DOCSLIB.ORG

Psychodynamic Counselling. the Word Psychodynamic Is An

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Psychodynamic Counselling. the Word Psychodynamic Is An Psychodynamic counselling. The word Psychodynamic is an amalgam of two words both of them Greek of origin. The first part “Psyche” can be translated as spirit, mind or soul, while the second part is from the Greek “dynamis” and can be translated as active, forceful, energetic or alive. In the contexts of Counselling and Therapy, the word psychodynamic refers to a Freudian approach. This psychodynamic approach to counselling is also deep rooted in Freudian concepts and theory. Its central theoretical focus is on the unconscious and transference. The Psychodynamic model of counselling is one which places emphasis on past as well as present experiences. It looks at the way a person’s early life, in particular a person’s childhood and relationships with parents and family, has shaped their present personality, their way of thinking and behaving, and their current relationships with people. According to the model, much of what happened in childhood is still present in the unconscious mind, and thus capable of exercising an influence over our adult experiences. Psychotherapists usually work long term with clients. To use the psychodynamic model effectively the counsellor needs to have a thorough understanding of its theoretical principles, along with a commitment to the time and work required for its effective practice. Freud’s theories have been developed and adapted by different strands of psychodynamic theorists. However, many of Freud’s original concepts remain central to the psychodynamic approach, e.g. The unconscious, transference and countertransference. Freud also include the importance of formative childhood experience, sex and relationships, and the use of dreams and metaphor e.g. Inkblots as a way of understanding the human psyche. Freud was fascinated with the material which he believed to be hidden in the human psyche. So he developed and identified three levels or categories of mental process. The Conscious – represents materials, facts, feelings and thoughts which the client is aware of The Sub Conscious – represents materials, ideas memories which are not conscious but are easily accessed. The Unconscious – materials, desires or impulses which lie buried or hidden from the conscious mind The ID, the ego and the super ego Freud went on to identify three driving forces of the mind The ID (IT) The ID is the part of the unconscious mind which contains the instinctual drives and impulses that motivate our behaviour. The primitive impulses driven by our instinctual needs are at odds with the Ego and Superego, EG: Sally was thirsty. Rather than waiting for her mother to refill her glass of water, she reached across the table and drank from her father’s glass of water, much to his surprise. The ID can be thought of as the child part of the unconscious... I want, What I really want…etc The ID has two main driving forces • Eros – the life affirming drive of love and sexuality • Thanatos - the drive towards death and destruction The EGO (I) The EGO is the rational, mainly conscious part of the mind. It makes decisions and copes with the external world. The EGO can be thought of as the “grown-up/adult” side of our mind. It “mediates between the ID and the Superego. It seeks to please the ID’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bring grief EG: Sally was thirsty. While waiting for her mother to refill her glass she asked her fathers if she may take a sip of this water. The Super ego (HIGER I) The SUPEREGO is the “conscious” side of our mind which contains social and paternal rules and taboos. As we take these into our unconscious mind the taboos are translated into “I ought” “I should”. The SUPEREGO is the source of guilt and ideals. EG: Sally was thirsty. She really wanted to take a drink from her father’s glass but decided to wait for her mother to refill her glass The psycodynamic stages of development and fixation The early writings of Freud divided the human development stages into: Stage 1 – 0 -2yrs Oral Stage – The infant experiences pleasure through the mouth, mainly gratification from sucking, breast feeding, or toys or other objects EG dummy put into the mouth “felt” by the mouth Stage 2 - 2 -3yrs Anal Stage – At this stage of development the child take s a sensual interest in their own faeces. They experience a gratification in a substance they produce. From here they can experiment with smearing or eating faeces, withholding or expelling faeces as a means of control. Stage 3 - 3-5yrs Phallic Stage – The Superego develops within this age range a move of interest from the anus to the genitals in the need for gratification and discovery. The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy and fear. At this stage parents become models for role identifications, this leads to the Oedipus and Electra complex’s The Oedipus complex The name of the Oedipus complex derives from the Greek myth where Oedipus, a young man, kills his father and marries his mother. Upon discovering this he pokes his eyes out and becomes blind. This Oedipal is the generic (i.e. general) term for both Oedipus and Electra complexes. In the young boy, the Oedipus complex arises because the boy develops sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother. He wants to possess his mother exclusively and get rid of his father to enable him to do so. Irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were to find out about all this, his father would take away what he loves the most. During the phallic stage what the boy loves most is his penis. Hence the boy develops castration anxiety. The boy believes