BEYOND FREUD A Study of Modern Psychoanalytic Theorists Edited, by JOSEPH REPPEN, Ph.D. Copyright © 1985 Analytic Press ©2013 International Psychotherapy Institute All Rights Reserved This e-book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. This e-book is intended for personal use only. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be used in any commercial manner without express permission of the author. Scholarly use of quotations must have proper attribution to the published work. This work may not be deconstructed, reverse engineered or reproduced in any other format. Created in the United States of America For information regarding this book, contact the publisher: International Psychotherapy Institute E-Books 301-215-7377 6612 Kennedy Drive Chevy Chase, MD 20815-6504 www.freepsychotherapybooks.org [email protected] To Kyra, Eve, and Alexander TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 1 JOHN BOWLBY: AN ETHOLOGICAL BASIS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS Victoria Hamilton 2 GEORGE S. KLEIN: PSYCHOANALYTIC EMPIRICIST Frederic J. Levine Ph.D. and Joseph W. Slap M.D. 3 ROY SCHAFER: SEARCHING FOR THE NATIVE TONGUE Donald P. Spence Ph.D. 4 BENJAMIN B. RUBINSTEIN: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STRUCTURE OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY Morris N. Eagle Ph.D. 5 EMANUEL PETERFREUND: THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION Stanley R. Palombo M.D. 6 MERTON M. GILL: A STUDY IN THEORY DEVELOPMENT IN PSYCHOANALYSIS Irwin Z. Hoffman Ph.D. 7 ROBERT LANGS: THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH Zvi Lothane M.D. 8 HEINZ KOHUT: BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOANALYSIS Hyman L. Muslin M.D. 9 MARGARET S. MAHLER: SYMBIOSIS AND SEPARATION- INDIVIDUATION Anni Bergman and Steven Ellman Ph.D. 10 OTTO KERNBERG: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY; THE BEGINNINGS OF AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH Monica Carksy Ph.D. and Steven Ellman Ph.D. 11 WILFRED R. BION: AN ODYSSEY NINTO THE DEEP AND FORMLESS INFINITE James S. Grotstein M.D. 12 PAUL RICOEUR: REPORTING, READING, AND INTERPRETING Robert S. Steele Ph.D. 13 JACQUES LACAN: PSYCHOANALYST, SURREALIST, AND MYSTIC Jeanine Parisier Plottel Ph.D. 14 ADOLF GRÜNBAUM: PSYCHOANALYTIC EPISTEMOLOGY Barbara Von Eckhardt Ph.D. NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ABOUT THE IPI PREFACE The wellspring of ideas that originated with Sigmund Freud are today being expanded by the intellectual vitality and energy of a host of creative psychoanalytic thinkers. This volume presents the work of 14 modem analytic theorists. The clear influence of Freud’s ideas is deeply reflected in various ways throughout this book and, although many of the theorists presented are at varying degrees of agreement with each other and Freud, they are all basically informed by the original genius of Sigmund Freud. Indeed, the title of this volume, Beyond Freud, intends in no way to disparage the originality of psychoanalysis. Instead, it intends to demonstrate how Freud’s thinking and how the Freudian text have been used to expand ideas beyond Freud. That the work of two philosophers who have been attracted to Freud is included is a living testament to that profound genius and vision. Beyond Freud grew out of my interest in the evolution of psychoanalytic theory, the history of ideas, and in my study of comparative psychoanalysis. This interest was expanded by my editorship of the Review of Psychoanalytic Books. As editor of the Review I have witnessed an even greater expansion of Freudian thought as well as an enormity of work in applied psychoanalysis informed by a Freudian perspective. The inclusion of these 14 theorists is not intended to diminish the contributions of others. Erik Erikson, Melanie Klein, Anna Freud, the interpersonal school, many mainstream Freudians, the major ego psychologists, Winnicott and other object relations theorists are not included in this volume because their writing is either not recent or there is already a considerable body of literature on their work. Not every scholar/theorist included in this book is a practicing psychoanalyst, but all are modem, vital, and informed; and, most importantly, their work continues to enlighten, enrich, and influence younger analysts and students. In fact, these 14 theorists are of such considerable intellectual influence, an influence beyond clinical analysis, that my choice was made quite easily. Each theorist provides a unique vision of contemporary psychoanalysis that should endure for some time. In most instances, the author of the chapter on the psychoanalytic theorist has known the theorist about whom they write or has been deeply involved in their work as a part of their own professional life. In one case, the author is a co-worker, in another a former analysand, and so on, so that there is an intimate and deep connection. While this book was in its planning stages, an Epilogue was to be included to show where the future of psychoanalytic theory