The history of the psychoanalytic movementFreud, Sigmund
History
The history of the psychoanalytic movement
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis -- History
When one thinks of the disagreements between the individual private and
public expressions of Jung’s utterances one is obliged to ask to what
extent this is due to his own lack of clearness and lack of sincerity.
Yet, it must be admitted that the representatives of the new theory find
themselves in a difficult position. They are now disputing things which
they themselves formerly defended and what is more, this dispute is not
based on new observations which might have taught them something fresh,
but rather on a different interpretation which causes them to see things
in a different light from that in which they saw them before. It is for
this reason that they will not give up their connection with
psychoanalysis as the representatives of which they first became known
in the world. They prefer to proclaim that psychoanalysis has changed.
At the Congress of Münich I was obliged to clear up this confusion and
did so by declaring that I could not recognize the innovation of the
Swiss School as a legitimate continuation and further development of the
psychoanalysis which had originated with me. Outside critics (like
Furtmüller) had already recognized this state of affairs and Abraham
says, quite rightly, that Jung is in full retreat away from
psychoanalysis. I am naturally entirely willing to admit that any one
has the right to think and to write what he wishes, but he has not the
right to make it out to be something different from what it really is.
Just as Adler’s researches brought something new into psychoanalysis, a
piece of the ego-psychology, and paid only too dearly for this gift by
repudiating all the fundamental analytic principles, in the same way
Jung and his adherents have based their fight against psychoanalysis
upon a new contribution to the same. They have traced in detail (what
Pfister did before them) how the material of the sexual ideas
originating in the family complex and in the incestuous object selection
can be used to represent the highest ethical and religious interests of
mankind, that is, they have explained a remarkable case of sublimation
of the erotic impelling forces and the transformation of the same into
strivings that can no longer be called erotic. All this harmonized very
well with the assumptions of psychoanalysis, and would have agreed very
well with the conception that in the dream and in the neurosis one sees
the regressive elucidations of these and all other sublimations. But the
world would have exclaimed that ethics and religion had been sexualized.
I cannot help assuming “finally” that the investigators found themselves
quite unequal to the storm they had to face. Perhaps the storm began to
rage in their own bosoms. The previous theological history of so many of
the Swiss workers is as important in their attitude to psychoanalysis as
is the socialistic record of Adler for the development of his
“psychology.” One is reminded of Mark Twain’s famous story about the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account