Freud & the Imagination of Utopia

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The New York Sun

Among last year’s worldwide celebrations of Sigmund Freud’s 150th birthday, the Austrian Embassy’s in Washington, D.C., on September 15, was special: Ambassador Eva Nowotny had gotten 30 representatives of the four largest umbrella organizations — the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association, and the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work — to participate. During that long day of intense discussions, these psychoanalysts praised Freud’s original theories and put them in their context. The proceedings were published, and a year later, on November 16, 2007 — again at the Austrian Embassy — one representative of each association spoke at the presentation of “Freud at 150: 21st Century Essays on a Man of Genius.”

It was an informative evening. Much of Washington’s intelligentsia came out to listen. Freud’s ability to free-associate from philosophy to archaeology, from the past to the future, from soma to psyche, and from individual to society was endless. So it was inevitable that the invited speakers used different starting points. In my keynote address I reminded the audience that Freud had reached into and influenced every discipline; that his ideas keep dominating the lives of followers and detractors alike, and that he had attempted to clear up confusions by explaining, already in 1914, that psychoanalysis is a scientific theory, a clinical practice, and a theory of culture.

At that time his movement had just split: Carl Jung went on to pursue his theories of archetypes, and Alfred Adler to replace the centrality of the Oedipus complex with the inferiority complex. Freud insisted that the “gold of psychoanalysis,” namely the discovery of the individual unconscious, not get lost. Paradoxically, as such terms as repression, denial, repetition compulsion, Freudian slips, and so on have become part of our everyday culture, countless therapies that deny or water down unconscious phenomena have become popular.

At the Austrian Embassy, Golnar Simpson, a clinical social worker, emphasized that the “diversity of theoretical schools, changing patient populations, and socio-economic realities of practice” have made matters even more complex than in Freud’s days. She referred to discoveries in the neurosciences, and to the more accurate understanding of transference phenomena, which have taught therapists to better respond to “the situation immediately at hand.” She spoke of her “person-in-environment” perspective, and recalled that, already in 1918, Freud had argued “for the central role of government [and] the need to reduce inequality through universal access to services” by mental health professionals.

Yet some psychoanalysts object to government proposals to license psychologists of all stripes. To learn their trade, psychoanalysts must acquire an M.D. or Ph.D. before embarking on a personal analysis, a training analysis, and supervision of two patients. Uncovering patients’ hidden (infantile) desires takes time and patience and, therefore, money. Therapists’ amount and type of training must be taken into account. But therapy requires true emotional involvement and empathy — transference and countertransference — which are nearly impossible to quantify. So how do we separate psychoanalytically qualified social workers with a Ph.D. or no more than an M.A. from their many much less qualified colleagues — who expect to be included in a license agreement? Given their large numbers, they have more political clout, and are bound to prevail in our “anti-elitist” society.

At the same time, health care providers prefer quick and more superficial therapies that are less costly. A succession of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMs) have been devised to outline what mental conditions are reimbursable, and to what extent. However, it is difficult to convince health care administrators that a patient will need two weekly visits over two or three years. A classical psychoanalyst might argue that more time is needed, his colleague might say “better that than nothing,” and a cognitive therapist might side against them both. Also, establishing a patient’s needs requires fully elaborating his symptoms, a practice that is contrary to the need for total privacy and confidentiality to allow patients’ hidden problems to emerge into consciousness.

All these considerations add up to the current crisis in psychoanalysis. Still, given the public nature of our meeting, most theoretical and clinical issues were alluded to rather than spelled out. The other three presenters, in one way or another, leaned more on Freud’s cultural works, quoting from his “Group Psychology” and from his letter to Albert Einstein, “Why War.” Joseph Merlino, who also acted as master of ceremonies, wondered whether “psychoanalysis can help us understand the Middle East conflict.” He recalled that Freud made us realize that psychological reality is as real as objective reality — but that he did not foresee that when “two peoples invoke their histories in fighting over the same small parcel of land,” the community of mankind would have to subordinate its instinctual life to the dictatorship of reason.

Richard Ruth recounted that all his colleagues of Section 39 had put Freud’s clinical contributions into the here and now, and that they had gained a myriad of new insights from case studies of children and adults — via self-psychology or object relations, relational or interpersonal or eclectic approaches. He pointed to the need for contemporary clinicians to deal with rapid scientific advances, complex sociopolitical shifts, and the empirical bias of mainstream mental health professionals.

He, too, became less sanguine about the future of psychoanalysis, while recalling Freud’s statement that “the voice of the intellect is a soft one but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.” He went on to note that ever since 1918, Freudians have furthered community endeavors — in educational systems and homeless shelters — and have opposed racism. And because personal stories have political relevance, “psychoanalytic work can serve as a crucible in which the act of meaning-making … leads to cure.” He also pointed out that the love and the relationship formed by the psychoanalytic dyad do so as well, and that our need for enemies currently seems to be satisfied by the global tensions that make our survival uncertain.

William Granatier, basing his remarks on attachment theory, explained that children who fail to form early attachments develop feelings of shame and humiliation. He exemplified this point by quoting two Iranians whom Jim Lehrer had interviewed, who stated that their people don’t want to be bullied by America and insist on being treated with respect. He suggested that we employ Freud’s “soft words and reason” and engage in a dialogue with Iranian and Syrian leaders. I thought that he contradicted himself somewhat, when he concluded that given America’s and the United Nations’s weak position, psychoanalytic insights may be useless.

I came away thinking that psychoanalysts have vastly broadened and improved Freud’s theories and practices and have helped cure many individuals — but that by pursuing his dreams for a culture without hate, they’re barking up the wrong tree. For who, after Hitler’s and Stalin’s reigns, the Holocaust and other genocides, has been able to create the Utopia we all wish for? We could only imagine it while gorging ourselves on Ambassador Nowotny’s food, especially the Viennese pastries.

Ms. Kurzweil is the former editor of Partisan Review and University Professor Emeritus, Adelphi University. Her most recent book is “Full Circle: A Memoir.”


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