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organizational policies in the twenties', Journal a/the history of th» behaoioml 21 (1985), 33-47.

C. Taylor, The explanation of behaoior (London, 1964). T. W. Wann (ed.), Behaviorism and phenomenology: contrasting bases for modern

(Chicago, 1964). rJ'''O''UVl

p. r. W:ener (:d.?, ~i~ionary o/th~ history a/ideas (5 vols., New York, 1973-4),

on BehavlOnsm, Man-machine from the Greeks to the computer' and gical theories in American thought'.

R. M. Young, 'Animal soul'iin P. Edwards (ed.), Encyclopaedia a/philosophy (New

1967), vol. I, pp. 122-27. '.'

27

FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

RAYMOND E. FANCHER

term 'psychoanalysis' denotes both the specific system of psychotherapy the general psychological theory developed by the Viennese physician Freud (1856-1939). Accordingly, students of the field commonly between Freud's clinical theory, which mainly addresses psychorepression and the experiences of analytic therapy sessions, from

metapsychology, which attempts to explain the mechanics of mental funcin a general model of the mind.

Freud's ideas constantly developed and changedover the course of his long and are best understood in their proper chronological and situational

·(;UJ.JtC.ILL~. Thus the first part of this essay introduces Freud's major works in the ..•• order in which they were written, and within the framework of his life history. . second part describes major historical and philosophical studies of Freud have been conducted after his death.

I. FREUD'S LIFE AND WORK

1 . I. Background and training

Sigmund Freud was born on 6 May 1856 in the Moravian town of Freiberg Pribor, Czechoslovakia), but moved to Vienna in 1860 where he remained until the Nazi menace forced him to flee to London in 1938, for the final year of .: his life. The son of a Jewish wool merchant of modest means, young Sigmund •• ' always excelled academically, and developed early interests in history and literature. A chance encounter with Goethe's essay On Nature during Freud's final . year at Gymnasium inspired him about science, and led to his impulsive enrolment at the University of Vienna's medical school in 1873.

For the first three years of medical school, Freud's primary attention was captured by a non-medical teacher, the philosopher and 'act psychologist',

4Z5

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FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSiS

Franz Brentano (1838-1917), who taught that classical associationistic ps-~. chology had to be modified by consideration of motivational and 'dynamic, •...•. factors such as intentions, desires, and judgements. Then Freud's interests' turned strongly .~owards the mechanistic 'new physiology' promoted by his . teacher Ernst Brucke (1819-1892), according to which all animate processes . whatever degree of complexity, must ultimately be explained in terms of ,. physico-chemical processes, Freud enthusiastically conducted and neurophysiological research from Briicke's laboratory for six years, passing

final medical examinations almost off-handedly (and belatedly) in 1881 _ In 1 he reluctantly concluded that a physiological research career was not feasible an impecunious Jew living in anti-Semitic Vienna, and decided to obtain clinical training required for medical practice at Vienna's General HOSpital.

At the hospital, Freud's neurophysiological background led him to gravitate towards the psychiatry clinic directed by the brain anatomist Theodor Meynerr ' ..

(1833-! 893)· Meynert, a fervent proponent of the new movement to . '.

cortical functions, taught that ideas or memories are contained in .

brain cells and interconnected in a system called the 'ego' , whose physical ruption can produce phenomena such as dreams and symptoms. Under Meynert, Freud became proficient in diagnosing brain disorders, and developed ambitions of making his living as a specialist neuropathology.

During this training period Freud also experimented with the then little' known drug, cocaine, and! published a series of controversial papers recommending it for a variety of medical problems. Falsely believing it non-addictive, he prescribed it to a friend as a substitute for morphine, disastrous eventual results which led Freud to rue his early and H' l< .. "UUlUU~ endorsements. Understandably, this episode was not a phase of his early career that he later chose to emphasise.

A more positive set of interests began to develop late in 1885, when Freud won a six-month travelling fellowship to study in Paris with the eminent neurologist, Jean Charcot (1825-93). Charcot was then deep into the study hysteria, a condition whose symptoms often mimicked the disabilities caused by . localised injuries to the brain and nervous system, but which occurred in the absence of such injuries. Most physicians of the time regarded hysteria as malingering, but Charcot observed that similar effects could be produced hypnosis, and hypothesised that both hysteria and hypnosis were caused hereditary and generalised (as opposed to localised) degeneracy of the system. 'Charcot's neurological theory was soon proven incorrect, but his

matic clinical demonstrations of hysteria and hypnosis kindled Freud's in these medically unfashionable subjects.

On returning to Vienna, Freud married Martha Bernays (1861-1951), his' fiancee of five years, and tried to establish a practice in neuropathology.

1888 and 1893 he published well-received studies of aphasia a~d 'nr~fllll~ cerebral palsy, but despite a growing reputation, could not make a liv. g treatio,g just these kinds of cases. He had also kept up with the literature on

m . however, translating into German not only Charcot's work but also

ofHippolyte Bernheim (1840-1919), Charcot's principal the~retical opp~and leader of the so called 'Nancy School'. Bernheim denied Charcot S degeneracy theory, and used direct hypnotic suggestion as a treat. for hysteria, with some success. Freud now began accepting pati~nts with -. hysteria to fill out his practice.. and confirmed that the ~ancy techn~que was better than orthodox medicine, though still imperfect. HIS search

improved therapy for hysteria marked the real beginnings of psychoanalysis.

