ABSTRACT
MENTAL disorders, like nervous disorders, are symbolical. The language of delirium is no more inscrutable than the language of dreams. Moreover, not merely are these disorders symbolical, but they are the symbols of the psychological frame of mind from which the disorders spring. In the case of mental disorder, therefore, just as in such cases as we have hitherto been considering, psychoanalysis is curative simultaneously with being interpretative. But if the analysis is to do any good, it is essential that the subject's consciousness should not be entirely clouded. The future alone can tell us to what extent psychoanalysis can influence mental disorder for good. That it does influence them in certain cases, has been definitely proved. I
In the three cases expounded in this chapter, the troubles are sharply localised, either because they are specifically restricted to isolated systems of ideas (ideas of persecution in Bertha, and ideas of physical contamination in Ruth) , or because they are associated with certain transitory states (epileptic states in George).
