The Freudian Antecedents of Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy

The writings of Sigmund Freud are reviewed, showing the similarities of many of his concepts with those of cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT). Automatic thoughts, core beliefs, and the desire to please the therapist are shown to have parallels in Freud's ideas about involuntary thoughts, the preconsdous, the unconscious, and transference. Similarities in technique are noted, especially in light of Freud's original ideas about suggestion and influence as well as latter-day discoveries regarding Freud's actual practices. In certain ways, CBT is closer to Freud than is classical psychoanalysis. A brief history of the attempts to integrate behaviorism with Freud is given, showing how Freud's objectifying of dream reports presaged the viewing of verbal reports as behavior. Other developments in cognitive psychology are also discussed with regards to Freud's ideas about information processing and the production of memories.     

How the challenge of explaining learning influenced the origins and development of John B. Watson's behaviorism

Before he invented behaviorism, John B. Watson considered learning one of the most important topics in psychology. Watson conducted excellent empirical research on animal learning. He developed behaviorism in part to promote research and elevate the status of learning in psychology. Watson was much less successful in the adequacy and originality of the mechanisms he proposed to explain learning. By assimilating the method of classical conditioning and adopting Pavlov's theory of stimulus substitution, Watson linked behaviorism with a new method that could compete with both Titchener's method of introspection and Freud's methods of psychoanalysis. Watson's interest in explaining psychopathology led to the discovery of conditioned emotional responses and a behavioristic explanation for the learning of phobic behavior. Watson established learning as a central topic for basic research and application in American psychology.     

Freud's Irma dream and the origins of psychoanalysis

This paper investigates Freud's Irma dream as a response, in part, to the publication of Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1893-1895). As such, Freud's dream and associations reveal a great deal regarding the origins of psychoanalysis. The preamble to the dream reflects Freud's concern with the ground rules and boundaries of the psychotherapeutic technique that he was in the process of developing. This paper cites evidence for Freud's concerns regarding the consequences of alterations in these basic tenets. The Irma dream and Freud's associations also convey a deep and apparently unconscious concern within Freud in respect to the concept of transference, which he may have realized on some level had been used to defensively deny disturbing inputs by the therapist into the treatment situation and patient. The dream may be understood also as reflecting a deep sense of concern regarding unrecognized harmful effects of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and Freud's concern that the treatment process might be more destructive than helpful. The curative aspects of psychotherapy are viewed in terms of action-discharge rather than insight. In all, this reanalysis of the Irma dream focuses on Freud's unconscious conflicts, fantasies, and anxieties at a time when he, along with Breuer, presented a burgeoning psychoanalytic treatment modality to the professional world.     

Neurotic and narcissistic transferences in Freud's relationship with Josef Popper.

An analysis of Freud's avoidance of meeting with Josef Popper is offered which suggests that Freud's idealization of Popper was related to an unconscious fear of being attacked by him. This view is compared and contrasted with the concept that Freud had a "mirror transference" to Popper, as proposed by Wolf and Trosman (1974). The choice of focusing on either narcissistic or neurotic mechanisms in this psychobiographical inquiry is discussed and related to similar choices that commonly occur in clinical work.     

GEORG GRODDECK: “THE PINCH OF PEPPER” OF PSYCHOANALYSIS

The life and works of Georg Groddeck are reviewed and placed in historical context as a physician and a pioneer of psychoanalysis, psychosomatic medicine, and an epistolary style of writing. His Das Es concept stimulated Freud to construct his tripartite model of the mind. Groddeck, however, used Das Es to facilitate receptivity to unconscious communication with his patients. His “maternal turn” transformed his treatment approach from an authoritarian position to a dialectical process. Groddeck was a generative influence on the development of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Erich Fromm, and Karen Horney. He was also the mid-wife of the late-life burst of creativity of his friend and patient Sándor Ferenczi. Together, Groddeck and Ferenczi provided the impetus for a paradigm shift in psychoanalysis that emphasized the maternal transference, child-like creativity, and a dialogue of the unconscious that foreshadowed contemporary interest in intersubjectivity and field theory. They were progenitors of the relational turn and tradition in psychoanalysis. Growing interest in interpsychic communication and field theory is bringing about a convergence of theorizing among pluralistic psychoanalytic schools that date back to 1923 when Freud appropriated Groddeck’s Das Es and radically altered its meaning and use.     

