OCULAR SYMPTOMS OF PSYCHOGENIC ORIGIN

In everyday speech, and especially in slang, one encounters terms which indicate that common people recognize the influence of emotional response on bodily sensation. Such expressions as "eyes bulging" (with fear or desire), "kill with a look" or "I can't see him" are vivid examples of commonly known reactions associated with the eye. A mechanism known in psychoanalytic theory as displacement consists in the moving of genital affects from a primary object or function to a secondary one. When displaced associations become attached with sufficient tenacity to the secondary object, the latter may assume the functions of the first and may eventually become a welcome substitute for the primary one in fulfilling certain emotional needs of the organism. Such substitutes are utilized in the unconsciousness of sleep or unconsciously in the waking state. During waking hours substitutions springing from the unconscious as a result of a persistent and constant repression