1-18-11 Freud

“Introduction” to the Penguin Freud Reader (Phillips)

Summary Sentence: Philips focuses on two levels of reading—one, of reading the works of Freud, which inevitably changes how we read in general; and two, psychoanalysis as a way of reading our lives.  Ultimately, psychoanalysis is a practice of reading that focuses on how language both examines and obfuscates the way that we experience our lives.

“Fetishism”

Fetishism comes from the belief that women have been castrated; even though the man has seen that women do not have a penis, he still retains the belief that they once did but were castrated by his father and unconsciously, he believes that the woman’s penis has been replaced by something else.

“Family Romances”

The process of distancing oneself from the family involves erotic and ambitious daydreaming.

“Note on the ‘Magic Notepad’”

Sentence Summary:  Freud tries to imagine a device that would be similar to the sensory function of memory and that would overcome the problems of exhaustible recording surface and impossibility of a lasting trace; he gets close by discussing the magic notepad, a recording device that is similar to his Pcpt-Cs system.

“Lapses”

Small, seemingly incidental slips (misspeaking, misreading, mishearing) are actually highly significant, as they reveal the speaker’s unconscious or inner thoughts or reveal an experience that came before the lapse.

“Screen Memories”

A memory’s influence on a child is complicated, because things that seem important we forget, and things that seem trivial are what we remember the most; the work of psychoanalysis involves unearthing the original impression associated with these memories that was lost during displacement.

“Wolf Man”

Wolf Man’s neurosis stems from castration anxiety and watching his parents have intercourse, which made him desire to receive sexual satisfaction from his father and also manifested itself in his fear of seeing wolves.

“Fragment of an Analysis (Dora)”

Summary: Freud works out the problem of fragmented analysis by doing work to fill in the gaps in both his (about the case) and Dora’s memory, which ultimately becomes the work of psychoanalysis in general.

In his introduction to “Fragment of an Analysis (Dora)”, Freud does three things: he responds to past criticism of his method, he anticipates new criticism to this particular analysis, and he justifies publishing an incomplete analysis.  In “Dora”, the fragmented nature of the analysis seems to be the problem at first, but it finally becomes part of the methodology of psychoanalysis in general and I think that much of the work of justification happens in the passage where Freud compares his analysis to archaeology.

“Given the incompleteness of my analytical results I had no other choice but to follow the example of those researchers who are so happy to bring the inestimable, though mutilated, remains of antiquity to light after their long burial.  Using the best models known to me from other analyses, I have completed that which was incomplete, but, like a conscientious archaeologist, I have taken care, in each case, to reveal where my construction added to the authentic parts.” (Freud, Psychology of Love 8)

Freud starts out by defining the raw data that he had after meeting with Dora as incomplete.  He recognizes that this presents a problem to his work in general, as incomplete denotes an imperfection or a defect in the analysis he ended up with after his three months with Dora.  He goes on to say that, as a result of this (“given”), he has no other choice but to follow a methodology of analysis that allows him to work with this incompleteness.  Obviously, he really does have a choice in the matter, so I read this statement as saying that he chooses the best model, that this is the best way to go.  On the other hand, he doesn’t really have a choice because he needs to follow other examples, since he is doing work that has not been done before.  This model is the archaeological one, which he uses as a metaphor to describe psychoanalytical work, where he is unearthing unconscious thoughts and piecing them together in order to make them more complete.  Far from being problematic in their incompleteness, these “thought artifacts” are “inestimable, though mutilated.”  On one hand, inestimable means that they have value, but inestimable also means that this value, essentially, can’t be determined at all.  “Mutilated” also denotes some essential incompleteness, so the analytical results are missing parts that are unable to be recovered.  Here, the analytical results are valuable because they are incomplete.  Most of the work, then, lies in merely unearthing the analytical remains and recognizing that they are valuable as fragments.

In the second sentence Freud presents the idea that the method of psychoanalysis depends upon incompleteness, or fragments, to do its work.  Taking on the role of the archeologist, Freud continues a piecing together (“using the best models known to me”) and he makes the role of the archaeologist/analyst central in this piecing together.  Then comes the “but.” The “but” sets up an opposition between the central role of the analyst (before the “but) and the nature of the work that he does.  He is careful to say that he has added to the artifact through construction (the artificial part of the work).  “Authentic parts” is a reference back to the essential qualities of the artifact in the first sentence.  But this binary between what is artificial and authentic isn’t so simple at first, as “reveals” adds a layer of complication to how Freud describes the work of analysis.  To reveal is to disclose something previously kept secret.  Freud finally reveals that what is essential, and it is not as problematic as it seemed in the beginning.

I chose this passage because I think it does two important things.  First, it demonstrates Freud’s rhetorical method of making something seem like a problem at first and then subtly walking through it to make it end up working in his favor.  As a reader, I can’t take what Freud is saying at face value, but I also have to be willing to go along with him and invest myself fully in what he is saying until he finally reveals that the essential qualities that seemed we couldn’t avoid, that were problematic, actually end up being the essential qualities that make the whole system work at all.  In a sense, I end up believing what Freud is saying because I don’t believe it literally.  I go along with Freud by not believing that everything he is says is complete and by looking for the moment he reveals what he is actually doing.  On one level, this passage demonstrates, through a metaphor, how one is supposed to read Freud.  It also demonstrates how the work of psychoanalysis is done.  The most important part of psychoanalysis is unearthing the things that we’ve forgotten.