Born on May 6, 1856 in the small Moravian town of Freiburg in a large family (8 people) of a poor wool merchant. When Freud was 4 years old, the family moved to Vienna.
From an early age, Sigmund was distinguished by his sharp mind, hard work, and love of reading. Parents tried to create all the conditions for studying.
At the age of 17, Freud graduated from high school with honors and entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. He studied at the university for 8 years, i.e. 3 years longer than usual. During these same years, working in the physiological laboratory of Ernst Brücke, he spent independent research in histology, published several articles on anatomy and neurology, and received his M.D. degree at the age of 26. At first he worked as a surgeon, then as a therapist, and then became a “house doctor.” By 1885, Freud received the position of privatdozent at the University of Vienna, and in 1902 - professor of neurology.
In 1885-1886 Thanks to Brücke's help, Freud worked in Paris, at the Salpêtrière, under the guidance of the famous neurologist Charcot. He was particularly impressed by research on the use of hypnosis to induce and eliminate painful symptoms in patients with hysteria. In one of his conversations with the young Freud, Charcot casually noted that the source of many symptoms of patients with neuroses lies in the peculiarities of their sex life. This thought was deeply ingrained in his memory, especially since he himself and other doctors were faced with the dependence of nervous diseases on sexual factors.
After returning to Vienna, Freud met the famous practicing physician Joseph Wreyer (1842-1925), who by this time had already been practicing an original method of treating women suffering from hysteria for several years: he immersed the patient in a state of hypnosis, and then asked her to remember and talk about events that caused the disease. Sometimes these memories were accompanied by violent manifestations of feelings, crying, and only in these cases did relief most often occur, and sometimes recovery. Breuer called this method the ancient Greek word “catharsis” (purification), borrowing it from the poetics of Aristotle. Freud became interested in this method. A creative partnership began between him and Breuer. They published the results of their observations in 1895 in the work “Study of Hysteria.”
Freud noted that hypnosis as a means of penetrating “scarred” and forgotten painful experiences is not always effective. Moreover, in many, and precisely the most severe, cases, hypnosis was powerless, encountering “resistance” that the doctor could not overcome. Freud began to look for another way to “scarred affect” and eventually found it in freely emerging associations, in the interpretation of dreams, unconscious gestures, slips of the tongue, forgetting, etc.
In 1896, Freud first used the term psychoanalysis, by which he meant a method of studying mental processes, which was at the same time a new method of treating neuroses.
In 1900, one of Freud's best books, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published. The scientist himself wrote about this work in 1931: “It contains, even from my today’s point of view, the most valuable of the discoveries that I was lucky enough to make.” The following year, another book appeared - “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life”, and after it a whole series of works: “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” (1905), “Excerpt from an Analysis of Hysteria” (1905), “Wit and Its Relation to unconscious" (1905).
Psychoanalysis is beginning to gain popularity. A circle of like-minded people is formed around Freud: Alfred Adler, Sándor Ferenczi, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Ernest Jones and others.
In 1909, Freud received an invitation from America from Stecil Hall to give lectures on psychoanalysis at Clark University, Worcester (“On Psychoanalysis. Five Lectures,” 1910). Around the same years, works were published: “Leonardo da Vinci” (1910), “Totem and Taboo” (1913). Psychoanalysis from a method of treatment turns into a general psychological teaching about personality and its development.
A notable event of this period of Freud’s life was the departure from him of his closest students and associates Adler and Jung, who did not accept his concept of pansexualism.
Throughout his life, Freud developed, expanded and deepened his teaching on psychoanalysis. Neither the attacks of critics nor the departure of students shook his convictions. The last book"Essays on Psychoanalysis" (1940) begins quite sharply: "The doctrine of psychoanalysis is based on countless observations and on experience, and only one who repeats these observations on himself and others can form an independent judgment about it."
In 1908, the First International Psychoanalytic Congress was held in Salzburg, and in 1909, the International Journal of Psychoanalysis began to be published. In 1920, the Psychoanalytic Institute was opened in Berlin, and then in Vienna, London, and Budapest. In the early 30s. similar institutes were created in New York and Chicago.
In 1923, Freud became seriously ill (he suffered from facial skin cancer). The pain almost never left him, and in order to somehow stop the progression of the disease, he underwent 33 operations. At the same time, he worked a lot and fruitfully: the complete collection of his works consists of 24 volumes.
In the last years of Freud's life, his teaching underwent a significant change and received its philosophical completion. As the scientist's work became more famous, criticism intensified.
