2. Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi
(December 15, 1914)
I am living, as my brother says, in my private
trench; I speculate and write, and after hard
battles [I] have got safely through the first line of
riddles and difficulties. Anxiety, hysteria, and
paranoia have capitulated. We shall now see how
far the successes can be carried forward. A great
many beautiful things have emerged in the
process: the choice of neurosis, the regressions
taken care of without a hitch. Your Introjection
has proven to be very useful; some progress in
the phases of the development of the ego. The
significance of the whole thing depends on
whether we succeed in mastering the actually
dynamic, i.e., the problem of pleasure-
unpleasure, about which I am actually in doubt
after my preliminary attempts. But even without
this I may say that I have already given the world
more than she has given me. I am now, and,
because of the foreseeable consequences of the
war, will also be later, more isolated than ever,
and I know that at present I am writing for five
people, you and the few others.
‘…at present I am writing for five people’
‘I am living in my private trench’
3. Psychoanalysis & Military Language
Mechanisms of defence [Abwehrmechanismen]: esp theorised in 1915 to include
repression, turning round upon the subject's own self, reversal into the opposite.
Trauma & the ‘protective shield’ [Reizschutz]: ‘trauma can be defined in its first stage as a
widescale breach of the protective shield’ (L&P The Language of Psychoanalysis)
Models of charge and discharge - Resistance [Widerstand] - Cathexis / to occupy [Besetzen]
Censorship: ‘Have you ever seen a foreign newspaper which has passed the Russian
censorship at the frontier? Words, whole clauses and sentences are blacked out so that
what is left becomes unintelligible’ (Freud to Fliess)
Repression [Verdrängung]: in war Verdrängung is the active dislodging of the enemy (ref)
The battlefield of the transference: ‘His father-transference was merely the battlefield on
which we gained control of his libido; the patient's libido was directed to it from other
positions. A battlefield need not necessarily coincide with one of the enemy's key
fortresses. The defence of a hostile capital need not take place just in front of its gates.’
(1917)
Zones, maps and territories
5. Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi
(December 15, 1914)
I am living, as my brother says, in my private
trench; I speculate and write, and after hard
battles [I] have got safely through the first line of
riddles and difficulties. Anxiety, hysteria, and
paranoia have capitulated. We shall now see how
far the successes can be carried forward. A great
many beautiful things have emerged in the
process: the choice of neurosis, the regressions
taken care of without a hitch. Your Introjection
has proven to be very useful; some progress in
the phases of the development of the ego. The
significance of the whole thing depends on
whether we succeed in mastering the actually
dynamic, i.e., the problem of pleasure-
unpleasure, about which I am actually in doubt
after my preliminary attempts. But even without
this I may say that I have already given the world
more than she has given me. I am now, and,
because of the foreseeable consequences of the
war, will also be later, more isolated than ever,
and I know that at present I am writing for five
people, you and the few others.
‘…at present I am writing for five people’
‘I am living in my private trench’
6. Freud’s War Efforts: 1914-1918
• REMEMBERING, REPEATING AND WORKING-THROUGH (FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS II)
(1914)
• OBSERVATIONS ON TRANSFERENCE-LOVE (FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE TECHNIQUE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS III) (1915 [1914])
• FAUSSE RECONNAISSANCE (‘DÉJÀ RACONTÉ’) IN PSYCHO-ANALYTIC TREATMENT (1914)
• THE MOSES OF MICHELANGELO (1914)
• SOME REFLECTIONS ON SCHOOLBOY PSYCHOLOGY (1914)
• ON THE HISTORY OF THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC MOVEMENT (1914)
• ON NARCISSISM: AN INTRODUCTION (1914)
• PAPERS ON METAPSYCHOLOGY [1915]
– INSTINCTS AND THEIR VICISSITUDES (1915)
– REPRESSION (1915)
– THE UNCONSCIOUS (1915)
• A METAPSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPLEMENT TO THE THEORY OF DREAMS (1917 [1915])
• MOURNING AND MELANCHOLIA (1917 [1915])
• A CASE OF PARANOIA RUNNING COUNTER TO THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC THEORY OF THE DISEASE (1915)
• THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES ON WAR AND DEATH (1915)
• ON TRANSIENCE (1916 [1915])
• SOME CHARACTER-TYPES MET WITH IN PSYCHOANALYTIC WORK (1916)
• SHORTER WRITINGS (1915-1916)
– A Mythological Parallel to a Visual Obsession
– A Connection between a Symbol and a Symptom
• INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON PSYCHO-ANALYSIS (1916-1917 [1915-1917])
– PART I. PARAPRAXES (1916[1915])
– PART II. DREAMS (1916[1915-16])
– PART III. GENERAL THEORY OF THE NEUROSES (1917[1916-17])
• FROM THE HISTORY OF AN INFANTILE NEUROSIS [The Wolfman] (1918 [1914])
• ON TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSTINCT AS EXEMPLIFIED IN ANAL EROTISM (1917)
• A DIFFICULTY IN THE PATH OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS (1917)
• A CHILDHOOD RECOLLECTION FROM DICHTUNG UND WARHEIT (1917)
• LINES OF ADVANCE IN PSYCHO-ANALYTIC THERAPY (1919 [1918])
• ON THE TEACHING OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS IN UNIVERSITIES (1919 [1918])
Sigmund Freud in 1916.
7. Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi
(December 15, 1914)
I am living, as my brother says, in my private
trench; I speculate and write, and after hard
battles [I] have got safely through the first line of
riddles and difficulties. Anxiety, hysteria, and
paranoia have capitulated. We shall now see how
far the successes can be carried forward. A great
many beautiful things have emerged in the
process: the choice of neurosis, the regressions
taken care of without a hitch. Your Introjection
has proven to be very useful; some progress in
the phases of the development of the ego. The
significance of the whole thing depends on
whether we succeed in mastering the actually
dynamic, i.e., the problem of pleasure-
unpleasure, about which I am actually in doubt
after my preliminary attempts. But even without
this I may say that I have already given the world
more than she has given me. I am now, and,
because of the foreseeable consequences of the
war, will also be later, more isolated than ever,
and I know that at present I am writing for five
people, you and the few others.
‘…at present I am writing for five people’
‘I am living in my private trench’
8. 1914: A Retreat into Narcissism?
Problem of translation: ‘Zur Einführung Des
Narzissmus’ becomes ‘On Narcissism: An Introduction’.
Amoeba analogy: ‘Thus we form the idea of there being
an original libidinal cathexis of the ego, from which
some is later given off to objects, but which
fundamentally persists and is related to the object-
cathexis much as the body of an amoeba is related to
the pseudopodia which it puts out.’ (1914, 75)
9. 1915: Narcissistic Mourning
• Mourning: ‘profoundly painful dejection, cessation of
interest in the outside world, loss of the capacity to
love, [and] inhibition of all activity’
• ‘In mourning it is the world which has become poor
and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself’
• ‘Thus the shadow of the object fell upon the ego, and
the latter could henceforth be judged by a special
agency, as though it were an object, the forsaken
object. In this way an object-loss was transformed into
an ego-loss and the conflict between the ego and the
loved person into a cleavage between the critical
activity of the ego and the ego as altered by
identification’
10. Melancholy Reflexivity: a ‘turn back
upon itself’
‘If the love for the object – a love which cannot be given
up though the object itself is given up – takes refuge in
narcissistic identification, then the hate comes into
operation on this substitutive object, abusing it, debasing
it, making it suffer and deriving sadistic satisfaction from
its suffering. The self-tormenting in melancholia, which is
without doubt enjoyable, signifies [...] a satisfaction of
trends of sadism and hate which relate to an object, and
which have been turned around upon the subject’s own
self’ (Freud, 1915: 251)
‘…the more a man controls his aggressiveness, the more
intense becomes his ideal’s inclination to aggressiveness
against his ego. It is like a displacement, a turning round
upon his own ego’ (Freud, 1923: 54)
Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs
http://www.freudfile.org/secret_committee.html
Sigmund Freud - Secret Committee
The Secret Committee
The history of psychoanalysis was marked out by numerous baffling breaks. Since the very moment Freud started being surrounded by collaborators, disagreements also began. Many of his ardent supporters later objected to psychoanalytical theories he had established and they even set up their own schools - as in the cases of Alfred Adler (individual psychology) and C. G. Jung (analytical psychology).
Adler and Stekel, the first shifts from Freudian line, as well as his guess that C.G. Jung would also make the decisive step towards a break, convinced Ernest Jones to suggest the creation of a group of trustworthy and loyal psychoanalysts around Freud, as a sort of "Old Guard".
