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Compulsion, the author says, is always the resultant of two components: the disturbance psychism (“Störungs Psychismus”) and defense psychism (“Abwehr Psychismus”). Compulsion represents the futile battle of the Ego against the disturbing episode. The motives for the “disturbance psychism” are present and not unconscious but the connections between the two the patient is not aware of. All disturbance psychisms of compulsion are “free floating,” isolated, do not form part of larger psychic entireties therefore their dominance in the compulsion is felt as senseless and the intense emotional basis is absent. For instance the patient cannot rid himself of erotic imaginations and yet he remains cool. The abnormally high energy content of the “disturbance psychism” causes its strong tension and peculiar pushing and senseless perseverance.
The stereotypy and final isolation of the episode is caused by a constitutional abnormal integration-weakness of the vital perseverance instinct (Beharrungs Instinkt) by which partial instincts (Teiltriebe) cannot be re-integrated into the main instinct. This constitutional weakness finds its expression in the pedantic personality which inclines to compulsions.
In the psychogenic compulsion symptoms the disturbance psychisms are intrapsychic symbolic expressions of tendencies of the dissociated complexes.
The author differentiates between compulsion neurosis and compulsion (anankastic) psychopathy. The former is of exogenic causes, environmental factors that would be a great problem even to those of a normal constitution whereas the latter is of endogenic causes: such a pathological personality make-up by which complexes are bound to arise even in an average environment.
The conflicts of the compulsion neurosis are those of other neurosis. That a conflict appears as compulsion is caused by its dynamics, the special high tension between the conflicting tendencies what leads to sharp isolation and dissociation of the conflict. In the anxiety n