On Freuds Construction in Analysis
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ON FREUD’S “CONSTRUCTIONS IN ANALYSIS” CONTEMPORARY FREUD Turning Points and Critical Issues Series Editor: Leticia Glocer Fiorini IPA Publications Committee Leticia Glocer Fiorini (Buenos Aires), Chair; Samuel Arbiser (Buenos Aires); Paulo Cesar Sandler (São Paulo); Christian Seulin (Lyon); Gennaro Saragnano (Rome); Mary Kay O’Neil (Montreal); Gail S. Reed (New York) On Freud’s “Analysis Terminable and Interminable” edited by Joseph Sandler Freud’s “On Narcissism: An Introduction” edited by Joseph Sandler, Ethel Spector Person, Peter Fonagy On Freud’s “Observations on Transference-Love” edited by Ethel Spector Person, Aiban Hagelin, Peter Fonagy On Freud’s “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming” edited by Ethel Spector Person, Peter Fonagy, Sérvulo Augusto Figueira On Freud’s “A Child Is Being Beaten” edited by Ethel Spector Person On Freud’s “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego” edited by Ethel Spector Person On Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” edited by Leticia Glocer Fiorini, Thierry Bokanowski, Sergio Lewkowicz On Freud’s “The Future of an Illusion” edited by Mary Kay O’Neil & Salman Akhtar On Freud’s “Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defence” edited by Thierry Bokanowski & Sergio Lewkowicz On Freud’s “Femininity” edited by Leticia Glocer Fiorini & Graciela Abelin-Sas Rose On Freud’s “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” edited by Salman Akhtar and Mary Kay O’Neil ON FREUD’S “CONSTRUCTIONS IN ANALYSIS” Edited by Sergio Lewkowicz & Thierry Bokanowski, with Georges Pragier CONTEMPORARY FREUD Turning Points and Critical Issues KARNAC Chapter 2, “Construction: The Central Paradigm of Psychoanalytic Work”, by Jacques Press, first published in French in Revue Française de Psychanalyse, © PUF, 2008. By permission of the publisher. First published in 2011 by Karnac Books 118 Finchley Road London NW3 5HT Copyright © 2011 by The International Psychoanalytical Association All contributors retain the copyright to their own chapters. The rights of the editors and contributors to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978–1–85575–706–6 Edited, designed, and produced by Communication Crafts Printed in Great Britain www.karnacbooks.com CONTENTS CONTEMPORARY FREUD IPA Publications Committee vii PREFACE ix EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS xiii Introduction Jorge Canestri 1 PART I “Constructions in Analysis”(1937d) Sigmund Freud 9 PART II Discussion of “Constructions in Analysis” 1 Freud’s basic assumptions on “constructions” Mikael Sundén 25 v vi Contents 2 Construction: the central paradigm of psychoanalytic work Jacques Press 31 3 Reconstruction in contemporary psychoanalysis Harold P. Blum 44 4 Constructions and historicization Abel Fainstein 58 5 Creative construction Michèle Bertrand 73 6 Construction then and now Howard B. Levine 87 7 Knowledge as fact and knowledge as experience: Freud’s “Constructions in Analysis” David Bell 101 8 The conundrum of time in psychoanalysis Elias Mallet da Rocha Barros & Elizabeth Lima da Rocha Barros 127 9 On deconstruction Stefano Bolognini 148 REFERENCES 173 INDEX 187 CONTEMPORARY FREUD IPA Publications Committee This significant series was founded by Robert Wallerstein and first edited by Joseph Sandler, Ethel Spector Person, and Peter Fonagy, and its important contributions have greatly interested psychoana- lysts of different latitudes. The objective of this series is to approach Freud’s work from a present and contemporary point of view. On the one hand, this means highlighting the fundamental contributions of his work that constitute the axes of psychoanalytic theory and practice. On the other, it implies the possibility of getting to know and spreading the ideas of present psychoanalysts about Freud’s oeuvre, both where they coincide and where they differ. This series considers at least two lines of development: a con- temporary reading of Freud that reclaims his contributions and a clarification of the logical and epistemic perspectives from which he is read today. Freud’s theory has branched out, and this has led to a theoreti- cal, technical, and clinical pluralism that has to be worked through. It has therefore become necessary to avoid a snug and uncritical coexistence of concepts in order to consider systems of increasing vii viii Contemporary Freud complexities that take into account both the convergences and the divergences of the categories at play. Consequently, this project has involved an additional task—that is, gathering