SOME THOUGHTS ON SCHREBER (AND FREUD): DEPRESSION, PARANOIA AND A DELUSIONAL SYSTEM

ABSTRACT Freud's paper on Daniel Paul Schreber is a seminal psychoanalytic text (Freud 1911). In it, he sets out his argument that Schreber's paranoid delusions arose from repressed homosexuality. This paper reconsiders the case of Schreber from a contemporary perspective chiefly by studying, as did Freud, Schreber's autobiographical Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (Schreber 1903), but also by drawing upon more recent biographical information. It follows the view put forward by Lothane (1992), and recently elaborated by Steiner (2004), that Schreber's illness was originally depressive in nature, and then progressed to paranoia and finally to a settled delusional system. It reviews many of Freud's insights, contending that although some, such as his understanding of the mechanism of paranoia and the manner by which a delusion of persecution is converted into a religious delusion of grandeur, have stood the test of time, others, such as the causal relationship he proposes between homosexuality and paranoia, do not.     

SCHREBER'S FALL

ABSTRACT Schreber and Freud never met. This gives Freud the freedom to interpret without having to contend with Schreber's reactions. This paper explores connections and disconnections between their two texts. Both men are attempting to work out the place of the feminine in a man, one from a position of masculine collapse, the other from a position of masculine strength. Unheard, Schreber became increasingly woebegone and strident until, with the help of his memoir as a self-object, he began to reintegrate. Freud, on the other hand, well heard in his psychoanalytic fraternity, could venture an at the time seemingly unchallengeable reading of Schreber's memoir. Since 1911 a considerable literature has accumulated, analysing Schreber and reinterpreting Freud, and this paper briefly considers some of the main and divergent strands, and includes a response to the mystical in Schreber.     

TRAUMA AND CULTURE: ON FREUD'S WRITING ABOUT TRAUMA AND ITS RESONANCES IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL DISCOURSE

ABSTRACT This paper considers Freud's concept of trauma and its resonances in contemporary cultural discourse, focusing on the complex temporality and the unknowable dimension of traumatic experience. The paper traces the shifting emphasis from Freud's initial intent to discover the original traumatic event, towards accepting the indeterminacy of what can be known in this experience. It is suggested that this psychoanalytic understanding of trauma provides a key perspective for considering the problematic issue of representation of'real' events in the broader cultural domain. The approach to trauma discussed in this paper offers a framework in which it is possible to allow multiple interpretations and shifting perspectives on events, to stay open to unknowable dimensions, and at the same time to accept the presence of layers from the past. Lastly, the impact of Freud's insights on trauma on historical, literary and cinematic discourse is explored through discussing a few examples in detail.     

The Dream of Psychoanalysis: Irma's Dream, Some Commentaries, and a Contemplation of its Navel

Freud's dream of 1895, 'Irma's Dream', stands at the beginning of psychoanalytic theory, but Freud's analysis only glancingly refers to the 'unknown' elements that are found at 'the navel of the dream'. The imagery of the dream suggests this phrasing is significant and that unconscious elements refer to the oracle at Delphi. At Delphi a chthonic goddess was supplanted by a patriarchy; the 'unknown' at the centre of the dream is the archaic mother, repressed by Freud and by the patriarchal character of early psychoanalytic theory.     

弗洛伊德梦的解析过程中的认知特征

目的 分析弗洛伊德梦的解析理论的实质,以便了解精神领域中潜意识的活动.方法 运用逻辑分析法对弗洛伊德梦的解析理论部分进行评论.结果 梦是一种精神活动,但梦的工作充满着丰富的认知思维活动.结论 释梦过程是解释分析做梦者在特定心境下的认知活动的过程.     

Lacan for the Faint Hearted

This paper introduces Lacan to the psychotherapist without using his jargon. He is shown as deeply influenced by the Russian Marxist Alexander Kojeve whose charismatic seminars on Hegel Lacan attended. This helps account for his 'global' perspective in which we are all determined by deep social structures or that 'language speaks us' . Lacan also noticed Freud's writings are shot through with almost hidden uses of Figures of Speech, and this becomes the central plank in his theory that our unconscious processes coincide with the rhetorical workings of language.     

In Praise of Once-Weekly Work: Making a Virtue of Necessity or Treatment of Choice?

This paper attempts to evaluate the once-weekly psychodynamic model and to outline the therapeutic principles and methodology on which it is based. Using Freud's concept of 'psychotherapy for the people', issues of time, frame, technique, and transference are discussed in relation to this model which draws on and adapts psychoanalytic theory and technique to suit its less intensive, but equally long-term practice. Some fundamental questions are raised in relation to higher frequencies of attendance, the status attached to numbers, the use of theory, choice of and suitability for once-weekly work.     