1.2. Studies on hysteria

. ... I ortant first dues in the search came from Freud's friend, Josef Breuer

mp . . . k f'hvsteri

. (1842-1925), who years earlier had trea:ed a ~mgle reman able case a ~stena

. with an experimental cathartic method. HIS patient, a young woma~ called Anna .. 0.' in published accounts of the case had been repeatedly hypnon~ed a~d _asked t trv and recall the first time she had ever experienced a sensation similar to ~at ~of a particular symptom. Invariably, she recalled emotio?-l~de~ but pr~viously'forgotten' memories; e.g. of suppressing tears and squmtmg her eyes ill order to tell the time for her terminally-ill father, abo.ut who~ she was grea~y upset. Afterwards she forgot the incident, but the 5qU~t persisted ~s a hyst~rlcal symptom. Upon recalling the scene under hypnosis, and now. abreaCl:lllg' distressed emotion she had previously suppressed, she was relieved of the symptom- Most of her numerous symptoms were rem~ved in ~is way, but Breuer became highly uncomfortable about Anna's growing emotional attachment to him as the treatment proceeded, and could never be persuaded to

repeat the method on another hysterical patient.. ..,

Freud recalled this case as he worked with his own hysterical patients m the early 18905, tried the technique and found it more effective than direct hypn~tic suggestion. With some difficulty, Freud persuaded Breuer to collaborate.In writing Studies on Hysteria in 1895, a book which include~ five cas.e studies (including Anna 0.) and a new theory of hysteria. According to this theory, symptoms originate in emotion-laden memories which som.eho,: los~ access to conscious recollection, thus becoming pathogenic ideas. Stimuli which should normally bring the pathogenic ideas to consciousness fail ~o do s~, but a:ouse the strangulated affect or suppressed emotional energy associated WIth th~ ideas. Denied its normal route to expression, this energy literally 'discharges' into the musculature to create physical symptoms which Freud labelled conversio~s (representing the 'conversion' of emotional into physical energy). Pathogenic id;as could -apparently be restored to consciousness through hypnosis, their

TURNING POINTS

strangulated affect belatedly expressed or abreacted and the symptoms made to disappear.

Two i~p~rtant problems remai~ed; the first a theoretical question as to why pathogemc Ideas became unconscious in the first place, and the second, the practical issue of discovering a memory-enhancing technique that could he : used on non-hypnotisable patients. Freud's invention of free association as his substitute for hypnosis led indirectly to his answer for the theoretical as well as to a monumental broadening of his theory.

~o fre~ as~ociate, a nortn_ally conscious patient (but still reclining on the hypnotre subject s couch) was Simply asked to recall and relate everything that cams.: to mind in association with a symptom, without editing or censoring the account, Simple in concept, this was difficult in practice because patients inevitably··· experienced resistance - blocking, editing, censoring their accounts; or sometimes openly refusing to continue because of anxiety or embarrassement. Nevertheless, the technique often led to the recollection of repressed and emotion-laden pathogenic ideas, whose abreaction produced relief of symptoms.

Moreover, Freud learned more about the structure of hysteria and the nature of pathogenic ideas. He regularly found several pathogenic ideas behind individual symptom, leading him to describe that symptom as 'overdetermined'. He also found that the pathogenic ideas uncovered with greatest difficulty but also with greatest therapeutic effect regularly involved sexual misadventures in childhood. This led to Freud's notorious seduction theory, published in 1896, which held that sexual mistreatment in childhood caused hysteria in adults. Freud believed that the memories of these events became sexualised 'after the fact' with me onset of puberty, and then had to be repressed from normal consciousness to escape from their disturbing affect.

The seduction theory was poorly received, and Freud himself soon concluded it was mistaken. Though patients remained convinced of the accuracy of their sexual 'memories', other evidence too often disconfirmed them. Freud's eventual resolution of this contradiction arose from his self-analysis, which prominently entailed his first serious consideration of dreams.

1.3. Dreams and self-analysis

In r895, Freud began his decade of greatest creativity. At the same time as Studies on Hysteria was being published, he began an ambitious theoretical attempt to integrate his neurological knowledge with his new insights about hysteria and unconscious psychological processes in a 'psychology for rieurologists'. He summarised his ideas in a draft manuscript which he never published, but Sent to his Berlin friend and confidant, Wilhelm Fliess (1858-1928). Fortunately, Fliess saved the manuscript, along with much other correspondence from freud which has been published since Freud's death. Originally

428

FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

untitled, the manuscript was called Project for a Scientific Psychology in the Engtranslation of K954·

.•. Here Freud tried to explain hysteria as well as normal mental functioning in

., mechanistic, neurological terms prescribed by Briicke's teaching. Also borrowing from Meynert, he proposed that individual ideas or. memories are localised in individual cortical neurons, each one capa~le of ~em.g arou~ed or .<, thected' by some undefined process of electrochemical excltatJ.OTI. Still fol-

