬
nomic
concomitants),
then
the
principle
of
restructuring
the
human
masses
would
become
reality.
Of
course,
we
do
not
mean
to
treat
every
member
of
society.
The
fundamental
idea
of
sex¬
economy
has
often
been
misconstrued
in
this
way.
The
experi¬
ences
gleaned
from
the
restructuring
of
individuals
will
serve
merely
to establish
general
principles
for
a new
form
of
educa¬
tion
of
infants
and
adolescents
in
which
nature
and
culture,
individual
and
society,
sexuality
and
sociality,
would
no
longer
contradict
each
other.
t
But
the
therapeutic
experiences
and
their
theoretical
results,
through
which
it
was
possible
to
make
the
orgasm
theory
acces¬
sible
to
psychotherapy,
contradicted,
and
still
contradict,
virtually
all
approaches
which
have
been
developed
in
all
relevant
scien¬
tific
fields.
The
absolute
contradiction
between
sexuality
and
culture
governs
all
morality,
philosophy,
culture,
science,
psy¬
chology,
and
psychotherapy
as
an
inviolable
dogma.
Here
the
most
significant
position
is
nn
doubt
held
by
Freud’s
psychoanal¬
ysis,
which
adheres
to
these
contradictions,
in
spite
of
its
clinical
discoveries
rooted
in
natural
science.
It
is
essential
to
describe
briefly
the
contradictions
which
produced
the
psychoanalytic
theory
of
culture
and
led
to
the
deterioration
of
scientific
psy¬
choanalysis
into
metaphysics.
This
cultural
theory
has
caused
only
confusion.

2.
A
CONTRADICTION
IN
FREUD’S
THEORY
OF
CULTURE
SEXUAL
REPRESSION
AND
INSTINCT
RENUNCIATION
A
serious
discussion
of
the
sociological
consequences
of
psychoanalysis
must
first
of
all
clarify
whether
the
so-called
psychoanalytic
sociology
and
world
view,
as
reflected
in
Freud’s
later
writings,
and
then
obscured
to
the
point
of
grotesqueness
in
the
works
of
several
of
his
students
such
as
Roheim,
Pfister,
M liller-Braunschweig,
Kolnai,
Laforgue,
and
others,
are
the
lOgical
outcome
of
analytic
psychology
or
whether
this
sociology
and
world
view
stem
from
a break
with
the
analytic
principles
of
clinical
observation,
due
to
a misconstrued
or
incomplete
con¬
ceptualization
of
clinical
facts.
If
such
a rift
or
break
could
be
demonstrated
in
the
clinical
theory
itself,
if
furthermore
we
could
show
the
relationship
between
the
divergent
clinical
concept
and
the
basic
sociological
viewpoint,
we
would
have
found
the
most
important
source
of
error.
(Another
source
lies
in
equating
the
individual
and
society.
)
Freud
endorsed
the
cultural-philosophical
viewpoint
that
culture
owes
its
existence
to
the
repression
or
renunciation
of
instinctual
drives.
The
basic
idea
is
that
cultural
achievements
result
from
sublimated
sexual
energy,
indicating
that
sexual
suppression,
or
repression,
is
an
indispensable
factor
in
establish¬
ing
any
culture.
Now
there
is
already
historical
proof
that
this
concept
is
erroneous,
for
there
are
highly
cultured
societies
in
which
sexual
suppression
is
nonexistent
and
whose
members
enjoy
completely
free
sexual
lives.
1
This
theory
is
accurate
only
insofar
as
sexual
suppression
forms
the
mass-psychological
basis
for
a specific
culture
in
all
its
forms,
namely,
the
patriarchal
culture,
but
it
does
not
apply
to
the
basis
of
culture
and
its
formation
in
general.
How
did
Freud
arrive
at
this
concept?
It
was
certainly
not
from
conscious
politi¬
cal
and
philosophical
motives.
On
the
contrary,
early
writings
such
as
his
essay
on
"cultural
sexual
morality"
point
in
the
direc¬
tion
of
a revolutionary
sexual
critique
of
culture.
But
Freud
never
again
proceeded
along
that
path;
instead,
he
struggled
against
any
eHorts
in
that
direction
and
once
described
them,
in
a con¬
versation,
as
being
"outside
the
middle
line
of
psychoanalysis."
