Recent reformulations of Freud's development and abandonment of his seduction theory: historical/scientific clarification or a continued assault on truth?

It is well known that, as part of Freud's early work with "hysteria," he reported making discoveries of sexual abuse that he interpreted first as genuine but subsequently as fantasy. Several writers now argue that Freud never made such discoveries; rather that he lied about them, only inferred abuse from his patients' symptoms, or suggested false memories to his clients. The present authors evaluate Freud's original work and these recent claims and conclude that (a) they are not new and are similar to the original reaction that Freud received; (b) the assertion that Freud did not make discoveries of abuse is unwarranted; and (c) these recent writers frequently have supported their positions by misrepresenting what Freud actually wrote, ignoring evidence that contradicted their position, failing to consider obvious and more plausible explanations for Freud's behavior, and going beyond the available data and stating with certainty what cannot be determined.     

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.     

A reappraisal of the Emma episode and the specimen dream

Schur's (1966, 1972) speculations that the "specimen dream" exculpates Fliess rather than Freud and that Freud was unaware of this are challenged. Schur's assertion that Freud was not aware of "current conflict" when writing The Interpretation of Dreams is countered with the previously unpublished "Completion of the Analysis" of the dream of "Running up the Stairs," which illustrates Freud's withholding of "current conflict" from his published associations. The view is advanced that Freud's and Fliess's treatment of Emma Eckstein might have been an important element in Freud's self-analysis because it was a repetition of his childhood conflicts. The identities of Emma Eckstein (operated on by Fliess) and Anna Hammerschlag Lichtheim, together with the previously unnoticed, published exchange between Abraham and Freud, are used to add further insight into Freud's interpretation of the dream. In addition, new material concerning Freud's father's terminal illness, beginning in July, 1985, casts further light on the specimen dream as well as others. It is argued that concerns about Martha Freud's sixth pregnancy and wishes for improved contraception were important determinants of the dream and part of the undisclosed associations. It is also argued that rivalrous elements of the associations are elaborated in the later non vixit dream.     

Freud's struggle with misogyny: homosexuality and guilt in the dream of Irma's injection.

The highly condensed dream element trimethylamin is central to the dream of Irma's injection. After a brief review of the medical literature on timethylamine (TMA), it is suggested that two important meanings of this chemical and its properties lie in its disguised reference to disparaging views of women, as well as to Freud's homosexual connection to Wilhelm Fliess. Freud's misogynistic and homosexual impulses were stimulated by Fliess's recent surgical error committed while operating on Freud's patient Emma Eckstein. Evidence is presented that the collaboration between Freud and Fliess in performing an aggressive act toward a woman was for Freud an enactment of a childhood situation in which he and his nephew John had ganged up on John's sister Pauline. The later relationship between Freud, Jung, and Sabina Spielrein is seen as an additional reenactment of this childhood triangle. An examination of Freud's associations to and analysis of the Irma dream, as well as some of his later relationships with women, indicates that guilt and the wish to make reparation were also prominent themes in Freud's inner life.     

The concept of phylogenetic inheritance in Freud and Jung.

At the height of their collaboration in late 1911, Freud had succeeded in persuading Jung of the role of phylogenetic factors in the etiology of neuroses and psychoses. Phylogenetic considerations play an important part in the formulation of Jung's genetic standpoint of psychology with its conception of a desexualized primal libido, which figured prominently in the dispute which ended the relations between Freud and Jung. Freud's unpublished draft of "Overview of the Transference Neuroses" was in part an attempt to counter Jung's revisions of libido theory by using phylogenetic considerations to reaffirm his original conception of a unified sexual libido. Despite the sharp divergence of many aspects of their respective psychologies after the break, a conception of phylogenetic inheritance continued to play an important role in their developing theoretical formulations.     

Peter Heller's a Child Analysis with Anna Freud: the significance of the case for the history of child psychoanalysis

A Child Analysis with Anna Freud, a collection of Anna Freud's detailed case notes of her treatment of the young Peter Heller between 1929 and 1932, was first published in English in 1990. Not only does this work give us direct access to Anna Freud's ways of thinking and working at a crucial period in the early history of child analysis; it is also one of the few records of an adult reflecting in depth on the experience of being in analysis as a child. Yet to date this work has received little attention in the psychoanalytic literature. In an attempt to redress this neglect, the Heller case study is placed in the context of Anna Freud's emerging ideas about child analysis. In particular, its significance in the development of her psychoanalytic thinking is investigated in the light of her 1927 book, The Technique of Child Analysis.     

Freud's Little Oedipus: Hans as exception to the oedipal rule

Freud's "The Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy" is regarded by Freud and by analytic readers and commentators as a prototype of his conception of the oedipus complex. A literary methodology is used to show that the interpretation of the oedipus complex at work in Freud's text in fact differs from Freud's standard view of it. While studying the paper as text, not as case report, may obscure or distort some clinical matters, it is valuable in that it makes legible a sort of theoretical unconscious in the text. In contrast to Freud's typically tragic view of the oedipus complex (in the tradition of ancient Greek tragedy), the Hans study evokes a comic vision (in the tradition of Greek New Comedy). This comic vision allows Hans a happy imaginative ending to the oedipal dilemma, challenges certain epistemic pretensions, and emphasizes the oedipus complex as a set of abiding existential questions. Given the deep link between Freud"s oedipus concept and a tragic view of human life, this departure in the Hans paper is a fascinating anomaly.     

