Lasswell Harold D. The Political Writings of Harold D. Lasswell
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THE
POLITICS
OF
PREVENTION
201
current
diseases.
If
"health"
merely
means a
statistical
report
upon
the
"average,"
the
scrutiny
of the individual
ceases to
carry
much
meaning
for the
modification of so-
cial
patterns.
But
if
"health"
means
something
more than
"average,"
the
intensive
study of
individuals
gives
us a
vantage
ground
for the
revaluation
of
the
human conse-
quences
of
cultural
patterns, and
the
criticism of
these
patterns.
^^
If the
politics
of
prevention
spreads
in society,
a
dif-
ferent type
of
education
will become
necessary
for
those
who
administer
society or
think
about
it. This
education
will start
from the
proposition that
it takes
longer
to
train
a
good
social
scientist than it
takes to
train
a
good
physi-
cal scientist.^*
The social
administrator and
social scien-
tist must be
brought into
direct contact
with
his material
in its
most varied
manifestations.
He must
mix with
rich
and
poor, with savage
and
civilized, with
sick
and
well,
with
old and
young. His contacts
must
be
primary and not
exclusively
secondary. He
must have
an
opportunity
for
prolonged
self-scrutiny
by
the
best-developed methods of
personality study, and
he must laboriously achieve
a
ca-
pacity to
deal
objectively
with
himself and with all others
in human
society.
This complicated experience is necessary since our scale
of values is less the outcome of our dialectical
than
of our
other
experiences in life.
Values
change more
by the
un-
conscious
redefinition
of meaning than by rational analy-
sis.
Every contact
and
every
procedure which discloses
new facts has its repercussions
upon
the matrix of
partially
"
Something like this is
no doubt the thought in Trigant Burrow's very
obscure book on
The
Social Basis
of
Consciousness.
"This
point
was
forcibly
made
by
Beardsley Ruml
in his
speech at
the
dedication of the Social Science
Research
Building
at
the University
of
Chicago.
See
The
New Social Science,
edited
by
Leonard D. White,
pp.
99-111.
202
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND POLITICS
verbalized
experience,
which is
the
seeding
ground of con-
scious ideas.
One
peculiarity
of the
problem of
the social scientist
is that he
must
establish
personal
contact
with his material.
The
physical
scientist who
works
in
a
laboratory spends
more time
adjusting
his
machinery than
in making his
ob-
servations,
and the
social
scientist who works
in
the field
must
spend
more time
establishing
contacts than in noting
and
reporting
observations.
What
the instrumentation
technique
is
to
the physicist, the
cultivation of favorable
human
points
of
vantage
is for most
social scientists. This
means that
the student of
society, as
well
as the manager
of social relations,
must acquire
the technique
of social
intercourse in unusual
degree, unless he is
to
suffer from
serious handicaps, and
his training must
be directed
with
this in
mind.
The
experience of the administrator-investigator must
include some definite
familiarity with all the
elements
which
bear
importantly upon the traits and
interests of
the
individual. This means that he must
have the most
relevant material brought
to
his attention from
the fields
of psychology, psychopathology, physiology,
medicine,
and social science. Since
our
institutions of
higher
learn-
ing are poorly organized
at
the
present time
to
handle this
program, thorough curricular
reconstructions
will
be in-
dispensable.^^
What has
been said
in
this
chapter
may
be passed in
brief
review.
Political
movements
derive their
vitality
from the displacement
of private affects
upon public
ob-
jects.
Political
crises
are complicated
by the
concurrent
reactivation
of specific primitive
motives 'which
were or-
"
I
have
suggested that
those who write
human biography
should
be
included
among those
who require this
comprehensive
training.
See "The
Scientific
Study
of Human Biography,"
Scientific
Monthly,
January,
1930.
THE
POLITICS OF
PREVENTION
203
ganized
in
the early
experience
of the
individuals
con-
cerned.
Political symbols are
particularly adapted
to
serve
as
targets
for
displaced affect
because
of their ambiguity
of
reference,
in relation to
individual
experience,
and be-
cause
of their
general
circulation.
Although the dynamic
of
politics
is the tension
level of
individuals, all tension
does
not
produce political acts.
Nor do
all emotional
bonds
lead to
political
action.
Political
acts
depend upon the
symbolization
of the
discontent of the
individual
in terms
of
a
more inclusive
self which champions
a
set of demands
for social action.
Political
demands are
of
limited relevance
to the
changes
which
will
produce
permanent reductions
in the
tension
level
of society. The
political methods of coercion,
exhortation,
and discussion assume
that the role
of poli-
tics is to
solve conflicts when they have
happened.
