The Cut in the Building of Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud and Emma Eckstein, Volume I

289 Pages·2015·1.812 MB·English

by  Carlo Bonomi

The Cut and the Building of
Psychoanalysis, Volume 1
This volume presents a fresh perspective and new narrative of the origins
of psychoanalysis, taking into account social, cultural, and contemporary
relational views. Exploring Freud’s unconscious communication and iden-
tification with his patients, Emma Eckstein in particular, the book sheds
new light on the logic which informed a number of events central to
Freud’s self-analysis, and the theories he formulated to found and estab-
lish psychoanalysis.
Divided into three parts, chapters trace how Freud’s oscillations between
the reality of trauma and the creative power of fantasies were a direct result
of his encounter with and treatment of Emma. Part 1 presents a histori-
cal reconstruction of the practice of castration in the treatment of hysteric
women between 1878 and 1895; Part 2 examines the theories and practice
produced by Freud between 1895 and 1896; and Part 3 explores and recon-
structs Freud’s self-analysis, 1896–1899.
The Cut and the Building of Psychoanalysis argues that Freud’s unconscious
communication with Emma provided him with a crucial framework and
path for his self-analysis. It will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists,
and psychologists, as well as historians of medicine and science, social sci-
entists and scholars interested in the history of Western thought and the
mind in general.
Carlo Bonomi, PhD, is supervising analyst at the Harry Stack Sullivan Institute
of Psychoanalysis, Florence, Italy, and a faculty member of the Postgraduate
School of Psychotherapy of the same institute. He has taught History of Psy-
chology and Dynamic Psychology at the State University of Florence and is a
former president of the Centre for Historical Studies of Psychoanalysis and
Psychiatry. He is also Founding President of the Sándor Ferenczi Cultural
Association.
Relational Perspectives Book Series
Lewis Aron & Adrienne Harris
Series Co-Editors
Steven Kuchuck & Eyal Rozmarin
Associate Editors
TOP
The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow out
of or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psychoanalysis.
The term relational psychoanalysis was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell
(1983) to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed within
interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within contem-
porary British theory.  But, under the seminal work of the late Stephen Mitchell,
the term relational psychoanalysis grew and began to accrue to itself many other
influences and developments. Various tributaries – interpersonal psychoanal-
ysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy research, and
elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought – flow into this tra-
dition, which understands relational configurations between self and others,
both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.  
We refer to the relational tradition, rather than to a relational school, to
highlight that we are identifying a trend, a tendency within contemporary
psychoanalysis, not a more formally organized or coherent school or system
of beliefs. Our use of the term relational signifies a dimension of theory and
practice that has become salient across the wide spectrum of contempo-
rary psychoanalysis. Now under the editorial supervision of Lewis Aron and
Adrienne Harris with the assistance of Associate Editors Steven Kuchuck and
Eyal Rozmarin, the Relational Perspectives Book Series originated in 1990
under the editorial eye of the late Stephen A. Mitchell.  Mitchell was the
most prolific and influential of the originators of the relational tradition.  He
was committed to dialogue among psychoanalysts and he abhorred the
authoritarianism that dictated adherence to a rigid set of beliefs or technical
restrictions.  He championed open discussion, comparative and integrative
approaches, and he promoted new voices across the generations.  
Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors and
works that come from within the relational tradition, extend and develop
the tradition, as well as works that critique relational approaches or compare
and contrast it with alternative points of view.  The series includes our most
distinguished senior psychoanalysts, along with younger contributors who
bring fresh vision.
Vol. 1 Vol. 9
Conversing with Uncertainty: Influence and Autonomy in
Practicing Psychotherapy Psychoanalysis
in a Hospital Setting Stephen A. Mitchell
Rita Wiley McCleary
Vol. 10
Vol. 2 Fairbairn, Then and Now
Affect in Psychoanalysis: A Clinical Neil J. Skolnick & David E. Scharff
Synthesis (eds.)
