by Ruth Snowden
The year before, while they were waiting to board ship to go to America, tension was in the air. Freud had found out that Jung had been having an illicit affair with one of his patients. Jung retaliated by being hostile towards Freud, irritating him by going on and on about some mummified peat bog men that were being dug up in North Germany. Freud got very het up and eventually fainted. Later, he said that this was because Jung had a death wish against him.
Worse was to come as Jung began to develop new theories of his own. In 1912 he gave a series of lectures and seminars at Fordham University in New York. It was at this point that he really broke away from Freud, criticizing some of his basic theories of psychoanalysis such as the emphasis on sex. Not long after this attack, Freud talked to Jung at length at a conference in Munich and felt that he had won him back into the fold. Freud then proceeded to faint again at lunch, and Jung had to carry him through into another room. Clearly Freud was deeply upset about the whole affair.
The next year, Jung lectured in London and coined the phrase ‘analytical psychology’ to describe the divergent ideas that he was evolving. After this, letters between Freud and Jung became increasingly bitter. Jung accused Freud of behaving like a controlling father, intolerant towards new ideas. Sadly, in 1913 their friendship ceased altogether and the two men became openly hostile to one another. Before long, Jung resigned his presidency of the International Psychoanalytic Society.
WILHELM REICH
Reich (1897–1957) was another member of the orthodox psychoanalytic movement who broke away, though much later, in 1933. He was interested in the way individuals interacted with society and believed that a person’s character was formed in this way. For him, the sexual revolution was connected with the social revolution. He worked with the communist party, thus combining psychoanalysis with politics.
Most of the people who broke away from Freud did so because they felt that he laid too much emphasis on sex. Psychoanalysis was very difficult to understand and people were constantly coming up with new variations of their own. Freud tended to present a rather authoritarian figure, always trying to keep control and resenting the intrusion of new ideas from others. It is amusing to think of him as a sort of struggling superego of the psychoanalytic movement, desperately trying to control all the other egos!
SOME FAMOUS FOLLOWERS OF FREUD
ANNA FREUD
Freud’s youngest daughter, Anna (1895–1982), became a psychoanalyst and an important member of the International Psychoanalytic Association. She supported her father’s original ideas, but developed and extended them. She concentrated mainly on the ego rather than the id, and believed that it was important to look at defence mechanisms in order to understand what the problems are that the ego is grappling with.
With her ailing father, Anna fled from the Nazis before World War II and eventually co-founded the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic. Her ideas are important mainly because she derived them from direct observation of young children, rather than by talking to adults about their childhood. She was a pioneer in working with psychologically disturbed children.
MELANIE KLEIN
Melanie Klein (1882–1960) was born in Vienna but she moved to London in 1926 and became a British citizen. Like Anna Freud, her main contribution came from her work with children – she believed that emotions were present in children from a very young age. She observed children’s emotions by watching them at play, even before they could express themselves verbally. This new method led to her being able to analyse children at a much earlier age than had previously been thought possible, even as young as two years old.
Melanie Klein believed that the forerunner of the superego began to form during the first two years of life. For her the aggressive drive was the important one, rather than the sexual drive. She was one of the leading lights in the Object Relations School, which disagreed with Freud’s stages of child development. It said that right from birth the mental life of a child is oriented towards an ‘object’, which can be anything in the external world – a person or a thing. The child constructs its inner world from ideas about these external objects. Conflicts arise as a result of the way in which this ‘internalization’ process progresses.
KAREN HORNEY
Karen Horney (1885–1952) was an analyst in Berlin during the 1920s and 1930s and she later joined the staff at the New York Psychoanalytical Institute. She was particularly interested in social factors in psychological development and eventually her ideas evolved away from the mainstream. Many people in the psychoanalytical movement have taken a rather ‘closed shop’ attitude, saying that people who are not analysts will never be able fully to understand psychoanalytical theory. Karen Horney, however, wrote for the general reader and her ideas became very popular in America.
Karen Horney maintained that social influences are much more important than underlying fixed biological patterns in developing neuroses. She said that the latter idea was too deterministic and out of date. She argued against the idea of an Oedipus complex, saying that there was no such thing as a universal child psychology. She was also interested in women’s psychology. She said that women’s feelings of inferiority were caused by social oppression, rather than by a biologically determined castration complex.
