March 8th, 2014
Essay 2: The Project as a Whole -- At Least Within The Field of Philosophy-Psychology-Psychoanalysis-Neo-Psychoanalysis
My goal, my vision, my sought after multi-integration -- at least within the field of clinical psychology, personality theory, psychological health and pathology, and psychotherapy -- is ambitious: to integrate my own 40 years of academic study in this realm of investigation, including the underlying foundations of philosophy, in such a manner that it all will come together into a 'coherent, multi-integrative-dialectic (quantum) whole'.
There are two names that I will give to this project, one: Hegel's Hotel: DGB (Multi-Dialectic-Multi-Integrative -- or Quantum) Philosophy-Psychology';
The second is a subset of the first above, and that is: 'DGB (Multi-Dialectic-Multi-Integrative -- or Quantum) Psychoanalysis and Neo-Psychoanalysis'.
Together, they make up the name of this project -- 'The DGB Quantum Philosophy-Psychology and (Multi-Dialectic-Multi-Interactive-Multi-Integrative)Psychoanalytic-Neo-Psychoanalytic Project'.
The 'Hegel's Hotel' part of this name makes up the assumptive-philosophical paradigm that drives this whole idealistic, evolutionary-multi-dialectic-mutative-integrative process -- a 'triadic' process that can best be simplified by the following 'classic' Hegelian formula which Hegel never actually stated in the fashion that he is generally given credit for, and yet it was both the implicit and partly explicit driving force behind one of the greatest philosophical masterpieces in Western history (G.W. Hegel, 'The Phenomenology of Spirit', 1807).
Hegel's dialectical-interactive-integrative formula is usually cited as: 1. thesis; 2. anti-thesis; 3. synthesis -- with more modern writers such as Stephen Covey in his best-selling book, 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', 1989,1990, devoting most of his book to the idea of 'Thinking Win-Win' (Habit 4); 'Seeking First to Be Understood, Then to Understand' (Habit 5); and 'Creatively Synergizing' (Habit 6) -- all three of which can be viewed as modern day applications of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit'. Well, not quite. Not even Hegel was what I would call a 'dialectically-interactive-egalitarian-think-win-win-seek-first-to-understand-then-to- be-understood-creatively-synergize-your-differences' type of thinker. Neither was Freud. Neither was Anna Freud. Neither was Kurt Eissler. Neither was Masson. Because if they were, they would have worked out their conflicted difference in more creative-synergetic harmony.
For argument sake, there are two types of choices or decisions that a person can make:
1. An 'either/or' choice;
2. A 'think-win-win-seek-first-to-understand-then-to-be-understood-creatively-synergize-your-differences' choice (or set of choices) with a mutually motivated, co-operative partner.
Well, so many times we have in life a competitive as opposed to a co-operative partner, and an authoritarian, unilateral thinker as opposed to a dialectically-egalitarian-interactive-integrative thinker. The first type of thinker -- even if he or she 'wins' and/or 'dominates' but at the expense of the other person or group 'losing' and/or 'being dominated, suppressed, oppressed, repressed' is going to be dealing with covert, underlying resistance, rebellion, civil anarchy leaving the so-called 'win' tainted, tarnished, toxic, which the authoritarian, unilateral type of thinker having to deal with all this 'nuclear fallout' after the 'blow by' the less powerful resistor or resistant group.
Our second oldest known Western philosopher -- Anaximander -- talked and wrote about this type of 'conflict resolution' and created the original idea of 'The Shadow', 'Chaos', or 'The Apeiron' (the latter being Anaxamander's choice of terms) and the idea of 'Cosmic Justice' -- 'what goes around, comes around' with the Suppressed-Oppressed-Repressed-Enraged' Inferior Power, regaining strength, energy, and power in 'The Shadows of The Apeiron' until, one day, this Suppressed Power 'forces' its way up into the light of day again -- Centre Stage of a New Psycho-Drama -- in which the old power conflict will be played out again to a new and/or similar old conflict-resolution.
This philosophical view of Anaxamander's foreshadowed by about 2400 to 2500 years, and more, the evolutionary and revolutionary work of Hegel, Marx, Breuer, Charcot, Janet, Freud, Jung, Foucault, Derrida, Perls... 'Evolutionary Deconstructionism' taught the reverse of the theory of gravity (what goes up, must come down -- like a man jumping); in contrast, first Anaximander, then the rest mentioned above taught the reverse (what goes down, must come up -- like a volcano exploding, or a dam breaking, or a Boston Tea Party...or a War of Independence or a Civil War)...
The human personality is often an internal civil war between a frightening, irresistible force, and a resisting, defending, compensating wall. And so began the work of Freud -- and the birth of Psychoanalysis.
This 'psychological truism' is as true today as it was when Freud first started writing about this phenomenon in 1893 and 1894. I call it the 'central core' of Psychoanalysis -- all types of Psychoanalysis, but particularly 'Pre-Classical' (1893-1896) and 'Classical' (1897-1939).
Between Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud we have the 'Dialectic-Triadic-Evolutionary-Romantic-Post-Modern-Threesome' of modern day philosophy-psychology and psychoanalysis-neo-psychoanalysis. Nietzsche rejected his Hegelian roots (The Birth of Tragedy or BT) but BT was one of Nietzsche's finest legacies -- the first bridge between Hegel and Freud. Each of us has a 'Dionysian Id' (our 'erupting volcano'), an 'Apollonian Ego and/or Superego' (our resisting, defending wall), and our 'symptoms' or 'compromise-formations' between them. The way this psycho-drama plays itself out inside of us can lead us to a 'sterile world and path of over-anal-retentive-defensiveness and compensation'; or conversely, an oral-genital obsessive-compulsive-addictive world or path of lack of impulse control and related self-destruction; or, if we don't play out either of these 'Polar Births of Tragedy', we might actually find a more 'homeostatically and dialectically balanced, reasonably harmonious, middle ground between them.
