The feminization of the female oedipal complex, Part I: a reconsideration of the significance of separation issues

Freud's insights about the oedipus complex have been universalized to include the psychology of the girl. The authors argue that this crucial developmental phase for girls has uniquely feminine characteristics that have not been fully recognized or cohesively incorporated into psychoanalytic theories. This paper addresses these differences, which are based on characteristic patterns of object relationships, typical defenses, and social considerations. The authors argue that "female oedipal" is an oxymoron, and propose that this constellation be named "the Persephone complex" after the Greek myth of Persephone, which seems to capture better the typical situation of the little girl. They focus on the issue of separation and its complicated and necessary role in the triangular situation of females. Using illustrations from clinical material, the authors argue that the frequent appearance of separation material linked to triangular heterosexual competitive fantasies can and should be differentiated from material in which ideas about separation stem from dyadic and earlier issues. Misunderstanding how these separation conflicts tie into triangular "oedipal" relationships can lead to a "preoedipalization" of the dynamics of girls and women.     

The colourless canvas: representation, therapeutic action and the creation of mind

Freud's initial formulations viewed psychoanalysis as working towards the rediscovery of psychic elements - thoughts, feelings, memories, wishes, etc. - that were once known - represented in the mind, articulatable, thinkable - but then disguised and/or barred from consciousness. His subsequent revisions implicated a second, more extensive category of inchoate forces that either lost or never attained psychic representation and, although motivationally active, were not fixed in meaning, symbolically embodied, attached to associational chains, etc. Following Freud's theory of representation, the author conceptualizes these latter forces as "unrepresented" or "weakly represented" mental states that make a demand upon the mind for work and require transformation into something that is represented in the psyche, if they are to be thought about or used to think with. This paper describes, discusses and presents illustrations of this transformational process (figurability),that moves intersubjectively from unrepresented or weakly represented mental states to represented mental states, from force to meaning, from the inchoate to mental order.     

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.     

Freud, evolution, and the tragedy of man

It is argued that Freud was not, as Sulloway (1979) contends, a "crypto-biologist" of the mind, but rather a cultural anthropologist of the mind. Freud's genetic conception of the psychic apparatus was neither exclusively nor critically derived from biology. Rather, it was based on an anthropogenetic approach to the archaic heritage of mind inspired in part by the moral philosophy of Nietzsche. The idea of tragedy was the unifying theme of Freud's cultural interpretation of evolutionary psychology. The historical search for the primal origins of neurosis led Freud to the unavoidable conclusion that neurosis was in the beginning a prehistoric moral dilemma which, over the course of mental evolution, eventually evolved into guilt, discontent, and neurosis as modern-day phylogenetically endowed facts of life. Freud (1930) made it clear that the source of man's biological and cultural evolutionary progress--self-denial--was also responsible for the tragedy of the human condition, namely, repression, eternal psychic ambivalence, and chronic mental illness. He believed that neurosis began, as Nietzsche (1887) exclaimed, with the "reduction of the beast of prey 'man' to a tame and civilized animal..." (p. 42). For both Freud and Nietzsche, the cause of the human tragedy was not merely the fall from Nature, but the inexorable knowledge that Man's denial of his biological heritage was the very basis for being human.     

Self as the feminine principle

In analytical psychology, ego is associated with consciousness and the masculine principle. Although die feminine principle generally characterizes the unconscious, it was not assigned a psychic structure equivalent to the ego. This paper proposes a model of the psyche where self and ego are the major modes of psychic experience. The self as the 'being' mode represents the feminine principle and functions according to primary process; the ego represents 'doing', the masculine principle and secondary process. Feminine and masculine principles are considered to be of equal significance in both men and women and are not limited to gender.
Jung's concept of the self is related to the Hindu metaphysical concepts of Atman and Brahman, whose source was the older Aryan nature-oriented, pagan religion. The prominence of self in analytical psychology and its predominantly 'feminine' symbolism can be understood as Jung's reaction to the psychoanalytic emphasis on ego and to Freud's 'patriarchal' orientation. In Kabbalah, a similar development took place when the feminine principle of the Shekinah emerged in a central, redemptive role, as a mythic compensation to the overtly patriarchal Judaic religion.
In the proposed model of the psyche neither ego nor self represents the psychic totality. The interplay of both psychic modes/principles constitutes the psyche and the individuation process.     

A plea for a broader concept of Nachträglichkeit

The broader conceptualization of Nachtr?glichkeit proposed by the author can play an active part in the process of assigning new meaning retroactively (usually through interpretation)--and even giving a meaning, for the first time (usually through construction)--to what the analysand says and cannot say. It gives us a conceptual frame of unconscious psychic temporality with which to explore how psychoanalysis produces psychic change. Winnicott's "Fear of Breakdown" (1974) is paradigmatic of this broader conceptualization of Nachtr?glichkeit (see Faimberg 1998). A clinical example is presented (Kardiner 1977) to illustrate why the author believes that her proposal remains true to Freud's (1937) conception of psychic temporality and construction.     