Transference in view of a classical conditioning model

This article presents a qualitative metasynthetic study, addressing 33 transference case studies, that investigates the interrelationship of the transference concept from psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral concepts in an attempt to construct a theoretical platform for clinical integration. Relationship between categories analysis was used to compare Luborsky's (1998) transference components (wish, response from other, and response of self) and cognitive-behavioral ones. Results showed reciprocal relations between transference and classical conditioning. Furthermore, explicit occurrences of distorted thinking due to overgeneralization were found in more than 90% of the cases. A conceptual model describes transference as a conditioned response activated by thematic conditioning, a particular case of classical conditioning that repeatedly pairs a given interpersonal situation with internal thematic stimuli, thus shaping the person's narrative. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well.     

'Actual neurosis' and psychosomatic medicine: THE VICISSITUDES OFAN ENIGMATIC CONCEPT

Out of the concept of neurasthenia, the main non-psychotic diagnosis of nineteenth-century psychiatry besides hysteria, and on the basis of psychophysiological problems of his own, self-diagnosed as neurasthenia, Freud developed the notion of 'actual neurosis', a 'contentless psychic state' manifested by various somatic symptoms and a depressive mood, which he attributed to a chemical factor associated with aberrant sexual practices and in particular masturbation. Rejected by post-Freudian analysts as such along with the diagnosis of neurasthenia, the concept of 'actual neurosis' has survived under various theoretical schemes that seek to explain psychosomatic illness and somatisation, in general, with its concomitant poverty of affects and dearth of fantasy life. In more recent years, the concept of 'actual neurosis' has resurfaced under the label of chronic fatigue syndrome, a medical entity thought to be an immunological deficiency, while in psychoanalysis Freud's idea of a contentless mental state has been replaced by that of unconscious fantasy and symbolisation at a pre-genital or pre-verbal level.     

Unwittingly Recapitulating Freud: Searle's Concept of a Vocabulary of the Unconscious

This paper aims to show that the pivotal notion in John Searle's account of the unconscious, despite his representation of Freud's position, is found in Freud's work as part of a very similar view of the issues surrounding the concept of the unconscious. The pivotal notion in question consists in treating the concept of the unconscious as a vocabulary without ontological commitment which Searle claims we must do for the following reason: to reconcile what he considers to be the dualistic concept of the unconscious with an ontology of the mental which recognises no states but conscious states and states of the neurophysiology with the capacity to cause them. The role of the concept in Searle's account is explained. Then his representation of Freud is challenged: firstly, by explicating how Freud accepted that the concept of the unconscious entailed no ontological commitment and, secondly, by showing how this fitted into his wider thinking on how the concept of the unconscious could be understood in terms of a vocabulary, leading ultimately to a justification of the concept of the unconscious in terms of explanatory power. On the basis of this exposition, Searle's charge of dualism against Freud is disputed     

Playing and working through: a neglected analogy

The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be thought of as not merely symbolic, as a fantasy bearer, so to speak, but as a fantasy tester as well. In the process of working through, some analysands attach their unconscious fantasies not only to a transference object, a primary libidinal object, or a significant loved one, but also to actual props within the analytic setting (a Kleenex box, for example), making the analogy with play even more obvious and palpable.     

Freud and the Psychoanalysis of Telepathy: Commentary on Claudie Massicotte’s “Psychical Transmissions”

Freud was interested in and eventually accepted the diverse forms of telepathic communication as psychoanalytic rather than occult phenomena, particularly as manifested in dreams. Massicotte revisits the topic of Freud and his interest in the occult in a manner that invites serious reconsideration of this aspect of his work, long the subject of intense controversy in the history of psychoanalysis. In my response to Massicotte’s paper I argue that Freud’s interest in telepathy or thought transference belongs to his psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious and transference. His approach to telepathy parallels his approach to religious beliefs: He accounts for both as creations of the human mind as individuals attempt to make sense and meaning of their real experiences. What Freud meant by telepathy is what contemporary psychoanalysis refers to as unconscious communication, and the strange, often inexplicable forms it takes in clinical contexts. For Freud, instances of telepathy or unconscious communication are to be understood contextually and relationally, revealing important data about the nature of affectively charged human relationships.     

Technique and countertransference in Freud's analysis of the Rat Man

Freud's records of his treatment of the Rat Man constitute a unique document in the history of psychoanalysis. Through the years different analysts have used these records to support different theories about analytic technique. Certain non-interpretive interventions of Freud's have especially aroused their interest, and many reasons have been put forward to "explain" Freud's behavior. One reason never yet advanced and documented is that a countertransference tension may have been involved in one of these instances. This is surprising, since countertransference is a necessary part of every analysis. Evidence is presented that Freud's behavior may indeed have been under the sway of countertransference. Some recently discovered details concerning his early life are discussed as constituting a plausible background for ths countertransference enactment.     

