Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy (review)

Ronald W. Wright

Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2003, pp. 165-168 (Review)

Published by The Ohio State University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/psy.2003.0026

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/40719

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Cushman, Philip. the social, moral, and political work hard, expand into the fron- Constructing the Self, Con- into psychotherapy. tier, and take advantage of Amer- structing America: A Influenced by Foucault, ica’s vast natural resources that Cultural History of Gadamer, and Heidegger, Cush- could be used for capitalistic gain. Psychotherapy. Cambridge, man argues that the self is always a Thus, the solution for Beard was MA: Perseus, 1995. product of the historical, cultural, to strengthen and liberate the self and moral landscape and is con- so that is could be free to find its In his book, Constructing the Self, structed by those in power. The fulfillment in work. Whereas the Constructing America, Philip growing power of capitalism, the European self had too much inside Cushman reminds us that the so- urbanization of America, and the and needed to be dominated, the cial realm has a powerful impact increasing need to create con- American self had too little inside on the configuration of the sumers is kept at the fore through- and needed to be strengthened self, and he presents a sweeping out his analysis of the shifting and liberated. hermeneutical analysis of how configuration of the self in Ameri- The construction of the American culture has constructed can history. The differing con- American self as having too little the self since the Civil War. While structions of the self by those in inside and needing liberation plays most of the book is dedicated to power are well exemplified in his an important role for Cushman in situating the construction of the discussion of the differences be- the banalization of psychoanalysis self within American historical tween Europeans’ and Americans’ in America. American psychiatrists and cultural contexts, the most conceptions of the self during the latched on to Freud’s idea of the challenging implications of his ar- Victorian age. Contrasting two unconscious after his visit to Clark gument come in his critique of “illnesses”—Freud’s notion of University in 1909 because it of- psychotherapy, particularly psy- hysteria with American neurolo- fered an interior “frontier” that choanalysis, in America. It is in gist George Beard’s conception of could be explored limitlessly, but this critique of psychotherapy and neurasthenia— Cushman argues promised pragmatic and liberating psychoanalysis as an “objective,” that Freud’s notion of illness aris- results. This allowed psychiatry to “apolitical” science dealing with ing from uncontrolled sexual or establish itself as a major player in “universal” and “ahistorical” selves aggressive impulses paralleled the the cultural landscape, giving that he persuasively argues that European state’s need to maintain creditability to a young profession psychotherapy discourse is always a capitalistic economy in areas of and beginning the ethos of the about the moral and the political. limited resources while also con- “therapeutic.” With this turn to- The challenge, then, is to develop trolling the population. That is, wards what Cushman terms the a subversive psychotherapy that in Europe where the political “enchanted interior,” the uncon- refuses to unwittingly reinforce solution was to dominate the scious became an important con- current configurations of the self population, the interior self was cept in the American capitalistic (which, since World War II, constructed as dangerous and framework as it lent itself easily to Cushman characterizes as an dark and in need of self-domina- a consumerist construction of the “empty” self) through its theories tion. In America, on the other self. and practices. This is not a small hand, Beard’s conceptualization of In what is perhaps the most task, but Cushman provides an neurasthenia as nervous exhaus- innovative piece of his hermeneu- important piece of scholarship tion or lethargy paralleled the tical analysis, Cushman discusses promoting the reintegration of state’s need to get its citizens to the ascent in America of psycho-

JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2003 copyright © 2003 by The Ohio State University 166 analytic object relations theory construction of the self. Klein’s self our consumerized era are ac- over and against Sullivan’s inter- is constantly internalizing (con- cepted as ahistorical illnesses, personal psychoanalytic frame- suming) and spitting out (projec- then we have no way of resist- work. He uses Melanie Klein and tive identification), which pro- ing consumerism. Psychother- Harry Stack Sullivan as examples vided a language and healing apy then becomes just another of two different “roads” with technology that made sense in an voice implicitly encouraging which psychoanalysis was con- increasingly consumerist culture. compliance with the status fronted. One “road,” the interper- For Cushman this shift is some- quo. We are told by self psy- sonal psychoanalytic theory of thing to lament, as the potential chology and object relations Sullivan, led to an evaluation of of psychoanalysis to play a role in theory that the empty self is the social. Sullivan argued for un- understanding the impact of the the natural configuration of derstanding the impact of culture, social has been banalized to an un- human being, and its atten- ethnicity, and socioeconomic sta- witting reinforcement of the con- dant problems, such as tus on the creation of the self and struction of the empty self. disunity and confusion, self- was heavily interested in the polit- To drive home the point of preoccupation, loneliness, ac- ical aspects of the self. For Sulli- psychoanalytic theory as both re- quisitiveness, and competitive- van, personal individuality was an flecting its historical and cultural ness, are caused by parental “illusion” because individuality context and then reinforcing the failure; that the drivenness to was always an interpersonal current construction of the fill up one’s interior emptiness process. The other “road,” the ob- “empty” self, Cushman critiques by consuming psychological ject relations theory of Melanie the object relations theory of Don- objects is essential, natural, Klein, located the social inside the ald W. Winnicott and Heinz healthy human activity; that individual. For Klein, it is in- Kohut’s self psychology. Common the child naturally and nor- trapsychic “objects” that reflect to the theories of both Winnicott mally experiences herself as the distorted and partial internaliza- and Kohut is the centrality of the entitled, self-absorbed, om- tions and come under the influ- self and the initial emptiness of the nipotent center of attention; ence of the life or death instincts self that must be filled by “con- that the essence of psychologi- (understood as a universal condi- suming” caregiver interactions. cal growth is consumption, tion) that generate experience. Rather then viewing this under- and that the natural way of re- Thus, the social in Klein’s model is standing as a reflection of a partic- lating is consuming, metabo- not thought to be an important ular cultural and historical con- lizing, and then leaving the influence. Cushman argues that text, each of them understood the selfobject other. In other Klein and object relations theory self to be universal and ahistorical. words, just as in other spheres won the day in psychoanalysis in Through the universalizing of of life, in the psychological America because of the threat Sul- their theories and the emphasis realm the natural, proper livan’s theory posed to psychother- within their therapeutic practices process of human living is apy as a “science.” If the self were a on consumption (internalizing the consuming and metabolizing. social construction, then attempt- therapist’s empathy), both Winni- It seems impossible to imagine ing to legitimize a “scientific” dis- cott and Kohut end up reinforcing how these messages could not cipline predicated on treating a the configuration of the “empty” have the effect of reproducing “universal” self with a “universal” self. Cushman writes: the cultural terrain, and espe- healing technology would be fruit- cially the consumerism, of our less. Klein and other object rela- If psychotherapy theory ac- era. (273–274) tions theories also had an advan- cepts the empty self as the es- tage because of the way those sential nature of human being, It is here that we see the full force theories fit into the American and if the emotional effects of of Cushman’s argument come to Reviews 167 bear as he reminds clinicians that the continuation of their old lie in the ethical/religious tradi- how we work therapeutically is “clearings,” which challenges no- tions that have millennia of tradi- part of the problem culturally and tions of themselves as passive vic- tions and practices to draw upon, that a change to the configuration tims. Throughout these chapters, not in a civic language based in of the self requires a subversive Cushman uses case examples to il- secular liberalism. Secular liberal- psychotherapy with subversive lustrate his point and present ex- ism demands a discourse devoid of practices. Psychotherapy is moral amples of how he uses philosophi- religious language, yet it is in reli- discourse, and it has political con- cal hermeneutics to think about gious/ethical language, traditions, sequences. his clients and talk with them in and practices that strong, alterna- In my opinion, the best part the therapy session. tive conceptions of the person are of Constructing the Self, Construct- The primary contribution of embedded. On top of this, tradi- ing America is the last two chap- this book for psychotherapy is in tionally, psychotherapy has trained ters, where Cushman begins to de- Cushman’s deconstruction of the therapists to be critical of religious velop his ideas of how claim of psychotherapy as an “ob- thought and to psychologize reli- philosophical hermeneutics has jective” and “ahistorical” method gious experiences. This will have shaped his own work as a therapist of treating “universal” selves and to change to a large degree if clini- and how it might impact the field illnesses. By reminding us that cians are to begin to draw upon al- of psychotherapy in general. With even claiming status as an “objec- ternative conceptions of the a constructivist focus on language, tive” science is a political and human person. In fact, when Cushman discusses the impor- moral act, Cushman confronts viewed from this perspective it tance of locating psychological clinicians with our limitations in would seem to suggest that psy- processes between people rather conceptualizing psychotherapy in chotherapeutic practice should then inside of people. By empha- any way other then in privatized, flow from the moral community sizing the social (e.g., cultural, eth- interiorized, individualized, and that provides the conception of nic, socioeconomic, religious, fa- consumerist terms. His focus on the human person. Thus, what milial, etc.) a person’s life might be the social, historical, and cultural psychotherapy might need is for understood as reflecting a com- allows us to realize that concep- psychotherapists to understand mitment to a certain moral frame- tions of the human person do themselves as situated within a work that has become “sedi- matter and some conceptions are particular moral community and mented” within the self and better then others. What Cush- to practice as a part of that com- through which a “clearing” that il- man seems to suggest is that alter- munity, utilizing the community’s luminates and secludes various as- native conceptions of the human practices and traditions in present- pects of life may be created. An person coupled with strong social ing an alternative construction of important aspect of the therapeu- practices that construct that alter- the self. While this might not tic process for the client is coming native conception are needed allow psychotherapy to be unified into contact with an alternative within the psychotherapeutic in the way it subverts the status moral framework in the person of community if we are to end the quo, it would allow for various the therapist. Through the focus unwitting reinforcement of the constructions of the self to on the interpersonal elements of cultural status quo. He suggests emerge. Participating as a part of a all of life, moral frameworks, and that a return to a civic tradition moral community might also the “clearings” they engender, the where mutual regard, economic allow clinicians to understand the client is presented with a language justice, and a concern for the well political and moral discourse that that suggests that a new “clearing” being of citizens is needed. The is always involved in psychother- can be constructed. This process difficulty with this, in my opinion, apy in new ways. also confronts the client with the is that the strongest alternative Constructing the Self, Con- various ways they participate in conceptions of the human person structing America is a book that 168

