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Egyptian Journal of Psychology, 1948, Vol. IV, No. 2, pp. 1–21.
J. O. Wisdom. 'Abreaction Therapy: Mechanisms.' Egyptian Journal of Psychology, 1949, Vol. IV, No. 3, pp. 1–14.
The first paper is an attempt to state the observations and simple generalizations given in Freud's Studies in Hysteria without using metapsychological concepts or at most with the aid of metapsychological concepts that are readily definable in observational terms.
The second paper distinguishes several problems involved in the general one of how abreaction therapy removes symptoms. We have to understand (a) how we forget, (b) how forgetting conflicts cause symptoms, (c) how abreaction in general facilitates recollection, thus replacing a symptom by a conflict, and (d) how 'reverie' (what is usually called 'free') association in particular facilitates recollection. The impossibility of answering all these questions within the framework of abreaction therapy is pointed out; this is due to limitations of the therapy itself. Here, too, the aim is to conduct the discussion without metapsychological terms.
Author's Abstracts.