The pre-psychoanalytic writings of Sigmund Freud PDF
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The Pre-Psychoanalytic Writings of Sigmund Freud edited by Gertrudis Van de Vijver and Filip Geerardyn University of Ghent, Belgium KARNAC First published in 2002 by H. Kamac (Books) Ltd. 6 Pembroke Buildings London N W 10 6RE 02002 Gertrudis Van de Vijver and Filip Geerardyn to the edited collection and the individual authors to their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 185575 285 9 www.k arnacbooks.com Printed and bound by Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne CONTENTS Introduction: The Roots of Psychoanalysis Recovered? Gertrudis Van de Vijver and Filip Geerardyn 1. The Beginnings in Neurology and Psychiatry An Introduction to the Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud Mark Solms Freud's Theory on Aphasia Revisited: Epistemological and Clinical Implications Filip Geerardyn Freud's Merit as a Psychiatrist Hubert Van Hoorde 2. Studies on Cocaine The Place of Cocaine in the Work of Freud Rik Loose Freud's Studies on Cocaine Albrecht Hirschmiiller In the Beginning of Psychoanalysis There Was Euphoria Pierre Eyguesier 78 3. Freud and Philosophy Franz Brentano, Freud's Philosophical Mentor Aviva Cohen On Freud's Encounter With Brentano Frnnz Kaltenbeck John Stuart Mill Translated by Sigmund Freud Michael Molnar 4. Studies on Hysteria and The Neuro-Psychoses of Defence Freud, Hysteria, and Psychiatry as the Impossible Profession Aisling Campbell Psychic Determination in Neurosis: On the Role of Constitution in Early Freudian Theory Katrie~L~ib brecht 'My Bad Diagnostic Error': Re-Visiting the Case of Emmy von N. (Fanny Moser) Cltristfiied Togel 5. The Project for a Scientific Psychology Freud's Neural Unconscious David Smith The Topology of 'A Project for a Scientific Psychology' Nathalie Charraud The Symptom as Metaphor: Freud's 'Project' Riukn Warshawsky A Reading of an Ethics of Psychoanalysis from Freud's Formulation of Das Ding in the 'AP roject for a Scientific Psychology' Helen Sheehan On the Origins of Psychic Structure: a Case-Study Revisited on the Basis of Freud's 'Project' Gertrtidis Van de Vijver 6. Epistemological Issues: Materialism, Reductionism, and Evolutionism Freud's Pre-Analytical Writings and his Scientific Revolution Saiil Hainzovich The Origin of the Subject From the Perspective of Freudian Scientific Materialism Silvana Dalto Suggestions from the Unconscious: Freud, Hypnosis, and the Mind-Body Problem Fiilvio Marone From the Associationist Unconscious to the Unconscious Structured Like a Language Guy Trobas BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX A NOTE ON TEXTS Where possible, quotations and references to Freud are given accord- ing to the Standard Editiorl of the Complete Psychological Works of Signlund Fretid, 24 volumes, translated and edited by James Strachey in collab- oration with Anna Freud, assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson. London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis; New York: Norton, 1953-1974. INTRODUCTION THE ROOTS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS RECOVERED? Gertrudis van de Vijver and Filip Geerardyn This book was conceived in the wake of an international congress on Sigmund Freud's pre-analytic writings, which was held in May 1995 at the University of Ghent.1 The congress attracted scholars from a vast variety of disciplines and schools. Their enthusiastic reactions, both during and after the conference, bore witness to the fact that this meet- ing was both important and unique. The exploration of Freud's so-called 'pre-analytic' writings during the congress extended way beyond examination of purely historical data. The aim of this book, then, is to keep alive that spirit of research and co-operation. Firstly, we intend to transgress the rigid barriers erected between different disciplines, schools of thought and para- digms. Instead, we shall examine problems and possible solutions sug- gested by Freud's pre-analytic writings with an emphasis upon the respective benefits and inevitable losses that each approach yields, rather than concerning ourselves unduly with the polemics and pre- sumptions of these approaches. Secondly, we aim at a cross-fertilisa- tion of concepts and methods, by encouraging them to proliferate in entirely new fields. As Deleuze would have it, it is a matter of territo- rialising, de-territorialising and re-territorialising (Deleuze & Guattari 1991). This modus operandi provides the most appropriate conditions under which to re-examine Freud's own intellectual daring and enthusiasm, in both theory and practice. It also seems to us the most suitable means of attempting to re-vitalise contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice-by opening up avenues through interrogation, rather than seeking shelter within the confines of previously formulated answers. But perhaps this course of action seems daunting when one consid- ers the nature of the texts and ideas we shall be exploring. Freud's pre- analytic writings range over fields as diverse as histology, neurology, the psychophysics of cocaine, an engagement with French psychiatry, the philosophy of Franz Brentano and J.S. Mill, and his first, fledgling attempts at formulating a psychology inspired by his clinical experi- ence of hysteria and the 'talking cure'. 