Selected Papers on Psycho-Analysis

by Karl Abraham

First published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Genres: Psychoanalysis

527 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Karl Abraham was an early important and influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'.

In 1907, he had his first contact with Freud, with whom he developed a lifetime relationship. Returning to Germany, he founded the Berliner Society of Psychoanalysis in 1910. He was the president of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1914 to 1918 and again in 1925.

Abraham collaborated with Freud on the understanding of manic-depressive illness, leading to Freud's paper on 'Mourning and Melancholia' in 1917. He was the analyst of Melanie Klein during 1924-1925, and of a number of other British psychoanalysts, including Edward Glover, James Glover, and Alix Strachey. He was a mentor for an influential group of German analysts, including Karen Horney, Helene Deutsch, and Franz Alexander.

In the oral stage of development, the first relationships children have with objects (caretakers) determine their subsequent relationship to reality. Oral satisfaction can result in self-assurance and optimism, whereas oral fixation can lead to pessimism and depression. Moreover, a person with an oral fixation will present a disinclination to take care of him/herself and will require others to look after him/her. This may be expressed through extreme passivity (corresponding to the oral benign suckling substage) or through a highly active oral-sadistic behaviour (corresponding to the later sadistic biting substage).

In the anal stage, when the training in cleanliness starts too early, conflicts may result between a conscious attitude of obedience and an unconscious desire for resistance. This can lead to traits such as frugality, orderliness and obstinacy, as well as to obsessional neurosis as a result of anal fixation (Abraham, 1921). In addition, Abraham based his understanding of manic-depressive illness on the study of the painter Giovanni Segantini: an actual event of loss is not itself sufficient to bring the psychological disturbance involved in melancholic depression. This disturbance is linked with disappointing incidents of early childhood; in the case of men always with the mother. This concept of the prooedipal “bad” mother was a new development in contrast to Freud’s oedipal mother and paved the way for the theories of Melanie Klein (May-Tolzmann, 1997).

Another important contribution is his work “A short study of the Development of the Libido” (1924b), where he elaborated on Sigmund Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (1917) and demonstrated the vicissitudes of normal and pathological object relations and reactions to object loss.

Abraham (1920) also showed interest in cultural issues. He analyzed various myths suggesting their relation to dreams (1909) and wrote an interpretation of the spiritual activities of the Egyptian monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1912).

Abraham died on 25 December 1925 from complications of a lung infection and may have suffered from lung cancer.

Reviews

[×× ri ×× · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reductionist and outdated. I mainly kept reading because some case studies were interesting, but this Abraham guy kept getting in the way with his bizarro conclusions :/ there are some good memes (the best one has to be that time when Abraham thought that his female patient rubbing her forehead wrinkle was a displaced act of masturbation. You just can't make this shit up), but the book is waaaaay to long and boring to be something you read for laughs you know

[Michael Kulyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karl Abraham was a brilliant psychoanalytic theoretician/practitioner whose clinical insights regarding the relationships between character, early development and psychopathology were unmatched. His ideas provided the foundation for object relations theory and were a direct influence on Melanie Klein. Abraham writes with a wonderful clarity and provides full explanations based on his clinical observations of patients he treated.

[Dries]

Über die determinierende Kraft des Namens, Das Geldausgeben im Angstzustand, Zur Ejaculatio praecox, Die Spinne als Traumsymbol

[Brian Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elaboration of the Freudian theory. Abraham picks up where Freud had left off. Easy read and great case studies. One of Abraham's gift is his power of insight and radical conclusions.

[Sannie Hald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some parts for my BA dissertation... Old view points but still somewhat relevant