We have described in the last chapter certain psychological laws which are constantly to be found in action both in the normal and in the insane mind. An attentive examination of the phenomena in which those laws are manifested, will convince us, however, that the position so far reached can in no sense be regarded as final. Further problems at once suggest themselves. Why is an individual sometimes aware of the complexes determining his thoughts and actions, and sometimes not so aware? Why does a complex in one instance express itself simply and immediately, in another by those devious routes which we have termed ‘indirect’? Why does the father's letter make my patient miserable about the two foreigners, instead of making him miserable about the father's treatment of himself? The answers to these questions involve two further psychological conceptions, those of ‘conflict’ and ‘repression’. These conceptions are of fundamental importance, and it will be necessary to examine them at considerable length.

Suppose that a complex is for some reason out of harmony with the mind as a whole, perhaps because of its intrinsically painful nature, perhaps because it prompts to actions which are incompatible with the individual's general views and principles. In such a case a state of ‘conflict’ arises, a struggle, as it were, between the complex and the personality. These two forces will tend mutually to inhibit each other, the mind will be divided against itself, and a paralysis of action will ensue.