.. ca d i

'. 10wing Meynert, Freud saw these neurons as being interconnecte m: syste~

. called the 'ego'. Freud's ego concept went beyond Meynert's however, m that It . allowed for the influence of motivational or dynamic factors on the flo,: of .. thought (as had been emphasised by Brentano), as well as for~~ unconscious nature of much psychic activity. Freud accounted mechanistically for the unconscious production of 'primary process' pheno~ena such as over determined hysterical conversion symptoms. Perhaps most momentous of ~ll, he also considered dreams and showed how his neurological theory predicted that dreams should resemble hysterical symptoms in many ways. In addition, how-

er the theory alsosugaested that dreams sh. ould represent the fantasied

,~ , b

gratification of endogenously arising needs - that is, dreams should represent

the fulfilment of wishes.

As he was formulating this theory, Freud also began to study dreams empiri-

cally by subjecting them to free association. A fre~uent rec~l!er. of his own dreams, he became his own best subject. Moreover, hIS father died In late 1896, precipitating a personal crisis which Freud sou~ht to re~olve ~argely through interpreting his dreams - his famous self-analysis. Fol~owmg his ~le of ano~ing associations to go where they would without censonng, Freud dls~overed III himself the elements of the Oedipus complex: evidence that he had Wished as a child for the 'sexual' possession of his mother as the source of sensual gratification, and for the 'death' (removal) of his father as a rival for his mother's attention. Many of Freud's followers have seen this se1f-anlaysis, conducted in the absence of any supportive therapist except for his distant correspondent Fliess, as Freud's most courageous and significant personal accomplishment.

The self-analysis and new theory of dreams pointed to a solution to Freud's seduction-theory riddle. He now saw dreams and hysterical symptoms as structurally similar, both being overdetermined symbolic representations of ideas too dangerously emotion-laden to be accepted in consciousness directly. In dreams, however, the originating unconscious ideas (called the dream's 'late~t content', as opposed to the 'manifest content' of the conscious dream experience) were unacceptable wishes, often reflecting sexual urges dating from childhood. In hysteria, the pathogenie ideas had seemed to be false memories of sexua~ experience in childhood. Taking the cue from dreams, Freud began to reinterpret pathogenic ideas as thinly-disguised reflections of childish sexual wishes like those which initiated his dreams.

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FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

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Sensing that unconscious primary processes were surprisingly widespread Freud began analysing everyday mistakes by free association. Here too he found evidence of unconscious motivation '- the now-famous, 'Freudian slips' .... ' .. Unconscious psychic processes which had first seemed pathological, in the .,,' text of hysteria, were now seen as pervading much of 'normal' experience " well. Freud explored these ideas in his book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1 (regarded by many, including Freud himself, as his greatest work), and in more popular The Psychopathology o/Everyday Lift, published a year later.

abandoned, but only repressed into unconsciousness where they lie in

to express themselves in a multitude of indirect ways: in dreams, slips, or the proclivity towards everyday activities of an 'oral' or 'anal' nature eating, drinking or smoking for the former; extreme cleanliness, tidiness or

.;."rtPr:nUJlH~J,l1 for the latter).

'Freud now saw the sexual drive as ubiquitous, expressing itself in a multitude

indirect and unconsciously determined ways, some maladaptive and some '. The maladaptive expressions were potentially treatable through free and the informed interpretations of a psychoanalyst? for once the "'~,_"n'''O' ideas and impulses became conscious, the psychic energy previously for repression could theoretically be released for more open and

1.4. Sexuality Freud's theories of hysteria and dreams had highlighted the importance of uality, and he developed this theme in his book, Three Essays on the Theory Sexuality (1905). Here Freud argued that the sexual instinct was not the traditionally accepted heterosexual and genitally-oriented urge which appears only after puberty, but was instead a highly general drive for sensual gratification of many kinds, present from infancy onwards. At first, rhythmic stimulation of body part satisfies the drive; hence an infant is 'polymorphously perverse'. development, however, a sequence of specific erogenous zones come to be singled out as focal locations for this broadened form of sexual pleasure: first the mouth or oral zone; then, during the period of toilet training the anal zone; and only at the age of five or so does the genital or phallic zone become dominant. Such, at least, was Freud's conception of the 'normal' sequence of development.

Throughout these changing phases of childhood development, the person most closely associated with sensual pleasure - the chief object of the instinct, in Freud's language - is usually the mother. The father becomes the chief rival, thus establishing the Oedipus complex. The child's Oedipal thoughts become increasingly anxiety-arousing, however, and at age five or six are repressed to establish a relatively tranquil latency period. At'·' puberty, physiological maturation markedly increases the pressure or impetus of the sexual instinct, and threatens the Oedipal repressions. for psychic tranquillity, a new object must be found to replace the mother - ideally a socially acceptable member of the opposite sex. Only now, after extensive development and channelling.does the sexual instinct take on its traditionally-assumed configuration.

