A bit more light on Ferenczi and Freud.

Further explores issues stressed by L. Aron and J. Frankel (see record 1994-41100-001) in commenting on J. K. Tabin's (see record 1994-05584-001) article on Freud's motivation for rethinking his seduction theory. The author presents material that confirms Freud's priority in citing the relationship between splitting of the ego and childhood sexual trauma; that describes signs of Ferenczi's considerable emotional difficulty during the last period of his life; and that shows that Freud's referring to Ferenczi as paranoid was a reaction to Ferenczi's hostility to him, significantly predating their public theoretical differences. An important aspect of the last matter is Ferenczi's explanation of his hostility: Freud never helped him with the negative transference that underlay his idealization of Freud. Freud defended himself by saying that negative transference was not understood when he treated Ferenczi. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Who is overlooking whose reality? Commentary on Tabin's "Freud's shift from the seduction theory: Some overlooked reality factors".

Contends that J. K. Tabin (see record 1994-05584-001) continues the long tradition of casting aspersions on S. Ferenczi's sanity at the end of his life. She wrote that his personal problems blighted the value of his contributions. She credited Freud with the idea that the child splits the ego in response to sexual abuse. The authors question Tabin's attribution of this idea to Freud and instead argue that this was one of Ferenczi's central contributions toward the end of his life. Tabin's judgment of Ferenczi's personal problems is challenged and the Freud–Ferenczi relationship, particularly the handling of Ferenczi's final paper, is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the validity of psychoanalytic constructs in the 20th century.

Responds to comments by F. Dumont (see record 1994-42094-001) about J. J. Magnavita's (see record 1993-42219-001) discussion of Freud's purported discovery of unconscious processes. Dumont underestimates the extent to which Freud both synthesized and advanced the knowledge of unconscious processes to create a metapsychological system that forms the foundation of many current psychotherapy models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A re-reading of Studies on Hysteria: the Freud-Breuer break revisited.

Argues that the commonly accepted view that J. Breuer and Freud ended their relationship simply because the former objected to the latter's claim as to the sexual etiology of the psychoneuroses is a myth (propounded by Freud and E. Jones) that masked an ongoing polemic in Studies on Hysteria. Breuer objected to Freud's claim that symbolic processes unconsciously determine symptoms. What disturbed both Freud and Breuer was Freud's vision of an interpenetration of intelligence and sexuality operating according to the laws of language completely out of the ego's awareness. The unconscious link between sexuality and intellection remains as problematic today. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "defense" of Sigmund Freud.

Argues that Freud abandoned his seduction theory, not (as J. Masson [1984] asserted) owing to his colleagues' hostility, but because he could not accept the strong possibility that he and his siblings had been seduced as children, possibly by their father. Freud developed the Oedipus complex as an acceptable defense against such a realization; however, the defense was not completely effective, and he persisted in many of his neurotic symptoms. Freud's belief that he suffered from hysteria was most pronounced during self-analysis, which corresponded to the period during which he abandoned the seduction thesis. Eventually Freud (1931) was able to state that seduction causes neurosis, and that sexual abuse of children is not uncommon, but the seduction theory never regained the status of primary causal agent for many of the neurotic disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's narrow escape and the discovery of transference.

Contends that Freud discovered transference in connection with material derived from his treatment of Emma Eckstein. The last chapter of Studies on Hysteria by J. Breuer and S. Freud (1895) in which Freud's 1st published use of the term transference occurs, can be read as a working through of the crisis that occurred when Eckstein nearly died. This concept, it is argued, explained Freud's patient's disturbed feelings toward him as a "false connection" and thereby helped to free him of feelings of personal involvement in her libidinal demands. The story of the troubled circumstances under which Freud discovered transference provides insight into the defensive nature of the concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A logical empirical approach to the study of suicide notes.

Conducted 3 studies using R. Carnap's (1932 [1959]) logical and empirical procedures to investigate suicide notes as an archival source. The notes were scrutinized according to control hypotheses derived from the works of L. Binswanger (1944 [1958], 1963), Freud (in The Complete Works of S. Freud, edited and translated by J. Strachey, 1974), and G. Kelly (1955, 1965). In Study 1, 3 clinical psychology graduates compared 33 genuine suicide notes and 33 simulated notes (written by White, Protestant, married, native-born males matched for age and occupation to the genuine note writers) to protocol sentences from the control hypotheses. Only the protocol sentences derived from Freud discriminated as a set in favor of genuine notes. In Study 2, 3 clinical psychologists judged whether the content of 25 protocol sentences derived from Freud occurred in the notes from Study 1. Results indicate that the protocol set was verified significantly more often in the genuine notes. Study 3 required 2 clinical psychologists to distinguish between genuine and simulated notes. They were able to identify 76.5% of the notes correctly. (French abstract) (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Meeting Freud's family.