Mourning beyond melancholia: Freud's psychoanalysis of loss

Freud's mourning theory has been criticized for assuming a model of subjectivity based on a strongly bounded form of individuation. This model informs "Mourning and Melancholia" (1917), in which Freud argued that mourning comes to a decisive end when the subject severs its emotional attachment to the lost one and reinvests the free libido in a new object. Yet Freud revised his mourning theory in writings concerned with the Great War and in The Ego and the Id (1923), where he redefined the identification process previously associated with melancholia as an integral component of mourning. By viewing the character of the ego as an elegiac formation, that is, as "a precipitate of abandoned object-cathexes," Freud's later work registers the endlessness of normal grieving; however, it also imports into mourning the violent characteristics of melancholia, the internal acts of moralized aggression waged in an effort to dissolve the internal trace of the other and establish an autonomous identity. Because it is not immediately clear how Freud's text offers a theory of mourning beyond melancholy violence, his account of the elegiac ego is shown here to ultimately undermine the wish for an identity unencumbered by the claims of the lost other and the past, and to suggest the affirmative and ethical aspects of mourning.     

Leonardo's phantasy and the importance of Freud's slip: The role of the analyst's phantasies in applied psychoanalysis and in the analytic relation

In his paper on Leonardo, Freud made a slip. Referring to the bird which, according to one of Leonardo's memories, tossed its tail into the painter's mouth many times when he was a child, Freud replaced 'kite' with 'vulture'. It is widely accepted that this slip doesn't signifi cantly damage the whole of Freud's constructions on the paper, nevertheless, the part of his considerations relating to the meaning of 'vulture' should be discounted. In the author's view, this part of the Leonardo paper is necessary. Thanks to the slip Freud was able to reach a comprehension which otherwise would have been unattainable. Interpretation based on the vulture made possible the confi guration of a mother as 'daughter of the wind', as was the case not only with Leonardo's mother but also with Freud's. Interpretation of Leonardo's phantasy was achieved through Freud's unconscious identifi cation with Leonardo and the slip adequately interpreted becomes the evidence of this. Through identifi cation, Freud succeeded in making sense of Leonardo's memory but also in realising an indirect virile possession of his own 'winged' mother. Freud's position as interpreting subject in his paper on Leonardo also has more general value: the analyst's knowledge about the 'other' has a very important basis in the indirect expression of his unconscious wishes within the fi eld of sense. The author uses clinical material in order to show how the analyst's phantasies play an important role in analytical interpretive work.     

A challenge to psychoanalysis: a review of the negative therapeutic reaction

In this paper, I have summarized the large body of literature on the N.T.R. and noted that the term has been broadened from Freud's original definition of deterioration following improvement or correct analytic work to include a negativistic, ongoing narcissistic reaction with failure to recover. Like Freud, Klein became very pessimistic about reversing this phenomenon. The N.T.R. is a multidetermined but not unitary clinical phenomenon that has generated much controversy. Its dynamics involve interpersonal and intrapsychic elements. Aggression, revenge, and oppositional reactions interfere with analytic progress and may range from temporary to a characteristic way of responding in the analysis. Aggression, the reaction to early frustration and deprivation, plays a large part in the narcissistic organization. Patients who experience N.T.Rs. are shown to have strong narcissistic features. Interpersonally, conflict between longings for fusion and the wish for separateness is central. The transference-countertransference is made difficult by projective identification. Envy and narcissism are critical in the N.T.R. patient's intrapsychic dynamics. Clinical material illustrated the difficult interpersonal and intrapsychic factors that prevailed in a severe N.T.R. patient. The N.T.R. is an insidious obstacle to analytic success and one that requires mastery of the interpersonal and intrapsychic dynamics of the patient and the treatment situation.     

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.     

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE: A PSYCHOANALYTIC AND FAMILY‐LIFE‐CYCLE VIEW OF EMERGING ADULTHOOD IN THE FILM

The period during which grown children leave home and establish a new, self‐supporting family is called emerging adulthood. This paper uses psychoanalytic concepts and family‐life‐cycle theory to analyze the film Rebel without a Cause ( 1955 ) as a dramatic example of three families going through this phase. Freud's ( 1910 ) rescue‐motif of the child trying to save an endangered peer to repay his parents for having been nurtured is also characteristic of this period and is considered practice for parenting the next generation. Proximate conflict and support enable two of the film's families to continue the path to reproduce themselves.     