Freud went on to argue that the 'norma}' sequence described above is not pre-ordained, but may be interrupted by fixations or arrests at particular stages, resulting in adult propensities for non-standard sexual practices. In this context, 'perversions' are interpreted as remnants of childhood sexuality. Neurotic symptoms, as in hysteria, are relatively extreme and maladaptive 'defences' against the conscious recollection of childhood sexuality. And even when the normal sequence is followed, the infantile forms of sexuality are never- com-

I .5. The psychoanalytic movement

1905, Freud had developed and published his basic psychoanalytic ideas, rhouzh his open treatment of sexuality was highly controversial he had to ~attract a number of followers. A small group of Viennese, including Adler (1870-1937), Otto Rank (1884-1939) and Wilhelm Stekel

868-1940) formed the Psychological Wednesday Society for weekly dis~ .. ,.o",nC at Freud's house. The band grew and renamed itself the ViennaSociety in 1908, moving to larger quarters in 1910.

oreigners such as Karl Abraham (1877-1925) from Berlin, Sandor Ferenczi . •.. (1873-1933) from Budapest, Ernest jones (1879-1958) from London and Carl (r875-1961) from Zurich visited Freud and the Society, and formed the of the International Psycho-Analytical Association, established in 1910• In 1909 Freud and Jung were invited to lecture at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, marking the first official American recognition of psychoanalysis. (Freud's Clark lectures, published in 1910 as 'Five Lectures on

" Psycho-Analysis', remain an excellent introduction to his theory.) .

, Perhaps inevitably, internal turmoil quickly beset the young psychoanalytic

movement. Some members accepted Freud's general emphasis on unconscious psychic factors but resisted his stress on sexuality. Personality clashes occurred

too, and several prominent figures including Stekel, Adler and Jung formally , defected from Freud in the early 1910S.

Those who remained in the movement helped build on the basic theoretical foundations already laid by Freud, and became the primary audience for much of his subsequent work. Addressed to a specialist rather than a general readership, much of his writing inevitably became increasingly technical. (Two important exceptions were the lntrodudory Leaures on Psycho-Analysis (19I6-17), and the posthumously published An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1940), both of which were directed at a general audience.)

431

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FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

TURNING POINTS

In the early 1910S Freud became preoccupied with 'narcissistic' --".~.UUJ" where concerns for the self posed an apparent challenge to his theory of ity, Major works here included Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his vrll'lUflood (1910) (sometimes regarded as the first published attempt at 'psych,obi,olrl'a2 phy'), and the 1914 paper, 'On Narcissism: An Introduction'. In mid series of 'Papers onMetapsychology' explored the fine details of repression

the unconscious, and a series of clinical articles described new cases and gested refinements in therapeutic procedure. The horrors of the First War sensitised Freud to the destructive elements in human nature, leading

to postulate a death instinct (Thenatos') as a rival to the sexual instinct in his book, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920).

In 19z3, concern over ambiguities in psychoanalytic language (e.g. the 'unconscious' as both a noun and an adjective) led Freud in The Ego and to suggest his famous division of the psyche into id (the reservoir ofUnCOI!lSCI0U instincts and impulses), ego (the psychic agency responsible for creating tive compromise solutions to psychic conflict) and superego (the acquired repository of moral demands). Two years later, one of Freud's most n"t"ri~",ol controversial papers ('Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical tinction between the Sexes') tentatively suggested that a woman's propensi towards 'penis envy' typically leads to a less demanding superego than is in most men.

In the meantime, mouth cancer had been detected in Freud, necessitating long series of painful and disfiguring operations that darkened the last years of his life. During this final period his writings became increasingly sophical and sombre. In The Future of an Illusion (19Z7) he interpreted religious beliefs as illusions deriving from infantile wishes; in Cll/tltzaJ'ior.la~rd. Discontents (1930) he speculated that the destructive aspects of Thanatos likely to triumph in the end over the more creative aspects of Eros: and in 1 ('Analysis Terminable and Interminable') he concluded that a complete peutic psychoanalysis was impossible. His final provocative work, Monotheism (1939), enraged many of his fellow Jews with its hypothesis that historical Moses had actually been an Egyptian.

Thus Freud remained controversial to the end of his life. Nevertheless basic message - that human beings are creatures in conflict with u" .. u"",""" beset by irreconcilable and usually unconscious demands from the inner as as the outer worlds - struck a responsive chord. His ideas repression, the importance of early experience and sexuality, and the bility of much of human nature to ordinary conscious introspection become part of our common intellectual currency. As W.H. Auden put it in poem, 'In memory of Sigmund Freud', Freud became not just a historical. son, 'but a whole climate of opinion! Under whom we conduct our lives'.