The Truth Is, Sir, My Nerves Are Bad'Reflections on Freud's Case of Katharina

SUMMARY. I will revisit Freud's conversation with Katharina on a mountaintop, refer to the recent discovery of her identity, and consider this fascinating short case history in terms of diagnosis, etiology, psychodynamics and interpretation.     

FROM CABINET TO COUCH: FREUD'S CLINICAL USE OF SCULPTURE

abstract    This article aims to address and remedy the fact that Freud's clinical use of sculpture has received little sustained attention. After a brief review of the collection, Melanie Klein's clinical use of dolls is discussed as an initial basis for comparison. It then makes a detailed examination of primary evidence found in the published writings and private correspondence of the writer and analysand H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). H.D.'s analysis indicates that Freud used sculpture as an analogue for the 'foreign body' of psychical trauma, treating it as a representation of a representation, or Vorstellungrepräsentanz . The sculptures also served Freud's archaeological metaphor for the 'otherness' of the unconscious in ways that architectural fragments did not. The author then considers H.D.'s hallucination of Athena Nike and Freud's use of his own damaged sculpture of Athena to raise therapeutic questions about her phallic relation to the signifier in the treatment of her writer's block. This case study is further compared to Klein and to Jung in order to differentiate the use of objects in the clinical setting and to mark some of the limits Freud encountered in H.D.'s second analytic session. The author concludes that purely textual examinations of Freud may have greatly underestimated his clinical use of sculpture in recuperating lost memories as fundamental indices of desire.     

If Oedipus was an Egyptian

Freud's archaeological collection peopled his work rooms with sublimated expressions of eternal, universal desires. I suggest here that these tangible remnants from the long buried past resonated with psychic representations and dream figures in Freud's own internal world, which, nevertheless, were not always consciously available to him. Despite a fascination with Egyptology evidenced in his antiquities, library and less conventional works, Freud focused on aspects of the Greek oedipal legend in his theoretical writing, neglecting Egyptian myths associated with'prehistoric'realms of the archaic mother and Osirian/Mosaic father. I argue that convergence of traumatic events in his early childhood contributed to this delimiting Graeco-Roman filter, and that accessibility to the'dark continent'was hampered by resistances his own self-analysis could not penetrate but which may have been worked through in the transference had he had an analyst other than himself.     

THE INHERENT SHAME OF SEXUALITY

ABSTRACT Despite a seemingly sexually liberated culture, sexuality is still disturbing. Freud's original emphasis on the importance of sexuality has largely been lost in much contemporary psychoanalysis, displaced by a focus on attachment. His intuition that sexuality and civilization are in some sense in conflict may have profound implications, throwing light on the nature and function of our linguistic culture and the fetishistic nature of human sexuality. Sexuality is the paradigmatic object of shame and repression, tending to incorporate all else that is repressed. Human beings may tend to long for experience that is unmediated by the linguistic - and this is the promise and the terror of sexuality.     

Jeffrey Masson and the Assault on Freud

Critical analysis of Jeffrey Masson's book The Assault on Truth has generally been inadequate; neither gleeful welcoming nor cursory dismissal is sufficient to meet Masson's challenge. He reconstructs the events which, he claims, led to Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory of neurosis and argues that this turning away from a'real event'and towards phantasy represents an error from which psychoanalysis has never recovered. This paper argues on the contrary that Masson's historical reconstruction is unsound on its own internal evidence (although his exact thesis is often unclear), and that the theoretical conclusions he draws are based on a gross misunderstanding not only of psychoanalysis and the role of phantasy but also, ironically, of the seduction theory itself. His general reassertion of the aetiological significance of child sexual abuse is therefore misconceived.     

SOME HOLISTIC THOUGHTS ON CONSCIOUSNESS AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

ABSTRACT In this paper the history of consciousness will be discussed in relation to the place of psychoanalysis in the history of ideas. A holistic way of thinking is described, which brings together various ideas about how the nature of reality is perceived, when science has for the last 200 years seemed to win out over religion. The influence of Goethe on Freud suggests an unrecognized holistic element in Freud's work. A holistic approach reconciles some of the divisions between scientific and religious thinking and leads to a discussion of the sacred.     

A predictive approach to suicide notes of young and old people from Freud's formulations with regard to suicide

This study on suicide notes of young and old people involved the deduction of 25 protocol sentences that reflected important specific aspects of S. Freud's formulations with regard to suicide. Independent judges noted the incidence of contents that correspond to the protocol sentences in 52 notes. Comparisons between the suicide notes revealed that the protocol sentences discriminated significantly as a set in favor of the notes of young people. Specific sentences that were found more frequently in the notes of young people indicated being more self-critical, being more harsh toward oneself, perceiving oneself as having little worth, and treating oneself as an object. Implications are discussed.     