that all women including his mother have been castrated. The little boy then sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copying and joining in masculine dad-type behaviours. This is called identification and is how the three-to-five- year-old boy resolves his Oedipus complex. Identification means internally adopting the values, attitudes and behaviours of another person. The consequence of this is that the boy takes on the male gender role and adopts an ego ideal and values that become the superego. Freud (1909) offered the Little Hans case study as evidence of the Oedipus The Electra Complex For girls, the Oedipus or Electra complex is less than satisfactory. Briefly, the girl desires the father, but realizes that she does not have a penis. - the girls clitoris acts as a penis until she becomes aware she has no penis This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be a boy. The girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby. The girl blames her mother for her 'castrated state' and this creates great tension. The girl then represses her feelings (to remove the tension) and identifies with the mother to take on the female gender role. Stage 5 – Latency Stage 5 – Puberty – Process which dislodges the Oedipus complex. Sexual development is interrupted suppressed by the Ego so that the child can develop learning skills and gaining knowledge. The ID, Ego and Superego balance themselves ready for the turmoil of puberty. No further psychosexual development takes place during this stage (latent means hidden). The libido is dormant. Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed during the latent stage and sexual energy can be transferred towards schoolwork, hobbies and friendships. Much of the child's energy is channelled into developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge and play becomes largely confined to other children of the same gender. The Genital Stage This begins with puberty and depending on the individual can be affected in adulthood. Psychosexual development of the individual EG: excessively gratified or extremely frustrated Genital Stage This is the last stage of Freud's psychosexual theory of personality development and begins in puberty. It is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation, the successful resolution of which is settling down in a loving one-to-one relationship with another person in our 20's. Sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure, rather than self-pleasure like during the phallic stage. For Freud, the proper outlet of the sexual instinct in adults was through heterosexual intercourse. Fixation and conflict may prevent this with the consequence that sexual perversions may develop. For example, fixation at the oral stage may result in a person gaining sexual pleasure primarily from kissing and oral sex, rather than sexual intercourse . Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Se, 7. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Psychosexual State Transference and countertransference Transference was a term introduced by Freud when describing the events that occurred while he was observing his college Joseph Breuer and his female patient. She had become so dependent of Breuer that she fantasised that she was pregnant with this child. Freud wrote that the transferred emotions led to the elimination of the illness. These manifest feelings really belonged to a past relationship and a solution of the original disturbance would effect a “cure”. Working with transference encourages that which is in the unconscious to be brought to the conscious. This becomes possible when the therapist becomes “a significant” other form the clients past E.G parent/teacher. These feelings can prove to be problematic if of an admiring or erotic nature. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with clients, he felt it was an obstacle to treatment success. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mapsychology113.Pdf
    DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY PATNA UNIVERSITY, PATNA Advance General Psychology, sem-1st Ranjeet Kumar Ranjan Assistant Professor (Part Time) [email protected] Mob. No.-6203743650 PERSONALITY Personality is an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions. FREUD’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY Freud defined personality in four central points i.e., levels of consciousness, the structure of personality, anxiety and defense mechanism, and psychosexual stages of development. Psychosexual stages Oral Stage – The first stage is the oral stage. An infant is in this stage from birth to eighteen months of age. The main focus in the oral stage is pleasure seeking through the infant’s mouth. During this stage, the need for tasting and sucking becomes prominent in producing pleasure. Oral stimulation is crucial during this stage; if the infant’s needs are not met during this time frame he or she will be fixated in the oral stage. Fixation in this stage can lead to adult habits such as thumb-sucking, smoking, over-eating, and nail-biting. Personality traits can also develop during adulthood that are linked to oral fixation; these traits can include optimism and independence or pessimism and hostility. Anal Stage – The second stage is the anal stage which lasts from eighteen months to three years of age. During this stage the infant’s pleasure seeking centers are located in the bowels and bladder. Parents stress toilet training and bowel control during this time period. Fixation in the anal stage can lead to anal-retention or anal- expulsion. Anal retentive characteristics include being overly neat, precise, and orderly while being anal expulsive involves being disorganized, messy, and destructive.