Reviews the book, Meeting Freud's family by Paul Roazen (see record 1993-99040-000). Over the years, Roazen has built a reputation as an expert on Freud. This is not a view to which many Freud scholars would be inclined to subscribe, but their opinions do not reach the general educated public to any appreciable extent. For most people, anything written about Freud that is thought to carry authority is considered informed comment on the psychoanalytic discipline itself. Roazen's new book is likely to be seized on for further enlightenment and, in view of its title, for inside information. "This book," he tells us, "is an attempt to re-create--based on my understanding of the place of psychoanalysis in intellectual history--the world of Freud's family life" (p. 16). What he wants to report is "the whole ambience surrounding these, people, and how their lives said something special about Freud" (p. 16). He wants to do this on the basis of personal interviews. The family Roazen met were two of Freud's daughters, Anna Freud (in 1965) and Mathilda (Hollitscher) Freud (1966), and one son, Oliver Freud (1966). Anna Freud granted him two interviews; the others appear to have seen him on only one occasion. He also interviewed Martin Freud's estranged wife, Esti, in the spring and summer of 1966. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Will the real Freud stand up, please?

Comments on an article by T. Parisi (see record 1987-21061-001). Parisi's article is helpful in placing Freud's theory construction in an accurate historical context. He correctly argued that views of Freud that portray him as a wrong-headed neurophysiologist, a frustrated physicalist, or a biological reductionist are wrong. B. Silverstein takes issue with Parisi on his view of Freud, without arguing for or against the Freudian position. Parisi pointed out that Freud's research and clinical experience helped him to see more clearly than anyone before or since that a theory of mind would have to successfully incorporate two fundamentally different classes of phenomena: the physical (biological) and the mental. While avoiding mysticism, Freud did hold to a dualistic position. Very early in his career, Freud espoused a dualistic-interactionist position in which equal but qualitatively different status was granted to the physical and to the mental. Even though Freud could not conceive of the mechanism that allowed mind and body to interact, he believed causal efficacy could flow in both directions. With psychoanalysis, Freud developed a theory of relationships between mind and body without providing a metaphysical or mechanical account of how the mind-body interaction that the theory assumed must occur did occur. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fresh Freud: No longer lost in translation.

The new translations of Freud into English highlight the question as to the nature of Freud's quest and achievement. They show a livelier Freud than the Strachey translations (Freud, 1953-1974), who used everyday language in his work instead of trying to establish a new technical vocabulary for an esoteric new discipline. However, with the new Penguin editions thus far, fresh Freud is no longer lost in translation. The Standard Edition was created importantly to create an authoritative international trademark and was made more natural "scientific" in appearance. The fresh translations show a Freud in tune with Karl Popper's (1976) approach in his later work that viewed science as essentially problem solving. The example of "Mourning and Melancholia" (Freud, 1917/ 1964, 1917/1981, 1917/2005) is discussed as an exercise in exploration, conjectures, criticism, construct formation, and problem solving. Translation issues are discussed. Instead of being a particular trade mark, the very fact of there being new and different translations opens Freud's works to further questioning about their meanings and intents in the marketplace of ideas and practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extenders or modifiers: A discussion of Weiss and Sampson's control-mastery theory.

Asserts that J. Weiss (see record 1990-17877-001) and H. Sampson (see record 1990-17862-001) are engaged in shaping a theory regarding motivation of unconscious wishes that is linked to Freud's later ego and super-ego theory. This linkage obscures their unique contributions. Six themes from Weiss and Sampson's work are considered innovative departures from Freud: (1) the ego as a motivator of behavior or Weiss and Sampson's object relations perspective, (2) the link between ego motives and attachment research, (3) the nature of the object relational tie, (4) psychic reality and actuality, (5) some clinical implications, and (6) a philosophical assumption about people that underlies their work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Volume I. The Formative Years and the Great Discoveries, 1856-1900.

Reviews the book, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Volume I. The Formative Years and the Great Discoveries, 1856-1900 by Ernest Jones (see record 1954-03633-000). According to the reviewer, the first volume of the trilogy Dr. Jones promises is a book of unparalleled interest and importance for psychologists of all schools and theoretical persuasions. It presents an absorbing story which will never be more fully nor better told. The historical importance of Freud and his ideas hardly needs to be labored, and it is perhaps enough to say that this book is, in the reviewer's opinion, the best available introduction to an understanding of the man and of psychoanalysis as he developed it. For it presents the work as well as the life of Freud, and carefully traces the development of psychoanalytic ideas up to their first great climax in The Interpretation of Dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classics in developmental psychology: Historical persons and studies of common textbook reference.