A reconsideration of Freud's essays on sexuality and their clinical implications

This paper considers some of the concisely presented material of the second of Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905a), on "Infantile Sexuality." The author puts forward the view that infantile sexuality may be thought of not simply as an immature stage that must be passed through, but also as a pool of psychic experiences upon which mature personality organization can continually draw, in dynamic oscillation among different mental positions. The link between infantile sexuality and the structuring of the psychic apparatus, discussed in the first and third of the Three Essays ("The Sexual Aberrations" and "The Transformations of Puberty"), raises questions that are still open to further research.     

Freud's "bad conscience": The case of Nietzsche's Genealogy

This article develops the argument that Friedrich Nietzsche influenced several aspects of Freud's later writings by illustrating, in particular, the impact of Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals on Freud's Civilization and its Discontents. The theoretical and conceptual schemes represented in Freud's Discontents are found to bear a remarkable similarity to Nietzsche's Genealogy on a number of highly specific points. It is suggested that "DAS ES," "Uber-ich," and "bad conscience," concepts central to Freud's moral theory of mind, are at least partly derived from Nietzsche. Moreover, Freud's phylogenetic theory of guilt is based upon premises found in Nietzsche, as are specific details relating to ideas on human prehistory and the ancestral family. Based on this evidence, a re-examination of the moral and social dimensions of Freud's "structural" model may be in order.     

Karl Abraham's revolution of 1916: from sensual sucking to the oral-aggressive wish of destruction

The author argues that "The First Pregenital Stage of the Libido" (Abraham 1916-1917) expounds a new conception of orality, i.e., of purposeful oral aggression directed against an object during the first stage of psychic development. This conception is shown to be contrary to Freud's view of orality as elaborated in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), as well as in other writings of late 1914 and 1915. Abraham's conception ignores fundamental dimensions of Freud's thinking during these years, namely, the difference between autoerotism/narcissism and object love, on the one hand, and also between the leading role of sexuality and the secondary role of aggression, on the other. Thus, Abraham's thinking represents a basic theoretical change that had far-reaching consequences for psychoanalytic practice.     

Conflict, structure, and absence: André Green on borderline and narcissistic pathology

The authors understand the work of André Green as addressing unresolved and uncharted issues in Freud's views on the earliest phases of development, particularly as those issues concern the evolution of psychic structure, the development of drive components, and the internalization of object representations. The authors describe Green's conceptualization of primitive conflict and its most deleterious result, absence, or the failure to represent the object. These ideas lead to an original way of imagining the analytic setting and to a modification of the classical stance of analyst with patient. Two clinical vignettes are presented.     

Libido und psychische Energie

The authors investigate different definitions of “psychic energy” and “libido” as well as their critique. With regard to “psychic energy” it is shown that the critique relates in particular to the perspective of Brenner and others and not to Freud's definition. They argue that Freud uses the term “psychic energy” as a synonym for “libido” and not “libido” as a synonym for “psychic energy”. It is assumed that until 1914, Freud related “libido” to manifestations of bodily sexual tensions and afterwards to manifestations of sexual energy in the psychic field. The authors reject this change for epistemological reasons as well as Freud's attempt to use dynamic, economic considerations as an explanatory device. Freud's energy concept is inconsistent with the definition of energy in natural sciences, and, whereas the meta-psychological topographical, dynamic and structural viewpoints have a solid foundation in the representational world to which the psychoanalytic process affords unique access, this is not true of the economic viewpoint. It is claimed that bodily tensions exist in the representational world only in the form of affects, so that the economic viewpoint should, in the authors' opinion, be abandoned in favour of an affective one. In the context of the endeavour to obtain pleasure and avoid unpleasure as adduced by Freud, this viewpoint concentrates on the relationships between affects and the different elements of the representational world, thereby serving as the topoi of meta-psychological investigation dimensions.     

Studies on hysteria--Katharina.

Freud's account of his meeting with the country maid, Katharina, is re-evaluated from a contemporary psychoanalytic perspective. Freud's original explanation of Katharina's hysteria was based on a set of quantitative-economic assumptions and a psychic model based on conflict and defense. A modern analytic perspective would shift the emphasis from the economics of discharge to the aims and objects of sexual activity. The understanding of sensual pleasure focuses more specifically on the related complex of intentions, purposes, meanings, and motives, as well as on the qualities, characteristics, and patterns of interaction with important objects.     

German philosophy, Freud, and the riddle of the woman

After Kant's critique of empiricism, subjectivist epistemologies cropped up in 19th-century German philosophy. Schopenhauer argued that the true essence of every object was an irrational and sexual will. This underlying will distorted a subject's knowledge of the world. Schopenhauer's notion of this true essence was analogous to his portrayal of women; they too were natural, irrational, and instinctual. Nietzsche postulated a will-to-power that structured and hence distorted a chaotic world. That structureless "real" world Nietzsche symbolized as the essential "truth of a woman," a truth which for Nietzsche was unknowable to the desirous male philosopher. Freud, while maintaining belief in empirical truth, developed a psychology of mis-knowledge which had much in common with Schopenhauer's epistemology. His theory of transference grew from a need to explain how female patients libidinally distorted the reality of their male analysts. Conversely, Freud's later writings on women are hampered by the author's realization of his own precarious and subjective position as man trying to know woman. These counter-transferential concerns ultimately made the woman's psychological essence an unknowable riddle for Freud.     

