Might Freud's legacy lie beyond the couch?

The paper advances the view that Freud's main legacy will be the application of psychoanalysis to community and social problems and issues, rather than in contributions to the treatment of mental illness. The history of applied psychoanalysis is outlined with suggestions for the training and validation of Community Psychoanalysis as a discrete field. How Community Psychoanalysis differs from Clinical Psychoanalysis is reviewed. The paper finishes with a sketch of typical modern applications to rearing of children and prevention of emotional disorders in children, contributions to understanding large social groups including racial and ethnic strife, school violence, terrorism, prejudice and conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freudian theory and new information in modern psychology.

Freud's work is reviewed in light of five new areas of information that were not available to him. The five areas are: (a) anthropology's finding of the cultural nature of humanity; (b) empirical studies of the mother-infant affectional interaction and of the competence of infants; (c) the discovery of rapid eye movements (REM); (d) the role of emotions in social communication as well as individual arousal; and (e) the burgeoning of the psychology of sex differences, especially in cognitive style. The tension between Freud's clinical observations and his metapsychology is interpreted as a function, in part, of gaps in then existing knowledge. The review suggests that the concept of the cultural nature of humanity, with the attachment emotions of shame and guilt as part of human equipment, was implied in Freud's clinical observations and could have eased Freud's theoretical difficulties. As an example of the usefulness of this concept, the views of psychoanalysis and behavior theory about phobias are examined, showing that both approaches can profit from attention to the attachment emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Women's role in psychotherapy": Reply to Solomon, Penzer, and Barber.

Suggests that I. Solomon et al (see record 1984-29323-001) were unaware, in their comment on the work of R. T. Hare-Mustin (see record 1984-07313-001), that others also consider Freud's treatment of Dora as lacking in trust and respect. It is suggested that Hare-Mustin was not confusing family treatment with psychoanalysis but was pointing out Freud's bias in the case. It is concluded that if Solomon and colleagues felt that they had to defend Freud against all criticism, they undervalued Freud's genius. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's unwritten case.

Discusses Freud's unpublished 5-yr treatment of the male patient "E.," whose therapy provides numerous examples of Freud's developing theories of psychodynamics and the role of infantile sexuality. The resonances between E.'s therapy and Freud's self-analysis suggest a number of conjectures about the role of oedipal and pre-oedipal issues in the construction of psychoanalysis. The use of material from E.'s therapy in The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900) links E.'s therapy to Freud's own anxiety-neurotic difficulties in the late 1890s and to the nascent theories of neurotic etiology, psychoanalytic interpretation, and transference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freudian repression, the common view, and pathological science.

A sustained misconceptualisation of a theory leading to invalid applications and inferences indicates a failure in the scientific process. This has repeatedly occurred with Freud's theory of repression, a cornerstone of psychoanalytic theory. This paper traces the development of Freud's theory of repression and compares this with the "common view" found in mainstream psychology: the motivated forgetting of trauma. A fixation with Freud's original, and superseded theory (1893-1897) ignores the theoretical developments that constitute mature psychoanalysis (1900 -1940), and has impacted upon attempts to test Freudian theory and the current "recovered memory" debate. Although certain accidental factors contribute to this misunderstanding, the sustained failure to comprehend Freudian repression reveals a breakdown in the process of critical inquiry. Implications for psychology as a whole are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's relevance for contemporary psychoanalytic technique.

It is argued that Freud's influence on contemporary technique is best seen by separating Freud as a hermeneuticist from Freud as a natural scientist. Freud's hermeneutic work is elucidated by a depiction of his earliest model of technique and its application in The Interpretation of Dreams. The division of the latter work into the first 6 chapters as a hermeneutic and the last chapter as a metapsychology is used to show not only the split but the conflict in Freud between his hermeneutic of the mind and his attempt to found psychoanalysis as a natural science. It is shown that the shift in analytic thinking from the primacy of drives to the growth and transformation of the self has maintained interpretation as a necessary, although insufficient, condition for the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis and that interpretation continues to bear the stamp of Freud's hermeneutic of the mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further issues in the psychology of affect and motivation: A developmental perspective.

Affect has always occupied a place of central importance in psychoanalysis, from Freud's early writings and revisions, to more recent contributions of many others, and into the current era of theoretical pluralism. Following Darwin and Freud, Silvan Tomkins (1911-1991) explored clinical and theoretical aspects of affect and motivation for over four decades; however, Tomkins' work is often misunderstood and rarely discussed comprehensively, particularly his more recent and posthumous elaborations. Tomkins is best viewed as presenting a developmental psychology of affect, and the theoretical and clinical aspects of Tomkins' work relevant to psychoanalysis are examined here with particular emphasis on his more recent revisions and additions. Tomkins and his colleagues described in detail the nature of affects and their triggering mechanisms; the development and transformations of the affect system; the potential for virtually unlimited ideo-affective structures resulting from this system; the relationships between affects, motivation, and other mental functions (e.g., drives and cognition); and various clinical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory.

The reviewer contends that this book deserves admiration for its masterly review of historical events in the development of psychoanalysis. It should be read by psychoanalysts not only for its enormous fund of skillfully assembled information about the formative years of Freud's thinking, but for its story of how new information was treated by some leaders of the psychoanalytic establishment. In the guise of protecting psychoanalysis, this information was dismissed as harmful. It is precisely such a well-meaning upholding of psychoanalytic doctrine that can throttle its growth. Although some of Masson's interpretations are made in the best Freudian style, Lewis remains unconvinced that, in what Masson calls a "failure of courage," Freud suppressed the truth. Nor did Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory lead to the present-day "sterility" of psychoanalysis, as Masson believes. Rather, the spurious need to defend psychoanalysis that Masson encountered during his investigations has also made many institutes sterile places. Masson thus confounds the limitations of some parts of the psychoanalytic establishment with the future of psychoanalysis itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissociation and the question of history: "What, precisely, are the facts?"

In the wake of interest in the issue of the knowability of history and the rise of clinical and theoretical interest in dissociation, contemporary psychoanalysis continues to struggle with the basic question of what exactly constitutes a "fact" in the psychoanalytic process. This article considers this difficulty in light of the interpenetration of these two issues--dissociation and the question of history. A brief review of the prevailing alternative viewpoints on dissociation reveals how the question of history--the traditional controversy between narrativist and positivist views--re-emerges from it. This is further born out through a rereading of S. Freud's (1918/1955) most famous case of clinical dissociation, the "Wolf-Man" case, in which, as R. May (1990) showed in his critical analysis, the knowability of history emerged as the central problem. An alternative epistemological point of view on the problem of history is then presented that sheds light on the nature of a "fact" in psychoanalysis. This view enables a relational research paradigm for the empirical investigation of the psychoanalytic process. (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)     

Grief in Freud's life: reconceptualizing bereavement in psychoanalytic theory.

Presents a critique of Freud's drive-based theory of grief, which emphasizes decathexis as the resolution of normal bereavement, using a social developmental model (SDM) of bereavement applied to Freud's own lifelong experiences with grief. Freud's grief at his father's death has been extensively discussed as a creative stimulus to his writing, but most biographers remain loyal to Freud's interpretation of death and grief in his own development. Other close family deaths strongly influenced Freud's life and work. An SDM of grief emphasizes the role of relationships in creating life structure at any age and stage of development, and the growth-sustaining, lifelong bonds that are recreated but are not severed by death. Freud's experiences with death illustrate the usefulness of an SDM of bereavement integrated with relational psychoanalytic perspectives, which view the resolution of grief as the recreation of a new, enduring relational bond. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A draft of Lethe: A neglected statement from the works of Sigmund Freud.

The myth of Oedipus plays an important role in psychoanalysis. Freud's relationship with his mother influenced his theoretical insights and the development of his approach to analysis. But a careful reading of Freud's letters to Wilhelm Fliess shows that it is highly probable that it was not Freud's mother, but his father who was the decisive factor in his life and works. (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)     

Freud and sociobiology.

