You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
May 8, 1967. DYSAUTOMATIZATION: A DISORDER OF PRECONSCIOUS EGO FUNCTIONING. I. Peter Glauber, M.D.1
Some functions such as perception, though usually operating preconsciously, may under special circumstances of learning or of defensive alertness take on increased cathexis, leading to conscious cathexis of the functioning. This is especially true for the monitoring or feedback component of so complex a change in cathexis. We may call such functioning facultative, in contrast to another group of functions that are always in health obligatorily preconscious. Clinical experience with this latter group, the so-called ego automatisms, particularly the function of speech and its disturbances, stimulated this paper and contributed the major part of its clinical data. Characteristic of dysautomatization is difficulty in the smooth transition from preconscious automatic to conscious functioning, and occasionally a combination of the two. An example of the latter is the clumsiness of some stutterers in shifting from extemporaneous speaking without notes to speaking from notes or to reading, and vice versa.