The
ideal of
a
politics
of
prevention is
to obviate conflict
by
the
definite reduction of the tension level of society
by
effective methods, of which
discussion
will be
but one.
The preventive point of view insists upon
a
continuing
audit
of
the human consequences of social
acts, and
espe-
cially of political
acts. The achievement of the
ideal of
preventive politics
depends
less upon changes in social
organization than upon improving
the
methods and the
education of social
administrators and
social scientists.
The preventive politics
of the
future will
be
intimately
allied to general medicine,
psychopathology, physiological
psychology,
and related disciplines. Its practitioners
will
gradually win
respect
in society among
puzzled
people
who feel their
responsibilities
and
who respect
objective
findings.
A comprehensive
functional
conception of polit-
ical life will state
problems of
investigation,
and
keep
re-
ceptive the minds of
those who reflect
at
length
upon
the
state.
CHAPTER
Xr
THE
PROLONGED
INTERVIEW
AND
ITS
OBJECTIFICATION
The
empirical
material
assembled
in
this
book has ap-
peared
in
the course
of
prolonged
interviews
with
indi-
viduals
under
unusually
intimate
conditions.
This
method
of
the
prolonged
interview
has
now
had
a
history of
some
thirty
years
in the
form
devised by
Freud, but so
far
there
are
very
few efforts to
objectify
the events
which
transpire
there.
Otto
Rank has
written
a
series
of studies of
the
"interview
situation"
which is
the most
important
effort
so
far made to
characterize
the
distinctive
features of the
method.
But
the
empirical
material
which is
so
far
re-
ported does
not rest
upon the
verbatim
recording of what
happens,
except
in
a
few
specimen instances
of
highly
pathological cases,
and attempts are
only now
being made
to
record
some of the principal
physiological changes
in
the subject.
It
will
be
remembered
that Freud
learned
to
predict the
future
course of
reminiscence
by
watching word slips,
random movements,
and
many
other acts
which
were
for-
merly dismissed
as chance occurrences. He also found
that he could
abbreviate the laborious efforts of
the
pa-
tient
to
recall
the traumatic (the original)
episode by
proposing various
interpretations. It
is at this point
that
the cautious
physician and psychologist
have picked seri-
ous quarrels with
psychoanalytical findings.
They allege
*
Modified
and expanded from
"The Psychoanalytic
Interview
as a
Method of Research on Personalities,"
in The Child's
Emotions,
pp.
136-59.
204
THE
PROLONGED INTERVIEW
205
that
the patient
produces the kind
of
material
which the
analyst
suggests
is to be
brought forth, and that the whole
process is
one of putting
a
rabbit in
the hat which
you
triumphantly
extricate later
on. They
have
seized upon
the
schisms in
the
analytical
fold, and
declare that
you
eventually
dream about anima
figures if
you
are
analyzed
by Jung,
that you relive
birth traumas
if you are analyzed
by
Rank,
and
that you
welter in
a
galaxy
of
anal, oral,
and
urethral symbols if
you
are
deeply analyzed
by
Freud.
You talk
about inferiority feeling
if you work with
Ad-
ler, and about castrative anxiety if you work with Freud.
One
might
suppose
that after
thirty years of labor there
would be in existence
a body
of
documents which
could
be
consulted by a
group of competent
specialists
who were
trying to
reconcile
their
differences
and
doubts about
what
actually
goes on in the analytical interview.^
At the
present
time
the interview situation is poorly
reflected
in
the notes
taken by the
analyst
at the expiration of
each
period
(if and
when
he takes them).
Nobody knows what
processes
distort the reporting
practices
of different lis-
teners,
and nobody knows the
value of
the published
scraps.
Since one of the avowed purposes of
therapeutic
analyses
is
to
bring the person
to stand on his
own feet
and to stop
leaning
on others, or upon
symptom
indul-
gences,
personal
relations are usually
broken
off
at
the
end
of the interview.
This obviously
impedes
the
pos-
sibility
of
following
up the
subsequent history
of
the
per-
sonality, and of ascertaining
the
stability
of
the
supposed
therapeutic results. The
case-history
documents
available
*
See
Harold
D.
Lasswell,
"The
Problem
of Adequate
Personality
Rec-
ords: A
Proposal,"
American
Journal
of
Psychiatry,
May
1929.
Also
Ap-
pendix B of The
Proceedings
of
the First
Colloquium
on
Personality
In-
vestigation.
