The Way to Grace

There is one feature in psychoanalytical literature which, being very conspicuous, ought to strike our attention. It has, however, become so familiar to us now, that we no longer give it a thought. I refer to the negative attitude of psychoanalysis to the process of life. Psychoanalysts even deny the existence of positive complexes. There are negative complexes but no positive ones, they say outright. And accordingly they confine their efforts to analyzing the sterile and harmful experiences of life, complex-producing experiences, and to detecting such false tendencies as are responsible for complexes assuming disastrous power. Every one able to think intelligently over his own experiences will realize the fallacy of such an attitude. We know that from childhood on we have all experienced affirmative moments also, and we all know that these moments have fitted us better to face future responsibilities and, therefore, have been of more consequence than all other experiences combined. I could instance five cases from my own life when true and genuine joy lifted me high above the commonplace. In comparison with these ten or twelve days, the rest of the five decades of my life is of little account—all subsequent difficulties of my life, all rebuffs, having failed to annul the beneficial effect of these “positive complexes.” I can best convey to the reader the nature of those moments by a comparison with a religious revival. The revived person is sometimes able to tell exactly what moment the miracle happened, and ever since, life always comes to him from a source which then sprang up to him, enriching his heart and directing the course of his actions. To describe this source I would use the word “life-sphere” rather than “positive complex.” It may sound less scientific, it is true, but it conveys the meaning better.