In 1933, the Nazis burned Freud's books in Berlin. He himself reacted to this news this way: “What progress! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me; now they are content with burning my books.” He could not imagine that just a few years would pass and millions of victims of Nazism, including his four sisters, would burn in the camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek. Only the mediation of the American ambassador in France and a large ransom paid to the Nazis International Union psychoanalytic societies allowed Freud to leave Vienna in 1938 and go to England. But the days of the great scientist were already numbered, he suffered from constant pain, and at his request the attending physician gave him injections that put an end to his suffering. This happened in London on September 21, 1939.
The main provisions of Freud's teachings
Mental determinism. Mental life is a consistent, continuous process. Every thought, feeling or action has a cause, is caused by conscious or unconscious intention and is determined by a previous event.
Conscious, preconscious, unconscious. Three levels of mental life: consciousness, preconscious and subconscious (unconscious). All mental processes are interconnected horizontally and vertically.
The unconscious and subconscious are separated from the conscious by a special mental authority - “censorship”. It performs two functions:
1) displaces unacceptable and condemned by the personality into the area of the unconscious own feelings, thoughts and concepts;
2) resists the active unconscious, striving to manifest itself in consciousness.
The unconscious includes many instincts that are generally inaccessible to consciousness, as well as thoughts and feelings that are “censored.” These thoughts and feelings are not lost, but are not allowed to be remembered, and therefore appear in consciousness not directly, but indirectly in slips of the tongue, slips of memory, memory errors, dreams, “accidents,” and neuroses. There is also a sublimation of the unconscious - the replacement of forbidden drives with socially acceptable actions. The unconscious has great vitality and is timeless. Thoughts and desires, once repressed into the unconscious and again admitted into consciousness even after several decades, do not lose their emotional charge and act on consciousness with the same force.
What we are accustomed to calling consciousness is, figuratively speaking, an iceberg, most of which is occupied by the unconscious. This lower part of the iceberg contains the main reserves of psychic energy, drives and instincts.
Preconsciousness is that part of the unconscious that can become consciousness. It is located between the unconscious and consciousness. The preconscious is like a large storehouse of memory that the conscious mind needs to carry out its daily work.
Drives, instincts and the principle of balance. Instincts are forces that motivate a person to action. Freud called the physical aspects of instinct needs, and the mental aspects desires.
Instinct contains four components: source (needs, desires), goal, impulse and object. The goal of instinct is to reduce needs and desires to such an extent that further action aimed at satisfying them ceases to be necessary. The impulse of instinct is the energy, force or tension that is used to satisfy the instinct. The object of instinct is those objects or actions that will satisfy the original goal.
Freud identified two main groups of instincts: instincts that support life (sexual), and instincts that destroy life (destructive).
Libido (from Latin libido - desire) is the energy inherent in the instincts of life; destructive instincts are characterized by aggressive energy. This energy has its own quantitative and dynamic criteria. Cathexis is the process of placing libidinal (or its opposite) energy into various spheres mental life, idea or action. The cathected libido ceases to be mobile and can no longer move to new objects: it takes root in the area of the psychic sphere that holds it.
Stages of psychosexual development. 1. Oral stage. The basic need of a child after birth is the need for nutrition. Most of energy (libido) is cathected in the mouth area. The mouth is the first area of the body that a child can control and irritation of which brings maximum pleasure. Fixation at the oral stage of development is manifested in certain oral habits and a constant interest in maintaining oral pleasures: eating, sucking, chewing, smoking, licking lips, etc. 2. Anal stage. At the age of 2 to 4 years, the child focuses special attention on the act of urination and defecation. Fixation at the anal stage of development leads to the formation of such character traits as excessive neatness, frugality, stubbornness (“anal character”), 3. Phallic stage. From the age of 3, a child first pays attention to gender differences. During this period, the parent of the opposite sex becomes the main object of libido. A boy falls in love with his mother, and at the same time is jealous and loves his father (Oedipus complex); the girl is the opposite (Electra complex). The way out of the conflict is to identify oneself with the competing parent. 4. Latent period (6-12 years) By the age of 5-6 years, sexual tension in a child weakens, and he switches to studies, sports, and various hobbies. 5. Genital stage. In adolescence and adolescence sexuality comes alive. Libi-dose energy is completely switched to the sexual partner. The stage of puberty begins.
