A brief introduction to the work of Jean Laplanche

The author proposes an introduction to the work of Jean Laplanche, a well‐known figure of psychoanalysis who recently passed away. He foregrounds what he views as the three main axes of Laplanche's work: firstly, a critical reading method applied to Freud's texts; secondly, a model of psychic functioning based on translation; and, thirdly, a theory of general seduction. Far from being an abstract superstructure, the theory of general seduction is firmly rooted in the analytic situation, as the provocation of transference by the analyst best illustrates. The analytic situation indeed consists in a revival and a reopening of the ‘fundamental anthropological situation’ which, according to Laplanche, is the lot of every human baby born in a world where he or she is necessarily exposed to the enigmatic and ‘compromised’ messages of the adult other. Thanks to the process of analytic de‐translation, the analysand is therefore granted an opportunity to carry out new translations of the other's enigma – translations or symbolizations that might be more inclusive and less rigid than the pre‐existing ones. Incidentally, such a model brings together the purely psychoanalytic and the psychotherapeutic aspects of the treatment.     

‘Translation’ and ‘transformation’ in the analytic situation: Freud – Bion – Laplanche

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche’s theory of a ‘general seduction’ the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends ‘enigmatic messages’ to the child, it is the analyst’s task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new ‘translations’ for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame – which represents and supports attachment – and the ‘sexual’– which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of ‘incorrect’ translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction – this is a self‐construction of the patient – but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud’s notions and the ‘transformation processes’ through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche’s model and the interpretation strategy with case material.     

Towards a theory of the integration of the Other in representation

In this article, the author tries to uncover the elements of a theoretical model which would take into account the psychic transformations necessary to facilitate the emergence of representation. Toward this end, he firstly relies on Jung's notion of the archetype and Freud's idea of hallucinatory wish fulfilment, which he reconsiders in the light of the writings of Fordham (de-integration and re-integration of the primary self), and of Jean Laplanche (primary seduction), and linking it to the model based on chaos theory as developed in physics. He thus concludes that under the influence of primary seduction, the archetype is able to become a veritable, strange psychic attractor, enabling the determining factor of the instinctual axis of the archetype to open up to the possibility of symbolization, a necessary underlying feature for the occurrence of subjectivity. He ends his argument with a brief clinical vignette which illustrates the effect of openness to the psychic unknown constituted by primary seduction in the transference.     

THE THREE ESSAYS AND THE MEANING OF THE INFANTILE SEXUAL IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

Freud's Three Essays on Sexual Theory (1905a) are still today highly significant because of their novel way of considering the human sexual dimension. The author intends to show that a close reading of the Essays, combined with the reintroduction of the seduction theory by Jean Laplanche, provides a specific and foundational sexual theory for psychoanalysis.     

Phallic Integration and Male Identity Development

The analytic setting as well as the analyst's initial communications unavoidably exert influence that may be perceived by the patient as a sexually tinged intrusion, which evokes questions about what the analyst wants. Together with the asymmetry of the analytic relationship, these phenomena uncannily bring to life a repressed relationship between infant and adult in which analogous stimuli constitute enigmas for the child. The theoretical understanding of Jean Laplanche of such enigmatic transference in terms of “primal seduction” is reviewed and clinical material is provided to illustrate Laplanche's ideas. The discussion addresses “recentralized” and “decentralized” aspects of sexuality. Primal seduction is discussed as including not only intrusion, but also qualities of stimulation and trust.     

Play Room as a psychological assessment method in cases of alleged child sexual abuse

This article presents an example of how psychoanalytic theory can be implemented in practice. The aim is to introduce and discuss the semi-projective material ‘Play Room’ which was originally developed to support prevention of sexual abuse among vulnerable children in Denmark. However, a recent study has shown that, when measured with a scale called Ability to Answer, children exposed to sexual abuse talked about the illustrations in Play Room in a significantly different way than did a clinical sample and a normal control group. The finding indicates the potential for expanding the scope of Play Room from prevention into clinical assessment, in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. Taking its starting point in the theory of Jean Laplanche, this article will discuss how psychoanalytic concepts such as seduction, translation, asymmetry, absence, and listening to listening can be used to describe the practice around Play Room. It is argued that, through the use of Play Room, the psychologist can encircle the lack of symbolization and inhibited creation of psychic representations that children exposed to sexual abuse typically convey. The discussion of Play Room’s assessment potential will be further fed by data from interviews with clinical child psychologists.     

The enigmatic signifier and the decentred subject

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Enigmatic Masculinities: A Reply to Swartz and Grossmark

In reply to Swartz and Grossmark’s commentaries on my paper about encounters with the masculine, I elaborate from a reflexive stance on the notions of context, positionality, and warrants to speak in my writing and the responses. My account is part of an unfolding exploration of how I stand as a gendered being within psychotherapeutic praxis, and in line with that, how what was intimated in my original paper points to Laplanche’s theorizing on the sexual and to his notion of enigmatic seduction in ongoing gendering processes. The reply finds itself haunted by the abject and its position within the postcolony, and with a desire for what is an illusory transcendence.     

