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“Psychic anaphylaxis” we shall call that phenomenon in the psychic life of man which like its biological name-sake is characterized by a special sensitivity to an agent which has at one time happened to act on the individual and which when again experienced causes a second reaction far exceeding the first in intensity. It is evident that the changes (in the body or mind) must have been far-reaching at the time they were first produced by the initial agent. However, the latent sensitivity they produced led to explosive effects only later through the action of a similar agent.1
Using this analogy between physiological and psychological anaphylaxis as a starting point, we may attempt to test the significance of the infantile trauma and of recent experiences for the neuroses. It may be assumed that a recent experience which has not been preceded by a similar past experience would have to be of extraordinary intensity to elicit a pathogenic action; the resistance is considerably greater since there is no latent sensitivity.
In cases with a pathologically intensified reaction, an earlier sensitization can always be found. This is usually an infantile traumatic experience, which in itself often has no intensive character at all, but which prepares the ground for the outbreak of the neurotic symptoms.
The signs of a psychic anaphylaxis may be found in all analyzed cases in which the pathologically heightened reaction points to a recent occurrence. A childhood experience which is pleasurably or