2. HISTORICAL AND PHILOSPHICAL STUDIES

a.r. The Standard Edition

extensive Freudian corpus has many complexly interrelated parts, and pitawait those who comment on isolated parts of it in ignorance of the whole. , English-speaking students of Freud are fortunate to have available the Z4 volumes of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological

of Sigmund Freud (1953-74) (commonly referred to as the Standard Edi-

or just the S.E.), translated from the German under the general editorship Strachey, in collaboration with Freud's daughter, Anna. This uniform presents all of Freud's major psychological writings, omitting only a few early neurophysiological and neurological studies, the papers on cocaine his posthumously-published collaborative study (with William Bullitt) of ,IM'"''.''''' Wilson. Volume Z4 contains complete indexes and bibliographies for entire edition, as well as useful lists of cases, dreams, symbols, analogies, names and works of art referred to in the texts. Each individual work rnllt"UJUl the collection is preceded by a summary of its previous German and

publication history, as well as an Editor's Introduction by James Stra-

Varying in length from a few lines for minor works to many pages for the ones, these invaluable introductions describe the circumstances under the pieces were written, and refer the reader to other works in the edition Freud dealt with the same or similar topics.

a single person edited all the works in the S.E. and personally trans-

much of it as well, terminology and usage are consistent throughout. As must, Strachey sometimes imposed his own biases onto Freud's and his efforts have recently been criticised in Bruno Bettelheim's well L.<V,., .... a ... ~Freud andMan's Soul (1983). Bettelheim, who grew up with Freud's in their original German, argues that the English translations distort their humanism', rendering Freud's prose as inappropriately abstract, mechanistic and 'scientific'. Bettelheim cites several instances Strachey replaced Freud's original everyday language with highly techni-

terms or even neologisms: e.g. Ich and Es (literally, 'I' and 'it') became 'ego' 'id'; besetzen ('to occupy, investor fill up') became the neologism 'to cathand Fehlleistung (Freud's terms for a slip, meaning literally 'faulty achievebecame 'parapraxis'. Among other complaints, Bette1heim objects to rendering of Seele as 'mind' (instead of 'sour); Deutung as 'interpret-

(instead of 'attempt to grasp the deeper meaning'); and Abisehr as (instead of 'parrying' or 'fending orr). Bettelheim believes that the net of these kinds of inappropriate translations is to put an unfortunate and umecessary distance between Freud and his readers.

Strachey's defence, it should be noted that some of the translations Betteldislikes were conventional, and in common use before Strachey

433

434

FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

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undertook Freud: e.g. 'ego' for lch;'interpretation' for Deutung; and 'mind' Seele if the German term is used in an explicitly mentalistic context. helm's complaint about the translations' mechanistic and 'scientific' tations overlooks the fact that much psychoanalytic theory and language originated in Freud's explicitly mechanistic and scientific model-building r8gos. And most t..liportantly of all, Strachey straightforwardly explains his problematic translations in notes, giving the original German terms as as their literal translations, and openly acknowledging the disadvantages final choices. For example, he candidly admits that Freud himself the neologism 'cathect' for besetzen, and explicitly says that the English is more passive in meaning than the German Abwehr. In matters of Tr~"o"~";; as well as in general scholarship, Strachey's attention to detail is superior to of Bettelheim, who provides neither index nor even original page references the 'translation errors' quoted in his book. Indeed, in many respects the S.E. more complete, and benefits frommore extensive editorial scholarship than Gesamrttelte Werke, its r8-volume German counterpart. Bettelheim's should be kept in mind by the reader of the SE., and of course a knowledge of German is highly desirable for any serious student of works. But still, the edition remains an enormously helpful tool.

nrfHut)!et:e, these candid letters and tentative draft manuscripts never intended

publication provide an extraordinarily close a.nd intimate l~ok at the develof Freud's thought during the most creatrve phase of his career.

years of speculation about the remaining letters, the full correspo?(except for the Project) appeared in r985 as The Complete Letters of SigFreud to Wilhelm Fliess r887-1904, translated and edited by Jeffrey M.

This edition revealed many previously unknown details about Freud's

··'n"~~~···

friendship with Breuer, his intensely emotional and dependent

... rt:J.aUlJH~U.", with Fliess during this critical period and the case of Emma Eck-

. one of his most important early patients.

; In 1974, the executors of the Freud and Jung literary estates co-operated in

. to publish the most extensive correspondence in print so far between

and one of his early disciples: The FreudlJung Letters: The correspondence Sigmund Freud and CG. Jung, edited by Williafu McGuire. Here the and then the deterioration of one of Freud's most important proJe~;MU"''' relationships is vividly documented, as the personalities of both men

through dearly and honestly, if not always entirely positively. The reader an excellent first-hand picture of the internal politics of the young psychomovement .

... Letters o/Sigmund Freud 1873-1939 (1970), edited by his son Ernst, presents .. general selection of Freud's personal letters to nearly a hundred different COf·r(~splonllel1tS, including many to Martha Bernays during their long engagement. briefer sets of correspondence have also been published - with his folKarl Abraham and Oscar Pfister, for example, and the writer Stefan

- and more are being prepared for publication, including the Ernest letters. With the new policies of the Sigmund Freud Archives, it seems that other important archival date-sources will continue to emerge over

2.2. Correspondence and private papers A very large quantity of Freud's private papers, correspondence and lished work has survived, much of it collected by the Sigmund Freud of New York, and deposited in the Library of Congress in Washington. of this material is still closed to scholars, however, as some of its donors tied release dates that extend wen into the next century. Until recently, management of the Archives added restrictions of its own to the viewing papers, leading to considerable controversy and charges of favouritism. N however, most documents are supposed to be open to scholars on the basis equal access, and the Archives have announced their intention of releasing rently unavailable material from restriction as soon as possible. Interested lars may apply directly to the Library of Congress for permission to view open parts of the collection.

