Freud's Self-Analysis - An Interpersonally Grounded Process

American Imago, 2021

Vues nouvelles sur l'auto-analyse de Freud et la découverte de la psychanalyse (Vienne, 23 juillet 1988) New Views on Freud's Self-Analysis and the Discovery of Psychoanalysis (Vienna, July 23, 1988) i Didier Anzieu Written by Didier Anzieu Translation by Chris Vanderwees La correspondance avec Fliess amorce chez Freud un processus évolutif, équivalant à celui qui produira, quand elle sera inventée, la situation psychanalytique. Les premières lettres mettent en place les thèmes qui feront l'objet de l'auto-analyse de Freud, particulièrement dans le rêve de l' « injection faite à Irma ». Ces lettres évoquent enfin les circonstances de la rupture entre Freud et Fliess et les causes inconscientes de leur désaccord.

Freud and his Discontents; an aetiology of psychoanalysis, 2021

The book, ‘Freud and his Discontents; an aetiology of psychoanalysis’ (ISBN 978-87-4303-717-0) is published, available in Denmark and Germany, and will be promoted in Britain, America, and Canada. A synopsis of the book is contained in the pdf along with text samples from the book. The book runs from the records of the Freud family in Pribor, the Jewish Enlightenment from a center not too far of in Tysmenitz which, influenced Freud’s parents and his early years. His first three years were actually spent with a Catholic nanny which left him relatively positive to the Catholic faith but his family's beliefs in Judaism were strongly rejected. This, plus his reports of some sexualization in Freud records, leaves him with early sexual attachments to his mother and anger against his father - his response to his family was therefore rooted in Oedipal dynamics. Sexual theories of the time, including Havelock Ellis, von Krafft-Ebbing, and Albert Moll also play a part in his theory of libido. He also seems to hold to such templates where two mothers are present and with birth confusion, he records two possible fathers. Freud’s Oedipal theory established at age three, occur simultaneously when Freud significantly lost his nanny and returned to his mother. These factors become evident in his works up to and including his last work, Moses and Monotheism. A significant amount of Freud’s works are discussed including, the psychosexual stages, Leonardo da Vinci, Totem and taboo, and the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In this last section, there are brief entries describing the main ideas of those who met with Freud in Vienna on Wednesdays. These are the ‘discontents’ where despite stormy meetings, some remained as Freudians, and some, like CG Jung and Alfred Adler, go their own way. We then have a ‘diaspora’ of psychologists which, gives rise to the modern world of psychology and its disciplines as we find it.

The life and work of Sigmund Freud continue to fascinate general and professional readers alike. Joel Whitebook here presents the first major biography of Freud since the last century, taking into account recent developments in psychoanalytic theory and practice, gender studies, philosophy, cultural theory, and more. Offering a radically new portrait of the creator of psychoanalysis, this book explores the man in all his complexity alongside an interpretation of his theories that cuts through the stereotypes that surround him. The development of Freud's thinking is addressed not only in the context of his personal life, but also in that of society and culture at large, while the impact of his thinking on subsequent issues of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and social theory is fully examined. Whitebook demonstrates that declarations of Freud's obsolescence are premature, and, with his clear and engaging style, brings this vivid figure to life in compelling and readable fashion.

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.

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.

Gestalt Theory - An International Multidisciplinary Journal, 2005

Within the theoretical frame of my research on social virtues, the purpose of this contribution is to study hope and dedication to research in FREUD. Using a phenomenological approach, in FREUD’s letters to FLIESS in the years 1887-1891 there is an opposition between the images that FREUD offers of himself and the images of the friend. FREUD builds, through these pictures, interpersonal scenes in which complementary roles are assigned to himself and to his friend. In several of the letters, FREUD describes his dedication to research: he feels he is in the “service” of psychology, his “tyrant and consuming passion”. FREUD’s dedication to research is supported by an “objective motivation” in the sense of WERTHEIMER. The letter dated January 1, 1896 marks a turning point in FREUD’s friendship with FLIESS: FREUD makes a clear distinction between physiology and psychology. He distinguishes his field of research from the field of FLIESS and applies this distinction to his own research. At this point, FREUD can reveal his “secretly nourished hope of arriving at his initial goal” [Anfangsziel]. This “initial goal”, that FREUD describes as his “always distant beckoning goal”, what “he wanted originally” is psychology. FREUD’s hope of arriving at his “initial goal” is an authentic hope, because his expectation of a good future (bonum arduum futurum of the medieval philosophy) has not led him to neglect the present. On the contrary, hope stimulates FREUD’s dedication to his clinical and intellectual activity.

"Analyze any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation." Sigmund Freud.

Since ancient times, scholars in the West have shown great enthusiasm towards understanding the subject on man and personality. Driven by this zeal, there appeared a multitude of theories discussing man and his nature. Though the various concepts on man showcased by the scholars complemented one another, at times their ideas also contradicted and discredited one another. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) the founding father of psychoanalysis presented to the world a concept on man and his personality which turned out to be a controversial one till to these days. In realizing the fact that Freud's ideas have a huge impact on modern psychology and people in the West, the researchers of this study would like to revisit some of his ideas on man and personality. Upon making an exposition of his ideas, the researchers too would like to carry out an appraisal on Freud and to identify some of the underlying factors that led him towards conceptualizing a theory on man which is not only degrading to man's position as the most intelligent of God's creation but also an unprecedented one in the history of modern psychology.

WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS?