Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, proposed many grand theories. Many of these were extraordinary, reflecting the heart of the truth about the mind and about the person’s psychological and emotional life. Along with some of his great discoveries, however, were others that turned out not to be useful or even true. Nevertheless, his discoveries about the workings of the mind—especially the unconscious mind—were fabulous, ingenious, and, practically speaking, highly useful.
One of his greatest discoveries focused on the workings of emotional or psychological symptoms. His main discovery about symptoms concerned why they developed and what they meant.
Freud’s first discovery about symptoms was to see that there was a connection between the symptom on the one hand and what the person who was suffering with the symptom wanted, or wished for, on the other. That is to say, Freud saw that there was a direct connection between the person’s original wish (what the person wanted) and the appearance of the symptom.
Then Freud got more specific about the matter of the wish and the symptom, and theorized that not only was there a connection between the person’s original wish and the symptom, but that, in fact, the wish was the symptom and the symptom was the wish. Freud said that if the wish was not met, a symptom would develop. He also discovered that when a person has a symptom, the symptom is really the wish itself, but in disguised form. Thus, any symptom is the translation of the person’s wish in this disguised or neurotic form.
The question is: Why should that be? That is, why should a wish connect to a symptom—always and without exception? And, of course, Freud wondered exactly that. Why should it be that the wish translates into the symptom?
And Freud’s answer was astonishing; it was a truly great insight and discovery. What Freud said was that in the person’s mind or psyche, no wish will ever be denied. And that is the key. No wish will ever be denied! Freud knew, of course, that in reality people hardly ever get their wishes met exactly when they want them met. Therefore, even when in reality the wish is blocked, the psyche of the person does not permit this kind of disappointment to win the day.
So how it works in the psyche is this: even in the face of a blocked wish, the presence of a symptom will nevertheless represent the wish as fully gratified—but in the disguised form of the symptom. Yes, the symptom is the wish fully gratified, even though, at first glance, it certainly doesn’t look that way.
But how does this happen? What connects the wish and the symptom? This is the question that Freud never really answered. He got the connection between the wish and the symptom, but he didn’t get the mechanism that tied them together and made the entire process unshakeable. This unshakeable process, this unmistakable connection between the wish and the symptom, this hard-core principle of how a person’s psychological life works, is that the symptom will always be a symbol of the wish.
Again, the question remains: What is it that connects the wish and the symptom? What is this mysterious, powerful mechanism that makes it all work—for every person, and more specifically, for every person on the face of the earth?
A fictional story can be used to express how the wish eventually becomes gratified through the symptom, and as the symptom. This little story goes something like this:
A person has a wish blocked. Therefore, the person feels disappointed because he can’t have what he wants. As is always the case, anger is generated toward the person—the who—who was responsible for thwarting the wish. The reason anger is always generated into feelings by helplessness or disempowerment or disappointment, is that under such a condition of lack of power, anger is frequently the only way to regain power. But the anger also frequently cannot be expressed directly to the who—the person responsible for the blocked wish and resulting disappointment. In this sense, the anger has only one place to go and that is inward—into the person’s psyche, or unconscious mind.
So here is the little fictional story between the anger and the blocked wish.
The anger says to the wish: “I’m going into the subconscious mind so that I won’t even realize that I’m angry at this person, this who who won’t give me what I want. I have my reason for not being able to let this who know that I’m angry. So I really have to hide my anger from that person, that who—and even conceal my own anger from myself.”
The wish answers: “I’d like to go too because then I can get what I want.”
So the anger says: “Hop on.”
So the wish hops onto the back of the anger and down they go, deep, deep into the subconscious mind, and even still deeper into the unconscious mind—right into the center of the person’s psyche.
Then, deep in the unconscious mind, the anger and the wish fuel the person’s unconscious furnace. The anger continues to stoke the furnace, while the wish that is now in the furnace is transformed into the smoke that is rising in the furnace chimney.
The base of this chimney starts in the furnace of the deepest unconscious part of the mind/psyche. As the smoke (the transformed wish) rises up the psychic chimney, it passes into the subconscious level of the mind, then into the almost conscious level, and finally pours out of the chimney into the person’s fully conscious life. But now, the wish exists as smoke in the form of a symptom and not in the form of the original wish that took the ride with the anger in the first place.
Further, as long as the anger toward the who remains out of the person’s awareness—that is, it remains in the deepest unconscious mind—the symptom will also remain as a symptom. Another way of saying this is to get back to our little story and propose that so long as the anger keeps stoking the furnace—that is, remains unconscious—the wish will remain in the form of a symptom—even forever.
It is only when the anger toward the who becomes conscious that the symptom can disappear. In other words, when the anger toward the who comes out of the unconscious mind and into consciousness so that the person is aware of the anger as well as of the corresponding who toward whom the anger is directed, only then will the smoke disappear. No more anger in the unconscious mind means no more symptom.
The person who knows about his or her own anger but still cannot confront the who will not have a symptom. Yet, if there does, in fact, remain some little bit of the symptom, it will be just that—a residue, weak and ineffective, and in a matter of a short period of time, erased altogether. The erasure of the symptom is more firmly accomplished when the person gets in front of the line, in a doing place, and engages in some activity that connects the original difficulty (the blocked wish) with the who.
Rule 1
Where there is a symptom, not only will there be suppressed anger along with the suppressed wish, but there must be suppressed anger along with the suppressed wish.
Rule 2
Where there is suppressed anger along with the suppressed wish, not only will there be a symptom, but there must be a symptom.
Rule 3
Where there is no symptom, not only will there not be suppressed anger, and not only will there not be a suppressed wish but there cannot be suppressed anger or a suppressed wish.
Rule 4
Where there is no suppressed anger, and no suppressed wish, not only will there not be a symptom, but there cannot be a symptom.
Thus, when the anger is made conscious, and especially toward the intended who, then in all likelihood the symptom will collapse. In such a case, the psychic furnace closes down. No furnace and no smoke, equals no suppressed anger and no symptom.
Now this story about the wish-symptom connection also gives us a chance to create rules or hard-core truths about suppressed and conscious anger, and also about the presence or absence of a symptom.
Thus the missing piece between wishes and symptoms is revealed to be the manner in which the person manages his or her anger. Does the person realize that (a) he or she is experiencing anger and (b) that the anger is about someone specific, a who? Or, is the anger toward the who suppressed and hidden in the unconscious mind? If the anger toward the who remains conscious then—no symptom. If the anger toward the who is suppressed and out of consciousness, then—yes, symptom.