Among the most important of the items to be published so far are the and draft manuscripts Freud sent to his intimate friend Wilhelm Fliess Ul.o'."',-"", the years I 887 and 1904. The most scientifically relevant portions of this corre .. spondence, including the Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895), appear Volume I of the S.E.; a larger though still incomplete selection from the

spondence was published in I954 as The Origins of Psychoanalysis: Letters to .

helm Fliess, Drafts and Notes: 1887-I902, edited by Marie Bonaparte, •.•.

'freud and Ernst Kris, with an informative introduction by Kris, Even though

2.3. Biographical and theoretical studies

.... Following freud's death, his family authorized Ernestjones to write his biogra... phy, with full access to private family records and papers; the three volumes of

Jones's The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud appeared in 1953, 1955 and 1957· Though marked by some of the problems to be expected in an authorised bio.•... graphy by an admiring disciple who was also an interested party to many of the .... events he describes, this large work remains the standard account of Freud's

>life and career. Some important supplementary material, particularly about ... Freud's medical history and his relationship with Fliess, was added by Freud's ••••.•• • . physician Max Schur in Freud: Living and Dying (1972). Ronald .•.. Clark's Freud: The Man and the cause (1980) and Peter Gay's Freud: A Life for our Time (1988) lack the first-hand intimacy of the Jones and SChuT biographies,

435

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FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

was a lifelong cocaine addict, for

which received more attention from the popular press than fr~m seri?us of Freud. But one recent accusation of intellectual cowardice against aroused scholars as well as the public, because it carne from ~omeone

was, at least temporarily, very muc~ an insider in ~e psychoanalytIc es~abJeffrey Masson, as Projects Director of the Sigmund ~r:ud Archives

dit f the complete Freud-Fliess correspondence, had privileged access

e • or 0 d hi d .

from which he concluded that Freud did not aban on IS se ucnon

because of contrary evidence, as the standard account of his life asserts, because he lacked the courage to hold to a theory whi~h was ~nacceptable

the Viennese medical authorities. After expressing this view pu~hcly, l'vla~son ily fired from his positions with the Freud Archives, A lively

surnmar . 'd' lib I .

,".O!:<.U'UU' of these events - though one that Masson has dispute ill ale suit

. given in Janet Malcolm's In the FreudArchives (1983).

. l~asson presented his case most fully in the provocatively-entitled bo?k, The

A··· ult on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory (1984). A major part

, ssa f - E k tei F d' h s

'. Masson's argument derived from the case 0 t:~a ~ s em,. reu s y-

patient of the early years, who figured pron:nnendy in p~evlO~sly unpubparts of the Fliess correspondence. (Eckstein was a family friend and f~r

time a psychoanalytic colleague of Freud's; Masson does ?ot say so, but It likely that considerations of confidentiality and professlOnal court~sy led editors of the correspondence to leave details of her case unpublished.) Masson's reading of Freud's comments on this case, along with some other ci~cumstantial evidence from Freud's library, led him to co?clude tha~ F;eud still privately accepted the veridicality ~f his patients' 'seduction memones after he

publicly abandoned the seduction theory. . . . .

Most informed reaction to Masson's book has been negative. Cn~c5 have

noted that th'e passages of correspondence which Masson emphasls~s a:e

.. mbiguous and that the rest of the newly available full correspondence IS still

a , 'd . [;

consistent with the standard view. Moreover, there is strong evi ence 1U avour

of the standard view which Masson overlooks, such as Freud's discov~ry of ~e importance of sexual fantasy (as opposed to reality) in his self-analysis, whlc~ was ongoing at the time he renounced the seduction. theory. ~hroug~out his career, Freud bore considerable abuse because of the Ideas he did publish, and hardly behaved like one who had compromised his principl~s to p~ease the medica! establishment. In sum, Masson's research into the Fliess episode has resulted in the publication of considerable and interesting new ~aterial ab?ut Freud's early career, but it seems unlikely that his inflammatory mterpretauon of that material will be widely accepted by future scholars.

2.4. The social history of psychoanalysis

Besides his published work, Freud also left a wen-develope~ psycho.analytic establishment with innumerable practitioners and followers, which continues as

but benefit from an abundance of recent historical scholarship on Freud. appends an outstanding bibliographical essay to his volume that will guide interested reader to much of this scholarship.

An enormous number of more specialised studies of Freud's life and ground have appeared, and can be sampled only very incompletely here.

works cited below are themselves extensively referenced, however, and adequately introduce the reader to the larger literature.

William J. McGrath's study, Freud's Discovery of Psychoanalysis: The Politics Hysteria (1986) offers a good summary of the literature on Freud's educational and philosphical background, including the influences of nTf'nr<'n~ Charcot and the general atmosphere of/in de siecle Vienna. McGrath also vides an original and useful account of Freud's interest and involvement in tics. Peter Amacher's short monograph, Freud's Neurological Education and Influence on Psychoanalytic Theory (1965), explicates the theories of Briicke, Meynert and some of Freud's other Vienna teachers. outstanding and full account of the more general biological teachings to

Freud was exposed as a young man, and of the idiosyncratic theories by Wilhelm Fliess during his period of great intimacy with Freud,is Frank loway's Freud: Biologist of the Mind (1979). Sulloway argues that Freud's synthesis of these biological ideas formed the real core of psychoanalysis, Freud later disguised in non-biological terminology.