It
was
precisely
my
attempts
at
a sex-political
criticism
of
culture
that
gave
weight
to
our
first
differences
of
opinion.
1
Cf.
Reich:
The
Invasion
of
Compulsory
Sex-Morality
(New
York:
Farrar,
Straus
and
Giroux,
1971).
In
analyzing
the
psychic
mechanisms
and
contents
of
uncon¬
scious
emotional
life,
Freud
found
that
the
unconscious
was
filled
with
asocial
and
antisocial
impulses.
Anyone
using
the
corre¬
sponding
analytic
method
can
confirm
this
discovery.
Ideas
of
murdering
the
father
and
possessing
the
mother
are
of
central
importance
in
the
fantasy
life
of
every
man.
Cruel
impulses
are
inhibited
in
everyone
by
more
or
less
conscious
guilt
feelings.
The
majority
of
women
are
seized
by
violent
urges
to
castrate
the
man
and
acquire
his
penis
or
incorporate
it in
one
form
or
other,
as,
for
instance,
by
swallowing
it.
If
these
impulses
are
retained
in
the
unconscious,
their
inhibition creates
not
only
social
adapta¬
tion
but
also
a number
of
emotional
disturbances,
e.g.,
hysterical
vomiting.
Cruel
fantasies
in
the’man,
such
as
injuring,
stabbing,
or
piercing
the
woman
in
the
sexual
act,
give
rise
to
various
forms
of
impotence
if
they
are
blocked
by
feelings
of
anxiety
and
guilt;
and
they
are
at
the
root
of
perverse
actions,
including
sex
murder,
if
the
inhibiting
mechanism
is
disturbed.
Analysis
shows
that
impulses
to
eat
their
own
or
others’
feces
fill
the
unconscious
of
a large
number
of
people
in
our
culture,
regardless
of
their
social
class.
The
psychoanalytic
discovery
that
the
overaHection¬
ate
mother
or
wife
acts
in
direct
ratio
to
the
force
of
her
uncon¬
scious
murderous
fantasies
was
anything
but
agreeable
to
the
ideologues
of
"sacred
mother
love"
and
the
"marital
communion."
We
might
list
countless
other
examples,
but
let
us
return
to
our
subject.
These
contents
of
the
unconscious
largely
proved
to
be
residues
of
infantile
attitudes
toward
the
immediate
environ¬
ment,
toward
parents,
siblings,
etc.
The
child
had
to
master
these
impulses
in
order
to
exist
in
our
culture.
Most
people, however,
pay
for
this
mastery
with
a more
or
less
severe
neurosis,
even
at
an
early
age,
i.e.,
with
a serious
impairment
of
their
capacity
for
work
and
their
sexual
potency.

The
discovery
of
the
antisocial
nature
of
the
unconscious
was
correct,
as
was
the
finding
that
instinct
renunciation
is
necessary
for
adaptation
to
social
life.
The
latter,
however,
results
in
two
contradictory
facts:
on
the
one
hand,
the
child
must
suppress
his
instinctual
drives
so
that
he
can
become
capable
of
adapting
to
culture;
on
the
other
hand,
this
suppression
of
in¬
stinctual
gratification
usually
leads
to
a neurosis,
which
in
turn
restricts
his
capacity
for
cultural
adaptation,
sooner
or
later
makes
it
completely
impossible,
and
again
turns
him
into
an
asocial
person.
In
order
to
restore
the
individual
to
the
conditions
of
his
true
nature,
however,
his
repressions
must
be
eliminated
and
his
instinctual
drives
set
free.
This
is
the
prerequisite
for
recovery
but
not
the
cure
itself,
as
Freud’s
early
therapeutic
formulations
suggested.
But
what
is
supposed
to
replace
the
repression?
Certainly
not
those
impulses
which
have
been
freed
from
repression,
for
then
the
individual
would
be
unable
to
exist
in
this
culture.
In
various
passages
of
analytic
literature
we
find
the
state¬
ment
(which,
incidentally,
has
already
become
part
of
the
psy¬
choanalytic
viewpoint)
that
the
discovery
and
liberation
of
the
unconscious,
i.e.,
the
affirmation
of
its
existence,
should
on
no
account
signify
an
affirmation
of
corresponding
action.
