unable to establish any relationship between early experiences and symbolic representations. His resistances adopted that form of expression, because he had already given sufficient circumstantial evidence to warrant the truth of the relationship. The wish, however, to conceal the origin of the symbols (of the neurosis) interfered prominently with the progress of treatment. We were able to ascertain much more of his psychical life, only, though, with his reiterated insistence that there was no such mechanism as symbolic transformation.

While he was undergoing analysis at the hands of the writer, he regularly and clandestinely visited other physicians, who repeatedly "assured" him that he could not die of fright. Often the dream content was related to their comments. Thus: "I dreamed that Dr. X. and I were talking. He claimed with full certainty that I had nothing to fear, because emotional reactions themselves cannot produce death." In another dream with the same characters, the doctor agreed with Henry that prenatal influences determined his neurosis, and since that was the case, no one will ever be able to remove the cause. The dream material is in harmony with his oft-repeated allegation that he was born as an inferior individual and that the fear, being an outgrowth of the inferiority, is ineradicable. This assumption, of course, served only to fortify his hold on the infantile cravings.

At one time, when it seemed that he was at last about to concede a small point, which would have paved the way for acknowledgment on his part of a larger principle, he left the analyst with the following valedictory: "I'm at the end of the rope now; I can't do any more for myself and you can't do any more for me." He said that for several weeks he had been studying at the home of a physician; it was known that this physician had for a long time been the source of the "assurance" type of therapy. "There is no more hope for the analysis ever succeeding in making me any better; you have reached the limit of your help." He wanted to dictate the nature of the treatment; he rebuked the analyst for refusing to "assure" him; he scoffed at the analytic form of treatment. It was then explained why he had taken an attitude of repugnance, and the reasons therefor were made so obvious to him that silence was his only reply. Nevertheless, he remained away from the physician for several weeks. After his return he gradually revealed more for analysis.

So, amid such highly resistive factors as are indicated in the foregoing, the analyst was able to eke out a full analysis over a period of three years.

The multiple manifestations of the neurotic syndrome were traced to their original sources, yet at no time has he been willing to admit that any relationship existed between his past and the subsequently formed symbols, born of past experiences.

At an early age it was recognized that Henry was not growing up psychologically as well as his brothers and sisters had. He was ever at his mother's side, happy when she coddled him and whimpering when she was inattentive. In early childhood he merited the dubbing “mamma's boy," which he heard tauntingly hurled at him from all sides. His mother devised many plans with the object of encouraging him to detach himself from such infantile forms of behavior, but whenever attempts were made to carry out the plans, Henry developed fearful reactions, that could be alleviated only by the presence of his mother. She constantly advised ("assured") him that, when she was away, he could feel as secure as his brothers and sisters did, if only he would let himself acquire that feeling, but her advice was unavailing. In later childhood Henry feigned illness to invoke his mother's attention. He frequently alleged that he had heart trouble, as a form of rationalization that kept him indoors with her. He often complained of gastro-intestinal troubles, which, at first resulted in the fulfillment of his aim (mother attention or identification), but which later were determined to be simulated and were countered by punishment and inattention. In this mother-son situation there was not the mutual interest seen so frequently in other families; on the contrary, Henry's strivings to identify himself with the mother received successful recognition from her only through the period of early childhood; subsequently she used good judgment in the attempts to have him outgrow his infantile attitude toward her; she was well adjusted to her husband's life, and when he died (Henry was then six years old) she adapted herself well to the eldest son, who took the father's rôle in the conduct of home affairs. Seven years later, when Henry was 13 years old, she remarried; the second marriage has not been as happy as the first one was, which fact has been used by Henry as an excuse for the added attention that he has given her since the marriage.

He could not recall much of his attitude toward his father, save that in general they were passive to each other. In his youth Henry had invested his libido so completely in his mother that other members of the family were of little consequence to him. But, in late youth, when the eldest boy took priority in the mother's esteem, Henry was resentful. When his mother began the second courtship

(he was then almost 13 years old) Henry rebelled violently against the marriage. He begged his mother to remain single; he assured her of his undivided attention for the entire future; he pictured his future with her, with wealth and contentment; his ambition was to care for her, he told her; he expressed extreme antagonism toward his prospective step-father. But, his mother recognized the inadequacy of his claims and soon remarried. The marriage precipitated the expression of the genuine neurosis that he has been afflicted with for the past 13 years.

During the analysis Henry had reviewed his early attitude toward the members of his family, having given the material in the foregoing account. Although the situation has been repeatedly brought to his attention, he is still of the opinion that familial factors did not condition his psychic life in any way.

He devised two methods of approach to the solution of the mother problem. He planned to murder the step-father; that act would restore his mother to him. Also, he would study assiduously, become a professional man, rich and prominent, and would forever provide for her. This represents but a slightly modified Oedipus plot.