Fact and fantasy in the seduction theory: a historical review

This article surveys Freud's various versions of the seduction theory, from 1896 to 1933. It is concluded that the seduction theory had never been based on the patients' direct statements and conscious recall of seduction by the father in early childhood--unlike what Freud was to state much later (1933). This early seduction was mostly reconstructed by Freud from the patient's verbal material and behavior in treatment (including memories of sexual experiences from later childhood) which he interpreted as disguised and incomplete "reproductions" and reenactments of the original seduction trauma. Further, the external trauma was never meant to account by itself for the later neurotic symptoms. The "delayed action" of its unconscious memory, producing the repression of an event from the time of puberty, was a necessary part of the process. Thus internal psychic transformations and conflicts, anticipating Freud's later emphasis on fantasy and psychic reality, were already an intrinsic part of the seduction etiology of 1896. It is also noted that the father played no central role in the original theory as presented in 1896; it is only in the letters to Fliess that the father emerged as the prime seducer. The implications of this clarification of the seduction theory for the understanding of the changes and continuity in the development of Freud's theories are highlighted; their relevance to ongoing issues in psychoanalysis about the role of external trauma, fantasy, and reconstruction are briefly examined.     

"I no longer believe": did Freud abandon the seduction theory?

Recent accounts of the seduction theory and the question of its abandonment have emphasized the continuity of Freud's work before and after the seduction theory, claiming that Freud did not abandon his concern with the event of seduction but rather came to appreciate that an understanding of fantasy was also essential. This claim is challenged. It is shown that Freud did abandon the passionate concerns of his seduction theory for the most part; that he left behind his early interest in reconstructing unconscious infantile incest and focused instead on later, conscious seduction; that he at times clearly reduced apparent paternal incest to fantasy; that he turned away from the phenomenology of incest he had begun to develop; and that he theoretically nullified the value of the difference between real and fantasied seduction. It is also shown that, contrary to a persistent concern in psychoanalytic history, attention to actual seduction need not detract from the essential psychoanalytic concern with fantasy and infantile sexuality. Thinking about incest specifically illuminates the capacity for fantasizing, the core of the Freudian psyche. In this way the intuition of the seduction theory that there is something of distinctive psychoanalytic significance about incest finds support.     

The alienness of the unconscious: on Laplanche's theory of seduction

In this paper the author uses a clinical example as a focus for an exploration of his thesis that the parent is the 'other' who implants his or her unconscious message into the child by means of seduction. As the other is alien, the unconscious of the child cannot any longer be considered the centre of the person but is decentred by the implanted alienness. The author draws on Laplanche's seduction theory to argue that the unconscious message of seduction by the other is exclusively sexual and that it cannot be translated nor symbolized because an interpretative system shared by subject and object is lacking. The decentred alterity of the unconscious allows for comparison with a third object and hence a structural triangulation of the mind which is a prerequisite for symbolization. The role of the analyst in permitting a transference enactment and so facilitating the beginning of sexual symbolization is discussed in relation to the clinical example given at the start of the paper.     

Drives and objects - notes on the change of drive theory

Freud’s drive theory has been questioned since the 1940s when Fairbairn created a metaphor of the mind that is not based on the tripartite model and drive theory. His work inspired others to elaborate on the significance of internal object relationships. According to the object relation theory, internal object relations are dynamic structures capable of generating meanings and action. Consequently, two distinct metapsychologies were created.The aim of this article is to show how the interaction of theories has initiated revisions of classic drive theory. Freud’s concept of drive and three synthesizing viewpoints between the two perspectives are discussed. Otto Kernberg addresses affects as a primary motivational system; the mother–infant relationship organizes affects to drives. Joseph Sandler adheres to classic drive theory but proposes that the ego’s attempt to protect the mind against psychic pain is as important as drive derivatives in motivating the mind. Laplanche proposes that the unconscious of the care-giving adult is the crucial factor for the constitution of an infant’s unconscious and drives. For Freud and Klein, drive is inherent. Contemporary writers, like Loewald and Laplanche, conceive drive as a function of the mind that is born out of the same matrix of interaction with the other elements of the mind.     

Wethinks the author doth protest too much: a reply to Esterson (2002)

A Esterson (2002) responded to the authors' analysis of recent reformulations of Freud's seduction theory and alleged sexual abuse discoveries. Esterson gave several additional examples of the same type of problematic writing the authors discussed in their original article. His commentary is largely a repetition of several already-published arguments, and his numerous criticisms of the article are, in the authors' opinion, without merit. The authors address confusion over inferring abuse from symptoms, treatment of symptoms versus resolution of cases, and fathers as perpetrators of abuse. It is clear that, as long as the topic of child sexual abuse elicits heated debate, so will Freud's seduction theory, but there may be times when one needs to step back to allow a debate to move forward.     