Self Psychology: Origins and Overview

The origins of Kohut's theory of self psychology can be found in Freud's metapsychology. In his first book The Analysis of the Self , Kohut, however, reversed the classical assumption that posits narcissism and object love to be in a see-saw relationship. He proposed separate lines of development for each, that is, an independent line of development for narcissism. Kohut's shift from a psychoanalytic focus on the narcissistic sector of the personality to a psychology of the self is outlined. The concept of 'narcissistic transferences' gave way to 'selfobject transference' . The self psychological view of sexuality, aggression, resistance, psychosexual development, the Oedipal phase, transference and countertransference are presented. Treatment implications derived from these contributions are the most extensive and revolutionary aspect of Kohut's proposals. A case vignette illustrates Kohut's distinction between Oedipal conflict pathology and Oedipal phase manifestations.     

ON SOUNDS, CHILDREN, IDENTITY AND A'QUITE UNMUSICAL'MAN

ABSTRACT In this article I explore, in the context of general psychoanalytic considerations about creativity, the specific place of music in human development. With reference to early auditory experiences, I emphasize the central place that sounds occupy in the formation of a child's separate identity. My thoughts on this subject also give me the opportunity for looking at some aspects of the complex relationship between music and psychoanalysis - two exquisitely auditory experiences - and for providing a historical review of Freud's own ambivalent attitude to music.     

Biophysical shunt theory for neuropsychopathology: biphasal homeostatic dysregulation.

OBJECTIVE: We challenge Freud's psychodynamic theory using a systematic modus operandi which has been outlined in detail in a succession of articles. Here, we deal with Freud's first assumption of human psychological primacy in forming goal-directed behavior. According to our theory, biphasal homeostatic dysregulation is the underlying mechanism of clinical phenomenology. MODEL: Evolutionary neurobiology has provided humans with a precise technical solution for optimal organismic survival. Humans are armed with an accurate negative feedback mechanism that operates within the alternating upper and lower thresholds of biphasal homeostatic maintenance and is coupled with a basal indicator of individual sensation of the degree of the given organismic well-being in any unit of time. This originates the organismic pleasure principle (OPP). The latter is achieved by a straightforward quantal injection of endorphins according to one of eight possible body operational regimens. Thanks to the essential duality of the dynamic interactions, stipulated by the complex harmonics of term-dependent and event-dependent adaptation when one or more of the essential elements for homeostasis goes above or below its predetermined threshold, certain branches of the organismic defense system (ODS) are 'turned on' in the second phase of homeostasis. The individual then adapts behavioral modifications directed toward a long-lasting search for the optimal resources needed for normal survival. This evolutionary biphasal homeostatic design has an intrinsic, methodical expression that confirms changes and correctly informs the individual about them, further imposing behavioral modifications, when necessary. In cases of a homeostatic derangement, the OPP is replaced by an erratic inclusion of pain, tension or depression, all components of the alarm system of the ODS, which may lead to disordered behavioral patterns. CONCLUSIONS: The underlying biological mechanism of goal-directed assignments for biphasal homeostatic maintenance is described. The intrinsic rules and regulations that guide both normal and abnormal survival may be clinically manifest. Normal survival behavior is necessary to regain organismic homeostasis.     

FUTURE CHOICES FOR PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

ABSTRACT This paper was given as the second Annual BCP Lecture in November 1999. It addresses the paradoxical position of psychoanalytical psychotherapy at present, pointing out that Freud's ideas are frequently attacked while at the same time being common currency, and the situation in which our ideas are quoted but our referrals drop. The paper questions the extent to which we ourselves are responsible for this and the ways in which our profession itself has become rigidified, clinging to old patterns of behaviour, especially in relation to training, without understanding either the reasons for the outdated patterns or the need to adapt and change them. It is suggested that unconscious disappointment in our work may contribute. Regretting the fact that in this we are an ageing profession, solutions from other countries are discussed. Finally it is suggested that we can, if the profession so wishes, make appropriate changes here.     

Taking birth trauma seriously

Virtually all mainstream schools of psychology, including biological psychology, reject the idea that people sustain psychological trauma at birth. Their objections are basically those raised by Freud more than 50 years ago: (1) lack of solid evidence that difficult births are related to mental disturbances and (2) a general conviction that the neonatal brain is not sufficiently developed to experience birth psychologically. But recent empirical evidence gathered by Stanislav Grof in over 3500 psychotherapy sessions using psychedelic drugs as a facilitator seems to show that a link does exist between birth trauma memory "matrices" in the unconscious and various mental conditions. And separate research on psychedelic drug effects, subcortical learning mechanisms and the nature of emotional response suggest that birth trauma memories might be explained in a way that circumvents without refuting Freud's basic objections. The following briefly reviews these developments, concluding that birth trauma theories--especially Grof's--deserve more serious consideration by mainstream psychologists and medical researchers.