Discusses comments made by M. Eber (see record 1984-00023-001) and E. I. Pollak (see record 1984-00042-001) on a synthesis of Freudian psychoanalysis and sociobiology by the present authors (Leak and Christopher; see record 1982-29262-001). Eber writes from the psychoanalytic perspective and criticizes the stress on the biological/scientific aspect of Freud's work. Pollak takes a more sociobiological approach and criticizes the present authors' article for stressing those aspects of sociobiological theory that place greater emphasis on biological determinism as opposed to behavioral plasticity. The present authors reply that (1) the original Freudian conception of psychoanalysis is the version that offers valuable insights for mainstream scientific psychology, and (2) many of Freud's notions are quite similar to contemporary sociobiological concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The ability to mourn: Disillusionment and the social origins of psychoanalysis.

Reviews the book, The ability to mourn: Disillusionment and the social origins of psychoanalysis by Peter Homans (see record 1989-98118-000). Within the broadly defined goal of investigating the social origins of psychoanalysis, this book undertakes a series of strikingly original and thought-provoking explorations into the history of the psychoanalytic movement, its place in the traditions of Western culture, and its possible role in defining a more satisfactory relationship to modernity. In addition to providing a sociological study of one of the most influential movements of our time, the book also attempts to put forward a new psychoanalytic theory of culture capable of overcoming the limitations of Freud's cultural theories. The book is divided into three parts, the first two of which are devoted primarily to the origins and early development of psychoanalysis while the third takes up the contemporary cultural significance of psychoanalysis and the author's own theory of culture. The underlying thesis of the first two parts of the book is that psychoanalysis arose from a centuries-long process of mourning dating as far back as the 14th century. In his search for a theory of culture appropriate to the problems of modernity, as in his explorations of the history of the psychoanalytic movement and the origins of psychoanalysis, Homans provides an unusually creative and original perspective on issues of fundamental importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narrative limits in psychoanalytic case histories: A commentary on Loewenstein's article.

E. A. Loewenstein (see record 1992-28313-001) employs J. Lacan's (1952 [1982]) rereading of the Dora case to argue that psychoanalytic life histories are multivocal, dialectical, and nonpositivistic. However, she neither acknowledges the problematic, but persistent, ties of psychoanalysis to positivism nor makes explicit important philosophical differences between Freud's and her own hermeneutical view. These deficiencies weaken her argument which thus does not provide sufficient grounds for rejecting D. P. Spence's (1982, 1987) view that Freud's case-reporting style is consistent with the Sherlock Holmes detective story genre. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chinese Freud? A fable.

The author creates a fable involving the translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet into Chinese in order to understand and reveal more fully some of the current difficulties in approaching Freud's work and thought. The article also points out the ironic nature of many of the criticisms of Freud and the almost uncritical support of other psychoanalytic figures who themselves fell prey to errors Freud has been accused of making. The author argues for the recreation of a living dialogue with Freud's work to serve as a wellspring and guide for an enlightened and coherent perseverance of psychoanalysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Motivation and explanation: An essay on Freud's philosophy of science.

Reviews the book, Motivation and explanation: An essay on Freud's philosophy of science by Nigel Mackay (1989). The book under review is not only an essay on Freud's philosophy of science (as the subtitle has it) but more particularly, a determined attack on the "separate-domain" thesis. This thesis asserts that psychoanalysis belongs to "a domain of explanation separate from explanations of nonhuman phenomena." In refuting this claim, Mackay argues that psychoanalysis falls clearly within the domain of normal science and, by implication, deserves all the rights and privileges of other established disciplines. We hear the echo of Freud when he wrote that "I have always felt it as a gross injustice that people have refused to treat psycho-analysis like any other science." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud's forgotten evolutionary project.

In the last decades psychoanalysis has tended to recast itself as a hermeneutic discipline geared at the retelling of human lives, and Freud is recast as a great writer in the humanist tradition rather than as the scientist as which he saw himself. Although this reconceptualization has good reasons, it tends to obscure the fact that Freud primarily saw himself as a theorist of human nature. One of Freud's deepest convictions was that psychopathology needs to be explained on the basis of evolutionary biology. This paper argues that this may have been one of Freud's greatest ideas. The reason it has been "repressed" by psychoanalysis is that Freud based it on Lamarckian principles. The current flourishing of evolutionary psychology and psychiatry may well turn Freud into one of the precursors of the psychology of the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)