Just finished...Sept. 1st, 2010.
I understand very well that the 'positives' and 'negatives' of Freud's character, his theorizing, his therapy, and his 'end product' -- or at least his still very slowly evolving 'theoretical and therapeutic process' -- Classical Psychoanalysis, to be specific, has been discussed, debated, and counter-debated a thousand times over since Freud died in 1939 by about the same number of authors, each writer and/or counter-theorist wanting to lay his or her particular individual 'stamp' on one of Western history's most provocative and controversial thinkers.
I suppose I am no different in this respect.
I certainly do not wish to condemn Freud although in numerous essays I have come down hard on my view of his 'worst mistakes' and debatably even his 'ethical failings'.
Still, as a creative thinker, Freud remains my most valuable mentor. He remains one of the most creative thinkers of the end of the 19th century and most of the first half of the 20th century. For that matter, he remains one of the most creative thinkers in Western History.
From Freud and the evolution of Psychoanalysis, we have in clinical psychology and psychotherapy today a huge array of 'self-awareness' concepts such as: transference, counter-transference, narcissism, projection, introjection, identification, identification with the aggressor (rejector), retroflection, defense, resistance, sublimation, the 'oral' personality, the 'anal' personality, 'oral nurturing', 'oral receptive', 'anal retentive', 'anal righteous', 'anal rejecting', 'anal explosive', 'anal schizoid', 'allusion to immediacy', 'allusion to transference', 'transference complexes', the Oedipal Complex....and on we could go with variations on the above themes such as 'projective transference' or 'transference projection'....
In combination with Hegel, and Nietzsche -- 'The Big Three' if you will -- Freud is undoubtedly my favorite writer, thinker, theorist, to write about... Everyone else follows behind in line...
Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud....and then everyone else's influence is built into Hegel's Hotel after these three 'power houses'... Hegel was the first to give powerful meaning to the idea of 'dialectic thinking' and 'dialectic logic' which can be expanded to include 'dialectic being and becoming'...Nietzsche lit an emotional fire under Hegel's concept of dialectic thinking before Nietzsche then turned around and basically abandoned the Hegelian concept and moved in the more 'one-sided direction' of what might be called 'Dionysian Idealism'....
Finally, Freud went back to a combination of Hegelian and early Nietzschean dialectic thinking in the spirit of 'The Birth of Tragedy' (the polar tension between Apollonianism (Enlightenment 'fairness' thinking and being ) vs Dionysianism (sensual, hedonistic, narcissistic, romantic thinking and being)...and re-created this 'dynamic tension in the psyche' in the form of 'ego' and 'superego' vs. 'id'
So when I criticize Freud, I am criticizing one of the main 'fathers' or 'mentors' of my intellect, and my intellectual evolution....It is not too far away from criticizing my own real father...
In fact, there is probably a very real 'transference relationship and complex' here...
Something about the paradox, the dualism, and the dialectic interaction between authoritarianism and democracy.
And something about 'the silencing of the lambs' -- a dialectic and dualistic tension between those family, political and/or corporate and/or institutional leaders in power wanting to keep power, not wanting to be challenged in their power, who don't want to be 'transparent' (or 'congruent') in their actions, and who often or generally don't want to be 'held accountable' when any and/or all of their most 'narcissistic, undemocratic, hidden actions' start to come back to haunt them in the form of 'scandals' that may eventually, finally 'topple' these types of leaders from their office and/or their leadership role...How often have we seen this pattern in history repeat itself?
And on the other side of this dialectic, dualistic tension are the 'rebels' who want to either 'usurp' the leader(s) from power and/or at least 'equalize the power' while the most authoritarian-narcissistic leaders often do their best in either violent and/or non-violent, undemocratic ways to 'hush' these same rebels...'dissidents', if you will...or 'freedom fighters' depending on your perspective...
And throughout both Western and Eastern History, between different nations, different religions, different cultures, different sexes, different philosophies, different political perspectives, different economic perspectives, different generations.....the authoritarian leaders will always collide with the most righteous and strongest rebels...
The dialectic tension between opposing perspectives...