pushes psychotherapy (and hope- that postoedipal gender identifica- gender divisions. This ambivalent fully psychoanalysis) to the cusp of tions can only be derived from a use of Freud’s theories spreads something new. Perhaps in the re- prior foreclosure of homosexual throughout the entire collection minders of the way that psycho- object-choices. Moreover, these and serves to mime the problem- logical processes always happen primary homosexual desires are atic nature of gender itself. For between others, that is, in the so- never completely denied, and thus gender is considered to be a con- cial sphere, psychotherapists can they continue to haunt the devel- structed cultural category that begin to think of their work in po- opment of every gendered subject. shapes every person’s real experi- litical and moral terms. Once this The haunting of gendered ence of his or her core identity. By begins to happen, perhaps new identity by the queering of pre- merging together the modern no- configurations of the self can be oedipal object relations serves as a tion of gender as a biological constructed within psychothera- latent, recurring theme through- essence and the postmodern no- peutic communities. While we are out these collected essays. For ex- tion of gender as a social construc- muddling our way through the ample, this notion of homosexual tion, many of these authors end shift from psychotherapy as “ob- category destabilization pushes up making the ironic argument jective,” “asocial,” and individual- Ken Corbett, in the essay follow- that experience itself is con- ized into new ways of practicing ing Butler’s, to declare that in structed, while constructions only therapeutically, Cushman’s analy- order to avoid gender confusion, come into being by being lived sis stands as a guidepost for us analysts have often tried to force and performed in real life situa- along the way. male homosexuality into a hetero- tions. In this combination of con- —Ronald W. Wright sexist binary equating passivity structed experiences and experi- with femininity and masculinity enced constructions, we see how with activity (22). By turning to the actual lived practice of psycho- the actual experience of male ho- analysis is always already experi- Dimen, Muriel and Virginia mosexuals in analysis, Corbett enced as a theoretical construction Goldner, eds. Gender in shows how certain subjects live the haunted by the disavowed identifi- Psychoanalytic Space. deconstruction of gender binaries cation with Freud and his theory New York: Other P, 2002. on a daily basis. Thus, even as so- of gender development. ciety—and many psychoana- This paradoxical haunting by Gender in Psychoanalytic Space, a lysts—continue to react to gender Freud and gender is evident in new collection of essays edited by blurring by re-instating modern Virginia Goldner’s chapter “To- Muriel Dimen and Virginia Gold- binary constructions, actual clini- ward a Critical Relational Theory ner, can be read as a mystery novel cal experience shows how reduc- of Gender.” In her critical return asking the important question of tive these gender categories can be. to Freud, she declares that this what happened to gender in the The first chapters indicate in a modern thinker “collapsed the dis- 20th Century. Beginning with Ju- very subtle manner that the cul- tinctions between biological sex, dith Butler’s important work on tural recognition of homosexual sexuality, and gender, deriving in melancholia and gender identifica- desire in the 20th Century is one of sequence, heterosexuality and gen- tions, this book shows how com- the key driving forces behind the der polarity, from the anatomical plicated and vexing the issues sur- postmodern challenge of modern differences” (66). Yet, although rounding gender and identity have notions of identity, gender, sexual- Goldner and many other contrib- become in the post-modern pe- ity, and cultural ideology. Further- utors condemn Freud for confus- riod, where feminist theory meets more, both of these essays use ing biological sex and constructed post-structuralist accounts of sub- Freud’s theories of homosexuality gender identifications, they obses- jectivity and queer notions of sex- to destabilize Freud’s own mod- sively return to Freud’s conceptual uality. For Butler strongly argues ernist project of reinstating older vocabulary concerning gender and