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What Is Psychoanalysis? What is Psychoanalysis? In a radically powerful interpretation of the human condition, this book redefines the discipline of psychoanalysis by examining its fundamental assumptions about the unconscious mind, the nature of personal history, our sexualities, and the significance of the “Oedipus Complex.” With striking originality, Barratt explains the psychoanalytic way of exploring our inner realities, and criticizes many of the schools of “psychoanalytic psychotherapy” that emerged and prospered during the 20th Century. In 1912, Sigmund Freud formed a “Secret Committee,” charged with the task of protecting and advancing his discoveries. In this book, Barratt argues both that this was a major mistake, making the discipline more like a religious organization than a science, and that this continues to infuse psychoanalytic institutes today. What is Psychoanalysis? takes each of the four “fundamental concepts” that Freud himself said were the cornerstones of his science of healing, and offers a fresh and detailed re-examination of their contemporary importance. Barratt’s analysis demonstrates how the profound work, as well as the play- fulness, of psychoanalysis, provides us with a critique of the ideologies that support oppression and exploitation on the social level. It will be of interest to advanced students of clinical psychology or philosophy, as well as psycho- analysts and psychotherapists. Barnaby B. Barratt, formerly Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University in Detroit, he now prac- tices psychoanalysis in Johannesburg, South Africa, and holds professorial appointments at the University of Witwatersrand and at the University of Cape Town. What is Psychoanalysis? 100 Years after Freud’s ‘Secret Committee’ Barnaby B. Barratt First published 2013 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Barnaby B. Barratt The right of Barnaby B. Barratt to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Barratt, Barnaby B., 1950– What is psychoanalysis? : 100 years after Freud’s ‘secret committee’ / Barnaby B. Barratt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Psychoanalysis. 2. Freud, Sigmund, 1856–1939. I. Title. BF173.B206 2012 150.19´5—dc23 2012011078 ISBN: 978-0-415-69273-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-69274-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-09505-8 (ebk) Typeset in Garamond by Book Now Ltd, London May all beings be happy and free; may these writings contribute to the happiness and freedom of all beings. Contents About the author ix Preface xi 1 Opening the question 1 2 Consciousness and the dynamics of repression 11 3 Personal history and repetition-compulsivity 39 4 Sensual embodiment and the erotics of experience 65 5 Oedipal complexities 88 6 What are healing practices? 115 7 Notes on psychoanalytic treatment 131 8 Ideology-critique and spiritual–existential praxis 165 References 181 Index 213 About the author Barnaby B. Barratt, PhD, DHS, practices psychoanalysis in Johannesburg, where he is a Training Analyst with the South Africa Psychoanalytic Association, and a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He was previ- ously a Training Analyst with the American Psychoanalytic Association and Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University in Detroit. Currently, he is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town and Visiting Professor at the University of Witwatersrand. He may be contacted at [email protected]. Other books by Barnaby B. Barratt Psychic Reality and Psychoanalytic Knowing (Analytic Press, 1984) Psychoanalysis and the Postmodern Impulse: Knowing and Being since Freud’s Psychology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) The Way of the BodyPrayerPath: Erotic Freedom and Spiritual Enlightenment (Xlibris/Random House, 2004) Sexual Health and Erotic Freedom (Xlibris/Random House, 2005) Ten Keys to Successful Sexual Partnering (Xlibris/Random House, 2005) What is Tantric Practice? (Xlibris/Random House, 2006) Liberating Eros (Xlibris/Random House, 2009) The Emergence of Somatic Psychology and Bodymind Therapy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) Preface My purpose in this book is to provoke discussion and genuine dialogue among students, academic colleagues, and practitioners about the authentic conditions of the healing modality known as psychoanalysis. How is this discipline to be defined? What makes psychoanalysis psychoanalytic? And how are we to establish its distinctive features that might empower us to dif- ferentiate it from other modes of discourse, and from other modes of dyadic interaction? In my scholarly assessment and in my personal experience, psy- choanalysis constitutes one of the great discourses of human liberation. Yet, as a discipline, especially as one that claims not only to heal the psyche but to do so scientifically (which is to say, at the very least, in a methodical and comprehensible manner), it has a peculiar history of recurrent controversies and crises. Even today it is arguably in a disheartening condition of intellec- tual and experiential disarray; hence, the mandate of renewed examination and debate. What is psychoanalysis? To anyone unfamiliar with its checkered history, it might seem strange to have to ask this question over 11 decades after Sigmund Freud’s proclamation of this new discipline. Surely if it has been around this long, we should know what it is? This may seem stranger still given that, in many parts of the world, the practice of “psychoanalysis” appears to be thriving. Almost all of the Western European countries have longstanding psychoanalytic organizations and, since the dramatic events of reunification, countries in the former Eastern Bloc are now developing their own institutes. Candidates are being trained, professional papers are being written, conferences are being held, and – most importantly – patients are being treated. Psychoanalytic organizations all across South and Central America have a vitality that is impressive, and similar organizations are also significantly active in Australasia. In the United States, the American Psychoanalytic Association, as well as other North American institutes affili- ated with the International Psychoanalytic Association, remains moderately strong and “psychoanalytic therapy,” under the auspices of the American Psychological Association, has been an ebullient presence in the past few decades. Moreover, despite cultural differences that are not to be underesti- mated, the presence of psychoanalytic organizations in other parts of the xii Preface world – South Asia, the Far East, and Africa – is gradually being felt. Psychoanalysis may have originated in a Eurocentric manner, and subse- quently been dominated by the affluence of its North American adoption, but its universal potential as a healing modality is being explored in ways that are, to say the least, fascinating. So given all this activity across the globe, why would we need to ask what the discipline is? The answer, of course, is that institutional structures do not – and should not – be taken to define the intellectual and experiential viability of a discipline. The mere fact that training institutes produce card-carrying practitioners of an organization labeled “psychoanalytic” says next to nothing about the discourse being practiced. And it is the question of discourse that concerns this book. Today, well over 100 years since Sigmund Freud’s initial grasp – in the twilight years of the nineteenth century – of a discursive method by which to allow our unconscious mind to disclose itself, almost every educated person across the globe knows that there is such a discipline as psychoanalysis. Yet few can define it (contrast this with, for example, microbiology, astronomy, or linguistics). Indeed, even comparatively talented students of the human sciences, including those training for the mental health professions, usually fumble for a definition and have only a hazy vision of how psychoanalysis actually operates. Surely this is a rather odd state of affairs? Additionally, such students are not always readily able to locate a sophisticated text that can offer a concise and reasonably authoritative exposition of this healing art that also claims the honorific status of a science. So while the primary purpose of this book is to inspire renewed debate over the definitional essentials of the discipline as a special mode of discourse, a secondary purpose is to provide a sophisticated, even if challenging, text that introduces an intellectually- discerning person to the powerfully transformative discipline known as psychoanalysis
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