    [Show full text]
  • Don't Make a Freudian Slip
    PSYCHOLOGY DON’T MAKE A FREUDIAN SLIP Resources for Courses Activity Overview Outlining Freud’s Theory of Gender Development is a difficult task. Firstly, there are a lot of specialist terms that students often fail to include (e.g. unconscious processes, identification and internalisation) and secondly, it is very difficult to write a concise summary of Freud’s Theory because there is so much to include. The aim of this task is to consolidate student’s knowledge of the key Freudian terms and to practice writing a concise summary of Freud’s Theory of Gender Development. Resources Required . Don’t Make A Freudian Slip Handout Teacher Instructions Teaching & Learning Strategy A Provide the students with a copy of the Don’t Make A Freudian Slip Handout. Ask the students to read each paragraph in turn and add in the missing specialist terminology. After that, once you have gone through the answers, ask your students to highlight the specialist terminology related to Freud’s Theory of Gender Development. Once your students have completed the first task, ask them to write a concise summary of Freud’s Theory in approximately 125-175 words, while trying to incorporate all of the key features of Freud’s Theory. Tell the students to image that they are answering the following exam question: Describe and evaluate Freud’s psychoanalytic explanation of gender development. (16 marks) If you want to be cruel, only give your students six-eight minutes to complete their summary, as this is roughly the length of time they would have to write an outline in their exam.
    [Show full text]
  • SLIPS of the TONGUE: the FACTS and a STRATIFICATIONAL MODEL by Gary S. Dell and Peter A. Reich
    SLIPS OF THE TONGUE: THE FACTS AND A STRATIFICATIONAL MODEL by Gary S. Dell and Peter A. Reich One of the best ways of finding out how a system is constructed is to observe what happens when that system breaks down, when it fails to operate perfectly. Suppose you regularly receive a check from a small company, The check may be generated by a human being, or it may be produced by a computer. So long as everything operates perfectly, it would be impossible to determine which. But you may get clues if a mistake occurs, because computers and human beings make different types of errors. If you get a check for $0.00, it is likely to be a computer error. If you get a check for $517.00 when you are owed $571.00, it is likely to be a human error, because human beings often transpose digits. Similarly, if your goal is to find out what the system is like that underlies language, it can be very useful to look at what happens when things go wrong. This is the issue to which this paper is addressed. We shall review one class of language errors-slips of the tongue-to explore the implications this phenomenon has toward understanding in general how language processing works in human beings. We shall argue that stratificational grammar may be on the right track as a model of language behavior, because a modified version of it can be designed that makes very humanlike errors. THE FACTS Slips of the tongue as a Iinguistic phenomenon have been known about and studied since before the time of Freud.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Psychoanalysis Psikologi Kepribadian
    Classical Psychoanalysis Psikologi Kepribadian Rizqy Amelia Zein 2017-09-14 1 / 67 [1] Image credit: Giphy 2 / 67 Classical Psychoanalysis [...also known as Ego Psychology, Psychodynamics] 3 / 67 First things rst: Instinct! 4 / 67 Instincts (1) Freud denes it as the motivating forces that drive behaviour and determine its direction. Instinct (or Trieb in German), is a form of energy, that is transformed into physical energy and serve its function to connect the physical and psychological needs. Freud argues that human always experience instinctual tension and unable to escape from it. So most of our activities are directed to reduce this tension. People could have different ways to reduce the tension (e.g. sexual drives can manifest in various sexual behaviours). It's also possible to substitute the objects (displacement) and this process is primarily important to determine one's behaviour. Freud coined the terms "life" and "death" instincts, which posit different process of primal motivations. 11 / 67 Instincts (2) The Life Instinct 1. Serve the purpose of survival of the individual and the species by seeking to satisfy the needs for food, water, air, and sex. 2. The life instincts are oriented toward growth and development. The psychic energy manifested by the life instincts is the libido. 3. The libido can be attached to or invested in objects, a concept Freud called cathexis. 4. So if you like Ryan Gosling so much, for example, then your libido is cathected to him. 12 / 67 Instincts (2) The Death Instinct 1. In opposition to the life instincts, Freud postulated the destructive or death instincts.