206
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND POLITICS
in good
institutions
have
the
advantage
of representing
the
combined
product of
several
people
who are
in touch
with the subject,
and
who may
be
supposed to
operate
as
a
check upon
one
another.
But
these documents are
usually short, and
betray the
psychopathological
slant of
the
ones
chiefly responsible.
And these
documents are
typically
incomplete in
reporting the
whole
personality
of the subject on
account of the
clinician's
interest in the
more
circumscribed disease
phenomena displayed.
When
John
Brown reports
an
episode in
which
he was
told
that his nose would be cut
off if he didn't quit han-
dling himself, how
do we
know what
importance
to assign
to the
alleged reminiscence?
Are
we
to
accept this
as
a
historical
statement? Are we
to
construe it
as
a
fabrica-
tion
which,
however,
shows what
he wanted
to
have
hap-
pen, or
supposed would happen, if he disobeyed orders?
Are we
to interpret it
as
a
sign
of his fear of the inter-
viewer, couched in the language
of the
past, because this
mode of
exercising the imagination has been trained into
him? Are we
to
interpret this as
a
sign of his
hatred of
the interviewer, on the theory that
a
self-punishing fantasy
is
a
defense of the conscience against
a
murderous
impulse
of the unadjusted portion
of the
self? Are
we to accept
it
as an
effort
to win the approval of the interviewer
by
re-
porting
the kinds of things which
he has learned
to sup-
pose
the interviewer
wants
to
hear,
a
supposition
which
is
based upon
a
private
study
of
psychoanalytical
literature?
Are
we to accept it
as an
"original
trauma"
and to expect
an immediate or eventual
decrease in the
neurotic
anxiety
which the
individual shows?
Are we
to look
upon it
as
a
screen reminiscence
for
a
genuinely
traumatic
episode in
which the
threat
was made,
not against
his
nose,
but
against
his
penis?
Or
is
it
a
screen for
a prohibited
im-
THE
PROLONGED
INTERVIEW
207
pulse
which was once
activated, and
which
seized
upon a
past
episode and gave
it the
significance of
a
threat?
These are
a
few of the
specific
questions
which
can be
raised
about the
proffered material,
and
the scientific prob-
lem is to
devise more convincing demonstrations of the
available
theories, or more
conclusive
refutations, than
we
now
have. What are
some of the criteria of
a
"traumatic
episode"?
If the reminiscence is accompanied
by
much
affect
(excitement), there is
a
presumption of its authen-
ticity.
And how is affect measured?
We
depend at
the
present time upon the observer's
judgment
of the
variations
in the voice, and
shifts in posture, or the twitches
and
jerks
of the body.
This
can be
augmented under experimental
conditions
by
taking
a
continuous record of variations in
blood
pressure,
respiration, galvanic reflex,
etc.
—
all
of
which offer some indication of excitement.^
We are thus
able
to
improve our assessment of the possible significance
of the
reports,
speculations, and general fantasies of the
subject. It may be that in due course we shall
be able to
differentiate
on
a
physical basis between "suppressions"
and "repressions," and that we shall
be able
to
follow
through the transformations from beginning
to
end of the
interviewing process.
Our
judgment
of the "traumatic episode" is also influ-
enced
by
the subject's certainty. If the subject reports
that
he believes what
he
remembers, this
has
some
value in
raising
a
presumption. This is especially true if
the sub-
ject has fought against the idea,
but
it has spontaneously
continued
to appear
and plague his associations. But
a
re-
'
We are now engaged
upon
studies
of
this kind at the Personality
Laboratory
in the Social Science Research
Building
at the
University of
Chicago. Harry
Stack
Sullivan is conducting
a
series of researches on ex-
pression changes,
with
particular reference to schizophrenia, which
are of
the greatest importance.
208 PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND
POLITICS
ported sense
of certainty is flimsy stuff, unless
this cer-
tainty
survives for some time.
We
know that
individuals
try
to
escape from anxiety feelings
by a
flight
into explana-
tions, and
that they are ready
to
volunteer
or to accept all
kinds
of interpretations of
their
behavior
rather than
to
continue to
endure anxiety. This
is the
basis
for
the cre-
dulity
of the neurotic,
and
explains
why everything from
mysterious "glandular unbalances"
to
"astral
perturba-
tions" are
accepted
from time
to
time
as
completely
ade-
quate
explanations of
personal troubles.
So
the
subject's
reported certainty must survive even
disparaging
sugges-
tions and prolonged
self-scrutiny,
and become emancipated
from
affect, if it
is to be taken very literally.
Another criterion is the consistency of
the reported epi-
sode
with all
the other relevant facts.