An early, on the borderline between dream and transference, unconscious fantasy of Freud on the psychoanalytic situation (1898). A contribution to psychoanalytic creativity

Taking 24 hours in the life of Freud, the author shows how significant the interplay of dream, day-dream, unconscious phantasy and transference can be in solving scientific problems. This is documented by using the correspondence between Freud and Fliess on March 9/10, 1898, by taking Freud's dream of a botanical monograph, his day-dream of a glaucoma operation, his remarks on the "real" course of the day, and segments of self-analysis.     

Between the frontier and the network: Notes for a metapsychology of freedom2

The author examines the paradigm of the frontier and encounters the establishment of the paradigm of the network, a tendency that currently runs through diverse fields of thought. The network is not proposed as a globalising structure that would neutralise what is different, but as integration based on preservation of what is plural and its transformations. The author moves between these two paradigms in psychoanalytic metapsychology and clinical practice. The concept of frontier is intrinsic to the entire theory: repression, which separates the unconscious from the preconscious, the barrier against stimuli, the delimitation of spaces and agencies. But psychoanalysis is also a precursor of the paradigm of the network, with its concepts of unconscious, free association and evenly suspended attention. She points out that it is psychoanalysis that, in the area of scientific thought, subverts the radical split between subjects and their objects of observation, through the concepts of transference and countertransference, thus inaugurating a revolutionary theory of knowledge. This perspective can later be seen as a forerunner of changes in other disciplines. This text legitimises the contribution of psychoanalysis to thinking and knowledge, as well as the potential of a therapeutic method that provides the tools for crossing frontiers, unknotting and weaving networks, operating in the face of risks of pathological consolidations, thus holding to its unavoidable commitment to freedom.     

Paul Gray's narrowing scope: a "developmental lag" in his theory and technique

A cental thesis of Paul Gray's work is that a "developmental lag" pervades modern psychoanalysis in its failure to assimilate and apply knowledge gained about the role of the unconscious ego in intrapsychic life. But Gray himself, it is proposed, has become a victim of a new "developmental lag," of his own construction. As he somewhat single-mindedly pursued the ramifications of his "developmental lag" concept, Gray may have foreclosed on some noteworthy ideas developing around him. The most important example is his claim--herein refuted--that proper interpretive technique can avoid being infused with transference. He also seems to have rejected the theoretical importance of the internalization of the analyst and the clinical usefulness of countertransference. While emphasizing defense analysis, he ignores defenses such as splitting, denial, and disavowal as substantive problems for his technique of close-process attention. Gray's "undoing" of the rapprochement between "ego analysis" and "id analysis" by viewing the matter as an either-or proposition undermines the very real value of his contribution to the field.     

Transference and relationship: Technical Implications in the psychoanalytic process with a borderline patient

This paper reviews how the bond between the therapeutic relationship and transference is created, illustrates its technical management, and provides a basic methodology for the exploration of both transference and the therapeutic relationship. For this purpose, the current therapeutic relationship, the concept of affective dominance, the object relation triggered by transference, the past and present unconscious, and the relationship pattern (CCRT) applied to dreams will all be considered. The approach in this paper is based on an object relation conceptualization. Highlights of the theory underlying the technique will be illustrated in a succinct discussion of the clinical treatment of a borderline patient in psychoanalysis.     

Repression and substitutive formation: the relationship between Freud's concepts reconsidered

This paper examines Freud's concept of repression and the relationship between repression and substitutive formation as it presents itself in Freud's writings. The author shows that Freud gives at least four different meanings to the term "repression": Freud uses it interchangeably with defense, as a consciously intended forgetting, as a specific unconscious mechanism of defense, and to describe the consequence of defense mechanisms leading to substitutive formations. The inconsistencies in this relationship are discussed and clarified, and Freud's economic and linguistic attempts at founding repression are subjected to critique; the need of a primal repression as a necessary condition for repression proper is pointed out. In developing Freud's linguistic foundation of repression further, the author presents defense as a semantic displacement. Ideas are excluded from the realm of the concepts that belong to them historically. These presentations become unconscious, that is, repressed, in that they can no longer be identified as "cases" of these conceptual internal contents. At the same time they are displaced into the extensions of concepts whose internal contents do not belong to them originally. It is by virtue of the internal contents of these concepts that the displaced elements as substitutive formations once again attain consciousness, albeit a false one. The author suggests dismissing repression as a specific defense mechanism of its own; to reversing Freud's thesis that repression, as a rule, creates a substitutive formation into its opposite; and recognizing that the mechanisms used to build substitutes, as a rule, create repression.     