Here
the
analyst
establishes
the
rule
of
conduct
for
life
as
well
as
for
the
analytic
situation:
"You
must
and
should
say
whatever
you
want;
but
this
does
not
mean
that
you
can
do
what
you
want."
How¬
ever,
the
question
of
what
should
happen
to
the
drives
that
had
been
liberated
from
repression
still
confronted,
and
continues
to
confront,
the
responsible
analyst
with
its
vast
implications.
The
answer
given
was:
condemn
and
sublimate.
But
since
only
a
small
number
of
patients
proved
capable
of
the
sublimation
re¬
quired
by
the
recovery
process,
the
demand
for
instinct
renuncia¬
tion
by
means
of
condemnation
took
precedence.
Repression
should
now
be
replaced
by
censure.
To
justify
this
demand,
it
was
argued
that
the
instincts
which
in
infancy
faced
a
weak,
undeveloped
ego
that
could
merely
repress
were
now
confronted
by
a strong,
adult
ego
that
could
resist
by
"voluntary
renuncia¬
tion
of
the
instincts."
Although
this
therapeutic
formulation
is
largely
at
odds
with
clinical
experience,
it
has
been-and
still
is-the
dominant
formulation
in
psychoanalysis.
It
also
governs
analytic
pedagogy
and
is
advocated,
for
instance,
by
Anna
Freud.
In
this
view,
the
individual
becomes
capable
of
culture
and
a
bearer
of
culture
through
instinct
renunciation
instead
of
repression;
and
since,
according
to
the
other
basic
psychoanalytic
concept,
society
behaves
like
the
individual
and
can
be
analyzed
as
such,
it
follows
logically
that
the
culture
of
society
is
predi¬
cated
and
based
on
instinct
renunciation.
The
whole
construct
seems
flawless
and
enjoys
the
approval
of
the
vast
majority
of
analysts
as
well
as
the
exponents
of
an
abstract
concept
of
culture
in
general.
For
the
substitution
of
repression
by
condemnation
and
renunciation
seems
to
ward
off
a threatening
specter
which
caused
grave
uneasiness
when
Freud
disclosed
his
first
unequivocal
findings
that
sexual
repression
not
only
causes
sickness
but
also
renders
people
incapable
of
work
and
culture.
The
world
was
up
in
arms
because
his
theory
seemed
to
threaten
morality
and
ethics,
and
it
accused
Freud
of
preaching,
nolens
volens,
a
form
of
"living
out"
which
was
a
menace
to
culture,
and
so
on.
Freud’s
alleged
antimoralism
was
one
of
the
strongest
weapons
of
his
early
opponents.
His
original
assurances
that
he
affirmed
"culture"
and
that
his
discoveries
did
not
endanger
it
had
left
little
impression,
as
was
shown
by
the
countless
references
to
Freud’s
"pansexualism."
The
specter
re¬
ceded
only
when
the
theory
of
renunciation
was
established.
Then
hostility
was
partly
replaced
by
acceptance;
for
as
long
as
the
instinctual
drives
were
not
acted
out,
it
did
not
matter,
from
the
cultural
viewpoint,
whether
the
mechanism
of
instinctual
renunciation
or
that
of
repression
played
the
role
of
Cerberus
who
would
not
allow
the
shadows
of
the
netherworld
to
rise
to
the
surface.
One
could
even
register
progress,
namely,
from
the
unconscious
repression
of
evil
to
the
voluntary
relinquishment
of
instinctual
gratification.
Since
ethics
is
not
asexual
but
fights
off
sexual
temptations,
all
parties
arrived
at
a meeting
of
minds,
and
the
proscribed
psychoanalysis
itself
became
culturally
accept¬
able-unfortunately,
by
"instinct
renunciation,"
i.e.,
by
renounc¬
ing
its
own
theory
of
the
instincts.
I regret
that
I must
destroy
the
illusions
of
all
concerned,
for
this
formulation
contains
a demonstrable
error
which
proves
it
wrong.
It
is
not
wrong
in
the
sense
that
the
findings
of
psycho¬
analysis,
on
which
the
conclusions
are
based,
are
incorrect.
On
the
contrary,
they
are
entirely
accurate;
it
is
only
that
they
are
partly
incomplete
and
they
partly
obscure
the
true
consequences
by
their
abstract
terminology.