Conceptual Issues in Psychoanalysis. Essays in History and Method

257 Pages·1986·40.258 MB·English

by  John E. Gedo

CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
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CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Essays in History and Method
John E. Gedo
~
THE ANALYTIC PRESS
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Copyright © 1986 by The Analytic Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other
means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The Analytic Press
Distributed solely by
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
365 Broadway
Hillsdale, New Jersey 07642
Libnuy of Congress Catalogiog-io-Publication Data
Gedo, John E.
Conceptual issues in psychoanalysis.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Psychoanalysis-History. 2. Psychoanalysis.
I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Psychoanalysis- history.
2. Psychoanalytic Theory. WM 460 G296c]
RC503.G43 1986 150.19'5'09 86-1245
ISBN 0-88163-050-0
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I dedicate this book to the coming generation of
psychoanalytic theorists, in the hope that they will
be able to look upon our travails
with pity and forebearance.
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Introduction
1. FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR 3
Historical Section
2. SIGMUND FREUD'S CHARACTER AND THE DEFINITION
OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 17
3. SANDOR FERENCZ!: THE FIRST PSYCHOANALYTIC
DISSIDENT 36
4. THE LOYAL OPPOSITION OF LOUISE VON
SALOME 51
5. KANT'S WAY: THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL CHALLENGE OF
DAVID RAPAPORT 62
6. THE DOCTRINE OF MELANIE KLEIN: VITALISM, INNATE
IDEAS, AND THE SUBVERSION OF REASON 82
7. A HERO OF OUR TIME: THE DISSIDENCE OF HEINZ
KOHUT 99
8. BARRED FROM THE PROMISED LAND: HEINZ KOHUT IN
THE WILDERNESS 116
Intermezzo
9. THE LESSONS OF HISTORY AND THE CHALLENGE OF
SCIENTIFIC METHOD 135
Methodological Section
10. CAVEAT LECTOR: PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY AND THE
DIRECT OBSERVATION OF BEHAVIOR 147
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viii CONTENTS
11. ON THE DAWN OF EXPERIENCE: THE PAST
RECAPTURED 160
12. THE LEGACY OF INFANCY AND THE TECHNIQUE OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS 173
13. RELEVANCE OR REDUCTIONISM IN INTERPRETATION: A
REPRISE OF THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF KLEIST'S PUPPET
THEATER 186
Epilogue
14. MORE ON THE ESSENCE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS:
SELF-CREATION AND VOCABULARIES OF MORAL
DELIBERATION 203
REFERENCES 217
INDEX 231
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Acknowledgments
Historical and methodological studies in psychoanalysis present the
scholar with daunting obstacles. The challenge of mastering the skills
of the intellectual historian and of the epistemologist, in addition to
the subject matter of our own discipline, has discouraged activity in
this important aspect of our field. My own hesitant efforts, which
were to culminate in the present volume, began with the encourage
ment of various colleagues who entrusted me with special assign
ments to assess one or another significant development of the psy
choanalytic past or present. For this book, I have made a fresh start
on most of these topics, and I offer versions revised in important
respects in the few instances that reuse portions of previously pub
lished work. It seems fitting, nonetheless, to acknowledge the man
ner in which my interest in the specific topics covered in this volume
was initially aroused.
My first commission to study the intellectual history of psycho
analysis came from Germany. The journal Psyche asked me for a re
view of Ferenczi's contributions when, in the late 1960s, his collected
works were reissued in German. That task occupied me for the better
part of a year and taught me how difficult it is to place the work of an
individual author into the context of his own time. Around 1970, The
Psychoanalytic Quarterly asked me to assess the psychoanalytic writ
ings of David Rapaport. It is noteworthy that the editor, Jacob Arlow,
felt the need for such a special article because the Quarterly had not
been able to procure an acceptable review of the 1967 edition of
Rapaport' s Collected Papers. When I immersed myself in the study of
his immense oeuvre, I could well understand the general reluctance to
undertake such time-consuming Jabors requiring perfectionistic at
tention to detail.
My awareness of the importance of the responses of Lou Andreas
Salome to the psychoanalytic controversies of her day was one result
of preparing a review of her correspondence with Sigmund Freud for
the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. In contrast, my
first attempt to make a historical judgment concerning the contribu-
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