    [Show full text]
  • Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy
    ninth edition Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy GERALD COREY California State University, Fullerton Diplomate in Counseling Psychology American Board of Professional Psychology $XVWUDOLDä%UD]LOä-DSDQä.RUHDä0H[LFRä6LQJDSRUHä6SDLQä8QLWHG.LQJGRPä8QLWHG6WDWHV Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. About the Author GERALD COREY is a Professor Emeritus of Human Serv- ices at California State University at Fullerton and a licensed psychologist. He received his doctorate in counseling from the University of Southern California. He is a Diplomate in Counseling Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology; a National Certified Counselor; a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Counseling Psychol- ogy); a Fellow of the American Counseling Association; and Associated Press a Fellow of the Association for Specialists in Group Work. He also holds memberships in the American Group Psycho- therapy Association; the American Mental Health Counselors Association; the As- sociation for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling; the Associa- tion for Counselor Education and Supervision; and the Western Association for Coun selor Education and Supervision. Along with Marianne Schneider Corey, Jerry received the Lifetime Achieve- ment Award from the American Mental Health Counselors Association in 2011 and the Eminent Career Award from the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2001.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychoanalytic Theory
    Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark. Psychoanalytic Theory Theories of counseling- OMC 18th January, 2011 Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark. Dr Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 n Oldest of eight children n Married with 3 girls and 3 boys n Physician-Biologist – Scientific oriented and Pathology oriented theory n Jewish-anti-religion-All religion an illusion used to cope with feelings of infantile helplessness n In Vienna Austria 78 years till 1938 n Based theory on personal experiences n Died of cancer of jaw & mouth lifelong cigar chain-smoker Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Approach: n Model of personality development n Philosophy of Human Nature n Method of Psychotherapy n Identified dynamic factors that motivate behavior n Focused on role of unconscious n Developed first therapeutic procedures for understanding & modifying structure of one’s basic character Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark. Determinism n Freud’s perspective n Behavior is determined by n Irrational forces n Unconscious motivations n Biological and instinctual drives as they evolve through the six psychosexual stages of life Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark. Instincts n Libido – sexual energy – survival of the individual and human race- oriented towards growth, development & creativity – Pleasure principle – goal of life gain pleasure and avoid pain n Death instinct – accounts for aggressive drive – to die or to hurt themselves or others n Sex and aggressive drives- powerful determinants of peoples actions Please purchase PDFcamp Printer on http://www.verypdf.com/ to remove this watermark.
    [Show full text]
  • Sigmund Freud
    Term Test 4 • mean = 73.6 • SD = 12.6 • range = 39-100 • one Q discarded • optional exam viewing to follow once Final exam everyone has written • Thurs April 15, 2 pm test • Winter semester only • 30% of course grade, mult choice, up to 100 Qs • 60% last third, 20% middle third, 20% first third • optional review session, last day of classes Three Minute Review SOCIAL INFLUENCE: OBEDIENCE • Why do people obey to an extreme degree? – Cult followers • Jonestown, Waco – bureaucrats in genocides • Nazi Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, etc. • Milgram’s Obedience Experiments – The majority of people will follow orders to an extreme degree – Results surprised many people, esp. psychologists – Affected by proximity to victim, proximity to authority, and reactions of others in same situation – Not affected by personality traits • Stanford Prison Experiment – Ordinary people get caught up in roles • Banality of evil (Hannah Arendt) – Perhaps Adolf Eichmann was no different than the rest of us • Psychology of genocide 1. difficult living conditions, fierce competition for resources 2. strong in- vs. out-groups 3. violence, blaming the victim 4. violence justifies itself • can’t stop because of cognitive dissonance Take a Personality Test • Take the test • Put your ID but NOT your name • Check the web site for results • Read instructions on the web carefully It’s a Small World After All • Stanley Milgram also did other cool, more optimistic experiments • Milgram (1967) -- If you pick any two people at random, how many intermediate acquaintances does it take to establish a link between them? Joe Smith Timothy Kuhn Omaha, Neb. Boston, Mass.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious
    Neuropsychoanalysis, 2011, 13 (1) 5 The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious Heather A. Berlin (New York) A great deal of complex cognitive processing occurs at the unconscious level and affects how humans behave, think, and feel. Sci- entists are only now beginning to understand how this occurs on the neural level. Understanding the neural basis of consciousness requires an account of the neural mechanisms that underlie both conscious and unconscious thought, and their dynamic interac- tion. For example, how do conscious impulses, thoughts, or desires become unconscious (e.g., repression) or, conversely, how do unconscious impulses, desires, or motives become conscious (e.g., Freudian slips)? Research taking advantage of advances in technologies, like functional magnetic resonance imaging, has led to a revival and re-conceptualization of some of the key concepts of psychoanalytic theory, but steps toward understanding their neural basis have only just commenced. According to psychoanalytic theory, unconscious dynamic processes defensively remove anxiety-provoking thoughts and impulses from consciousness in re- sponse to one’s conflicting attitudes. The processes that keep unwanted thoughts from entering consciousness include repression, suppression, and dissociation. In this literature review, studies from psychology and cognitive neuroscience in both healthy and patient populations that are beginning to elucidate the neural basis of these phenomena are discussed and organized within a con- ceptual framework. Further studies in this emerging field at the intersection of psychoanalytic theory and neuroscience are needed. Keywords: unconscious; psychodynamic; repression; suppression; dissociation; neural “Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.” 1998a). Early psychodynamic theorists attempted to Ludwig Wittgenstein [1889–1951] explain phenomena observed in the clinic, but lat- er cognitive scientists used computational models of the mind to explain empirical data.
    [Show full text]
  • The University of Sheffield Object
    The University of Sheffield Object Relations Middle Group and Attachment Theory: Gender Development, Spousal Abuse, and Qualitative Research On Youth Crime s. S. Wier PhD Object Relations Middle Group and Attachment Theory: Gender Development, Spousal Abuse, and Qualitative Research on Youth Crime Stewart Scott Wier PhD Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies January 2003 Acknowledgments There are a number of people to whom I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation for their role in facilitating this achievement. Dr. Don Carveth first introduced me to the subject of psychoanalytic thought. He encouraged me to develop the potential he saw as an undergraduate student, and has continued to do so over the years, the most recent being through his endorsement of this particular dream. Dr. Gottfried Paasche is responsible for acquainting me with the process of qualitative methods of research, around which much of this paper is based, as well as for sponsoring my application to pursue this endeavor. The initial efforts for this project began over a decade ago at the University of Exeter under the direction of Dr. Paul Kline. He provided outstanding support and optimism surrounding these labours, in addition to showing compassion about my eventual decision to suspend them. Several years later, and following the retirement of Dr. Kline, Dr. Robert Young ofthe University of Sheffield, willingly assumed the responsibility ofacting as my subsequent supervisor despite the enormous demands on his time. The chair of the department for Psychotherapeutic Studies, Geraldine Shipton, displayed integrity, moral commitment, and consistency throughout the entire process. Dr. Christopher Cordess and Dr. Corinne Squire provided informed and respectful critical comments through a very cordial session which served to make a potentially distressing experience exceedingly pleasant, and brought considerable improvement to the first effort.