Charles Spezzano
Vol. 11
Vol. 3 Building Bridges: Negotiation of
The Analyst in the Inner City: Paradox in Psychoanalysis
Race, Class, and Culture Stuart A. Pizer
through a Psychoanalytic Lens
Neil Altman Vol. 12
Relational Perspectives on the Body
Vol. 4 Lewis Aron & Frances Sommer
A Meeting of Minds: Anderson (eds.)
Mutuality in Psychoanalysis
Lewis Aron Vol. 13
Seduction, Surrender, and
Vol. 5 Transformation: Emotional
Holding and Psychoanalysis: Engagement in the Analytic Process
A Relational Perspective Karen Maroda
Joyce A. Slochower
Vol. 14
Vol. 6 Relational Psychoanalysis, Vol. I:
The Therapist as a Person: The Emergence of a Tradition
Life Crises, Life Choices, Life Stephen A. Mitchell & Lewis Aron
Experiences, and Their Effects on (eds.)
Treatment
Barbara Gerson (ed.) Vol. 15
The Collapse of the Self and Its
Vol. 7 Therapeutic Restoration
Soul on the Couch: Rochelle G. K. Kainer
Spirituality, Religion, and Morality
in Contemporary Psychoanalysis Vol. 16
Charles Spezzano & Gerald J. Psychoanalytic Participation:
Gargiulo (eds.) Action, Interaction, and Integration
Kenneth A. Frank
Vol. 8
Unformulated Experience: Vol. 17
From Dissociation to Imagination in The Reproduction of Evil:
Psychoanalysis A Clinical and Cultural Perspective
Donnel B. Stern Sue Grand
Vol. 18 Vol. 27
Objects of Hope: The Designed Self: Psychoanalysis and
Exploring Possibility and Limit in Contemporary Identities
Psychoanalysis Carlo Strenger
Steven H. Cooper
Vol. 28
Vol. 19 Relational Psychoanalysis, Vol. II:
Who is the Dreamer, Who Dreams the Innovation and Expansion
Dream? Lewis Aron & Adrienne Harris (eds.)
A Study of Psychic Presences
James S. Grotstein Vol. 29
Child Therapy in the Great Outdoors:
Vol. 20 A Relational View
Relationality: Sebastiano Santostefano
From Attachment to Intersubjectivity
Stephen A. Mitchell Vol. 30
The Healer’s Bent: Solitude and
Vol. 21 Dialogue in the Clinical Encounter
Looking for Ground: James T. McLaughlin
Countertransference and the Problem of
Value in Psychoanalysis Vol. 31
Peter G. M. Carnochan Unconscious Fantasies and the
Relational World
Vol. 22 Danielle Knafo & Kenneth Feiner
Sexuality, Intimacy, Power
Muriel Dimen Vol. 32
Getting from Here to There:
Vol. 23 Analytic Love, Analytic Process
September 11: Trauma and Human Sheldon Bach
Bonds
Susan W. Coates, Jane L. Rosenthal, Vol. 33
& Daniel S. Schechter (eds.) Creating Bodies: Eating Disorders as
Self-Destructive Survival
Vol. 24 Katie Gentile
Minding Spirituality
Randall Lehman Sorenson Vol. 34
Relational Psychoanalysis, Vol. III: New
Vol. 25 Voices
Gender as Soft Assembly Melanie Suchet, Adrienne Harris, &
Adrienne Harris Lewis Aron (eds.)
Vol. 26 Vol. 35
Impossible Training: Comparative-Integrative Psychoanalysis:
A Relational View of Psychoanalytic A Relational Perspective for the
Education Discipline’s Second Century
Emanuel Berman Brent Willock
Vol. 36 Vol. 45
Bodies in Treatment: First Do No Harm: The Paradoxical
The Unspoken Dimension Encounters of Psychoanalysis,
Frances Sommer Anderson (ed.) Warmaking, and Resistance
Adrienne Harris & Steven Botticelli
Vol. 37 (eds.)