8 Gertrlldis Vnn de Vijver aizd Filip Geerardyn The year 1900, the date of the publication of Tile Interpretation of Dreanzs, is traditionally, and quite arbitrarily, considered the starting- point for what have since become known as the 'psychoanalytical' writings. Whether or not 1900 is the correct date for the 'start' of psy- choanalysis, it seems important to return to Freud's early writings in order to determine the relation of psychoanalysis to the other sciences. Indeed some of the sciences from which psychoanalysis arose-such as histology, neurology and psychophysics-boasted a much more respectable scientific status, and were never the subject of as many crit- ical attacks. By relating psychoanalysis to its more 'respectable' roots, then, might it not be possible to demonstrate why and how it veered from its course, and then-perhaps-bring it back onto the 'secure road of a science'? But what is meant by 'the secure road of a science'? Although Kant described science in these terms? it has now become apparent-more than two hundred years after the Critique of Pure Rensoiz-that one must unrelentingly question this view. Is the 'secure road' today actually the same as that described by Kant? Interrogation of this kind must underlie any examination of the place occupied by psychoanalysis. Freud himself displayed a continual commitment to the spoken word. Indeed, in this volume several authors illustrate the tacit choices made by Freud, and his empirical alertness regarding this matter, already manifest in his work on hypnosis (see Marone and Haimovich, below). It was on the basis of this line of approach-which he never aban- doned-that Freud developed the analytic setting. The formulation of his psychological theory emerged, in effect, from within this setting and from the concentration on the spoken word which it entailed. Every science is confronted with the task of making more explicit the consequences of its methods and settings, and psychoanalysis is no exception to this rule. Nevertheless, Freud's assumptions exhibit a striking peculiarity, in that, from the very beginning, he took the risk of involving lzin~selfaas speakiizg being within the setting. By doing this, he rendered the evalu- ation of his theory by external principles a much more complex task, because this approach results in the fact that one can never consider one's dreams, slips, mistakes, pathology-in short, one's ozvn speeclz-as exterizal to the one who is speaking. In the course of this century, however, we have been confronted with variations on this problem in other fields-such as second order cybernetics (Van de Vijver 1996a), the theory of complex evolutionary systems (Matsuno, 1998; Matsuno & Salthe, 1995), and the immanentist interpretation in philosophy (Deleuze, 1993). In our view, it is along these lines that the 'secure road' of science should be rigorously recon- sidered. What degree of certainty can be attributed to a science which does not succeed in describing situations in purely external terms, or- indeed-to a science which refuses to deny the dynamic and continu- ally evolving nature of systems by freezing them in external descrip- tions? Over the past century, numerous answers to these questions have emerged within the psychoanalytical field-for instance: the analysis of transference; identification; the status of speech as a means of exter- nalisation; structuralism; topology and so on. Yet is it not the case that the various, conflicting points of view upon these, as well as the for- mation of a plethora of groups and schools of thought, point to the insufficiency of these solutions? The aim of this book is not to pass judgement on the divergencies between these views, nor to tip the scales in favour of any one of them. Instead we aim to preserve the diverse and challenging character of Freud's pre-analytic writings. We do not cherish any belief in the potential of external arguments to shed light on the most recent devel- opments in the field of psychoanalysis, and neither do we see any use in looking for an explanation of how, when and why things went 'wrong' in psychoanalysis, or in attempting to acquire a means of bringing psychoanalysis 'back into line'. Instead, we are more inclined to believe that the way ahead consists in adopting a radical approach to the notion of 'secure knowledge'. This shift implies a view of science which differs fundamentally from the classical, externalist approach. Only now, in the aftermath of the most recent developments in our understanding of self-organisation and complexity-the fallout from which is most perceptible in the fields of physics, biology, and cyber- netics--does this message seem to stir up the general interest it deserves. Only now, in the context of an interdisciplinary approach, can these epistemological issues be taken up at the overlapping bound- aries of the various disciplines concerned. We do not intend to suggest that Freud, after his neurological and psychiatric beginnings, recoiled from consideration of his own project in relation to other sciences. Instead, it seems to us that relations between psychoanalysis and the other sciences came under consider- able strain after the wider recognition of Freud's ideas. After the growth and intervention of the psychoanalytic institution, it seems, the
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