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January 6, 1926. Dr. Ernest Jones referred to the lamented death of Dr. Karl Abraham. He particularly mentioned Dr. Abraham's value as a pioneering investigator, the high esteem with which he was held by all, and that he was an honoured leader. He also reminded members that Dr. Abraham was an honorary member of our Society.
A discussion took place on a recent Press campaign against psycho-analysis.
January 20, 1926. Dr. James Glover read a short paper to open a discussion on the 'Ego'. This paper is to appear in the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.
February 3, 1926. Mr. L. S. Penrose: Psycho-analytic notes on negation. Freud's statement that denial of a thought-process proclaims its presence in the unconscious. Corollary to this, that overtoned assertion is equivalent to unconscious denial. Three methods of overtoned assertion. (1) Emphasis; (2) repetition; (3) tautology or disguised repetition. Suggestion as to how the criticism that psycho-analysts do not observe the law of criticism should be met. Analysis of the symbol for negation and assertion. The intellectual acceptance of the unconscious. The relation of this to mathematical reasoning, which is all deductive. Inductive reasoning is the characteristic of genital libido. It is not strictly logical, and involves taking risks which pure logic does not.
The laws of logic are not (as Alexander states) introjected reality, but projected fundamental psychological mechanisms. Reality gives us faith in induction (what has been will be) but we have to take the risk of it not being so. In the normal mind pure reasoning is a servant and not a master, and serves in the rapid and efficient handling of memories so as to know, when a stimulus turns up, how we reacted before and what was the effect.
February 17, 1926. The subject chosen for discussion was 'Cathexis'. Members had previously been asked to bring a precise definition of Cathexis, or failing this a statement of what typ