The analytic process in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy: from the interpersonal to the intrapsychic level

The current debate over the conflicting interpersonal and intrapsychic views of the analytic process may or may not help us to distinguish between psychoanalysis and analytic psychotherapy. A comparison of psychoanalysis in the English-speaking world--especially in the United States--with French psychoanalysis reveals the features that unite and at the same time divide these different psychoanalytical tendencies, both of which are the heirs to Freud's thought, in terms, in particular, of the setting (couch and chair) and of technique (interpretation, transference analysis and technical neutrality). Whereas all psychoanalytic work belongs within the framework of an interpersonal relationship, that relationship becomes meaningful only when linked to the intrapsychic dimension, which alone can open the way to the unconscious and to infantile sexuality.     

Zur Natur des „Sechsten Sinnes“

Unconscious interactions have been conceptualized since Sigmund Freud, especially within the framework of transference and countertransference,. Nowadays, findings in the cognitive neurosciences (cognitive psychology, neurobiology) allow for a broader view of unconscious mental processes, e.g., in terms of subliminal perception or unconscious information processing. In this paper, a model is presented for understanding countertransference processes in the context of both psychoanalysis and the cognitive neurosciences. The basic concept of this model is that, within the framework of (unconscious) transference, the patient sends complex social information which the therapist perceives both consciously and unconsciously. Further unconscious information processing leads to the known countertransference phenomena, which consist of specific emotions, body feelings, fantasies, or impulses for action, and in some respects facilitate a “sixth sense” on the part of the therapist. The various processes of unconscious information processing lead to a situation in which countertransference includes parts of both the patient and therapist. At the conclusion of the paper, current neuroscientific concepts of unconscious processes are applied to countertransference, and the unconscious nature of countertransference is discussed from this perspective.     

The significance of Jacques Lacan.

The contemporary French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, has offered a reinterpretation of basic Freudian concepts that is to a great extent based on the structural linguistics of F. de Saussure. Certain fundamental ideas of Lacan, such as his views that "the unconscious is structured like a language" and that "the unconscious is the discourse of the Other" are examined here, and an attempt is made to place them in perspective in psychoanalysis.     

The inconstant "principle of constancy"

A review of the principle of constancy, as it appeared in Freud's writings, shows that it was inspired by his clinical observations, first with Breuer in the field of cathartic therapy and then through experiences in the early usage of psychoanalysis. The recognition that memories repressed in the unconscious created increasing tension, and that this was relieved with dischargelike phenomena when the unconscious was made conscious, was the basis for his claim to originality in this area. The two principles of "neuronic inertia" Freud expounded in the Project (1895), are found to offer the key to the ambiguous definition of the principle of constancy he was to offer in later years. The "original" principle, which sought the complete discharge of energy (or elimination of stimuli), became the forerunner of the death drive; the "extended" principle achieved balances that were relatively constant, but succumbed in the end to complete discharge. This was the predecessor of the life drives. The relation between the constancy and pleasure-unpleasure principles was maintained for twenty-five years largely on an empirical basis which invoked the concept of psychophysical parallelism between "quantity" and "quality." As the links between the two principles were weakened by clinical experiences attendant upon the growth of ego psychology, a revision of the principle of constancy was suggested, and it was renamed the Nirvana principle. Actually it was shifted from alignment with the "extended" principle of inertia to the original, so that "constancy" was incongruously identified with self-extinction. The former basis for the constancy principle, the extended principle of inertia, became identified with Eros. Only a few commentators seem aware of this radical transformation, which has been overlooked in the Standard Edition of Freud's writings. Physiological biases in the history and conception of the principle of constancy are noted in the Standard Edition. The historical antecedents of the principle of constancy, especially in relation to the teachings and influence of J. F. Herbart (1776-1841), do much to bridge the gap between psychological and neurophysiological aspects of Freud's ideas about constancy and its associated doctrine, psychic determinism. Freud's later teachings about the Nirvana principle and Eros suggest a continuum of "constancies" embodied in the structural and functional development of the mental apparatus as it evolves from primal unity with the environment (e.g., the mother-child unit) and differentiates in patterns that organize the inner and outer worlds in relation to each other.