Volume 17 - Number 1-2 - June-September 2010
Pages: 1 - 163
Teitelbaum, S. (2010). Re-examining Freud in an era of Freud bashing. Clio’s Psyche, 17(1-2), 140-143.
Re-examining Freud in an Era of Freud Bashing
Abstract
In this response article to the symposium on traumatic reliving with Freud, the author replies to Rudolph Binion’s lead essay “Reliving with Freud,” setting it against what the author calls a climate of Freud-bashing, in which even psychoanalytic candidates disdain reading Freud. The author maintains that most contemporary practitioners, though they no longer identify as Freudian, keep concepts such as transference, resistance, repetition compulsion, and working through, even as practice has moved from hysterical symptoms toward characterological problems. The author cites Martin Bergmann’s classification of theoretical revisions and notes that insurers’ demands for evidence-based results favor symptomatic over characterological change. Binion’s essay, the author says, invites reconsideration of episodic traumatic reliving, which Freud promoted and later left behind, and of repetition as an attempt at mastery, illustrated by the film Vertigo and by patients who seek out repeated mistreatment. The author commends Binion’s account of how clinicians apply Freudian propositions.
Freud bashing, Freudian theory, pathology, psychoanalysis, psychohistory, resistance, repetition compulsion, Rudolph Binion, Sigmund Freud, transference
In this era of Freud-bashing and a climate in which
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even new candidates in psychoanalytic institutes are disdainful about readings in Freud, it is refreshing to read Dr. Binion’s paper that takes us back to the origins of the field of psychoanalysis. Binion reminds us that in painstakingly building his theory of human behavior and pathology, Freud struggled and re-struggled with many of the component parts of his theory.
Although psychoanalytic practice has shifted radically away from patients who present with debilitating physical symptoms, such as the hysterical paralyses commonly seen at the end of the 19th century, and toward an emphasis on characterological problems, we continue to embrace many of the early central concepts in Freudian theory—transference, resistance, repetition compulsion, working through, etc., to inform our way of working in psychoanalytically oriented treatment. (As a side note, it is ironic to observe how insurance companies currently are pressing for evidence-based results as a condition for therapy reimbursement, which, of course, is much easier to demonstrate via symptomatic improvement than via characterological changes).
While many of the elements and shibboleths of basic Freudian theory have been largely debunked and most of today’s practitioners do not think of themselves as Freudian, they stop short of throwing out the foundations of his theory. Instead, they continue to utilize many of the basic concepts in ways that make sense to them. Martin Bergmann, in examining the spectrum of theoretical revisions in psychoanalysis, has classified these approaches into the categories of “modifiers, extenders, and heretics.”
Binion’s scholarly article prompts us to examine the utility of “episodic traumatic reliving,” which Freud originally promoted and later moved away from. He also highlights the significance of the repetition compulsion in work-
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ing through traumatic experiences. From a constructive vantage point, these actions can be seen as an attempt to gain mastery over the traumatic circumstances. This sequence is exquisitely exemplified in Alfred Hitchcock’s film, “Vertigo,” in which the leading character is compelled to repeat the pathway to a traumatic accident in order to master a debilitating state. Other examples of the psychic force of repetition are readily seen in patients who are attracted to new editions of objects who had mistreated them. Adhesive attachments to sadomasochistic interactions may continue to be fueled by the repetition compulsion. Martin Bergman also attained celebrity status for his role in a Woody Allen film, where as a psychoanalyst he pointed out that many people who have been traumatized or in other ways felt mistreated in an early (developmental) relationship are unconsciously driven to seek partners in their adult lives who have similar personality characteristics to the original significant other (the “object” in psychoanalytic terminology), whom they hope they can change and thereby develop a better version of the original depriving or traumatizing object.
Professor Binion is to be applauded for his erudite examination of the evolution and shifting trends in how clinicians apply basic Freudian propositions.
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How to cite this article
Teitelbaum, S. (2010). Re-examining Freud in an era of Freud bashing. Clio’s Psyche, 17(1-2), 140-143.
