Literary notes about Symptomatic (AI summary)
The term "symptomatic" has been employed in literature to capture both observable actions and underlying conditions that hint at deeper, often unconscious, processes. In the realm of psychoanalysis—most notably in Freud’s work—the word is used to analyze behaviors or acts that, while appearing trivial (as in [1], [2], [3]), actually offer significant clues about pathological cases or repressed content ([4], [5]). Beyond clinical analysis, authors such as Shelley ([6]) and Jesse F. Bone ([7]) extend its usage to describe the manifestation of illness or to justify temporary measures in treatment, respectively. More broadly, in texts like Hans Gross’s manual on criminal psychology ([8], [9]) and Nietzsche’s philosophical endeavors ([10], [11]), "symptomatic" shifts between denoting overt signs of deeper diagnostic issues and highlighting the inherent limitations of expression. This diverse application underscores the term’s capacity to bridge descriptive observations with interpretative insights across various fields.
- You will find nothing in the analysis of this little symptomatic act which was not previously known to you.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - I will select as symptomatic an act of frequent occurrence in my office hour.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - The symptomatic act seems no great matter, but the symptom itself claims attention by reason of its gravity.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Now let us place, side by side with this small analysis of a symptomatic act, an observation on a pathological case.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - We call them accidental and symptomatic acts.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - The very day that we arrived she had been attacked by symptomatic illness.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - He would have to wait for his own books to be uncrated before he could do more than apply symptomatic treatment.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone - We shall therefore indicate only the symptomatic value of feminine knowledge with regard to feminine conceit.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - But the problems have considerable symptomatic and diagnostic value.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - It is symptomatic.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - It does not lie within our power to alter our [Pg 113] means of expression: it is possible to understand to what extend they are but symptomatic.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche
