=The Right Kind of Symbolism.= Sublimation itself is merely a symbolic expression of basic impulses.  It follows the line of our make-up, which naturally and fundamentally is wont to let one thing stand for another and to express itself in indirect ways.  Sublimation says:  “If I cannot recreate myself in the person of a child, I will recreate myself in making a bridge, or a picture, or a social settlement,—­or a pudding.”  It says:  “If I cannot have my own child to love, I will adopt an orphan-asylum, or I will work for a child-labor law.”  It merely lets one thing stand for another and transfers all the passions that belong to the one on to the other, which is the same thing as saying that it gives vent to its original desire by means of symbolic expression.

=The Wrong Kind of Symbolism.= A nervous disorder is an unfortunate choice of symbols.  Instead of spiritualizing an innate impulse, it merely disguises it.  The disguise takes a number of forms.  One of the commonest ways is to act out in the body what is taking place in the soul.  The woman with nausea converted her moral disgust into a physical nausea, which expressed her distress while it hid its meaning.  The girl who was tired of seeing her work, and the man who wanted to avoid seeing his wife chose a way out which physically symbolized their real desire.  A dentist once came to me with a paralyzed right arm.  He had given up his office and believed that he would never work again.  It turned out that his only son had just died and that he was dramatizing his soul-pain by means of his body.  His subconscious mind was saying, “My good right arm is gone,” and saying it in its own way.  Within a week the arm was playing tennis, and ever since it has been busy filling teeth.  There were, of course, other factors leading up to the trouble, but the factor which determined its form was the sense of loss which acted itself out through the body.

Sometimes, as we have seen, the disguise takes another form.  Instead of conversion into a physical symptom, it lets one idea stand for another and displaces the impulse or the emotion to the substitute idea.  The girl with the impulse to take drugs fooled her conscience by letting the drug-taking idea stand for the idea of conception.  The girl with the fear of contamination carried the disguise still farther by changing the desire into fear,—­a very common subterfuge.

=The Case of Mrs. Y.= There came to me a short time ago a little woman whose face showed intense fright.  For several months she had spent much of the time walking the floor and wringing her hands in an agony of terror.  In the night she would waken from her sleep, shaking with fear; soon she would be retching and vomiting, although she herself recognized the fact that there was nothing the matter with her stomach.