Lost and found half a century later: Letters by Freud and Einstein.

The author offers a letter that she had written as a student to 100 scientists and philosophers in 1932 to elucidate the process that occurred when these individuals had their most productive thought. 41 of the 100 responded; the correspondence received from Einstein and Freud are reproduced. In 1947, the letters were lost, apparently left on a commuter train. The author describes the process which led to the rediscovery of these important missives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud on the Acropolis.

The relevance of Freud for the present and the future is often questioned because of the assertion that "our patients have changed," that is, that Freud's theorizing is too rooted in the past, and theoretical or technical innovation is necessitated by the contemporary problems our patients bring to us now. An appreciative reading of an underappreciated late Freud paper, "A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis," suggests that Freud's theory is more flexible and broadly applicable than Freud's critics have described. Bridging the gap between an analysis of cultural and individual ills is always problematic, but as the "Acropolis" paper shows, Freud's theory can accommodate a wide variety of cultural and historical conditions because of the emphasis on compromise between competing generational claims, no matter what the specific content of the claims themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud versus Adler on dreams.

Comments on the article by L. T. Benjamin, Jr. and D. N. Dixon (see record 83-32709) that describes Freud's attempt to help an American girl named Mary Fields by interpreting her dream in which there was some conflict between Fields and her parents regarding the man with whom she was involved. For Freud, dreams were the royal road to the unconscious mind, and they represented a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish. The authors discuss the Adlerian perspective on dreams which states that the purpose of dreams is to support the lifestyle against the demands of logic or common sense, and sees dreams as an attempt to make a bridge between an individual's lifestyle and present problems. From an Adlerian perspective, Field's dream had a connection with her problem, which was her anxiety over her attraction to and desire to see her friend, and also the possible negative outcome of this dilemma. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immigration and the psychodynamics of class.

Numerous psychoanalytic contributors have theorized about the substantive role played by cultural factors in organizing individual identity. In addition to individual and family dynamics, issues related to class, race, religion, and other cultural themes also exert a vital presence in the treatment setting. These social forces define experience in profound ways from which it is impossible that form an inextricable part of an individual's psychology. Societal values, norms, and forces are carried and represented, forming an ever-present backdrop to our psychological lives. They thus become, perforce, part of the treatment process whether or not the therapist or analyst is aware of their presence. In prior work I have explored the topic of the immigrant's construction of self as it relates to social class (Ainslie, 2009). I argue that one of the variables that shape an immigrant's psychology is his or her social class position in his or her country of origin. In the present contribution, I seek to extend this exploration of the topic of social class and the psychology of immigration through three vignettes that capture aspects of how social class becomes represented in the experience and therapeutic treatment of immigrants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Freud and disability.

Reviewed several books about Freud's work and Psychological Abstracts to provide an analysis of Freud's writings and theories as related to persons with physical disabilities and identify references to disability by Freud and pertinent supportive literature. Although Freud wrote very little about disability per se, many of his ideas can be applied directly to understanding attitudes toward disability and adjustment to disability processes. The relevance of concepts such as castration anxiety, fear of loss of love, ego strength, secondary gain, and the death instinct are specifically discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and the family: Intergenerational psychodynamics.

Despite widely held views to the contrary, recent evidence suggests that the extended family system is intact and growing in size. While contact between family members has changed with the advent of work-related mobility and rural-to-urban migration patterns, the extended family remains a strong, extant social unit. Four- and 5-generation families are common and the increasing complexity of intergenerational relationships challenges family therapy systems. New elements must be incorporated into an understanding of the family structure: Age factors can generate multiple, interacting crises for older family members. Middle-generation family members may experience stresses associated with being the organizational center of the multigenerational network and with supporting 2 or more other generations. Psychodynamic patterns of the multigenerational family, such as the elderly's attempts to maintain their accustomed power in the family, are discussed, and therapeutic interventions for these patterns are outlined. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

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)     

Teaching Freud: A lesson.

This article addresses the objectives of teaching undergraduates about psychoanalysis and offers some evidence for how those objectives are addressed in contemporary textbooks and achieved in the students. Arguing that there is a poor match between goals, strategies, and achievement, we make some specific suggestions about how to proceed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychodynamics of social mobility in adolescent boys.

"In this paper, a first effort is made… to analyze some of the psychic accompaniments of upward and downward mobility strivings among adolescent boys… by distinguishing varieties of mobility behavior… the mechanisms through which the differing aspirations become established… The findings reveal sharp differences, in the prediction directions, between upward and downward aspiring groups." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult pica. A clinical nexus of physiology and psychodynamics

BACKGROUND: Traumatic leptomeningeal cyst as a complication of skull fractures was initially thought to occur primarily in the pediatric population. The occurrence of a traumatic leptomeningeal cyst in the adult population is rare. CASE DESCRIPTION: A lump in the right parietal region of this 53-year-old man prompted a computed tomography (CT) scan. The patient denied any symptoms and was in good health. Examination confirmed a firm, nontender, nonpulsatile mass in the right parietal region of the skull. The CT scan demonstrated a 4 x 3 cm area of irregular bone destruction involving both the inner and outer table of the skull. At operation a distinctly raised paper-thin outer table was noted, and underneath was a soft, tan-colored mass, which measured approximately 2 x 2 cm and was connected to the underlying brain through a 1 cm dural defect. The extradural portion of the mass was amputated, the dura repaired with a pericranium patch, the skull defect was repaired with a split thickness bone graft, and the final pathology was congruent with gliotic brain. CONCLUSION: Although rare, this case demonstrates a traumatic leptomeningeal cyst in an adult.     

