What Is Psychoanalysis?

Isador H Coriat

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138875555
• eBook ISBN: 9781136339684
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Atención sanitaria

First Reprinted in 1999. Originally published in 1919, this volume aimed to answer the various enquiries which puzzled those in the scientific field of psychoanalysis. This title is formatted in a questions and answers structure where Coriat directly addressed the prominent topics of psychoanalysis study at the time of original publication. The self-described character of the book permits theory and discussion and a brief bibliography is appended for further study.

WHAT IS PSYCHOANALYSIS?

ARRANGED IN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. What is psychoanalysis ?

A. Psychoanalysis is the most recent and advanced therapeutic procedure for the treatment of the neuroses. It is what its name implies, an analysis of the mind. Other psychotherapeutic methods deal only with the superficial manifestations of the neuroses, and therefore cannot produce a fundamental cure. Psychoanalysis concerns itself primarily with the cause of symptoms, with their real underlying mechanism. It not only penetrates into the origin of symptoms,' but the analysis at the same time is the treatment.

It is a study of man’s unconscious motives and desires as shown in various nervous disturbances and in certain mainifestations of every-day life in normal individuals. It has been demonstrated that the manifold symptoms of the neuroses result from unfulfilled desires, often extending back to the earliest years of childhood. These desires not only influence the formation of character traits, but likewise are responsible for many forms of nervous illness.

Q. Where and under what conditions did psychoanalysis originate ?

A. The evolution of psychoanalysis forms an interesting chapter in the history of medicine. It was in 1881 that Freud, in association with Breuer of Vienna, whose name is well known for his researches on the physiology of the semicircular canals, started to treat a young woman who was suffering from hysteria. The usual means were tried in vain, until it was found that the facts offered by the patient in explanation of her condition represented only a part of the history. This was not due to a deliberate attempt on the part of the patient to conceal her medical antecedents, but as it later developed, to an unconscious repression, because the emotional state which was a part of these concealed facts represented painful experiences. Finally by a procedure, which later developed into the refinements of the psychoanalytic method, many hidden experiences of the past with their attached emotions were brought to light, and it was shown that it was these experiences which caused the hysterical condition. These memories, although buried in the unconscious, were active and living forces, and only when they were lived over again did a cure take place. They were not merely forgotten but repressed, although unconsciously so, and it was only when this repression was overcome that the patient began to improve.

At first hypnosis was employed to revive the forgotten memories, but later it was discovered that hypnosis was not necessary in psychoanalysis, and since then its use has been abandoned. In 1895 Breuer and Freud published their studies on the mechanism of hysteria, in which it was shown that the hysterical symptoms arose from reminiscences unknown to and forgotten by the sufferer. They demonstrated that the forgetting was a purposeful act, in the same way that a normal individual conveniently “ forgets” the unpleasant experiences of his life.

In 1900, Freud published his great work on the “ Interpretation of Dreams,” and there was opened up a new field of investigation of the unconscious in both normal and abnormal conditions. Nervous patients frequently related strange dreams to him and it was found that each dream possessed a profound personal significance for the dreamer, in fact, it was the outgrowth, sometimes literal, sometimes symbolic, of the individual’s unconscious mental life. It was definitely proven that every dream was the fulfilment of repressed wishes. Dream analysis revealed the mechanism of delusions, morbid fears, hysteria, fixed ideas and compulsive thinking, and at the same time it provided neurology the most potent instrument for the removal of these abnormal symptoms in the form of what became known as the psychoanalytic treatment.

Thus the fundamental and basic idea of Freud’s work is that a large number of normal and abnormal mental processes come from hidden sources, unknown and unsuspected by the individual. The gulf between normal thinking and abnormal mental states has been definitely bridged by psychoanalysis, for instance, when it is stated, that the normal “ forgetting ” of an unpleasant experience is identical but to a more limited degree, with the repressions of an hysteric.

Q. To what other fields of investigation has psychoanalysis been applied besides that of medicine ?

A. Psychoanalysis has entered many new fields of thought. These various principles of Freud’s psychology and the psychoanalytic method have been successfully applied in not only helping the nervously ill, but the same fundamental principles have been used to interpret the unconscious sources of wit, literary creations, myths, folk lore and the slips of the tongue and forgetting of normal individuals. It was demonstrated that the unconscious mental processes which formed dreams were identical with those at work in imaginative creations in literature, in wit, in the social consciousness and in that folk spirit from which myths and folk lore are elaborated.