Henry had been coy and submissive before his mother remarried, but following her marriage his hatred against the step-father gave rise to thoughts of boldness. He began to play rough games, especially those that called for aggressiveness against a superior enemy. He became "captain" of the army of boys in the neighborhood and inflicted punishment upon his hostages. His ideal hero was Cæsar; he read profusely on Napoleon and often imagined himself as Napoleon. The fanciful life in the aggressive rôle was of short duration; later humbleness was substituted for aggression. "I gave up the fight because I decided that my mother could have left her husband if she cared to. After all there wasn't much difference in the way I fought in the house and in the street. It was all the same. "The origin of the pugnacity was in the family circle.

He told his playmates of his plans to kill his step-father; he outlined the method of attack and in fancy completed the deed. He used to stalk about the house with a weapon in his pocket, bold, yet afraid to move; the opportunities for carrying out the plans were frequent, but none ever approached nearness. In fact, the motive was kept so secreted that no one in the family ever suspected it. "I hated my step-father, though he was always good to me. When my mother was happy with him, I was antagonistic to her. I didn't want her to like him." Shortly after they were married Henry

planned to become a merchant, earn a great deal of money, and support his mother in splendor. He complained that the stepfather kept the family at a low economic level, although there was no proof for such an opinion. In fancy he had made himself greater than his step-father and had at the same time reduced his stepfather to his own (Henry's) smallness. "I stayed awake nights, thinking of how I'd kill my step-father. I often dreamed I had killed him. Even when awake I imagined I was going into his room and was killing him. It was all so real. He wasn't a fit man to take my father's place. I could have done better than he, and I kept telling my mother so. When she remarried, all the castles I had built were shattered."

With even so vivid a description of the Oedipus complex he still maintains that his feelings towards his parents have always been natural. He is probably justified in the conclusion, but, it was pointed out to him, the means by which he handled the situation was at fault; that is, he developed a host of pathological symbols, through the medium of which he attempted to discharge the abnormally invested libido. It was this association in particular that he could never be made to see. "I could get rid of all these disagreeable things, if I had my mother all to myself. I've always enjoyed reading literature regarding happy family units. I thought I could conquer my troubles, if I were rich. I could buy a house and be boss; but, I wouldn't let my step-father live in it; we couldn't have harmony in the house with him there. I've always considered that, if my father had not died, I would have grown up just like him. He was the man I wanted to emulate." In face of such frank expressions he generally concluded with remarks similar to the following, which is an exact quotation taken from his recent utterances: "I'm able to summarize the meaning of the vast amount of experiences I've related to you, but I can't make them a part of myself, of my own life; I honestly say that they add to my intellectual store, but they don't relieve my symptoms. They are hypothetical forces, as far as I can understand them. You see them in one light, I see them in another. Truly, my symptoms were exaggerated when my mother remarried, but what of it, if it doesn't help me? The analysis has helped me to see my failures, my inferiorities; but the effect has been like that due to my brother's advice, when he told me I could overcome my difficulties in part, if I began to bank a few dollars."

Concomitant with the three years of thorough analysis, during which it was at all times evident that the link between his past expe

riences and his neurotic symbolism could not be properly welded, the analyst was constantly encouraging him to enlarge his interests in extra-familial affairs. Very gradually he grew to be a little more at ease in the presence of others; he was taught to acquire friendships among his college associates; before this was accomplished he had allied himself with one or two men purely on a basis of his neurotic behavior, for the men "assured" him of the impossibility of death by fright and Henry could engage their services to take him home. At the present writing he has several friends, to none of whom he recounts the factors of his illness. Over the three-year period also he has been taught to participate in athletics and to attend functions of a social and intellectual character. The result is that he has outgrown in this indirect manner the infantile forms of behavior that previously predominated. To be sure, he has at the same time been influenced by his transference to the physician and by the various valuable features associated with the transference. Out of all this we feel that a general principle can be promulgated, viz., that psychosynthesis is an invaluable adjunct to psychoanalysis; that, futhermore, psychosynthesis may be employed to useful ends in the absence of the development of complete psychoanalytic insight from the standpoint of the patient.

That the various components of his symptomatological picture were directly related to the family background represented in the foregoing was substantiated by the rich and apparently intricate group of symptoms. The outstanding symptom, around which was built a legion of supportive sub-symptoms, was thanatophobia. When he was first seen by the physician the fear had attached itself most fervently to certain numbers and names. Early in his neurotic career he had heard that the number 90 symbolized fright. He explained that in lotto each number had a meaning. Subsequently anything that had to do with the number 90 induced the fear reaction in him. He meticulously avoided the possession of 90c, or $1.90, $2.90, etc. He quickly turned away from home addresses containing a 90; if there were any possible combination. in which 90 could appear, he hastily withdrew from any association with it. The number 540, for example, could be explained by him as 90, by adding the first to digits; nor would he walk near or through 90th Street. A tailor once gave him a receipt numbered 90, whereupon Henry under the most intense anxiety finally succeeded in reclaiming the article he had left with the tailor. Moreover, all tailor shops thereafter instigated an attack of anxiety. While he was under treatment by the present writer, his brother bought him