ERICH FROMM
Erich Fromm (1900–80) was born in Germany and trained as a social psychologist and psychoanalyst. Fromm was interested in the individual’s relationship with society. He said that different cultures produce different psychological types, and the work of anthropologists since has tended to back up his ideas. The Oedipus complex has indeed turned out not to be universal – there are big differences in child-rearing habits, family structure, social rules and so on.
Fromm’s ideas differed from those of Freud in two fundamental ways:
1 A person’s main challenge comes from the way he or she relates to others in society and not from the struggle with instinctual urges.
2 Relationships between mankind and society are constantly changing. Freud had taken the view that the relationship was static – mankind was basically evil and society’s job was to tame the individual.
PSYCHOANALYSIS TODAY
Modern psychoanalysts do not usually completely adhere to Freud’s recommendations about how to conduct therapy sessions. Nevertheless, many basic techniques used today by analysts and other psychotherapists – including the free-association technique, transference and the analysis of dreams – are still similar to those used by Freud.
Freud always tried to maintain the scientific approach and remain as detached as possible. Many modern analysts adopt a more relaxed attitude and, unlike Freud, sit facing their patients. However, most analysts still try to guard against becoming too emotionally involved, or revealing much of their own personal life to the patient, because this can easily take the analysis off track.
Many people have criticized Freud, saying, among other things, that:
• he places far too much emphasis upon sex
• he claims to be scientific and yet his findings are often vague, inaccurate and based upon small samples of data
• many of his ideas were not actually original
• psychoanalysis doesn’t work – in fact, it may even make symptoms worse
• the movement has tended to have a very ‘closed shop’ attitude – you cannot grasp the theories properly unless you are an analyst yourself.
Despite such criticisms, Freud’s ideas have taken root: so much so that the very language of psychoanalysis has become subtly absorbed into ordinary speech. We all use phrases such as ‘Freudian slip’, ‘death wish’ and ‘anally retentive’, and many modern therapies have their roots in psychoanalytic thinking. Without Freud, perhaps we would not yet have begun to understand such things as:
• the importance of childhood experiences in the development of the adult personality
• the existence of the unconscious and its huge influence over human behaviour
• the way we all us
e endless defence mechanisms to protect our egos
• the importance of dreams in understanding our true thoughts and feelings
• the fact that talking about a problem often leads to helping to sort it out.
Whatever people may say, psychoanalysis is more popular than ever, especially in the United States. There are numerous books about it and the ideas are now much more accessible to the general public and open to debate. It seems that psychoanalysis, in one form or another, is here to stay.
SUMMARY
As we have seen today, Freud himself constantly developed and reassessed his ideas, so it is little wonder that others, too, should take his ideas in new directions or bring different emphases to his thought. Freud could be dogmatic and authoritarian, however, and some of his followers –most notably Jung – came to feel that they would have to rebel against the ‘father’ of psychoanalysis if they were to be free to develop their own ideas. Others took psychoanalysis into areas where Freud had shown himself weaker (sometimes by his own admission), such as the fields of female sexuality or the psychoanalysis of children.
Throughout this week we have explored the broad outlines of Freud’s ideas – from his early elaboration of psychoanalytic techniques, through his theories about psychosexual development, including the Oedipus complex, to his later investigations into the psychological roots of civilization. In their richness, courageousness and determination to plumb the depths of human motivation, his ideas continue to have the power to inspire, challenge and provoke.
FACT-CHECK (ANSWERS AT THE BACK)