The suggestion was made in Vienna, during a talk with Ferenczi, in 1912. In a letter dated July 30th the same year, Jones revealed his intention to Freud, and the latter agreed with it. In addition to Jones and Ferenczi, "The Committee" of loyal supporters also admitted Rank, Sachs and Abraham as members.
On Freud's suggestion, Eitingon became the sixth member, in 1919.
The group was dissolved 20 years after its creation.
Made up of Freud's most loyal supporters, the committee consisted of six members (from left to right): Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs
Mechanisms of Defence, Anna Freud: Her list includes: repression*, regression*, reaction-formation*, isolation*, undoing*, projection*, introjection*, turning against the self*, reversal into the opposite*, sublimation*.
Plus the processes of denial in phantasy, idealisation*, identification with the aggressor*, etc.
Melanie Klein describes what she considers to be very primitive defences: splitting of the object*, projective identification*, denial of psychic reality, omnipotent control over objects, etc.
http://www.vox.com/a/world-war-i-maps
This German supergun could hit a target 80 miles away
The early 20th century was an era of rapid progress in military technology, and nowhere was that more evident than in the development of artillery. Both before and during the war, both sides were racing to develop bigger and bigger guns with ever-increasing range. This illustration shows one of the most formidable weapons employed during the war. Introduced in 1918, this German "supergun" could hurl a 100-kilo projectile 80 miles. The Germans used it to shell Paris from their side of the front, which was more than 60 miles away. While this gun was technologically impressive, it proved to have limited military value. The gun's poor accuracy meant that the Germans were hitting random targets in Paris, alarming Parisians but not doing any real damage to the war effort.
More important were high-caliber, medium-range artillery pieces that could be used in large numbers to devastate the enemy front lines. By 1918, the German artillery officer Georg Bruchmüller had perfected the art of using highly focused and precisely timed artillery barrages to devastate enemy positions in preparation for a ground offensive by German troops.
Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs
http://www.freudfile.org/secret_committee.html
Sigmund Freud - Secret Committee
The Secret Committee
The history of psychoanalysis was marked out by numerous baffling breaks. Since the very moment Freud started being surrounded by collaborators, disagreements also began. Many of his ardent supporters later objected to psychoanalytical theories he had established and they even set up their own schools - as in the cases of Alfred Adler (individual psychology) and C. G. Jung (analytical psychology).
Adler and Stekel, the first shifts from Freudian line, as well as his guess that C.G. Jung would also make the decisive step towards a break, convinced Ernest Jones to suggest the creation of a group of trustworthy and loyal psychoanalysts around Freud, as a sort of "Old Guard".
The suggestion was made in Vienna, during a talk with Ferenczi, in 1912. In a letter dated July 30th the same year, Jones revealed his intention to Freud, and the latter agreed with it. In addition to Jones and Ferenczi, "The Committee" of loyal supporters also admitted Rank, Sachs and Abraham as members.
On Freud's suggestion, Eitingon became the sixth member, in 1919.
The group was dissolved 20 years after its creation.
Made up of Freud's most loyal supporters, the committee consisted of six members (from left to right): Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs
Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs
http://www.freudfile.org/secret_committee.html
Sigmund Freud - Secret Committee
The Secret Committee
The history of psychoanalysis was marked out by numerous baffling breaks. Since the very moment Freud started being surrounded by collaborators, disagreements also began. Many of his ardent supporters later objected to psychoanalytical theories he had established and they even set up their own schools - as in the cases of Alfred Adler (individual psychology) and C. G. Jung (analytical psychology).
Adler and Stekel, the first shifts from Freudian line, as well as his guess that C.G. Jung would also make the decisive step towards a break, convinced Ernest Jones to suggest the creation of a group of trustworthy and loyal psychoanalysts around Freud, as a sort of "Old Guard".
The suggestion was made in Vienna, during a talk with Ferenczi, in 1912. In a letter dated July 30th the same year, Jones revealed his intention to Freud, and the latter agreed with it. In addition to Jones and Ferenczi, "The Committee" of loyal supporters also admitted Rank, Sachs and Abraham as members.
On Freud's suggestion, Eitingon became the sixth member, in 1919.
The group was dissolved 20 years after its creation.
Made up of Freud's most loyal supporters, the committee consisted of six members (from left to right): Rank, who was to make his own shift later on, Abraham, Eitingon, Jones, Ferenczi and Sachs