Peculiarities of Behavior - Wandering Mania, Dipsomania, Cleptomania, Pyromania and Allied Impulsive Acts.

Wilhelm Stekel

Description

This fascinating book contains the first of two volumes written by Wilhelm Stekel pertaining to the peculiarities of human behaviour, with this volume covering such phenomena as wandering mania, dipsomania, kleptomania, pyromania, and other allied impulsive acts. Stekel was a pioneer of the study of human instinct and emotions, which were examined here for the first time in the light of their developmental history. This fascinating and accessible book details far-reaching investigations into the depths of the human soul, perfect for the student of psychology interested in the intricacies of impulsive behaviour. Chapters contained herein include: "Instinct", "Affect and Impulse"; "The Impulse to Wander"; "Flight into Parapathiac delirium"; "Narcotomania (Drug Addiction)"; "Stealing"; and "The Sexual Roots of Kleptomania". Wilhelm Stekel (1868 - 1940) was an Austrian psychologist and physician. He was an early follower of the seminal Sigmund Freud, often described as Freud's most distinguished pupil and commonly hailed as one of the founding fathers of modern psychoanalytical methodology. Many vintage texts such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Sujets

• Behaviorism
• Psychoanalytic theory

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528765053
• Langue: English

Extrait

PECULIARITIES OF BEHAVIOR
Wandering Mania, Dipsomania, Cleptomania, Pyromania and Allied Impulsive Acts
BY
WILHELM STEKEL
Authorized English Version
by
JAMES S. VAN TESLAAR
Volume One
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Wilhelm Stekel
Wilhelm Stekel on 18 th March 1868 in Boiany, Bukovina, in present-day Ukraine.
Stekel was a physician and psychologist. He was one of Sigmund Freud s earliest followers and is credited along with Freud as having founded the first psycho-analytical society. However, Stekel and Freud eventually fell out and their vision of psychoanalysis took different paths.
Stekel made several important contributions to psychoanalytic theory. His work on dream symbolism was acknowledged in Freud s The Interpretation of Dreams , as having taught Freud to form a truer estimate of the extent and importance of symbolism in dreams . Stekel also explored the notion of obsessional doubt, saying In anxiety the libido is transformed into organic and somatic symptoms; in doubt, the libido is transformed into intellectual symptoms. The more intellectual someone is, the greater will be the doubt component of the transformed forces. Doubt becomes pleasure sublimated as intellectual achievement.
On the theory of fetishism and perversion, Stekel contrasted what he called normal fetishes from extreme interests, saying They become pathological only when they have pushed the whole love object into the background and themselves appropriate the function of a love object, e.g., when a lover satisfies himself with the possession of a woman s shoe and considers the woman herself as secondary or even disturbing and superfluous.
As well as being an innovator in therapeutic technique, Stekel produced many papers and books on the subject, including Sexual Root of Kleptomania (1911), Compulsion and Doubt (1922), and Sadism and Masochism: The Psychology of Hatred and Cruelty (1929).
Stekel suffered from prostate problems and diabetic gangrene. He put an end to the pain by taking an overdose and committing suicide. Stekel died on 25 th June 1940.
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE
Dr. Wilhelm Stekel s studies in peculiarities of behavior from which this English version is now offered are based on the newer knowledge of psychology. In these studies the human instincts and emotions are examined for the first time in the light of their developmental history. Dr. Wilhelm Stekel is one of the pioneers in the field. Reaching greater depths than was possible heretofore these studies throw light upon the most varied aspects of mental activity so that students of any problems in which human nature plays a r le cannot fail to be interested in these far-reaching investigations into the depths of the human soul.
The present work covers the peculiarities of behavior known as impulsive acts. Cleptomania, gambling, pyromania and allied impulses are subjected to the most thorough scrutiny which they have thus far received in the history of psychology. The significance of many of these mental manifestations is revealed herein for the first time. Such varied conduct disorders as cleptomania, bargain hunting, greed, and spendthriftiness are shown to have certain common roots in the instincts and emotions of mankind. One of the most encouraging features of the work is the proof it furnishes that many peculiarities of conduct which have heretofore baffled sociologists, physicians, legislators, criminologists and others interested in human welfare are amenable to psychotherapeutic re-education.
This is the more gratifying since the study of the human instincts and emotions has remained until recently an obscure and pathetically meager subdivision of theoretical psychology. Discussions of such generalities as nomenclature, methods of approach, or classification of instincts fail to disclose any fundamental principles which shall serve as a basis for fruitful inquiry. As a rule, speculation yields but little light in proportion to the amount of heat it generates. Meanwhile investigators engaged in the allied field of abnormal psychology have been more fortunate. The study of so-called functional nervous disorders has revealed some of the most important laws which govern our mental processes, both during health and disease. Repression, emotional transference and resistance, psychosexual infantilism, symbolism and the unconscious are a few of the fundamental concepts which psychology owes to psychopathology.