Psychoanalysis is beginning to found a new ethics as well as a new psychology, a new neurology and a new school of literary criticism. It bears the same relation in all its principles to the human mind, and to the social consciousness, as biology does to the organic world.

Freud’s principal works are his papers on hysteria and the psychoneuroses, the three contributions to the sexual theory, the work on interpretation of dreams,* the psychopathology of everyday life, the monograph entitled “ Totem and Taboo,” the psychoanalytic study of Leonardo da Vinci and finally the contribution on wit and its relation to the unconscious.

In his three contributions to the sexual theory, Freud deals principally with the development of the sexual instinct in its relationship to repression, both social and individual, and the part played by repression in the evolution of abnormal mental states.

In the psychopathology of everyday life it is shown that the unconscious mental mechanism which produces errors in writing and speech, the forgetting of familiar names and words, slips of tongue and the like, is identical with the mental mechanism which produces the psychoneuroses.

The work on “ Totem and Taboo ” is devoted to demonstrating that the individual and social defence reactions and the symbolisation of repressed feelings is the same in savage man as in the educated individual, that is, the taboos of a primitive group are essentially identical with the taboos of civilised society.

The study of Leonardo da Vinci is based upon a fragment of one of Leonardo’s infantile memories and, by a most ingenious logic, this fragment is utilised to explain Leonardo’s greatness as an artist and man of science and to fathom the mystery of the smile of Mona Lisa.

In the book on wit is shown that wit and laughter are merely methods through which the unconscious obtains the greatest amount of pleasure within the shortest space of time, and that the psychological structure of a joke very much resembles the psychological structure of a dream.

In addition to Freud, other investigators have published valuable studies and investigations on the various medical and cultural aspects of psychoanalysis, such as the relation between myths and dreams, comparative mythology, sketches of great artists and finally psychoanalytic interpretations of complex literary creations, such as Hamlet and Lady Macbeth.

Q. To whom should the practice of psychoanalysis be limited ?

A. To those thoroughly trained in the theory of psychoanalysis and in general psychopathology. For an untrained person to use psychoanalysis is as much to be deprecated as it is for some one to use radium who is ignorant of the physics of radio-activity, or as dangerous as to attempt a surgical operation without a knowledge of anatomy.

Q. What is the attitude of physicians trained in nervous and mental diseases towards psychoanalysis ?

A. Some are sympathetic, other antagonise the psychoanalytic movement. On reading the criticisms of psychoanalysis, however, it will be found that they are chiefly remarkable for their complete misapprehension of the theories and purposes of psychoanalysis. There is a refusal to make an honest examination of the subject. The chief misunderstandings are along the lines of the sexual etiology of the neuroses, the manner in which psychoanalysis works, transference,* and the technical methods of dream analysis and interpretation.

Q. Can psychoanalysis be harmful ?

A. “ Wild ” psychoanalysis is a term first introduced by Freud and refers to the gross errors into which some physicians fall who have a hazy idea of the principles and teachings of psychoanalysis and attempt to apply them in their practice. The serious errors which may take place are incorrect advice concerning sexual difficulties, an over-emphasis on the part of the psychoanalyst on sexual matters, when these are shown merely as symbols in the dreams or symptoms of the neurosis and the improper utilisation of the transference. Furthermore, the mental factor in the neuroses must not be overlooked, neither must the analyst fall into the error that it is the ignorance of sexual matters which needs enlightenment and which are producing the neurosis. In addition, in the sexual neuroses, such as homosexuality, the advice which is usually given concerning attempts at sexual indulgence, is to be strongly condemned, partly for moral reasons and partly for the fact that the patient does not need such advice as he is fully aware of his difficulties. The analysis must be non-personal, the physician must be the scientist. During the course of the analysis, the reading of psychoanalytic literature must be strongly advised against, since such reading may produce a mental attitude which becomes a strong resistance.

Q. What is the cause of certain failures in psychoanalysis ?

A. Failures in psychoanalysis are due either to ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction
• Contents
• What Is Psychoanalysis ?
• Hints for Reading
• Index