might be headed. However, in thinking about this over a long time I decided to exclude an Epilogue and to leave speculations about future directions up to the reader. I felt that it would be presumptuous to speculate as to where psychoanalysis is heading. This book is thus an introduction to modern psychoanalytic theorists who have gone beyond Freud and an opportunity for the reader to draw conclusions of their own. I hope that the reader will read this book in an open-minded way, not as advocacy but as information. Certainly, there is a clash of ideas and theories in this volume, and the welter of schisms, schools, and factions in psychoanalysis are well presented. The natural science/hermeneutic debate can be clearly viewed in this work. The Epilogue might have expressed a hope for a more pluralistic, integrative psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a new science compared to the older natural and physical sciences, and, as an infant science, it is still evolving. Psychoanalytic theory fifty years from now may be quite different than it is today, informed perhaps by computer models and other discoveries as yet unknown in science and philosophy. Finally, I would like to gratefully thank each of the authors who has written a chapter in this book. They have done so with enthusiasm and intelligence, and represent the highest levels of psychoanalytic scholarship. They are scholars writing about scholars. That there are so many independent lines of thought within psychoanalysis is proof, perhaps, of all the possible ways in which man may be viewed and to the incredible richness of the Freudian endeavor which inspires in so many ways. Perhaps the seeming confusion we see may one day develop into a more integrative, informed, sophisticated, pluralistic psychoanalysis that might return us more deeply to the original power of Freud within a truly modern context. In the meantime, I hope Beyond Freud will be informative of the present provocative clash of ideas and of the dialogue and dialectic of Freudian inspired thought. Joseph Reppen, Ph.D. 1 JOHN BOWLBY: AN ETHOLOGICAL BASIS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS VICTORIA HAMILTON The work of an original thinker often calls to mind a key idea: Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” Einstein’s “relativity,” or Freud and “sexuality.” We associate John Bowlby with his lifelong study of the crucial role played by attachment and its corollorary, loss, in human development. He has assembled his major work in three volumes entitled Attachment (1969), Separation (1973), and Loss (1980). Bowlby’s ‘Attachment Theory,’ together with the view of separation and mourning that it incorporates, is as novel to the study of human relationships as Darwin’s theory was to the study of evolution. Yet Bowlby’s (1979a) work is based upon and reflects the most obvious features of everyday life. Family doctors, priests, and perceptive laymen have long been aware that there are few blows to the human spirit so great as the loss of someone near and dear. Traditional wisdom knows that we can be crushed by grief and die of a broken heart, and also that a jilted lover is apt to do things that are foolish or dangerous to himself and others. It knows too that neither love nor grief is felt for just any other human being, but only for one, or a few, particular and individual human beings. The core of what I term an “affectional bond” is the attraction that one individual has for another individual. (p. 67) Few would disagree with this statement. And yet, as with many new and simple ideas, we encounter considerable resistance to its implications. Bowlby is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who was trained in the Freudian tradition of psychoanalysis. Since 1946, when he assumed responsibility for the Children’s Department at the Tavistock Clinic, London (swiftly renaming it the Department for Children and Parents), Bowlby has focused his research and therapeutic skills on the study and treatment of young children and their families. This experience has provided him with the basis for both his theory of normal infant and child development and a new view of pathology and its treatment. Although his work is enriched by fields such as ethology, cognitive psychology and systems theory, Bowlby’s preoccupation with the joys and sorrows, the hope and despair, incurred in the making, sustaining and breaking of affectional bonds, places his contribution squarely within the arena of psychoanalysis. More than any other branch of medicine and psychology, psychoanalysis claims to investigate the emotional life of man. Nevertheless, despite over thirty years of research and teaching, Bowlby’s conception of attachment has not yet been integrated into the discipline and still remains foreign to the thinking of most psychoanalysts. In this chapter, I shall attempt to supply reasons for the resistance of psychoanalysts to Bowlby’s thesis. Indeed, by reference to some of his most basic assumptions about human psychology, Bowlby himself offers various solutions.