Freud and the Culture Historians: An Escape from the Clinical?

History of Psychiatry, 2011

In 1908, in his article '"Civilized" sexual morality and modern nervous illness', Freud presented neuroses as the consequence of a restrictive state of cultural development and its 'civilized morality'. He found the inspiration for this idea by expanding upon previous formulations in this area by his predecessors (notably Christian von Ehrenfels) that focused on a cultural process earlier introduced by Kant, while also integrating in his analysis the principles of Haeckel's evolutionism (history of development, recapitulation) which eventually redefined the psychoanalytic theory of neuroses. These new theoretical elements became the basis of psychoanalytic theory and thereby influenced subsequent thinking in the cultural process itself and in human sciences. This transformation of underlying theory provided a unique historical and analytical framework for psychoanalysis which allowed Freud to claim for it a pre-eminent position among the human sciences.

Psychoanalysis and History, 2008

Akroterion, 2014

American historial review. Clases I, 2006

Psychoanalysis has had a long gestation, during the course of which it has experienced multiple rebirths, leading some current authors to complain that there has been such a proliferation of theories of psychoanalysis over the past 115 years that the field has become theoretically fragmented and is in disarray (Fonagy & Target, 2003; Rangell, 2006). In this paper, I survey the past and present landscapes of psychoanalytic theorizing and clinical practice to trace the evolution of Freud's original insights and psychoanalytic techniques to current theory and practice. First, I sketch the evolutionary chronology of psychoanalytic theory; second, I discuss the key psychoanalytic techniques derived from clinical practice, with which psychoanalysis is most strongly identified; third, I interrogate whether Freud's original theoretical conceptualizations and clinical practices are still recognizable in current psychoanalytic theory and practice, using four key exemplars – object relations theory, attachment-informed psychotherapy, existential/phenomenological and intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy; and fourth, I discuss recent unhelpful, disintegrative developments in psychoanalytic scholarship. To this end, I critique the cul-de-sacs into which some psychoanalytic scholars have directed us, and conclude with the hope that the current state of affairs can be remedied. Psychoanalysis is simultaneously a form treatment, a theory, and an " investigative tool " (Lothane, 2006, p. 711). Freud used each of these three facets of psychoanalysis iteratively to progress our understanding of human mental functioning. Among Freud's unique theoretical insights into the human condition was the historically new idea that humans are primarily animals driven by instincts (Freud, 1915a, 1920) who undergo growth via universal developmental (psychosexual) stages that are influenced by family and social life. This was in opposition to the prevailing view of his time that humanity was God's highest creation. Freud (1908) challenged the cherished belief that humankind is rational and primarily governed by reason, replacing it with the disturbing notion that we are in fact driven by unacceptable and hence repressed aggressive and sexual impulses that are constantly at war with the " civilized " self. Freud himself and Freud scholars (Jones, 1953; Strachey, 1955) consider that the Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1893) mark the beginning of psychoanalysis as a theory and a treatment. These early papers place the causes of the symptoms of hysteria firmly in the psychological, not the neurological domain (although such a distinction is no longer sustainable), thus moving thinking about the cause of hysterical and other psychological symptoms from the brain to the mind. This insight underpinned a paradigm shift in thinking about the mental functioning of human beings, for which there was a scant vocabulary and embryonic conceptualizations. The theory that organized early clinical observations gradually unfolded, many precepts of which have entered the psychological lexicon as givens, concepts that are now taken for granted. Three of these bedrock concepts are the existence of the Unconscious, the notion of hidden meaning and the idea of repression.

2013

This is the English translation of the full text of my dissertation Freud als Geschichtsphilosoph, which was published in 2013 under the title Geschichtsphilosophie und Psychoanalyse by V&R unipress. The thesis was accepted as a doctoral dissertation at the Ruhr University Bochum in 2012 (Jürgen Straub, Chair of Social Theory and Social Psychology). The translation was done using the translation software deepL.com. (The author apologises for any errors or inaccuracies caused by this software translation. The original German text can be searched via Google Books. A German reading sample including a table of contents can be found among the texts uploaded here). The core of this work deals with the question of how psychoanalysis, history and the philosophy of history can be thought together. To this end, it examines differences and parallels between Freud's teachings and selected approaches to the theory and philosophy of history. (The concluding third part of text, Philosophy of History and Psychoanalysis, is to be seen as a sketchy proposal for what a future psychoanalytic philosophy of history might look like). In order to distinguish the present text from my essay Freud as a Philosopher of History, which was previously uploaded to academia.edu and can be seen as a summary of the main theses of the dissertation, its title is Freud as Philosopher of History (without article).