A survey of current textbooks in developmental psychology for common citation of pre-1940 publications reveals the historical significance of Darwin, Freud, Piaget, A. Gesell, G. S. Hall, and J. B. Watson as evidenced by contemporary reference to their multiple works. Others gain consensual citation from particular studies that represent landmark investigations. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misconceptions about Freud's seduction theory: Comment on Gleaves and Hernandez (1999).

D. H. Gleaves and E. Hernandez (see record 1999-01068-004) write in relation to the seduction theory that "recent writers now argue that... Freud never made discoveries of sexual abuse" (p. 332) and that "the assertion that Freud did not make discoveries of abuse is unwarranted" (p. 324). In this article an outline of the case that Freud had no adequate grounds for his 1896 claims of having uncovered infantile "sexual scenes" is given. Some of the more important misconceptions and erroneous arguments in Gleaves and Hernandez's article are then examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revisiting Anna O.: A case of chemical dependence.

The famous clinical case of Anna O./Bertha Pappenheim, who was treated by Breuer from 1880 to 1882 and whose pathology was discussed by him and Freud in an 1895 article (J. Breuer & S. Freud, 1895/1955), is reviewed based on biographical information regarding the patient, which appeared from 1953 onward. The objective of this article is to show that, in order to better understand the case, the diagnosis of chloral hydrate and morphine dependence, as well as that of mood disorder (primary or drug induced), has to be taken into account. The method used is a careful literature review. The conclusion is that, based on all available data disclosed in recent years, these 3 diagnoses should be considered in this case, which is the most studied one in the history of psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Living in the shadow of the Freud family.

Reviews the book, Living in the shadow of the Freud family by Sophie Freud (see record 2007-07641-000). This book is fascinating for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is "written and edited" by Sophie Freud, Sigmund Freud's distinguished granddaughter, Professor Emerita of Social Work at Simmons College. The book will be of interest to anyone who wishes to learn more about the life and culture of the creator of psychoanalysis. The author challenges some of the assumptions made by Freud biographers, including the belief that his nursemaid stole pennies from the family, resulting in her firing and imprisonment. This book reveals the importance of writing. The author reminds us that the "psychological literature suggests that we should help old people to remember their childhood", and the book demonstrates the truth of this observation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women's role in psychotherapy.

Contends that the assertion of R. T. Hare-Mustin (see record 1984-07313-001) that Freud (1905) failed to recognize his own motives in his harsh and cold treatment of a female hysteric is inaccurate. It is suggested that Freud protected his patient's anonymity; weighed evidence from all sides before making judgments; put the patient's "vengefulness" in context; and treated her with integrity, courage, empathy, and a passion for the truth. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety disorder and Freud''s disease

OBJECTIVE: The author examined Freud's chest pains and arrhythmia beginning in late 1893 according to the new available data and modern psychiatry. METHOD: Published studies and recent findings were reviewed. The major works of Freud were also considered. Among the issues examined are clinical features, comorbidity, boundaries with others disorders. RESULTS: The findings of this review provided support for the dual diagnosis of panic disorder without agoraphobia and nicotine dependence. CONCLUSIONS: Freud's scientific learning was wide-ranging and his scientific ambition vast. During this period (1893-1897) Freud laid the foundations for the theory of anxiety. He referred to the conditions caused by the dammed-up libido as the actual neuroses. Although the work of Freud has the same aim as the modern DSM-IV, the classification of the Austrian author reflects a different tradition. A discrepancy exists between "anxiety neurosis" (Freud) and "anxiety disorder" (DSM-IV).     

Review of Freud and the Legacy of Moses.

Review of book: Richard J. Bernstein. Freud and the Legacy of Moses. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998, xii & 151 pp. Reviewed by Emanuel Rice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud’s debt to stoicism? A critical response to Kirsner.

In “Freud, Civilization, Religion, and Stoicism” Douglas Kirsner (2006a) writes of the neglect in the psychoanalytical literature of mention of “Freud’s debt to stoicism”. His essay, he adds, is an attempt to “develop the idea of Freud as a stoic still further”. What does it mean to say that Freud is, at least to some degree, a Stoic and that he owes a debt to them? If a debt exists, it exists because there are numerous striking similarities that show a direct or significant influence of the Stoics on Freud. In this commentary, I show that the similarities Kirsner notes are indirect and, most importantly, insignificant. Freud is not in any meaningful sense a Stoic and, thus, he owes no debt to them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)