1. In what year was the first issue of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis published?
a) 1908
b) 1909
c) 1910
d) 1911
2. Which psychoanalyst emphasized the importance of the trauma of birth?
a) Ernst Jones
b) Otto Rank
c) Carl Jung
d) Karl Abraham
3. With which psychoanalyst did Freud develop an almost father–son-type relationship?
a) Ernst Jones
b) Otto Rank
c) Carl Jung
d) Karl Abraham
4. Carl Jung disagreed with Freud primarily about…
a) The right to have illicit affairs with patients
b) The existence of the collective unconscious
c) The centrality of the sex drive
d) None of the above
5. Which of the following best describes the achievement of Anna Freud?
a) She took psychoanalysis in a whole new direction
b) She rigidly applied her father’s ideas to the psychoanalysis of children
c) She pioneered working with psychologically disturbed children
d) None of the above
6. Which of the following does not apply to the work of Melanie Klein?
a) She worked from close observation of children at play
b) She emphasized the role of the sex drive
c) She analysed children as young as two
d) She was an important figure in the Object Relations School
7. Ernst Fromm emphasized…
a) The Oedipus complex
b) The relationship between the individual and his or her society
c) The role of the id
d) The importance of culture in determining psychological type
8. Which of the following best describes the achievement of William Reich?
a) He never broke with Freud
b) He was an ardent communist
c) He explored the connections between psychoanalysis and politics
d) He was president of the International Psychoanalytic Society
9. Which of the following best describes the achievement of Karen Horney?
a) She gave psychoanalysis a proper technical language
b) She helped make psychoanalytic ideas accessible to ordinary people
c) She challenged Freud’s ideas about female psychology
d) She founded the New York Psychoanalytic Institute
10. For which of the following has Freud not been criticized?
a) He gave too much importance to sex and sexuality
b) His ideas are ‘unscientific’
c) Psychoanalysis can be positively harmful
d) His courage and originality in pioneering new theories about childhood psychology
GLOSSARY
complex Group of related emotional ideas or impulses that are usually repressed but which continue to influence an individual’s behaviour
condensation The fusion of two or more ideas in a dream
Conscious mind The part of the mind that is aware of its actions and emotions
defence mechanism An unconscious way of protecting the ego against undesirable affects
denial A defence mechanism in which the individual refuses to recognize a feeling or situation
displacement A defence mechanism in which the emotions attached to one idea are shifted on to a different idea
ego The conscious part of the psyche, responsible for regulating the instinctual desires of the id and in turn regulated by the superego
Eros The life instinct; compare Thanatos
fixation Where an individual becomes stuck in a psychosexual developmental phase
free association A psychoanalytic technique where the client is given a word and then tells the analyst all the ideas that come to mind, thereby uncovering a route into the unconscious
id The unconscious part of the psyche made up of the instinctual drives, desires and energies
inversion Freudian term for homosexuality
latency period The period of development when sexual activity is dormant
latent content The part of a dream that is not consciously remembered before analysis
libido The sex drive
manifest content The part of a dream that is consciously remembered
neurosis A usually mild nervous or mental disorder
Oedipus complex The desire of the child to possess sexually the parent of the opposite sex, while excluding the parent of the same sex
parapraxis An accident or error caused by a repressed impulse; commonly known as a ‘Freudian slip’
preconscious The part of the unconscious that is most easily accessible to the conscious mind
projection A defence mechanism in which the individual attributes an unpleasant feeling or personality trait to another person when, in fact, it is their own
psychosis Severe mental disorder
regression A defence mechanism in which the individual reverts to an earlier developmental stage in order to feel safe and secure
repression A defence mechanism in which an unpleasant event or emotion is stored away in the unconscious, so that it is inaccessible to the conscious
resistance A psychic process that prevents unconscious ideas from being released
sublimation The unconscious rechanneling of an impulse
transference The redirection of emotions to a substitute, often towards the analyst during psychotherapy
superego The part of the superego that regulates the ego, acting as a conscience
Thanatos The death instinct; compare Eros
ANSWERS
Sunday: 1d; 2c; 3c & d; 4b; 5c; 6d; 7a & d; 8c; 9c; 10d
Monday: 1b; 2a, c & d; 3b; 4c; 5b; 6b, c & d; 7d; 8a; 9d; 10b & c
Tuesday: 1b; 2d; 3d; 4b; 5b, c & d; 6c; 7b; 8c; 9d; 10b
Wednesday: 1b; 2d; 3a; 4c; 5c & d; 6a & b; 7c; 8c; 9a; 10 A case might be made for a, b, c or d!
Thursday: 1d; 2b; 3b; 4c; 5d; 6b; 7c; 8c; 9a, b, c & d; 10a & d
Friday: 1b; 2c; 3d; 4b & c; 5a; 6d; 7b; 8c; 9a; 10d
Saturday: 1b; 2b; 3c; 4c; 5c; 6b; 7b & d; 8c; 9b; 10d
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Hodder & Stoughton. An Hachette UK company.
First published in US in 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
This revised and expanded edition published 2013
Previously published as Understanding Freud
Copyright © Ruth Snowden 2011, 2013
The right of Ruth Snowden to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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