Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1998 The eta iology of an argument: how scientism affected Freud's (mis)treatment of Dora's (hy)story Sue Ann Tatro Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Tatro, Sue Ann, "The ea tiology of an argument: how scientism affected Freud's (mis)treatment of Dora's (hy)story " (1998). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 12637. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/12637 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. 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This reproduction is the best copy available UMl The aetiology of an argument: how scieatism affected Freud's (mis)treatment of Dora's (hy)story by Sue Ann Tatro A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Rhetoric and Professional Communication Major Professor: Margaret Baker Graham Iowa State L'aiversity Ames. Iowa 1998 Copyright © Sue Ann Tatro, 1998. .A.11 rights reserved. UMX Nxunber: 9924792 UMI Microform 9924792 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against miauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ii Graduate College Iowa State L'niversity This is to certify chat the Doctoral dissertation of Sue Ann Tatro has met the dissertation requirements of Iowa State University Signature was redacted for privacy. Signature was redacted for privacy. tiig^Major Program Signature was redacted for privacy. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 3 Psychoanalytic Precepts: Science. Philosophy. Fiction 6 Freud's Enormous [nfluence 7 .Varrative Layering and Hero-Worship LO 2 NARRATIVE DETERMINATION 14 Tiie Move From History to .Archive 17 Determinism: the Shape of Narrative 19 Multiple Chronotopes. Multiple Story-telling 23 Narrative Account. Scientific (objective)' Body of Knowledge 25 3 THE PROBLEM OF SCIENCE: LEGITIMACY AS THE MEASURE OF SCI­ ENTIFIC REASON 28 Rouse and Lyotard: Pulling Freud into the Postmodern 28 Freud's Newtonian Project 33 Dubious Origins of Psychoanalysis Necessitate Scientific Justification 34 •Mesmerized. Hypnotized. Psychoanalyzed: From Charcot to Freud 35 Hypnosis and Hysteria: Medicine or Witchcraft'' 38 The Psychoanalytic Project 4*2 4 THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORITY AND THE PROBLEM OF HERO 45 Narrative Authority, Interpretive Authority 45 Dora's C;i.se History 46 FragiiuMit of an .Analysis 49 Dora s Family Circle Dora as a Short Story tv 5 A CLOSER LOOK AT DORA AS FREUD WROTE HER Freud's Apologia tio Tightly-woven Threads of Justification tiS Freud Writing. Dora Dreaming 7-5 Postscript jo 6 CONCLUSIONS: THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY 86 Nineteenth Century Science and History 39 Toppling the Monumental Freud 91 From History to Archive: Foucault's Far-Reaching Questions 92 BIBLIOGRAPHY 98 V To the memory of my father. Aubrey Tatro. To my children. William and Ginnie. .A.nd to my [Iiother. Virginia Tatro. with deepest gratitude. 1 At least a dozen times in recent years, in reports of the proceedings of certain Congresses and scientific assemblies or in reviews of certain publications. I have read "Psychoanalysis is dead, at last defeated and finally abolished!" The answer to all this might be like that of .Mark Twain in his telegram to the newspapers which falsely reported his death: "Reports of my death grossly exaggerated." Stgmund Freud - On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement, I9l4 2 Dr. Ludwig urged us to let the story itself be our discovery. He even went so far as to joke with me: "Let's see. this is chapter ten we are discussing today " He urged me to be a good listener in the special v%-ay a story requires: note the manner of presentation; the development of plqt. character: the addition of new dramatic sequences: the emphasis accorded to one figure or another in the recital: and the degree of enthusiasm, of coherence, the narrator gives to his or her Jiccount. Robert Coles - The Call of the Story When there are so many we shall have to mourn. when grief has been made so public, and exposed to the critique of a whole epoch the frailty of our conscience and anguish. of whom shall we speak? For every day they die among us. those who were doing us some good. who knew it was never enough but hoped to improve a little by living ... if often he was wrong and. at times, absurd, to us lie i.s no more a person now but a whole climate of opmion under whom we ronduct our differing lives. U'. H. Autkn - In Memory of Stgmund Freud 3 1 INTRODUCTION I disagree with the throng that would relegate Freud jmd his findings to the recdm of those who believed that the Earth was flat or that mammals were spontaneously generated from piles of rags. These people who would do away with Freud (and their numbers have grown exponentially since the 1970s, as we shall see) would assert that their scholarship calls all of psychoanalysis, including the tremendous body of work by people who've gone far beyond Freud, into question. I also disagree with those people who accept Freud's doctrines wholesale, or try, through intensely close reading, to prove their validity. Either approach leaves us nowhere. Indeed, the argument is pointless. Why try to turn back the clock on years of inquiry or try to prove the absolute truth of what Freud himself called dogma (Outline, Preface)? Undoubtedly, there were questions left unanswered by Freud's lifework that even he was at a loss to answer after many years" reflection. .My position is that it is far more productive to try to understand how and why Freud became one of the most influential thinkers of the last century, rather than asking whether or not he was right. .My purpose in this book is to use narrative theory as an investigative tool for the study of a considerable piece of intellectual history: the making of theory in psychoanalysis. In the introduction, I set up my premises, which are; I) .^^arrative theory provides tools for under­ standing intellectual history through the making of knowledge, in this case, psychoanalytic knowledge; 2) Narrative concepts of time, authority, personal agency, and determinism are particularly useful when applied to psychoanalytic theory, because of the inherent discursive nature of psychoanalysis and because of the rising scientism into which it was born; 3) The enormity of Freud's project and the vehemence of the medical establishment's reaction against his work compounded his need for an appeal to scientism. wiiich he made through narrative authority; 4) Re-configuration of inquiry from history to archive, applied to two types of narrative - psychoanalysis in the form of the case study, and reflection in the form of Freud's letters to confidants and two of his later meta-analytical works - provides insights into tlie making of scientific knowledge that far e.xceed what we have formerly had. My main interests here are specific to three arecis, all of which I examine using narrative theory. I am interested in Freud 4 as author and as hero. I am interested in the specific case study that came to be known as Dora. .\nd I am interested in the larger narrative, the master-narrative, if you will, of the creation of scientific knowledge. How does Freud (and on a smaller scale, Dora) fit into the master narratives of psychoanal­ ysis and science? My first task will be to offer a working definition and history of narrative theory. My second task will be to problematize the making of psychoanalysis within its historico-scientific (which, as [ will show, is inherently dependent on narrative) context in light of its having developed out of the work of Mesmer.