And narcissism out of control in places and people of power and influence between those who control the money and those who don't...the employers vs. the employees, the owners vs. the workers, the politicians vs. the citizens...the 'haves' vs. the 'have nots'...Dialectic tension -- such as in the form of authoritiarianism vs. democracy and/or Apollonian vs. Dionysian and/or altruistic vs. narcissistic thinking and being -- coming together into what might be called Hegel's version of 'The Big Bang' Theory...molecules colliding together, land masses colliding together, land and water colliding together, wind and land colliding together (hurricane season), people colliding together....when it comes to people interacting together it is always 'hurricane season'...'The Big Bang' Theory of meshing or colliding opposites is always in effect...
Freud's life did not occur in a vaccum...
And Psychoanalysis today still does not exist in a vacuum...
Political, economic, and narcissistic context always has to be taken into consideration...
The tension between the powerful and the less powerful,
The tension between the haves and the have nots...
The tension between the leaders and the rebels, the 'dissidents' and/or the 'freedom fighters'...
The tension between a husband and his wife, both good and bad...
The tension between a father and his son, both good and bad...
The tension between a mother and her daughter, both good and bad...
The tension between cultures, religions, and cultural and religious beliefs...
The tension between a teenage daughter and a father who she won't obey...
A father who feels 'disrespected' and who feels culturally and religiously 'obligated' to do something about this 'paternal disrespect'...
A 'strangled daughter' and a father and his son who are convicted of her 'righteous' murder...
A collision in cultures and their ethical, legal differences where in one culture the father is sanctified for his actions of 'regaining his respect and power in the family', in another, the same father is vilified, condemned and imprisoned for life...
In the first culture, where freedom and democracy is not viewed the same -- and particularly not 'freedom of sexual expression' -- women are punished for not wearing scarves around their faces, although now I hear they can show their foreheads, women are 'stoned to death' for betraying their husband...fathers can get away with killing their 'disrespectful, disobeying' daughters in a 'hardline' middle Eastern culture where they certainly would -- and didn't -- get away with the same action here...a family tragedy to show here in Canada for the raw emotions tied up in the collision of family, cultural, and religious ethics and values....while I hear slow changes are happening back in Iran ... women can now wear makeup....and heels....and scarves that don't hide their foreheads...
Authoritarianism vs. democracy...and the 'teeter totter' that connects them...
And Classical Psychoanalysis 'hold on with a Pit Bull's biting grip' to some of its most anachronistic Freudian, Victorian 'male biased' values....the 'one-sided Oedipal Complex Theory' that tells a Classical Psychoanalyst not to view as 'credible' a woman's assertion of having being sexually assaulted by her father...
Like some Islamic -- or for that matter, Christian and/or Biblical values -- that are some 700 years old, or more...
There is no place for this type of outdated Classical Psychoanalytic thinking,
In a supposedly 'enlightened' school of Psychology and Psychotherapy....
That is supposedly moving forward, not stuck in the past...
Classical Psychoanalysis still needs to 'deconstruct' and 'detoxify' its most obvious Freudian-Victorian-masculine-narcissistic biases...
What does it need?
Another hundred years to get the message?
-- dgb, Aug. 30th, Sept. 1st, 2010,
-- David Gordon Bain
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"The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll" -- by Bob Dylan (from the internet)
William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll
With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger
At a Baltimore hotel society gath'rin'
And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him
As they rode him in custody down to the station
And booked William Zanzinger for first-degree murder
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
William Zanzinger who at twenty-four years
Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres
With rich wealthy parents who provide and protect him
And high office relations in the politics of Maryland
Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders
And swear words and sneering and his tongue it was snarling
In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking
But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
Hattie Carroll was a maid in the kitchen
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage
And never sat once at the head of the table
And didn't even talk to the people at the table
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level
Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane
That sailed through the air and came down through the room
Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle
And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger
And you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
And that ladder of law has no top and no bottom
Stared at the person who killed for no reason
Who just happened to be feelin' that way witout warnin'
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fearsv
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.
[ BOB DYLAN LYRICS at http://www.azlyrics.com/ ]