While Sulloway argues for an essential continuity among the phases Freud's work, other scholars have seen marked disjunctions - particularly between his subjectively oriented clinical theory, expressed in terms of feelings, insights etc.; and his more objective and deterministic fflP'tn",,"rh, which treats the mind as a mechanism. George Klein, in his book rsvcnoanaivu« Theory (1976), argues that the two approaches are based on totally different sources, and are logically separate; moreover, Klein argues that the psychology was based on a sterile and outdated neurological reductionism, and predicts that it will soon become little more than a historical curiosity to practising psychoanalysts, who will continue to find great wisdom in the clinical theory. Karl Pribram and Merton Gill approach the issue somewhat differently in Freud's 'Project' reassessed (1976). After documenting the central importance of the ideas expressed in the Project to all of Freud's later metapsychology, they debate the actual scientific value of the work. Gill basically agrees with Klein that the Project and all metapsychology based on it were a dead end; ...... 'nr'''n however, sees in the Project a highly promising model for a modern theory cognitive functioning.

Always controversial, and with the personal details of his life so fully docu- .... mented, Freud has been the target of many attacks on his personal character as well as on his work. Some of these have asserted sensational theses (that Freud,

437

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FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

a major social institution today. Thus the history of the psychoanalytic ment has attracted interest, with the focus not so much on, Freud himself as the other individuals who were associated with him, and the organisations created. Paul Roazen's Freud and his Followers (1976) provides one ~~.----, sive survey of these developments, including details about the dissensions

Adler, Stekel and jung; the politics and policies of the group who .

loyal to Freud and created the international psychoanalytic movement; accounts of the most important female psychoanalysts (including daughter, Anna) who came to occupy prominent places in the mature analytic movement. Separate full biographies of several of these figures Adler, J ung, J ones, Marie Bonaparte and Helene Deutsch) have also been lished and help fill out Roazen's picture.

The reception of psychoanalysis by the larger scientific, medical and establishments in Germany and America has been usefully investigated Hannah S. Decker in Freud in Germany (1977), and by Nathan G. Hale in and the Americans (1971). The phenomenal popular success of 1l~""'"11~71'~1" ideas in pervading modem culture has been examined by Ernest Gellner in Psychoanalytic Movement (1985). Gellner attributes this success not so the scientific validity of the theories, as to the fact that they filled a void in general religious and philosophical atmosphere of our times. U . Gellner's entirely plausible case for the importance of extra-scientific and tural factors may be dismissed by some because it is paired with an arch sometimes misleading description of psychoanalytic theory proper, almost entirely on secondary sources rather than on Freud himself.

that Freud and Jung did, and moreover cannot be placed 'on the to obtain the kinds of associations that would be of most interest and use psychoanalytically-inclined. biographer. Accordingly, ~ost. psychobio~ainvestigations - and there have been many of them III spite of the diffiinvolved - have had to make do with sparse information, and to indulge . some rather speculative reconstruction. Freud's own pioneering study of

da Vinci's childhood turned out to be based on a mistranslated word, his highly unflattering portrait of Woodrow Wilson (w~th William .Bullitt) been severely criticised for its totally unverifiable assertions that childhood and repressed Oedipal feelings produced undesirable adult characterin the American President. Some other works by Freud's followers have from deficiencies as bad or worse.

G en -iliese problems, some historians such as Jaques Barzun and David IV . have argued that the entire enterprise of 'psychohistory' (i.e '. the ~se

depth-psychological and generally Freudian hypotheses to solv~ historical oiro:hlelffiS) is intellectually disreptuable, and ought not to be practIced at a~l. charges are seriously considered but also rebutted by the psychoanalytihistorian Peter Gay, in Freud for Historians (1985). Gay grants that abuses have occurred, but argues that there are still genuine ways in the prudent application of psychoanalytic insight ~ar: be (and has ~een) to historians - particularly in offering a more sophistIcated alternative to

relatively superficial 'common-sense psychology' so often assumed by the~. cites some specific psychoanalytically-infonned biographies and other hisstudies that he believes have succeeded - though it must be conceded his list is short, and does not include a major work in the history of science.

2.5. Psychobiography and psychohistory Besides being the subject of considerable historical investigation, psvchoanalvtic theory has sometimes been employed by biographers and historians as a to help understand their subjects. (See art. I, sect. II.) Unquestionably person studied most extensively in this way, and perhaps to best effect, is himself. Freud left behind many accounts of his own dreams, fantasies childhood memories - the basis of his self-analysis - which were put to use Jones, Schur and Gay in their biographical studies, and by many other analysts in shorter or more specialised studies of their founding Examples of this kind of work, by a group of analysts associated with the cago Institute for Psychoanalysis, may be found in Freud: The Fusion of S and Humanism: The Intellectual History of Psychoanalysis (r 976), edited by Gedo and George Pollock. A rather different but still illuminating example use of depth-psychological (though obviously 'non-Freudian') material is Jung's appropriately entitled autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963).