psychoanalysts from different geographical regions representing, in addition, different theoretical stances, in order to be able to show their polyphony. This also means an extra effort for the reader that has to do with distinguishing and discriminating, establishing relations or contradictions that each reader will have to eventually work through. Being able to listen to other theoretical viewpoints is also a way of exercising our listening capacities in the clinical field. This means that the listening should support a space of freedom that would allow us to hear what is new and original. In this spirit we have brought together authors deeply rooted in the Freudian tradition and others who have developed theories that had not been explicitly taken into account in Freud’s work. In “Constructions in Analysis” Freud introduces the notion of constructions, different from interpretation, and considers it neces- sary—under certain conditions—to reconstruct a part of the infan- tile history of the subject. The difference between construction and reconstruction, as well as which should be the limit of the interven- tion of the analyst in order to avoid a proposal far removed from the patient discourse, are part of present debates on this subject. The editors—Thierry Bokanowski, Sergio Lewkowicz, and Georges Pragier—together with the contributors to this volume accepted the challenge to consider Freudian ideas and their im- plications today. Special thanks are due to Charles Hanly, the President of the IPA, and to the editors and contributors to this title, which enriches the Contemporary Freud series. Leticia Glocer Fiorini Series Editor Chair of the Publications Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association PREFACE We are honoured to present this new book in the Contemporary Freud Series, updating with discussions and new developments the seminal work of Sigmund Freud. Interpret? Construct? De-construct? Re-construct? As Freud put it in his paper, “Constructions in Analysis” (1937d)— which he wrote at roughly the same time as Analysis Terminable and Interminable (1937c)—the aim of psychoanalytic work basically involves the lifting of repression, which, in turn, enables the lifting of infantile amnesia and may lead to the revivifying of early emo- tional experiences. In order to reach that objective, analysts have two means—two instruments—at their disposal: interpretation and construction. In the classical sense of the term, interpretation has to do with making meaningful a fragment of material in order to facilitate understanding of the unconscious issues that lie behind it, whereas construction, based on the interpretations that have preceded it, brings several elements of the material together, puts them in some ix x Preface kind of order, and completes them; the resultant synthesis—which may in certain cases be a hypothesis—gives new meaning to the infantile conflict involved. On that very general basis, how are we to differentiate between interpretation and construction? From a technical point of view, should the one be contrasted with the other? Would it not be true to say that every interpretation must of necessity include some degree of construction—and, vice versa, that any given construction must be based on some element of interpretation? Perhaps, then, we ought to think in terms of a necessary “circularity” between interpretation and construction. At what specific moments in psychoanalytic treatment might we find ourselves giving pride of place to the work of construction over that of interpretation? Similarly, under what conditions might it be said that construction is a necessary—and perhaps even indispen- sable—step to take? Fundamentally, could it have something to do with the fact that, when some elements are revived in the session, there appears to be nothing in that re-experiencing that implies any “return of the repressed”, in spite of the work of interpretation that has been carried out? In other words, what are the modali- ties of recourse to construction when remembering turns out to be impossible because of the erasing—or even of the complete absence—of any “memory traces” that we find in mental patterns that have their roots in some trauma or other that had occurred before the acquisition of speech? Does construction not also imply de-construction, with the sub- sequent need to re-construct? In such circumstances, how can the work of construction enable “historical truth” to be re-established, as compared with and in relation to “material truth” (Freud, 1939a [1937–1939])? What role does the countertransference play in the work of construction? What involvement do