    [Show full text]
  • Four Conditions for Research in Psychoanalysis Article
    Psicologia USP, 2021, volume 32, e190162 1-9 1 Artigo Quatro condições para a pesquisa em psicanálise Daniel Coelhoa* Eduardo Leal Cunhab aUniversidade Federal de Sergipe. São Cristóvão, SE, Brasil bUniversidade Federal de Sergipe. São Cristóvão, SE, Brasil Resumo: Este artigo discute o uso da psicanálise – em especial da técnica psicanalítica baseada na associação livre – em investigações no campo da psicologia social, a partir da experiência dos autores em um programa de pós-graduação. Para tanto, tentamos produzir uma reflexão sobre as condições e os impactos do deslocamento de conceitos entre a clínica do sofrimento psíquico individual e a pesquisa empírica envolvendo instituições e grupos. Centrando-se na afirmação do primado do inconsciente, os autores procuram ordenar as linhas de aproximação e de afastamento entre a clínica e a pesquisa empírica. Parte-se da discussão sobre as condições necessárias (fora do setting terapêutico) à escuta do inconsciente, ao estabelecimento do vínculo transferencial, ao trabalho de interpretação dos discursos dos sujeitos, e, por fim, à elaboração de conteúdos e desejos inconscientes – seja por parte dos sujeitos escutados da pesquisa, seja por parte do próprio pesquisador em seu trabalho de elaboração teórica. Palavras-chave: psicologia; psicanálise; metodologia de pesquisa. Introdução das satisfações do eu, na abstinência exigida em relação à transferência e no controle sobre o qual se deve manter a O tema da pesquisa em psicanálise frequentemente contratransferência, numa discussão que parte da crítica aparece restrito à sua dimensão clínica (Lo Bianco, 2003), de Freud às práticas de hipnose e sugestão de seus mestres. centrado numa interrogação sobre a eficácia da psicanálise O debate não envolve apenas a reflexão sobre a eficácia como método terapêutico e na busca da comprovação clínica dos métodos, mas também o desenho de uma dessa eficácia e sua vinculação com aspectos particulares postura ética e política (Coelho & Birman, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • Erich Fromm, Judaism, and the Frankfurt School by Douglas
    Erich Fromm, Judaism, and the Frankfurt School By Douglas Kellner (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/kellner.html) The Frankfurt School had a highly ambivalent relation to Judaism. On one hand, they were part of that Enlightenment tradition that opposed authority, tradition, and all institutions of the past -- including religion. They were also, for the most part, secular Jews who did not support any organized religion, or practice religious or cultural Judaism. In this sense, they were in the tradition of Heine, Marx, and Freud for whom Judaism was neither a constitutive feature of their life or work, nor a significant aspect of their self-image and identity. And yet the Frankfurt School's relation to Judaism was varied. Several of the key members of the group had orthodox Jewish upbringings, or at least studied and practiced some elements of Judaism. Moreover, for some of the members, Judaism played an important role in their life and work. For Walter Benjamin and Erich Fromm, their Judaic heritage figured importantly in key stages of their lives and works. Judaism was of some but arguably not major significance at different stages of their lives for Lowenthal and Horkheimer; and Judaism appears not to have been particularly important for Marcuse and Adorno. Yet all Jews were outsiders in Weimar Germany and all of the Frankfurt School were forced into exile because of their Jewish background after the rise of fascism in 1933. One could argue that the members of the Frankfurt School were also to some extent outsiders in the United States where they found exile in part at least because of their Jewishness.
    [Show full text]
  • Jacques Lacan -The French Freud?
    Jacques Lacan -the French Freud? John Bird French intellectual life appears to exercise a contexts: (i) ten months of wrestling with Lacan's fascination, some might say a dreadful influence, on texts; Cii) a developing awareness that Freud had the .English intellectual avant-garde. In the 1960s already said all that is important in Lacan in a far it was the tortuous debate between Sartre and Levi­ more accessible form and, by implication, that what Strauss; in the 1970s, the 'true', dehumanised Marxism is new in Lacan is radically non-Freudian; (iii) a of Althusser; and as we enter the 1980s, we have a new developing annoyance with unclarity, with a position master, embodied in the labyrinthine prose of Jacques that sees the world as so opaque that study of it Lacan. The 'theory of the subject' is with us and yields only incomprehensible edifices in front of Freud has, at last, been assimilated into Parisian which the mind reels. debate, and in this process, into Marxism itself. And yet, doubts exist. How far are we still with Freud? Is the Marx/Freud marriage legitimate? One is initially bedazzled by La.can's elephantine prose, beguiled by his new conceptual armoury, a uniting of The Three Processes Freud and linguistics, in whose glossaries the word Three processes are crucial for Lacan in any under­ 'real' is defined under the entry for 'imaginary'. standing of the person and of his entry into the And then comes the act of interpretation, an act in world of rules, of society. One of the processes is which many have already failed, and many will continue centrally Freudian, the Oedipus situation, which to do so.
    [Show full text]