Personality structure. Freud distinguishes the Id, Ego and super-Ego (It, I, super-ego). The id is the original, basic, central and at the same time the most archaic part of the personality. The id serves as a source of energy for the entire personality and at the same time entirely unconsciously. The ego develops from the Id, but unlike the latter it is in constant contact with the outside world. Conscious life takes place primarily in the Ego. As the Ego develops, it gradually gains control over the demands of the Id. The id responds to needs, the ego to opportunities. The ego is under constant influence of external (environment) and internal (Id) impulses. The ego strives for pleasure and tries to avoid displeasure. The Super-Ego develops from the Ego and is the judge and censor of its activities and thoughts. These are moral guidelines and norms of behavior developed by society. Three functions of the superego: conscience, introspection, formation of ideals. The main goal of the interaction of all three systems - Id, Ego and super-Ego - is to maintain or (if disrupted) restore the optimal level of dynamic development of mental life, increasing pleasure and minimizing displeasure.
Defense mechanisms are the ways in which the ego protects itself from internal and external stresses. Repression is the removal from consciousness of feelings, thoughts and intentions for action that potentially cause tension. Denial is an attempt not to accept as reality events that are undesirable for the Ego. The ability to “skip” unpleasant experienced events in your memories, replacing them with fiction. Rationalization - finding acceptable reasons and explanations for unacceptable thoughts and actions. Reactive formations - behavior or feelings opposed to desire; this is an explicit or unconscious inversion of desire. Projection is the subconscious attribution of one’s own qualities, feelings and desires to another person. Isolation is the separation of a traumatic situation from the emotional experiences associated with it. Regression is a “slipping” to a more primitive level of behavior or thinking. Sublimation is the most common defense mechanism through which libido and aggressive energy are transformed into various types of activities acceptable to the individual and society.
Freud Sigmund (1856 — 1939) : Austrian psychiatrist of Jewish origin, founder of psychoanalysis, thinker. Developed the so-called “theory of sexuality”, according to which all mental phenomena should be interpreted based on the action of the sexual instinct in human life. Objectively, Freud considered the reproductive function to be the dominant force, subjectively — "pleasure principle"His teaching, based partly on empirical material, but mostly — on the fantasies and introspection of Freud himself, had a devastating effect on world culture, becoming a weapon in the hands of forces that undermine its moral, especially Christian foundation. Freud's hypotheses are the theoretical basis for “sex education” programs for children, for many techniques of the advertising business and other means of manipulating mass consciousness.
The complete edition of Freud's works consists of 24 volumes. But for a general idea of his ideas, it is enough to read the book “Introduction to Psychoanalysis”: his lectures of 1916-1917, supplemented and edited by him at the end of his life, in the 1930s. For it, Freud received the prestigious German Literary Prize. I.V. Goethe. A concise biography that simultaneously provides an accessible summary of the theory of psychoanalysis is the book Freud by the French Freudian Roger Dadun. You can also use a critical account of the life and development of Freud's ideas, which was compiled by the English researcher Paul Ferris. This book is inferior to Dadong's work in terms of systematic presentation, but it was written by a person who is not under the spell of the theory of psychoanalysis. In the introduction, Ferris writes: "The Charlatan" — this, in my opinion, is said too strongly. Rather, he can be called “cunning”, “cruel”... so that it becomes clear what efforts he made to explain human nature.”
However, Any reading of Freud is spiritually dangerous: This is why a sober Orthodox assessment of his life and work is necessary based on a dry presentation of the key thoughts and stages of his life.
I. Introduction. The early years of Sigmund Freud.
Freud was born on May 6, 1856 into a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia. He was the grandson of a rabbi and was an avid Bible student as a child. Freud's father, Jacob, was married three times, and Sigmund was his eldest son by his last wife. The nanny, a Catholic by religion, often took little Sigmund to church. When he returned home, he began to preach. However, out of necessity, he needed to study the Talmud and Kabbalah. In 1891, giving his son a Hebrew Bible, Jacob Freud wrote these significant words on the back: “You saw the face of the Almighty, you heard Him and tried to educate yourself, and you immediately soared on the wings of Reason.”
IN Lyceum years Freud's favorite hero was the Phoenician commander Hannibal, a brilliant and unprincipled military leader who threatened the destruction of ancient Rome. He was fascinated by revolutionary ideas, although he did not participate in any revolutionary movements. In 1873 Freud entered the university. The result of his medical studies was a study of cerebral palsy, which was considered remarkable. However, in 1885, during an internship in Paris, he ended up with the famous psychiatrist Charcot, who conducted public experiments with patients with hysteria. Observations of these experiences, which had some kind of theatrical and even mystical charge, radically changed Freud's views on the human psyche. At the same time, he meets his future wife, Martha Bernay, and... gets involved in cocaine.
