The three main goals of DGB Multi-Dialectic-Integrative (MDI) Psychoanalysis can be simply laid out:
1. To integrate 'Pre-Classical' (pre-1897, 'Traumacy-Seduction') Psycho-analysis with 'Classical' (post-1896, 'Instinct-Fantasy' and 'Ego-Id-Superego') Psycho-analysis;
2. To integrate the combined outcome of Pre-Classical and Classical Psychoanalysis (Goal #1) with Object Relations and Self Psychology;
3. To integrate the combined outcome of Goal #2 above with other major 'Post-Neo-and/or-Counter'-Psychoanalytic schools of psychology such as: Adlerian Psychology, Jungian Psychology, Gestalt Therapy, Cogntive Therapy/General Semantics, and Transactional Analysis.
Editorial Comments
I do not know what the percentage split of 'Classical Psychoanalysts' today is versus other 'sub-schools' of Psychoanalysis such as Object Relations, Self-Psychology, and Lacanian Psychoanalysis (the latter of which I am largely unknowledgeable about) but I suspect that by far the greater percentage of psychoanalysts today are studying, teaching, and/or practising newer evolving forms of psychoanalysis such as the ones listed above rather than what has come to be viewed as a largely outdated, anachronistic, 'Victorian, Freudian, Classical Psychoanalysis' -- the latter of which I view as being like 'The Titanic': the biggest, most beautiful, top-of-the line, ship for its time, before it hit an iceberg and started taking in water from one side of the ship -- a recipe for disaster for anything or anyone that or who becomes 'homeostatically/dialectically out of balance' -- and is doomed to sink and/or otherwise self-destruct from the result of this 'one-sided, out-of-balanceness'....unless the problem is corrected before it is too late...
Ships don't function right -- (they don't float) -- if they are out of balance, and neither do theories or people function right in an 'out of balance' state either...Freud's 'reality theory and therapy' needed to be counter-balanced by 'fantasy theory and therapy' -- and visa versa -- but Freud could never properly put this integration together. And 'Classical' Psychoanalysis 'sunk' -- just like the Titanic sunk -- because of its inherent 'out-of-balanceness' after 1896....too much 'fantasy theory' and not enough 'reality theory' whereas leading up to the spring of April, 1896, Freud probably had 'too much of a dose of reality theory' in his work and not enough 'compensatory fantasy theory'....
Others, I am sure will disagree -- Masson wanted Psychoanalysis to go back to its pre-1897 'reality roots'; whereas most still practising 'Classical' Psychoanalysts will likely argue that Freud did what he did for good, solid clinical reasons, and are content to practise Classical Psychoanalysis the way it is -- even if it is overladen with 'fantasy' and 'instinct' and 'sexual' and 'Oedipal' theory....
'DGB' -- as well as standing for my initials -- stands most importantly for 'dialectic-gap-bridging' (negotiations and integrations). Hegel's Hotel is full of essays that are aimed by me at 'integrating theories' -- in post-Hegelian, humanistic-existential fashion -- that seem to be unresolvably at war with each other with no possible 'compromise-formations' between them. Locked in a 'theoretical impasse' with each other -- like a 'management' vs. 'union' group that just can't seem to get their respective acts together enough to create, and commit to, one 'dialectically unified agreement'...
And so it is with 'Classical' Psychoanalysis where no 'insiders' seem to want to risk touching the 'legend's work'.... There seems to be a 'leave the old man's work alone' policy stubbornly and anal-retentively in place... Not entirely...
I mean it is not completely true in that we would not have Object Relations, Self-Psychology, and Lacanian Psychoanalysis....not to mention the 'non-authorized brands' of 'Psychoanalysis' that exist all around the world today...such as Adlerian Psychology, Jungian Psychology, Frommian Psychology, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy...and many more 'post or neo-Freudian theories'....if theorists -- encouraged and supported or not -- weren't 'champing at the bit' to make Classical Psychoanalysis a better theory and form of psychotherapy than it was/is....from what they had directly or indirectly learned from Freud...and/or his evolving or not evolving students who had become teachers in their own right...for good, bad, or ugly...
I want to 'rebuild the Titanic' -- meaning here, of course -- 'Classical' Psychoanalysis.
I don't want to jump onto a 'life raft' except to get back onto solid ground in order that I can re-model it, and rebuild it, looking at its old design flaws...If I can pull the original Legend out of the ocean depths...so much the better...I will keep it alongside me as I am building a 21st version of 'The Titanic' -- i.e., 'Classical' Psychoanalysis, hugely modified and extended -- but still with its classic look and strengths -- but, at the same time, won't sink. I have to make it 'iceberg proof'...
I plan to turn 'Classical Fantasy' Psychoanalysis into 'Classical Reality-Fantasy' Theory -- which first and foremost -- means 're-integrating' Freud's 'pre-Classical, Traumacy Theory' back in solidly -- and in balance -- with his later 'Classical Fantasy' Theory.... And then we will look at some additional modifications and extensions...from wherever they may come -- as long as they enhance our evolving 21st Century 'Multi-Dialectic-Integrative (MDI) Psychoanalysis...
Let's get on with the job at hand...There is not time to waste...
-- dgb, Monday February 14th-15th, extended July 18th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiatons...
-- Are Still in Process...
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