There
must
be
some-
thing wrong about the report
that
K
was brutally pun-
ished
by
his father
at
a
time which
was
some
years
after
the parent's death.*
The obstacles which lie in the path of
a
research pro-
gram
which calls for objective
records of
as
much
as
pos-
sible of what transpires in the interview situation are not
to
be
minimized. The bulk of
a
verbatim report of
an
hour's conversation per day
over several months is almost
overwhelming. But
historians
are accustomed to
plow
through
whole libraries of pages about
Napoleon or
Bismarck, and
from the
standpoint of
a
comprehensive
theory of
personality
development any
personality is al-
most as
good as
any other,
although high elaboration and
distinguished
achievement are advantages.
There are
some
points in favor of
applying this tech-
nique
of
personality
study to
people who are normal,
at
least
in
the sense
that
they are
suspected of normality
by
*
The
topic of
reliable
criteria will be dealt
with in
detail in
the re-
ports
upon
experiments
in progress.
THE
PROLONGED INTERVIEW 209
themselves and
others. There is
a
moral to be learned from
some
of Freud's early
mistakes when he assigned
critical
significance
to
certain
childhood
experiences which
later
investigation
showed were very common. The clinical
caricature
is
invaluable for
the
high relief in which certain
tendencies of
the normal are revealed. Indeed, "normal-
ity" is more
difficult
to
understand
than
disease, from one
point of view,
since it involves
a
complicated integration
of
many
tendencies,
a
flexible
capacity to snap
from one
mood,
preoccupation, and overt activity to another, as the
changing demands of
reality require. Normality is com-
plexity and
integration,
and it ought to be
approached
as
directly
as
possible as
a
control
on
the pathological.
The main
advantage which the normal subject hopes to
glean
from the analytical interview is
a
judgment of the
importance
of
this,
in
comparison with other, psychological
methods. Records being as
they
are today,
only one who
has
been
through the mill
can
talk
with much assurance
about what happens, and
if
he has
a
critical
mind,
he
isn't
too
sure then. The analytical interview is
a
discipline
in
self-scrutiny. The
subject
learns
to
exploit
a
new
method
of using the
mind, which
he tries to cultivate and to
cor-
relate
with
the logical
methods
to
which
he is
partly
accus-
tomed in ordinary
adult
life.
The new
technique of using
the mind
is
the free-fantasy technique,
whose
chief func-
tion is
to
produce new material for logical consideration.
The
interview necessitates the reactivation of
the
individ-
ual's struggle
with his antisocial impulses.
This
happens
be the
subject sick
or well, for
every
individual possesses
more or less
active and powerful antisocial drives.
Every
personality displays
some pathology in the form
of re-
mainders of
the Oedipus
phase of growth. The socially
adjusted portion
of the personality
takes up the battle again
210 PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND
POLITICS
against
the
unsublimated drives,
and
a
considerable
amount
of
neurotic anxiety
is generated in the
process. The
prob-
lem is to
encourage
the subject
to face these
unadjusted
remnants
frankly, to
bring them
to the full focus
of wak-
ing
consciousness,
and to discharge their
bound energy.
This comes to pass
in the roundabout
way of recapturing
the
original episodes
in which
the neurotic solution
was
invented.
The work of reminiscence is the preliminary
to
liberation and
understanding.
The
interview substitutes
the talking-out for
the acting-
out
of
personality drives. One learns
to recover
the critical
points in one's past
history
by watching
the present for
clues to
the full meaning of the
present
situation, and this
includes the inspection of reminiscences.
A reminiscence
is always
relevant
to
a
present
situation, and
serves the
double
role
of annotating the present and reporting
the
past.
The interview experience
is long
and arduous,
and
the subject learns
very
slowly
to
deal with
himself
as an
object in
a
world of objects,
and to
free
his judgment
more
and
more from the
distorting
effects of primitive
psycho-
logical
structures.
The analytical
situation
is
so
arranged
as to facilitate
this process of
self-inspection. The provocations
to act out
rather than think out are reduced by
simplifying
the sen-
sory present. The subject lies
in a
relaxed position,
and is
better
able
to
observe those stiffenings
of
the body,
those
variations in respiration, those
oscillations of visceral
tension,
those
impulses
to scratch and finger which
escape
ordinary attention,
but which
are
indicative
of the mean-
ings
put
in the current situation. The sensory environment
remains
substantially
constant,
and
the interviewer
handles
the
situation
on
a
rather
fixed routine.
The
subject is tem-
porarily encysted
from the demands of
professional and