That is the 'binding force' behind my whole philosophical-psychological work here as summed up by the name and the metaphysical metaphor which labels it: Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy-Psychology: Project for a Greater, Multi-Dialectic, Multi-Interactive-Multi-Integrative -- Quantum -- Humanistic-Existential Psychoanalysis and Neo-Psychoanalysis.
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B/ Guiding Metaphysical Integrative Concepts and Theories
The first realm of study -- particularly the 'philosophical' implications and applications of what I intend to create here -- extend primarily outwards from the starting point of the human personality into all of the 'cultural extensions' of the human personality including: business, economics, politics, art...; whereas the second realm of study focuses mainly on the study of man's 'mind-brain', using a combination of 'interpreted and generalized, metaphysical psycho-structures and psycho-dynamics or psycho-processes' as 'guiding fictions' but, at the same time, as 'useful cognitive-language tools' that are being used because of their 'close structural, associative, and dynamic similarity' to 'what actually seems to be going on' in the human mind-brain -- based on 'yours truly here's' life experiences, perceptions, interpretations, generalizations, and judgments, and the above mentioned 40 years of both therapeutic experience and clinical study...
Using my own integrative 'realistic guiding fictions' of both metaphysical concepts and psycho-dynamic theories, as tools then -- hopefully, I will bring into play here with as much simplicity, clarity, and coherence as I can muster together on these pages, a 'psycho-dynamically old-new brand of evolutionary and integrative neo-psychoanalysis and philosophy-psychology that will advance the cause of clinical psychology, personality theory, neurosis and psychopathology, psychotherapy, and wellness psychology'.
'Integrative' becomes the key word here because I intend to draw my knowledge, insights, and integrative theoretical creations from 'any' and 'all' schools of philosophy and psychology that have made a significant impact on my mind-brain during my 42 year (1972-2014) 'voyage'.
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C/ The Integration of 'Psyche' and 'Soma'
One of my goals of integration involves the integration of the human 'psyche' with the human 'soma' (that is, human psychology with human physiology, chemistry, bio-chemistry, hormonal interplay, neurology and neuro-psychology, etc.).
Not that I have any special expertise or knowledge in biology but what I have noticed over the years is that man's 'psychological defense system' functions very much like his 'biological defence system' (our 'immune system'), so I will be extrapolating on this comparison over the course of these essays.
Freud himself, in 1895, tried to bring biology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and physiology into the 'same room' as psychology -- integrating everything together in one essay -- but never completed the project, never completely figure out, as has anyone else, how a 'neuron firing' becomes a 'thought' and/or visa versa.
Regardless, this unfinished 1895 essay, 'Project for A Scientific Psychology', became the foundation for much of what Freud wrote over the next 44 years until the end of his life.
I would like to add some ideas to what Freud worked hard on but never finished 119 years ago.
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D/ Six Foundational 'Sub-Schools' of Psychoanalysis
These are the six major 'sub-schools' of Psychoanalysis that I will be working with and drawing from in the essays that follow:
1. Freudian 'Pre-(Classical) Psychoanalysis' (1893-1896);
2. 'Classical' Freudian Psychoanalysis (1897-1939);
3. Object Relations (Starting with Kleinian Object Relations, the 1920s, 30s, until Klein's death, but still seemingly going strong today...include also, the work of: Fairbairn, Winnicott, Erickson, Guntrip, and many other Object Relations theorists...);
4. Self Psychology (launched by Heinz Kohut in the 1950s, and onwards....introduced the important concept of 'narcissistic transferences'...and as an extension of Object Relations brought into play the idea of 'Self-Object Relations'...)
5. Bionian Psychoanalysis (Bion launched his own unique brand of 'Object Relations' in the 1950s...with some intriguing concepts and theories to consider...)
6. Lacanian Psychoanalysis started off as a provocative and controversial sub-school of psychoanalysis -- 'unaccepted' by the international body -- but has now been accepted into 'the fold', and is being taught as a recognized sub-school of psychoanalysis.
Beyond psychoanalysis, there are many different 'post' and 'neo' schools of psychoanalysis that we will also be looking at including schools created by Adler, Jung, Horney, Fromm, Perls, Berne, Janov...
Digging back before Psychoanalysis we have many schools of philosophy (although they usually weren't, and aren't, referred to as 'schools' of philosophy) that have either directly or indirectly influenced psychoanalysis or simply pre-dated psychoanalysis with similar ideas...starting in ancient Greece and China and evolving forward: Anaxamander, Heraclitus, Lao Tse, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Schelling, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Darwin, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Nietzsche, Goethe, and the contemporary philosophers of psychoanalysis such as Foucault and Derrida...
This is a huge project....but the project has been evolving online for over six years now.....so now it's just a matter of presenting a more coherent, organized, value-laden, package....
Let's see if I can put everything together in a meaningful manner for you and me both...
-- dgb, March 9th, updated April 1st, 2014,
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic-Gap-Bridging-Synergies...
-- Are Now In Process...
