Complexes

COMPLEXES (from Latin complexus-connection), groups of representations united around some particular experience, in most cases emotionally colored. Titchener defines complexes as a complex impression left in the organism by a strong emotional experience, representing a group of associations with a pronounced tendency to manifest in action even when they are not present in consciousness. Experiments measuring reaction time show that if a stimulus word causes a complex in the subject, this reaction or the one immediately following it is significantly prolonged, which indicates inhibition as the neurodynamic basis of the complex. Stein, based on his experiments with criminals, defines the average associative reaction time to complexes as 1.6 seconds compared to 1 second in control experiments. Distinctive features of such reactions, besides the lengthening of their time, are: repetition of the stimulus word, embarrassment, hand movements, unmotivated laughter, poor listening to stimulus words associated with unpleasant representations, difficulties in responding, etc. In addition to experiments with associative reactions, Lipmann and Wertheimer used the combination method to study complexes, in which the subject was given a story whose content in its individual parts was connected with the complex being studied. In this case, the retelling given by the subject after the experiment was analyzed. Most researchers who used these methods, while noting positive results from such experiments, warn against directly applying these methods to solve practical problems, noting the possibility of serious errors. On the contrary, Freud and Jung widely use this methodology in their psychoanalytic research. According to Freud, the acting out of an unconscious complex can lead to the disappearance of the associated psychoneurotic symptom.