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Questions for Freud: The Secret History of Psychoanalysis
With all the intrigue and twists of a mystery, "Questions for Freud" uncovers the paradoxes that riddle psychoanalysis today and traces them to Freud's vacillation at key points in his work--and from there to a traumatic event in Freud's life.
What role did censored family history play in shaping Freud's psychological inquiries, promoting and impeding them by turns? With this question in mind, Nicholas Rand and Maria Torok develop a new biographical and conceptual approach to psychoanalysis, one that outlines Freud's contradictory theories of mental functioning against the backdrop of his permanent lack of insight into crucial and traumatic aspects of his immediate family's life. Taking us through previously unpublished documents and Freud's dreams, his clinical work and institutional organization, the authors show how a shameful event in 1865 that shook Freud and his family can help explain the internal clashes that later beset his work--on the origins of neurosis, reality, trauma, fantasy, sexual repression, the psychoanalytic study of literature, and dream interpretation.
Steeped in the history, theory, and practice of psychoanalysis, this book offers a guide to the wary, a way of understanding the flaws and contradictions of Freud's thought without losing sight of its significance. This book will alter the terms of the current debate about the standing of psychoanalysis and Freud.
What role did censored family history play in shaping Freud's psychological inquiries, promoting and impeding them by turns? With this question in mind, Nicholas Rand and Maria Torok develop a new biographical and conceptual approach to psychoanalysis, one that outlines Freud's contradictory theories of mental functioning against the backdrop of his permanent lack of insight into crucial and traumatic aspects of his immediate family's life. Taking us through previously unpublished documents and Freud's dreams, his clinical work and institutional organization, the authors show how a shameful event in 1865 that shook Freud and his family can help explain the internal clashes that later beset his work--on the origins of neurosis, reality, trauma, fantasy, sexual repression, the psychoanalytic study of literature, and dream interpretation.
Steeped in the history, theory, and practice of psychoanalysis, this book offers a guide to the wary, a way of understanding the flaws and contradictions of Freud's thought without losing sight of its significance. This book will alter the terms of the current debate about the standing of psychoanalysis and Freud.
- GenresPsychoanalysis
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1998
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August 23, 2024
RE "CONTRADICTIONS" IN FREUD'S THOUGHT DUE TO A "HIDDEN FAMILY TRAUMA"?
The authors wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, "We have discovered fundamental theoretical, clinical, and institutional paradoxes at the very core of psychoanalysis. The aim of our 'Questions for Freud' is to pinpoint the internal contradictions that undermine the potential effectiveness of key aspects of Freudian thought... in the hope of finding the source of those contradictions... we isolate a major upheaval that shook Freud and his family in 1865... What role have hidden family traumas played in shaping Freud's psychological investigations, both promoting and impeding them by turns?" (Pg. ix)
They say, "We ask: Why did Freud... have a high level of tolerance for clinical, theoretical, and institutional contradictions? We propose an answer: Freud constructed his theories of unconscious mental life even while crucial insight into the traumatic aspects of his immediate family's life forever eluded him. If the methodological fissures of psychoanalysis result from Freud's own familial traumas, we no longer have to adopt the contradictions as our own or continue to hand them down dogmatically." (Pg. 3)
They outline: "Our working hypothesis is as follows. A family disaster, which occurred when Freud was nine years old, is at the root of his contradictory psychoanalytic investigations... We contend that Freud received the impulse for his psychoanalytic inquiries unwittingly, during his childhood and for traumatic reasons..." (Pg. 142) Later, they add, "his unwittingly endured family trauma upset his methods of research, inhibiting or stopping the possibility of free inquiry..." (Pg. 164)
They finally reveal the "family trauma": "A disaster struck the Freud family in 1865 when Sigmund Freud was nine years old... the police arrested his uncle Josef Freud for selling counterfeit rubles. Sentenced ... to ten years' imprisonment... He gained his release after a few years..." (Pg. 166) They add, "his family's stifled anguish have afflicted him all the more as he was not supposed to discover what it was about. The genuine trauma consisted, then, in the young Freud's inability to ... lift the veil from the family's secret." (Pg. 171)
They further speculate, "This is why Freud's self-analysis had to remain ... incomplete... he carried out his self-analysis with the secret promise that he would ask no questions about his family's murky past. This is the heartbeat of our hypothesis. Freud's darkness about himself put him at odds with his research. Unable to know himself and his family because of a secret family disaster, he placed obstacles in the way of knowing others." (Pg. 220-221)
I found this book's thesis rather unconvincing (the uncle---and seemingly not a particularly "close" one to a very young Freud---spent a few years in prison, an event that was not spoken of by the family; and this is supposed to have had such a singular lifelong effect on Freud?). There is some interesting biographical material in the book, though, and it may be of some interest to those looking for speculative theories about Freud and his ideas.
The authors wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, "We have discovered fundamental theoretical, clinical, and institutional paradoxes at the very core of psychoanalysis. The aim of our 'Questions for Freud' is to pinpoint the internal contradictions that undermine the potential effectiveness of key aspects of Freudian thought... in the hope of finding the source of those contradictions... we isolate a major upheaval that shook Freud and his family in 1865... What role have hidden family traumas played in shaping Freud's psychological investigations, both promoting and impeding them by turns?" (Pg. ix)
They say, "We ask: Why did Freud... have a high level of tolerance for clinical, theoretical, and institutional contradictions? We propose an answer: Freud constructed his theories of unconscious mental life even while crucial insight into the traumatic aspects of his immediate family's life forever eluded him. If the methodological fissures of psychoanalysis result from Freud's own familial traumas, we no longer have to adopt the contradictions as our own or continue to hand them down dogmatically." (Pg. 3)
They outline: "Our working hypothesis is as follows. A family disaster, which occurred when Freud was nine years old, is at the root of his contradictory psychoanalytic investigations... We contend that Freud received the impulse for his psychoanalytic inquiries unwittingly, during his childhood and for traumatic reasons..." (Pg. 142) Later, they add, "his unwittingly endured family trauma upset his methods of research, inhibiting or stopping the possibility of free inquiry..." (Pg. 164)
They finally reveal the "family trauma": "A disaster struck the Freud family in 1865 when Sigmund Freud was nine years old... the police arrested his uncle Josef Freud for selling counterfeit rubles. Sentenced ... to ten years' imprisonment... He gained his release after a few years..." (Pg. 166) They add, "his family's stifled anguish have afflicted him all the more as he was not supposed to discover what it was about. The genuine trauma consisted, then, in the young Freud's inability to ... lift the veil from the family's secret." (Pg. 171)
They further speculate, "This is why Freud's self-analysis had to remain ... incomplete... he carried out his self-analysis with the secret promise that he would ask no questions about his family's murky past. This is the heartbeat of our hypothesis. Freud's darkness about himself put him at odds with his research. Unable to know himself and his family because of a secret family disaster, he placed obstacles in the way of knowing others." (Pg. 220-221)
I found this book's thesis rather unconvincing (the uncle---and seemingly not a particularly "close" one to a very young Freud---spent a few years in prison, an event that was not spoken of by the family; and this is supposed to have had such a singular lifelong effect on Freud?). There is some interesting biographical material in the book, though, and it may be of some interest to those looking for speculative theories about Freud and his ideas.
Displaying 1 of 1 review