Adolescent Identities: A
Collection of Readings Vol. 46
Deborah Browning (ed.) A Disturbance in the Field:
Essays in Transference-
Vol. 38 Countertransference Engagement
Repair of the Soul: Metaphors of Steven H. Cooper
Transformation in Jewish Mysticism
and Psychoanalysis Vol. 47
Karen E. Starr Uprooted Minds: Surviving the Politics
of Terror in the Americas
Vol. 39 Nancy Caro Hollander
Dare to be Human: A Contemporary
Psychoanalytic Journey Vol. 48
Michael Shoshani Rosenbaum Toward Mutual Recognition:
Relational Psychoanalysis and the
Vol. 40 Christian Narrative
The Analyst in the Inner City, Second Marie T. Hoffman
Edition: Race, Class, and Culture
through a Psychoanalytic Lens Vol. 49
Neil Altman Understanding and Treating
Dissociative Identity Disorder:
Vol. 41 A Relational Approach
The Hero in the Mirror: From Fear to Fortitude Elizabeth F. Howell
Sue Grand
Vol. 50
Vol. 42 With Culture in Mind:
Sabert Basescu: Selected Papers on Psychoanalytic Stories
Human Nature and Psychoanalysis Muriel Dimen (ed.)
George Goldstein & Helen Golden
(eds.) Vol. 51
Relational Psychoanalysis, Vol. IV:
Vol. 43 Expansion of Theory
Invasive Objects: Minds under Siege Lewis Aron & Adrienne Harris
Paul Williams (eds.)
Vol. 44 Vol. 52
Good Enough Endings: Breaks, Relational Psychoanalysis, Vol. V:
Interruptions, and Terminations from Evolution of Process
Contemporary Relational Perspectives Lewis Aron & Adrienne Harris
Jill Salberg (ed.) (eds.)
Vol. 53 Vol. 60
Individualizing Gender and Sexuality: The Origins of Attachment: Infant
Theory and Practice Research and Adult Treatment
Nancy Chodorow Beatrice Beebe & Frank M.
Lachmann
Vol. 54
The Silent Past and the Invisible Present: Vol. 61
Memory, Trauma, and Representation The Embodied Analyst: From Freud and
in Psychotherapy Reich to Relationality
Paul Renn Jon Sletvold
Vol. 55 Vol. 62
A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach
a Progressive Psychoanalysis to Couples Psychotherapy
Lewis Aron & Karen Starr Philip A. Ringstrom
Vol. 56 Vol. 63
Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Cyclical Psychodynamics and the
Relational Perspective Contextual Self: The Inner World,
Joyce Slochower the Intimate World, and the World of
Culture and Society
Vol. 57 Paul L. Wachtel
The Play Within the Play: The Enacted
Dimension of Psychoanalytic Process Vol. 64
Gil Katz Traumatic Ruptures: Abandonment
and Betrayal in the Analytic
Vol. 58 Relationship
Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Robin A. Deutsch (ed.)
Systems of Subjugation
Daniel Shaw Vol. 65
The Cut and the Building of
Vol. 59 Psychoanalysis, Volume 1: Sigmund
Clinical Implications of the Freud and Emma Eckstein
Psychoanalyst’s Life Experience: When Carlo Bonomi
the Personal Becomes Professional
Steven Kuchuck (ed.)
The Cut and the Building of
Psychoanalysis, Volume 1
Sigmund Freud and Emma Eckstein
Carlo Bonomi
First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 C. Bonomi
The right of C. Bonomi to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bonomi, Carlo.
The cut and the building of psychoanalysis/Carlo Bonomi.
volumes cm
Contents: Volume 1. Sigmund Freud and Emma Eckstein—
Volume 2. Sigmund Freud and Sandor Ferenczi
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Psychoanalysis—History. 2. Psychoanalysts. 3. Freud,
Sigmund, 1856–1939. 4. Eckstein, Emma. I. Title.
BF173.B647 2015
150.19′509—dc23
2014035777
ISBN: 978-1-138-82349-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74204-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
List of Figures xi
Introduction 1
PART 1
The medical context 15
1 The castration of women and girls 17
2 Between body and psyche: the nerves 45
PART 2
Withstanding trauma 61
3 A gynecological scandal 63
4 The significance of Emma Eckstein’s circumcision
to Freud’s Irma dream 86
PART 3
Topography of a split 123
5 The savior of children 125
6 The cornerstone 150
7 A bisexual monster 175
8 The crossroad 189