Mr. A's creative adventure: reflections on drives and psychic conflict

The author discusses psychic conflict in the context of Freudian drive theory and its relationship to primal fantasies and repression. Freud's metaphor of the "Mystic Writing Pad" is reviewed, with particular attention to psychotic perception, especially the lack of ability to differentiate between self and object. Psychoanalytic psychodrama is proposed as an effective treatment modality in such cases, and an illustrative clinical example is presented.     

Essentials of psychoanalytic cure: a symposium. Introduction and survey of some previous views

Friedman (1978) suggested that implicit in the theories of the psychoanalytic process a classification of three separate trends can be identified. In the first instance, there is what could be called "understanding," whether it be intellectual or emotional. Second, there is "attachment," which refers to curative measures based on some "binding emotional reaction to the analyst." And third, and less explicitly, there is "integration," which refers to the development of a synthesis that has the effect of harmonizing parts of the mind or elevating psychic functioning to a higher level. Freud's writings embodied all three of these trends. The participants of the symposium at Marienbad, being strongly influenced by Strachey's emphasis on superego alteration through introjection, placed the greater stress on attachment. Loewald, emphasizing as he does the importance of the patient's identification with the analyst as a corrective reliving of the origins of identification in childhood, highlights attachment while also relating it to understanding. Stone and Gitelson also focused on the beneficial aspects of the affective link to the analyst and the important function served by this link in facilitating understanding of the analyst's interpretation. At the Edinburgh conference, however, aside from Gitelson and Nacht, who viewed attachment as an integrating or structuring aspect of the analytic process, the participants placed their confidence almost completely on "understanding" strictly through interpretation. In the latest debate between the proponents of self psychology and the object relations approach proposed by Kernberg, many aspects of these previous discussions and controversies have resurfaced (Friedman, 1978). Kohut, utilizing Freud's concept that links gratification and minimal frustration together as the developer of structure, relied on the empathic bond between patient and analyst as a basic component of the process of cure. Kernberg, however, relying predominantly on the conveying of insight through interpretation, is suspicious that this emphasis on attachment might reduce the clarity of understanding and in general prevent meaningful change from occurring. This sounds very much like the reaction of most participants of the Edinburgh symposium to the proposals of Gitelson.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Conscious dream synthesis as a method of learning about dreaming: a pedagogic experiment

Stimulated by Freud's comments on the unique perspectives offered by "building up dreams by synthesis," the authors applied this idea to the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute's introductory course on the psychology of dreaming. Each student was assigned the task of purposefully and consciously synthesizing a dream, utilizing certain assigned information and meeting the specified criteria. In the use of this device, it was anticipated that the conscious active effort required to duplicate the usually passively experienced processes of dreaming and the unconscious dream work would lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the dream.     

The psychology of leadership revisited: An overview

An overview of the concept of leadership as it appears in social psychology, psychoanalytic theory and group psychotherapy is presented. In the absence of a generally accepted global view of leadership, social psychology has produced limited-domain theories with relevance to group practitioners. Following Freud's early contribution on the subject, psychoanalytic investigators have neglected the subject of group psychology, and with it of leadership, until very recently. Within group psychotherapy some promising research and theorizing have emerged, but there is a need to distinguish between the roles of group leader and group therapist in both theory and practice.This paper was presented at the 1979 Annual Conference of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society.     

Use your words!

"Use your words!" is a phrase admonishing preschoolers to divert their action-proneness to thought and language. Freud's injunction against acting out had a similar aim, placing control over drives in the domain of "inner language." The twenty-first-century psychoanalyst continues to employ models that depend on mentalization viewed from two angles-neural inhibition and social discourse. Psychoanalysts bolster their position by borrowing from the basic scientific work in each area. The recent focus on enactments, intersubjectivity, and social constructivism is reconsidered from an historical vantage point, as is the work that seeks to reconcile recent findings in neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience. Freud's vision included a holistic hope that a comprehensive science of human beings might be achieved by understanding derived from biological inquiry and the artifacts of social and cultural narratives. The author's experience in both domains is recounted, and a new reconciliation of disparate approaches is offered in linguistic complementarity.     

Some sources for a slip in a translation by Freud

Among Freud's papers, we find instances in which Freud describes the "psychopathology of everyday life" as he found it in himself and in others. "A Religious Experience" (Freud, 1928) contains examples of both kinds. In addition, this paper contains a slip of which Freud appears to have been unaware. Freud's paper interprets a religious conversion described in a letter written to him in English. In the translation of this letter into German, Freud inserted material that was not present in the original. He mentions another slip he made in speaking about the letter. These slips and some associated details in the paper indicate persisting unconscious conflict. The content of these slips and details points to an association with Freud's childhood anxiety dream reported in The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900). Freud's associations and discussion of that dream lead to the Philippson Bible of his childhood, which provides additional connections to the paper of 1928.