The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud PDF
Preview The Psychoanalytic Vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the Legacy of Freud
RANK, WINNICOTT, AND THE LEGACY OF FREUD PETER L. RUDNYTSKY Object relations, which emphasizes the importance of the preoedipal period and the infant-mother rela tionship, is considered by many analysts to be the major development in psychoanalytic theory since Freud. In this reinterpretation of its history Peter L. Rudnytsky focuses on two pivotal figures: Otto Rank, one of Freud's original and most brilliant disciples, who later broke away from psychoanalysis, and D. W. Winnicott, the leading representative of the Independent tradition in British psychoanalysis. Rudnytsky begins with an overview arguing that object relations theory can synthesize the scientific and hermeneutic dimensions of psychoanalysis. He then uses the ideas of Rank and Winnicott to uncover the preoedipal aspects of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. After an appraisal of the relation ship between Rank and Freud, he turns to Rank's neglected writings between 1924 and 1927 and shows how they anticipate contemporary object relations theory. Rudnytsky critically measures Winnicott's achievement against those of Heinz Kohut and Jacques Lacan, the founders of two competing schools of psychoanalysis, and compares Winnicott's life and work with Freud's. Next, using both published and unpublished accounts by the psychotherapist Harry Guntrip of his analyses with W. R. D. Fairbairn and Winnicott, he probes the personal and intellectual interactions among these three British clinicians. Rudnytsky concludes by Copyrighted Material THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VOCATION: RANK, WINNICOTT, AND THE LEGACY OF FREUD Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material THE PSYCHOANALYTIC VOCATION • RAN K, WIN N I COT T, AND THE LEGACY OF FREUD PETER L. RUDNYTSKY Yale University Press New Haven London Copyrighted Material Copyright © 1991 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Nancy Ovedovitz and set in New Baskerville type by Keystone Typesetting, Inc., Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania Printed in the United States of America by Hamilton Printing Company, Castleton, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rudnytsky, Peter L. The psychoanalytic vocation: Rank, Winnicott, and the legacy of Freud / Peter L. Rudnytsky. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-300-05067-4 (hard) I. Psychoanalysis-History. 2. Rank, Otto, 1884-1939. 3. Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971. 4. Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939. I. Title. BF175.R83 1991 150.19'52-dc20 91-9645 CIP The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Copyrighted Material In memory ofJ ohn F. Benton Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material Compared with the average professional man, the artist has, so to say, a hundred-per-cent vocational psychology. ... For whereas the average man uses his ability chiefly as a means to material existence, and psychically only so far as to enable him to feel himself a useful member of human society-more or less irrespective of what his calling is-the artist needs his calling for his spiritual existence, just as the early cultures of mankind could not have existed and developed without art.-Otto Rank, Art and Artist I think that the best part of it is that you start from a position of humility with the acknowledgement that we all have failures to our account. This is a great relief as compared with the tone of many speakers who seem to suggest that they can tackle everything. ... It is certainly important for the [British Psycho Analytical] Society to be reminded over and over again that man cannot live by bread alone-bread here meaning verbal interpretations.-D. W. Winnicott to Michael Balint, March 27, 1957 Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material
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