A childhood letter of Sigmund Freud.

Analyzes a childhood letter written by Freud in an attempt to discover early evidence of lasting personality characteristics. It is deduced that the letter was written when Freud was between 11 and 12 yrs old. Aspects of the letter reveal Freud's neatness and exactness, general conservatism, egocentricity, and deep emotional attachments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud in America: some observations.

Psychoanalysis is a "highly articulated theoretical system, one so extensive in scope that it threatens to overwhelm us with insights." Psychoanalysis has been modified in this country. A major antithesis is "between Freud's view, which emphasizes the limitations imposed on man by his nature, and the American vision, an optimistic one, which is captured by the idea of infinite possibility." "Freud seems quite satisfied if the patient achieves a relative internal harmony—that is, he seeks to uproot the neurosis. The American aim is much less moderate; indeed we may even call it inspirational; again and again we hear such terms as 'self-actualization,' 'self-realization,' 'spontaneity,' and 'creativity.' " (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud, biology, and sociobiology.

Concurs with T. Parisi's (see record 1987-21061-001) suggestion that human psychodynamics cannot be profitably reduced to physiological events, but argues that Parisi's understanding of Freud and his conclusions regarding evolutionary sociobiology are seriously flawed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud and the intentionality of affect.

Freud implicitly adopted F. Brentano's (1874 [1973]) thesis that the essence of the mental is intentionality (i.e., mental representation), while rejecting Brentano's Cartesian assumption that intentionality must be conscious. But, how can a feeling like free-floating anxiety, which does not seem to represent or be about anything, be fitted into Freud's representational framework? Several possible answers are examined, including: (1) affects are ideas, (2) affects are always attached to ideas, (3) consciousness is perception of internal mental states, and (4) affects are perceptions of internal bodily processes. Only the "bodily perception" account is systematically developed by Freud, is consistent with Freud's other doctrines, and is intrinsically plausible even in the context of contemporary debate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud and the image of man.

Discusses Freud's contributions to the modern image of man. Two figures stand out massively as the architects of our present-day conception of man: Darwin and Freud. Freud's was the more daring, the more revolutionary, and in a deep sense, the more poetic insight. Freud presented the image of man as the unfinished product of nature: struggling against unreason, impelled by driving inner vicissitudes and urges that had to be contained if man were to live in society, host alike to seeds of madness and majesty, never fully free from an infancy anything but innocent. What Freud was proposing was that man at best and man at worst is subject to a common set of explanations: good and evil grow from a common process. It is our heritage from Freud that the all-or-none distinction between mental illness and mental health has been replaced by a more humane conception of the continuity of these states. Freud's sense of the continuity of human conditions, of the likeness of the human plight, has made possible a deeper sense of the brotherhood of man. It has in any case tempered the spirit of punitiveness toward what once we took as evil and what we now see as sick. We have not yet resolved the dilemma posed by these two ways of viewing. Its resolution is one of the great moral challenges of our age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition and its disembodiment: Some comments on Freud scholarship.

G. Frank's (1996) argument that instinct theory is "an untenable model from which to generate ideas about personality, psychopathology or treatment" (p. 421) and is best replaced by the construct of belief rests on a caricatured representation of Freud's instinct theory. Frank's rendering of instinct theory is bereft of complexity and is based on a selected and tilted reading of Freud. A more balanced reading of Freud, contemporary Freudians, and current views of the interface of psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and evolutionary theory yields different conclusions regarding instinct theory, the dynamic unconscious, unconscious fantasy, and their relations to treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The epilepsy patient: Personality, psychodynamics, and psychotherapy.

The modern medical emphasis on drug treatment of epilepsy should not obscure the important role that psychological treatment strategies can play in the clinical management of patients with seizure disorders. The author reviews the main effects of seizures on behavioral, interpersonal, and family functioning; discusses the role of psychodynamic and family factors in shaping the personality and behavioral coping style of the epilepsy patient; and outlines the options and strategies for effective psychotherapy with these patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

John Watson's paradoxical struggle to explain Freud.

John Watson was fascinated by the discoveries of psychoanalysis, but he rejected Freud's central concept of the unconscious as incompatible with behaviorism. After failing to explain psychoanalysis in terms of William James's concept of habit, Watson borrowed concepts from classical conditioning to explain Freud's discoveries. Watson's famous experiment with Little Albert is interpreted not only in the context of Pavlovian conditioning but also as a psychoanalytically inspired attempt to capture simplified analogues of adult phobic behavior, including the transference of emotion in an infant. Watson used his behavioristic concept of conditioned emotional responses to compete with Freud's concepts of displacement and the unconscious transference of emotion. Behind a mask of anti-Freudian bias, Watson surprisingly emerges as a psychologist who popularized Freud and pioneered the scientific appraisal of his ideas in the laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)