Cocaine was a new substance back then; it was intended to be used as an analgesic and sedative. He helped Freud with his “self-analysis,” from which, in fact, psychoanalysis began. According to Freudian biographers, he regularly consumed coca at least until 1895. It is unlikely that after this milestone it was easy for him to break free from his habit. "Every night between 11 and 12 o'clock, — he himself wrote about “introspection”, — I only do what I fantasize, think about, make guesses, stopping only when I reach the point of complete absurdity or exhaustion.” Here we see the basis of what would later develop into his free association method. You need to deprive the stream of consciousness of centralized control and look at your thoughts out of logical sequence, as in a chaotic dream. Then the ins and outs of the psyche will be revealed, which contains the causes of mental illness.
How to force not yourself, but another person to open this stream of consciousness in front of a psychiatrist? In December 1887, Freud began using hypnosis. At first it seemed to him very effective both as a diagnosis and as a treatment. Already in these years initial development theory, sexual instinct comes to the fore. This was due, first of all, to the data of self-analysis, and secondly — with the specific self-awareness of many hysterical patients. Already in 1893, Freud proposed a radical method of eliminating all problems of society associated with defects of the nervous system: “to allow free relationships between young men and girls from good families". That is, without opposing marriage as a social institution (he himself lived his entire life married to his first wife), Freud considered it necessary to deprive it of its moral component.
A few years later, he abandoned hypnosis as a method that did not provide sufficient material for analysis. It turns out that a person’s personal participation is necessary in order for the stream of consciousness to be “fresh” in its openness. This is why Freud moves on to the study of dreams: after all, a person tells his dream during the day, and in this story the material of the dream is intertwined with the flow of free associations of a waking person. It is in a dream that all the base sides of the soul are manifested: “the good ones are those who are content with dreams of what the evil ones do in reality.”
In March 1896, the term “psychoanalysis” was first used. This — a dialogue between a doctor and a patient, in which the doctor not only tries to find out from the patient the true motives of his behavior and thinking (as in psychology in general), but must lead him to the same conclusions. That is, the patient analyzes himself with the help of a professional, who gives him a worldview basis for such an analysis and gives general rules for the interpretation of all mental phenomena. Here to heal — means accepting the doctor’s philosophy and recognizing that he sees right through the human soul. Freud compared himself to a “demon,” in the sense in which one speaks of “diabolical insight.” This is the kind of wisdom that sees everything bad in a person. The abyss of evil in the human soul increasingly attracts the founder of psychoanalysis; he takes as his maxim the poetic lines:
If I fail to move the gods, I will stir up hell.
The emergence of Freudianism
In 1897, Freud joined the Jewish Society of B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Union), which provided him with all possible support. Later, in 1826, in a message to members of the Society, he wrote: “Loneliness gave me a passionate desire to enter the circle of selected, intelligent people who would agree to accept me in a friendly manner, despite my insolence. ... So I became one of your members." The nature of Freud's Judaism can be understood from his own confession in a letter to a friend: “Every Saturday I happily plunge into orgies of card fortune-telling, and every second Tuesday I spend my evenings with my brothers — Jews..." There is little doubt that Freud entered the environment of Freemasonry and received approval for his endeavors. Really rejected by many at first scientific community, he is from the late 1890s. didn't know any big ones organizational problems, although his books still sold poorly. Freudism begins to develop as an integral structure with its own goals and objectives. Students appear; The Psychoanalytic Society is formed in the Austrian capital of Vienna. In 1908, the first international psychoanalytic congress took place in Salzburg, organized by Freud’s talented student, K.G. Jung.
According to the convinced Freudian Roger Dadun, for psychoanalysis nothing is disgusting, but everything — mystery. This principle very correctly characterizes the revolution in minds carried out by Freud. He considered shame to be the main cause of mental illness and demanded its complete elimination. The patients with whom he worked did often (although by no means always) receive relief: they were freed from “obsessive states” and hallucinations. However, treatment by Freud and his heirs has remained the lot of a few people who can pay a psychoanalyst well and spend time on calm dialogues with him. What kind of people are these? Why did Freud treat neuroses specifically, while a huge part of what psychiatry deals with remained practically untouched by him?
