A Brief History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Fantasy to Folly

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.

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2006

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.

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2007

This article discusses the question of the basis of changes in psychoanalytic concepts, theory, and treatment. Illustrative examples discussed include the "widening scope" of the use of "parameters" in psychoanalytic treatment; the rejection of the "Enlightenment Vision" and the concomitant de-emphasis on the role of insight; the concept of "narrative truth"; and the "totalistic" reconceptualization of the meaning of countertransferase. I then discuss the relationship between research and clinical practice and argue that if it is to grow, psychoanalysis must be open to and attempt to integrate findings from other related disciplines.

The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 2020

This paper assesses the history of psychoanalysis in the United States in order to inform a "professional memoir" of the author's experience of analytic training in the 21 st Century. The mix of historical and personal landscapes supports a contention that there is something missing or lost in American psychoanalysis, that psychoanalysis has lost sight of the radical and subversive nature of unconscious processes. I argue that only by returning to a study of rigorous and comprehensive theory, seated in Freud's work, can this absence be addressed.

The impact of Sigmund Freud's lectures in America in 1909 is discussed. Some of the roots of psychoanalysis and their contemporary relevance are addressed: neurological ideas, the discussions of the sexologists, and the degeneration theories at the turn of the twentieth century. Factors which led to the dominance of psychoanalysis in psychiatry included, in particular, its arguments against the hopelessness of degeneracy theories; yet, by isolating itself from mainstream academic psychiatry and psychology, organized psychoanalysis itself contributed to its own subsequent marginalization. In order to re-integrate itself with mainstream psychiatry, psychoanalysis needs to appreciate the importance of systematic demonstrations of the therapeutic power of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic concepts and techniques when caring for individuals.

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 2019

perspective on the nature of psychoanalysis. All of these trends, called for throughout this volume, are evident today. This book is written for a psychoanalytically sophisticated audience. Some of the difficult theory (Jurist, Naso, Lichtenstein) and research (Graf and Diamond; Waldron et al.) material is unlikely to find a readership among nonanalysts, but the ideas and information the book contains must be circulated beyond analytic circles. It is important for the larger world to know that psychoanalysis has changed, and that analysts have changed. We might suggest that progress begets progress (unless it doesn't), but that at least we can mark as progress whatever makes further progress more likely. And the attitudes presented by the contributors to this book are welcoming of new theory and applications. This is a crucial message to convey to analysts and nonanalysts alike.

Since its first appearance, I've changed the title of this compilation so as to better reflect the bulk of the literature gathered together here. In no way should this change be seen as an attempt to diminish Freud's singular contribution to the creation of psychoanalytic psychology and therapy. I have also added to the introduction.) * * * Some of the titles here are not, strictly speaking, of Freudian provenance or a post-Freudian orientation, and others are quite critical, for example, of Freudian psychology, this or that aspect of what we might call Freud's philosophy of mind, his understanding of morality, his conception of human nature, or his later and more speculative or ambitious works (e.g., The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents, and Moses and Monotheism). I've included them because I believe they make points worthy of consideration by anyone committed, such as yours truly, to what is viewed as the undeniable value of psychoanalytic psychology and therapy. With regard to a Abramson, Jeffrey B. Liberation and Its Limits: The Moral and Political Thought of Freud.

Infant Observation, 2020

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Taking into account the introduction of psychoanalysis in the scientific context of the second half of the 19th century, this article aims to discuss the notion of applied psychoanalysis that was supported by Freud and his peers in the first years of the psychoanalytic movement. To do so, some essays that are considered by the movement as applied will be referred to, and so will some contributions of methodological nature, all of them published in this early period of psychoanalysis history. It should be said that, in this article, the study of primary sources in connection with the related discussion will be given priority.

Table of contents: Braddock & Lacewing, Introduction. Part I. Psychoanalysis. Brearley, What Do Psychoanalysts Do? Budd, Reading and Misreading. Rusbridger, Elements of the Oedipus Complex: A Kleinian Account. Tuckett, Civilization and its Discontents Today. Part II. Philosophy. Cottingham, A Triangle of Hostility? Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Religion. Lacewing, Do Unconscious Emotions Involve Unconscious Feelings? Harcourt, Guilt, Shame, and the ‘Psychology of Love’. Braddock, Psychoanalysis as Functionalist Social Science: The Legacy of Freud’s ‘Project for a Scientific Psychology’. III. Perspectives. Rustin, How Do Psychoanalysts Know What They Know? Robertson, Freud’s Literary Imagination. Connors, Force, Figuration, and Repetition in Freud. Fletcher, Gender, Sexuality and the Theory of Seduction.