Needless to say, most historical figures have not left behind the kind

2.6. Psychoanalysis and the philosophy of science

;(Freud's psychoanalytic theories have long been debated wi~ respec~ .to their '.' as 'science'. Karl Popper's assertion that psychoanalytLc proposltIons are '.' ii~hF'rpT'tlv unscientific because they are largely unfalsifiable - i.e, data which at appear to disconfirm them are too easily explained away with alternative _ is orobablv the best known criticism (see art. 54)· On another

'. Jurgen Habermas "and Paul Ricoeur have each charged Freud with. being

...... 'scientistic' in his metapsychological theorising, agreeing with Klein and

.' Gill that the most solid part of psychoanalysis is its clinical thoeory, grounded in

subjective experience. Philosopher Adolf Griinbaum has critically ~xamthese positions in his new and widely reviewed book, The Foundations of (I986), and concluded that while Freud was mist~ken in :uan?,.of his most important conclusions, he was nonetheless vastly superior to hIS critics in the sophistication of his philosophy of science. The JUlie ;:956 iss~.e of the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences contains a precis of the book by Griinbaum,

439

TVRNING POINTS

FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYSIS

followed by thirty-nine invited commentaries on his argument and a -~~"~.~Ujll"" author's response. . ..

These and related controversies about the scientific value and legitimacy· . psychoanalysis will undoubtedly continue into the indefinite future. Pro for a variety of emotional as well as intellectual reasons, Freud's theory has ceeded in capturing the attention of philosophers, historians and scholars many other disciplines, as well as the educated general public. Since the is so multifaceted, and involves so many different problematic and r"'ntT'(W,~,.";"r· but nonetheless important aspects of human experience, a wide different evaluations will undoubtedly continue to be both supported supportable.

The life and uork: of Sigmund Freud, 3 vols. (New York, 1953-57; London, Jones,

1953-57)' , .

G.]ung,iWemories, dreams, reJl.ectlO'n5 (New York, 1963)'

Klein psychoanalytic theory (New York, I976),

... s [colrn In the Freud archives (New York, I983)· r 'I • 1

~.Ma , Th ,it on truth, Freud's sup,hression OJ the seduaion tneory (New York,

]\11. Masson, e assau . r

. /~:brath, Freud's discoveryofpsychoanalysis: the politics of hysteria (Ithaca, NY and

London, I986), (N Y k 6' L don

ib d M M Gill F-eud's 'Project're-assessed lew or, 197, on ,

. . H. Pn ram an . . " .

• I976). 6)

Roazen, Freud and his followers (New York, 1975; London, I97 '

Schur, Freud: living and dying (N,ew York, 1972; London, I972). . Sulloway, Freud: biologist ofthemmd (New York, I979),

FURTHER READING

P. Amacher, Freud's neurological education and its influence on psychoanalytic theory

York, I965).

B. Bettelheirn, Freud and man's soul (New York, I983). R. W. Clark, Freud: The man and the cause (New York, I980). H. S. Decker, Freud in Germany: Revolution and reaction in science,

York, ]977).

R. E. Fancher, Psychoanalytic psychology: The development of Freud's thought (New Y I973)· S. Freud, The standard edition 0/ the complete psychological WOTih of Sigmund Freud, 24 ed. and trans. by J. Strachey in collaboration with A. Freud (London, 1953-1 S. Freud, The origins 0/ psycho-analysis: letters to Wilhelm Fliess, drafts and 1887-1902, ed. by M. Bonaparte, A. Freud, and E. Kris (New York, I954; don, 1954). 5. Freud, Letters of Sigmund Freud 187]-1939, ed. by E. L. Freud, trans. by T. and Stern (London, I970). 5. Freud, The complete letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess 1887-1904, ed, and by J. M, Masson (Cambridge, Mass., I 985). 5. Freud, and W, Bullirr, Thomas Woodrow Wilson: a psychological study (Boston, I966),

S. Freud and C. G. jung, The Freud/Tung letters: the correspondence between Sigmund and C G. Jung, ed. by W. McGurie, trans. by R. Mannheim and R. F, C. Hull. (Princeton, N J, 1974), P. Gay, Freud/or historians (New York and Oxford, 1985),

-- Freud, A Lifefor Our Time (New York and London, I988). J. E. Gedo and G. H. Pollock (eds.), Freud: The fusion a/science and humanism: The'

lectual history of psychoanalysis (New York, 1976).

E. Gellner, The psychoanalytic movement (London, ! 985). A. Grunbaurn, The foundations af psychoanalysis: a philosoph ical critique (Berkeley and Angeles, I984).

A. Grunbaum, 'Precis of The foundations of psychoanalysis: A philosophical critique', ccmmentary and author's response, Behcoiora! and brain sciences, 9 (-!!j86), 2!7-84'

N, G. Hale, Freud and the Americans: the beginnings of psychoanalysis in the United States, .

I876-1917 (New York, Oxford, I971).

441