ABSTRACT
Psycho-analysis undertook the investigation of ego drives serving self-preservation as well as of sexual drives. It created a completely new psychology by demonstrating the influence upon psychic processes of repressed and therefore unconscious elements of the instinctual life. Thus, apart from its therapeutic importance, psycho-analysis became a method of psychological research and a science. This chapter discusses two questions: first, how far is gynaecology interested in the theoretical findings of psycho-analysis, and secondly, how far is it interested in its therapeutic results. The pathology and treatment of the neuroses in the female sex are based upon knowledge of female psycho-sexuality. In the psycho-pathology of female neuroses one factor has turned out to be of particular importance. This concerns the patient's attitude towards the fact of her own femininity. Certain disturbances of psycho-sexual development may thus give rise to a variety of neurotic manifestations. Not all of these are expressed in the form of physical symptoms.