The Integrity of the Psychoanalyst

Against the background of psychotherapeutic work with a young self-harming woman, a theoretical argument concerning the body is developed. The body of the drives and of infantile sexuality is distinguished from the body of instinct and attachment. The origin of the drive is discussed in terms of Laplanche’s fundamental anthropological situation and linked to Jacques André’s thesis concerning a primary femininity and drive passivity in both sexes. Freud’s thinking on sexual difference and the repudiation of femininity is discussed from the perspective of the above-mentioned thinkers. Finally, a sexual perversion, acted out by the patient, is explored as a possible symptomatic/conflictual expression of drive passivity.     

弗洛伊德的得意门生——亚伯拉罕和费伦茨对精神分析发展的贡献

亚伯拉罕和费伦茨都是弗洛伊德的早期弟子,他们在精神分析早期理论以及治疗技术的创新和发展中都有着重要的贡献。亚伯拉罕重新划分了弗洛伊德的心理性欲发展阶段并探讨了前俄狄浦斯期的母子关系,这都深深影响了后来的客体关系学派;费伦茨发展了弗洛伊德的性诱惑理论并在治疗技术上做出了许多革新,这为精神分析后来的发展开辟出了更广阔的道路。     

"Worthless female material": nursemaids and governesses in Freud's cases

The figure of the governess, central in Freud's own history, is present in most of his cases. Freud described his nursemaid as "the prime originator" of his neuroses. Well after Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory, female servants were consistently portrayed as seducing boys, while their relationship with girls consisted of identification and rivalry. The role of Freud's own surrogate mother in his life and writing is examined, and two cases, Lucy R. and Dora, are looked at through the lens of female caretaking. A review and integration of relevant literature is followed by an exploration of the perplexing adherence in Freud's writing to the reality of seduction by a governess, even after he had abandoned the seduction theory. It is argued that it is in the figure of the female maid that the "shadowy" early history of Freud's mothering experiences may actually be engaged, however indirectly and unconsciously. This figure, and Freud's powerful, problematic identification with her, is a thread that when pulled helps unravel struggles in Freud's early theoretical development around issues of female sexuality and analytic authority. Revisiting Lucy R. and Dora provides a new perspective on Freud's difficulty with maternal transferences, and restores to their original importance his "worthless" governesses, those first analysts.     

FREUD ON SEXUAL TRAUMA: AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF SEDUCTION AND BETRAYAL

An historical review of the development and rejection of Freud's seduction theory is presented. Questions are raised regarding the relationship of self-analysis to Freud's repudiation.     

Picture this! Effects of photographs,diagrams, animations,and sketching on learning and beliefs about learning from a geoscience text

Many studies have demonstrated that illustrating expository science texts with images that are interesting, but irrelevant for understanding the causal relations underlying scientific phenomena, can cause seduction effects, which can reduce understanding from text. The term “seduction effects” refers to the influence that images are thought to have on readers, seducing them away from deeply processing important information. The present study explores whether images relevant for instructional goals may also show some seduction effects. In this study, the presence of photographic images negatively impacted understanding compared with the presence of relevant animations or instructing students to sketch a drawing during reading. However, the results showed that both photographic images and relevant animations could lead to illusions of understanding, whereas sketching did not. The results suggest that even images that are relevant for instructional goals may sometimes result in seduction effects that deceive readers when judging their own understanding.     

Kierkegaard,Seduction, and Existential Education

This article aims at making a case for the role of seduction in existential education, that is, education that focuses on the pupil’s life choices. First, the article attempts to show that the relationship between the teacher and the pupil can be understood as a form of seduction. Secondly, the article examines how such a relationship functions in practice. Thirdly, the article warns against dangerous aspects related to seduction, and lastly, the article offers five conditions for how seduction can be used in a justifiable manner in existential education.     

Love as a Problem of Knowledge in Kierkegaard's Either/Or and Plato's Symposium

At the end of the essay “Silhouettes” in Either/Or, Kierkegaard writes, “only the person who has been bitten by snakes knows what one who has been bitten by snakes must suffer.” I interpret this as an allusion to Alcibiades' speech in Plato's Symposium. Kierkegaard invites the reader to compare Socrates with Don Giovanni, and Alcibiades with the seducer's women. Socrates' philosophical method, in this light, is a deceptive seduction: just as Don Giovanni's seduction leads his conquests to unhappy love—what Kierkegaard terms “reflective sorrow”—so the elenctic method leads Socrates' interlocutors to aporia, not to knowledge. I offer a critique of Socrates' ironic stance as a philosopher, which stance is reflected in the theory of love he presents in the Symposium, and suggest that philosophy should be modeled on the romantic love of persons—a love that can be reciprocated—not the love of an impersonal Form, a one-sided love.