Inventing the enemy

The following article elaborates on the need for the Other in order to delineate the self and one's identity, and the eternal psychological process of turning the Other into an enemy. A parallel process, which can be observed nowadays, leads to a disregard for the otherness of the Other that results in the blurring of identity and an internal loss of the differentiation of intrapsychic structures. Both psychological processes share a dehumanizing approach which leads to neurosis and alienation. In order to withstand these tendencies, a revision of analytical psychology's view of the psyche and of the practice of Jungian analysis is warranted: an alternative to the ‘Fear of the Feminine’ described by Erich Neumann in 1959. It is suggested that consciousness and unconsciousness intertwine but from a position of equality and reciprocity. Such an attitude does not inspire fear. Rather, it recognizes the need of one for the Other and the inevitability of this situation. Moreover, this need and interdependence on equal grounds nourish the wish to know the Other, to be aware of the differences, and yet, at the same time, to acknowledge how close the Other really is. Analytical psychological therapy based on this model stresses the power of the ego while also strengthening its capacity for introspection.     

Freud

The author explores the evidence-base and selection criteria for a short-term supportive dynamic approach for patients whose psychological mindedness and quality of object relationships is low. Illustrating this approach with a case example he outlines the central features of Supportive Dynamic Therapy. He describes a psychodynamic conceptual and developmental framework that can be used to guide the therapist's interventions and responses, and modulate the patient's anxiety. A dynamic focus presented in the form of a central issue is shown to have a significant function both in containing the patient's anxiety, and in giving shape to the therapist's efforts to support the patient's ego-strengths and adaptive abilities. The therapeutic work can be seen to result in an alteration in the trajectory or reiterating pattern of the patient's life.     

Freud heute

Zusammenfassung Aus Anlass des 150. Geburtstags von Sigmund Freud untersuchte der Autor in einem Festvortrag in der Universit?t München den Standort der Psychoanalyse in der gegenw?rtigen Kultur und Gesellschaft. Auf der Basis von Das Unbehagen in der Kultur und der Beobachtungen Bions in Gruppen sieht er den Einzelnen in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen individuellem und kulturellem über-Ich. Unbehagen entspringt daraus, dass die Entwicklung des Einzelnen mit den Fortschritten der Kultur nicht Schritt h?lt. Hinzu kommen die Verhei?ungen von Glück und Allmacht, die die Kultur an die Stelle Gottes gerückt hat, und die im Alltag entt?uscht werden. Die Psychoanalyse ist an der Entwicklung des Unbehagens nicht unbeteiligt. Sie strebt nach gesellschaftlicher Anerkennung und steht dadurch in Gefahr, das Unbewusste als ihr Zentrum aufs Spiel zu setzen. Ob sie überleben wird, h?ngt davon ab, ob es ihr gelingt, aus einer Randposition heraus hilfreich für den Einzelnen und die Gesellschaft zu sein.

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Freud today

Abstract On occasion of the 150th birthday of Sigmund Freud the author elaborated the position of psychoanalysis in the present culture and society in a lecture in the University of Munich. On the Basis of Freud’s “Civilisation and its Discontents” and of Bion’s “Experiences in Groups” he regards the individual within a discrepancy and tension between the personal and the cultural superego. Discomfort arises when the development of the individual subject is no longer in line with the progresses which occur in culture. In addition, the omnipotent promises of happiness and grandiosity, by which culture has replaced God and which are disappointed in the every day life, contribute to contemporary discontents. Psychoanalysis has participated in the development of discomfort and supported it. It has aspired for cultural acceptance and attractiveness and gets by this into danger to loose the unconscious as its center. Whether it will survive depends on whether it is successful in returning to a cultural boundary position where it can be of help for both—the subject and the civilisation.

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Münchener Freud-Symposion, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t München, 5. Mai 2006. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Wolf Kohl und Michael Ermann, München. Dieser Beitrag erscheint in ver?nderter Fassung auch in Ermann M (Hrsg) Was Freud nicht wusste. Neues in der Psychoanalyse. Brandes und Apsel, Frankfurt aM (In Vorb.).     

Sigmund Freud

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Teaching Freud

Books reviewed: Jonte‐Pace, Diane, Teaching Freud
Reviewed by William McDonough
College of St. Catherine