Psychoanalysis: Evolution and Development

by Clara Thompson

Clara Thompson was a leading representative of the cultural interpersonal school of psychoanalysis, sometimes known as the "neo-Freudians," which included Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan. "Classical analysts" once viewed neo-Freudians with the greatest suspicion and mistrust, yet today they can be seen for the innovative group of thinkers they were. Thompson's Evolution and Development, first published in 1950, remains an enormously fair-minded discussion of the history of psychoanalytic theory and therapy.

Psychoanalysis has always been a theory of personality as well as a technique of therapy. Since Freud was born in 1856, and was an outstanding representative of the culture of old Vienna, Thompson thought there was plenty of room for revising classical analytic thinking in light of later developments. Such revisionism, she believed, need not lose the essential appreciation of the dynamic unconscious within classical analysis. However, Thompson felt Freud's biological outlook needed to be supplemented by a culturally more sophisticated orientation, and she was among those who tried to put Freud's concepts of libido into historical perspective. Instead of psychoanalysis having as its objective the release of tensions, Thompson proposed that the goal of analysis ought to be the growth of the total personality. Her revisionism also meant that the scope of psychoanalytic treatment could be broadened well beyond the neuroses Freud sought to explain. Thompson well understood the impact of the social environment on character formation.

The psychology of women needed to be rethought; differences between men and women could be partly explained by the social expectations that traditional Western culture had imposed on them. Thompson believed the whole analyst-patient relationship needed to be rethought; the real personality of the therapist has to be acknowledged, and the full human interplay between patient and analyst required examination.

In the current positivistic therapeutic climate based on technological advances in psychopharmacology, the ethical and humanistic dimension may be lost. Reflecting on the work of Clara Thompson and the neo-Freudian school can remind us of earlier efforts to challenge therapeutic authority and their distinct relevance to our problems today.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1950

Reviews

[Shane Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much an expository work, covering Freud, Adler, Jung, Fromm, Reich, Rank, Horney, and Sullivan. Thompson divides Freud from Freudian revisionists by the issue of how a sick patient is cured. Freud attempted to achieve cure by alleviating symptoms, through techniques like hypnosis and release, while his successors concentrated on eliminating "parataxic distortions," a term simply meaning the inability to understand one's emotional state. A cure in this sense is effective insight which allows the subject of psychoanalysis to achieve harmonious interpersonal relations that are consistent with the facts of his situation. A cure is not conformity, but rather it offers a person ways to cope with life with minimum psychological anxiety.

Cultural-oriented psychologists improved upon Freud's biological determinism by concentrating on interpersonal relations. Anxiety is usually produced when one's relations to the outside world are threatened. Anxiety, according to Thompson, has little to do with the somatic, and everything to do with cultural pressure. Harry Stack Sullivan, for example, stressed the euphoria that accompanies social approval, and the discomfort and anxiety that accompanies social disapproval, marginality, and ostracism. Within this framework, cruelty can become a desirable cultural trait which offers sadistic harmony with the community, while kindness can become an avenue to ostracism. Conversely, Freud emphasised the universality of anxiety and repression, as evidenced in his work Beyond the Pleasure Principle . Freud considered anxiety, aggression, and the Oedipus complex universal.

The main point here is that by embracing the universality of repression and the desirability of the renunciation or sublimation of certain types of pleasure in order to achieve the heights of civilization, Freud embraced civilization as a controlling agent which curbed human baseness. The cultural-oriented psychologists sought to reverse this trend through the study of comparative culture. Some cultures are not dominated by the characteristics of fear, anxiety, and death. Some live in relative harmony. Human nature is not altogether evil; only certain cultures encourage evil behaviour.

It seems to me that the Freudian revisionists to which Thompson refers are clinging to the hope that Freud was wrong about his biological determinism with respect to the evil tendencies of human nature. Neuroses, depression, hysteria, aggression, sadism and masochism, they hoped, are not universal human characteristics; they are historically contingent on certain modes of cultural organization. The post-war world only needed more effective and insightful leadership and understanding to place humanity on a more harmonious and secure footing.

I'm not so sure. The relationship between the somatic and the psychological is still very much a mystery. It's clear that certain emotive states of mind can produce very real neurological conditions. Cultural organization surely plays the most important role in the quality of a given society's mental health. But that does not mean that anxiety can ever be erased, for it is definitely a by-product of human existence. It seems to me that the final answer might be found through the study of neurology, psychophysics, and psychobiology, and through basing social planning/organization on the findings of these sciences. There needs to be better dialogue between psychocultural and somatic studies. Therein lies our only hope. Psychiatry, by concentrating so heavily on medicating the sick, does more harm than good, functioning as a major institutional prop to the status quo.

[Medu Xandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este libro es mas o menos una onda asi de "todo lo que necesitas saber ... para enamorarte el psicoanálisis"

[Menoedh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something you should read before reading the actual work of Freud..very helpful