It is interesting to note that this development has its parallel upon the allied fields of physiology and pathology. The study of the internal glandular secretions, to quote a conspicuous illustration, belongs legitimately to physiology, the internal secretions of glands being a part of the normal bodily functions. Nevertheless we are indebted to the researches of pathologists and the observations of clinicians rather than to physiologists for most of our knowledge concerning the operation of endocrines, as the internal glandular secretions are called. The function of endocrines was barely suspected by physiologists and endocrinology was unknown until pathologists and internists turned their attention to the r le which the glands play under certain abnormal conditions.
The comparison holds true in many other respects. Without the far-reaching discoveries in so-called abnormal psychology our knowledge of normal mental functions and processes would be as incomplete and unsatisfactory as our knowledge of glandular functions was until pathologic research disclosed the realm of endocrines. The gap which has heretofore arbitrarily separated mental pathology from psychology has been abolished. Our mental processes stand revealed as being regulated by the same laws during health and disease.
Claude Bernard, the eminent French physiologist, has stated that the time will come when the philosopher, the poet and the scientist will speak the same language so that they will understand one another. Psychology seems particularly well suited to serve as such a common vehicle of expression; and Dr. Stekel seems to possess the loftiness of the philosopher and the intuitive insight of the artist along with the rigorous technique of the scientist. Here and there his writings display the sort of understanding which seems intuitive rather than empirically derived. Nevertheless the careful reader will not fail to discern that it is always the scientist who speaks-a scientist whose soul has not undergone that atrophy of the artistic sense which is perhaps the penalty of narrow overspecialization.
Many of the clinical histories in this work show that at times truth does sound stranger than fiction. Long ago William James was impressed by this fact. Referring to Janet s clinical histories (which are similar, but rather superficial by comparison) he stated that they read like romances. In this as well as in many other respects the autobiographic account of a woman s delusional state, recorded in Chapter III , is certainly unique.
The wide range of subjects treated in this work and the still wider range of the deductions and conclusions which flow out of the author s detailed analyses may seem unusual. The variety of the subjects touched upon is due to the manifold character of mental operations, all of which, however, are reducible to the same basic instincts and emotions. Thus, in spite of the diversity of the themes covered by Dr. Stekel, there is an underlying unity to his conclusions and deductions, inasmuch as the laws which regulate our mental processes operate alike throughout the whole range of our mental life.
Because of their wide range, practical utility and thoroughness Dr. Stekel s studies stand out as the most important interpretation of the mind and its manifestations which we owe to the latest phase of psychologic research.
Dr. Wilhelm Stekel was born March 18, 1868 (in Bukowina, an Austrian province annexed to Roumania since the war) and has studied at the University of Vienna. During the last few years he has gradually withdrawn his interest from popular writings, devoting himself exclusively to the pursuit of his clinical researches. For a number of years he was engaged in general practice. He was one of the first practitioners to become interested in Freud; at a time when Freud worked under almost complete isolation and neglect Stekel proposed that the few men interested in psychoanalysis meet weekly. That was the nucleus of the first psychoanalytic society. Stekel was also the editor of the first psychoanalytic periodical, the Z ENTRALBLATT , which he conducted with Freud and Adler. In later years he and Freud disagreed on matters of psychoanalytic theory and they separated, just as Adler and Jung separated from Freud.
Among Dr. Stekel s larger scientific studies (in addition to his monumental D ISORDERS OF THE I NSTINCTS AND E MOTIONS S ERIES ) are P OETRY AND N EUROSIS , T HE D REAMS OF A RTISTS , and T HE L ANGUAGE OF D REAMS -the latter a massive documentation of the symbolism and meaning of dreams.
J AMES S. V AN T ESLAAR .
B ROOKLINE , M ASS .,
March 25, 1924.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE
C HAPTER I
INSTINCT, AFFECT AND IMPULSE
Instinct Drive-Freud s Definition-Nutritional Instinct-Hunger-Instinct is Life: An Organic Function Representing Individual s Latent Life Energy-Characteristics of Instinct-Relation of Affects to Instincts-Internal Conflict-Affect is Intellectual Elaboration of Instinct-No Affect Without Instinct-Feelings are the Intellectual Perception of Instinct Drive-Affect Preparedness-The Life Urge