Freud and the Hammerschlag family: a formative relationship

From his obituary of Samuel Hammerschlag, we know of Freud's great veneration for his teacher of Jewish religion. However, not only Hammerschlag himself but his whole family had a formative influence on young Freud, who was deeply impressed by their humanity. This paper describes Freud's relationships with all the family members. In particular, it shows how warmly he felt towards the only daughter, Anna Hammerschlag, who was his patient for a while and whom he chose as a godmother for his youngest daughter Anna. By virtue of the crucial role she played in Freud's 'specimen dream' of July 1895 ('Irma's injection'), she also became as it were the godmother of Freud's magnum opus, The Interpretation of Dreams. All the known extant letters from Freud to members of the Hammerschlag family are published here for the first time in English translation.     

The art of imitation: Wilhelm Stekel's Lehrjahre

In the early history of psychoanalysis, the work of Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940) was by and large neglected, even though he wrote a considerable number of psychoanalytic studies, some of which should be considered to have had a major influence on Freud's early thought. Freud, in turn, had much greater influence on Stekel than is commonly believed. In this article, the authors aim to uncover some of these mutual influences, in particular in the field of practice, by focusing on the elements of autobiography and self-analysis. The authors have identified a number of covert autobiographical passages in the work of Stekel, and attempt to link one of these 'revelations' to an equally covert response to it by Freud. In the closing section of this article, the authors argue that Stekel's attempt to imitate Freud's self-analysis contributed to the fracture between the two of them.     

Reading Freud's "the Dynamics of Transference" one hundred years later

Freud's technical papers, "The Dynamics of Transference" in particular, established most of the basis for a century of clinical psychoanalytic work. A contemporary reading of that paper illustrates both the power of the original presentation and how far we have come. Close readings are given of crucial passages, including retranslations where Strachey's English arguably distorts Freud's language or intent. More broadly, Freud's conclusions are examined to reveal correspondences with current thinking or its foreshadowing. Although Freud drove toward unifying conclusions, he at the same time described a disparate array of clinical phenomena. The paper's central points are situated historically, both in Freud's evolution and in the subsequent evolution toward the pluralistic clinical theory of today. Freud encountered many of the challenges we face, noting them in ways both clinically useful and fruitful for other theorists. The use of the paper's central tenets is traced historically, showing how ideas that provide a radical, liberating, and facilitating guide for analysts can over time devolve into hackneyed rules. Finally, it is noted how transference phenomena are increasingly being discussed as a specific type of dyadic human experience. The task in the coming century is to develop theory and vocabulary for comprehending these phenomena and integrating them with Freud's intrapsychic concepts.     

The dynamics of owning and disowning: psychoanalytic and family perspectives.

The dynamics of owning and disowning one's inner life have both intrapsychic and transactional or interpersonal dimensions. Freud opened new vistas on our inner world using psycoanalysis as a tool. Although not unaware of the effects of family members upon each other, Freud's rejection of the seduction theory of neurosis in 1897 fatefully influenced the future course of psychoanalysis, placing the primary focus on intrapsychic relations. Until today, it has remained the task-perhaps the principal one--of psychoanalytic theorists to do justice to the interpersonal and family realm that Freud neglected, without sacrificing the enormous insights we owe to Freud. Three conditions for successful inner ownership are described: a capacity for self-object differentiation; tolerance of ambivalence; and a sense of physical integrity, of having a cohesive, nuclear ego. The pathology of inner ownership is related to a pathology of interpersonal ownership as transacted on the family level. One form of such relational pathology--parental overowning, as revealed primarily in families with schizophrenic members--is discussed, with a case example.     

Rescue fantasies

The concept of "rescue fantasy" is examined as it has evolved since Freud introduced it in 1910. Originally designating the wish in certain men to rescue "fallen women," the term has more recently come to refer primarily to the therapist's conscious or unconscious aims with regard to his patient, particularly in the context of child analysis or therapy. The varying drive elements and defensive operations at work in this compromise formation are discussed, and some recent sociocultural influences and analogues are suggested.     

Day residue and screen memory in Freud's dream of the botanical monograph

Freud's theory of dream construction allowed the censorship to intervene only when a repressed infantile wish emerged from the unconscious. In his (1899) paper on screen memories, however, he proposed a mechanism for the defensive displacement of current events as they are sorted for introduction into permanent memory. I suggest that Freud was actually describing the conflictual process through which the day residue of the dream is formed. Day residue and screen memory are closely related as elements of the dreamer's present and past experience displaced from his more central instinctual concerns. Freud's dream of the botanical monograph clearly illustrates this relation. Substituted day residues were matched in the dream with relatively innocuous memories of past events of similar cognitive and affective significance. By retracing the substitutions, one can see how a current conflict over Fliess's role in the writing of the dream book recapitulated a series of Freud's earlier conflicts concerning his father and the power of books.     

Attachment Theory, Religious Beliefs, and the Limits of Reason

This paper takes a new look at Freud’s critique of religious beliefs and wishes from the perspective of current attachment theory, particularly with reference to Peter Fonagy. By reconceptualizing Freud’s critique, it can be argued that he anticipated some current empirical studies in religiosity and attachment, and that his critique accurately describes the religiosity of insecurely attached individuals. The paper argues that current social theories, especially as represented in the work of Jürgen Habermas, about religion and its role in politics and the public sphere could benefit from incorporating insights from attachment theory.