Notes from our 34^th Annual Scientific Conference, April 18, 2010

The topic was introduced by Dr. Fenchel who cited recent studies in brain activity and plasticity which implies that brains are influenced by their cultural surround and, in turn, influence the latter. Psychoanalysis was created as a product of its time, i.e. the rigid Austrian monarchy as contrasted to the era of the new Enlightenment ending in the in the French and the American Revolution. Ideas of justice, equality and reason were to be substituted for the old values that they replaced. In addition, Freud’s family came from Galicia and brought with them the cultural traditions of Jewishness and the values of that area.

One cannot say that Freud ‘invented’ psychoanalysis. He, too, was influenced By medical science of the time, German philosophers, and poets belonging to both the romantic and classical tradition. It is possible that the revolutionary Ideas of psychoanalysis were influenced by Enlightenment as they pertained to sexuality, culture and religion. But analytical ideas such as having a supportive figure to help you roam the through the ‘hell of the past’ have Also been found in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Prof. Martin Bergmann repeatedly stressed the historical and cultural environment. While Freud was a genius, his ideas were the product of different influences on him from different sources. The question, for example, has been raised whether Freud was a classicist or a romantic. Emphasis on reason for

the method would fall into the classic arena while concepts such as Eros and Oceanic feeling would best be understood as romantic. Similarly the question arises  of whether Freud was a philosopher and his theory was a relevant philosophy. Yet he was known as (as confirmed by Wittels)  an anti-philosopher person, while this theories addressed philosophical questions. Philosophy for him was what Europeans intellectuals called a “Weltanschaung.”A conviction that solved most contradictions and riddles of existence. He wanted his theory to be part of the natural sciences regulated by ‘the dictatorship of reason.’ But toward the end, Europe was devastated by war, former adherents such Jung and Adler had declared Their independence, Freud became more pessimistic, even as far as a ‘cure’ was

concerned. There were contradictions in Freud’s thought. For example he confessed to his friend Fliess that his secret hope had been to undertake the study of Philosophy in his quests to understand human nature. Freud started to believe that civilization was essential to defend against the individual impulses. While religion was part of society, it was really an illusion because it did not make people happy. Humanity would outgrow the need for a God. It is really the regressed childhood feeling, referred to as oceanic feeling, which becomes transformed inton religion. Concluding, Bergmann asserted that Freud was both a philosopher and a scientist, both a classicist and a romantic and psychoanalysis was both a rational method of treatment as well as a philosophy of life.

Dr. Makari traced the history of psychoanalysis within the context of the early medical sciences and culture concerned with the question of what makes us human. The ideas were a product of the cultural epoch but the search for what makes us human still causes schisms today. Some of this can be explained by the influx of European immigrants and how the clashed with the existing cultures they encountered. However some of the questions raised remain unresolved to this day. “It is the story of a group of doctors, philosophers, writers and scientists trying to grasp the most ephemeral not yet maddlingly obvious thing, the mind.” The center of psychology and medicine at that time was France. There were the well known physicians Bernheim, Charcot and psychologist Janet. Freud moved back and among them and Breuer creating a distinctive offshoot of French psychopathology.

Freud’s new discoveries were located somewhere between literature and neurology by finding a place for them in a scientifically tenable model of the mind. After World War II the European psychoanalytic community became a memory as small army of immigrants adapted to their new home. It was the refugees who created an image of Freud as a scientific genius who created psychoanalysis in Isolation. But the different communities could not agree on the issue, present since The beginning, as to what defined psychoanalysis. Nevertheless it emerged from the rubble as the as the leading modern theory of the mind. It brought with it the theories of mind as practiced in Europe among intellectuals and the educated class. A man, Freud, had become a history and a symbol, living on to haunt his followers, enemies and friends.

G.H. Fenchel, Ph.D.

The Future of Psychoanalysis 2009

For a decade now, psychoanalysts have raised the question of whether psychoanalysis is dead or, at the least, dying.  Martin Bergman, Lewis Arens and other present-day analysts while acknowledging the plenitude of contemporary theories  have wondered often whether psychoanalytic theory has been rejuvenated or whether it has fragmented. Renick sees the profession as self perpetuating, Ogden refocuses the goal of treatment, and Cooper observes that there are a lot of old analysts but very few young ones.

We here at Washington Square Institute firmly believe that psychoanalysis is NOT a dying art.  While it is true that the original theory of therapy was to provide symptom relief by analyzing the repressed impulses, particularly infantile sexuality, the concepts of the unconscious, resistance and interpretation have been retained. And while Ogden prescribes a ‘dream like’ quality for the analysis, it is not a new discovery to analyze dreams, fantasies or even encourage these facets for a better view of what the affects are.  The early maternal relationship that Freud focused on has been revitalized by infant observations and focuses now on attachment theory.

For those who fear fragmentation of the theory are advised to study the history of psychoanalysis from the early Wednesday evening meetings to the later developments and splits.  There were Freud,Stekel, Adler, Jung, Ferenczi, Rank and others, yet psychoanalysis survived.  We cannot help but observe that most theorists have deep narcissistic investments in their ‘deviations’  which help to reinforce dichotomies rather than find common ground.  The latter is found by the British school where the Sandlers have been able to incorporate various theories into an ‘internal relationship’ structure.

But we need to remember that psychoanalysis is also a philosophy and a method of inquiry which can be utilized in many areas besides therapy, such as anthropology, sociology, literature, history etc.  In spite of academic institutions no longer offering the study of psychodynamics in either psychology or social work departments, and insurance companies insisting on paying only for evidence shown therapies, more and more studies reflect that psychodynamic therapies are just as effective if not even more so in the long run.  Here at Washington Square Institute Treatment Center both patients and clinicians are very satisfied with the results of therapy.  This is confirmed by the fact that most of our referrals come by word of mouth from satisfied patients.  Psychoanalysis will live!

G.H.Fenchel, Ph.D.