The concept of neurosis and the corresponding personality type
Neurosis — very convenient concept for development psychological concept. Nervous disorders are common to all people to one degree or another. Its simplest elements — everyday overload of the nervous system, which in our time is called “stress”. At the same time, individual manifestations of neurosis, which become symptoms of a serious illness (hysteria, obsessive states, hallucinations), are sometimes difficult to treat and constituted a real problem for psychiatry during Freud’s time. The reason for this problem is that in general medicine does not know how to treat mental illness, and the most desirable result of psychiatric care is always a stable remission (as if “putting to sleep” the disease). But neurotics are on the line where the border of insanity has not yet been crossed, and insanity — whether for the reason that the brain itself is not affected, or for other reasons related to the spiritual world — It hasn't arrived yet.
Freud did not deal with hopelessly ill people, whom only God's miracle could return to health. normal condition. He chose as the object of his research patients with nervous disorders who, in principle, could get rid of their symptoms. What kind of patients are these?
Although everyone has problems with nerves, not everyone has illnesses that need to be treated by a psychiatrist. There must be a special predisposition to this; it is connected both with the individual structure of the body and with the history of a given individual — childhood traumas, living conditions, environment. However, these factors are not enough. After all, it happens that a person with weak nerves, who has experienced very difficult events, still does not acquire either obsessive states or a tendency to hysteria, although his hands may, for example, shake. In short, his problem remains nervous, but not mental. In order to understand this, it is imperative to turn to the concept of worldview. A solid, especially simple and clear worldview, in which there are consciously accepted moral guidelines and attitudes proven by experience, does not allow painful manifestations of the body to undermine a person’s mental life. On the contrary, the lack of clear guidelines, disordered thinking, which tends to easily fall under the influence of other people's thoughts, give the effect of a split personality, in which there are too many dark corners for itself. According to Freud, the qualities of a person turning to a psychoanalyst — this is "mental impotence" and obsessive fears.
The famous Austrian and American psychologist Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), the founder of the “logotherapy” method, which in many ways opposed the psychoanalysis of Freud and Adler, rightly pointed out meaning of life as one of the main questions, the absence of an answer to which causes neuroses. He cites the story of one of his acquaintances, a psychoanalyst, who had just (1979) returned from Moscow. According to his observations, in the Soviet Union people suffer from neuroses less often than in the United States. American psychologists see the reason in the fact that Soviet people are more focused on this or that specific task, the fulfillment of duty, which does not let them get bored and provides them with some ideas about meaning. Americans are more idle; they go to work every day, which they are free to choose, but Not dedicate themselves cause, do not sacrifice themselves. This is why mental illness neurotic character they are more likely to be affected. “How wonderful it would be, — writes Frankl, — synthesize East and West, unite business and freedom. Then freedom could be fully developed. For now, this is a largely negative concept that requires a positive addition. This positive addition is responsibility."
During Frankl's time, Freudianism largely lost credibility in the West, since everyone saw that with the advent of the “sexual revolution” there were no fewer neuroses. But it is not as easy to limit Freud's influence as it might have seemed then. Psychoanalysis is still strong today, and in those countries where it is imported (for example, Russia), it operates on an epidemic scale. The fact is that Freud actually did not treat so much as create a worldview. He took the passions of nervously unstable people as the basis for this worldview. And as long as people love their passions, whether they are connected with the sexual instinct or not, the very direction given by Freud will be very strong.
Method of psychoanalysis in diagnosis and treatment. Anti-confession
“I am, in fact, not a scientist, not an observer,
not an experimenter, not a thinker. By temperament
I'm just a conquistador adventurer, if you like,
so I can translate this
—
with all my curiosity,
courage and determination,
characterizing such people."
One of the main arguments of defenders of Freud's teachings is its practical application. First, they say, our theory meets the basic requirements of science because it is based on experiment. Secondly, it allows the patient to be diagnosed in cases that conventional psychiatry often did not consider as illnesses at all. (We are talking about neuroses). Third, and most importantly, many were cured by Freud and his followers. What was the cure? — The fact is that the neurotic symptoms in these people stopped, or almost stopped, and they acquired the ability to normally coexist with the outside world. And this is the goal of medicine.
One cannot help but recognize the logical consistency of this argument. But there still remain significant questions that apologists of Freudianism find it difficult to answer. Firstly, not all people, even those with obvious neuroses, answer the psychoanalyst’s questions exactly as he assumes based on his theory. In this case, the patient is accused of simply answering dishonestly. Is it always possible to accept this accusation, or could it be a trick on the part of the doctor himself, who does not know what to do with this particular patient? Secondly, diagnoses do not always turn out to be correct, but they often differ from psychiatric diagnoses by being more arbitrary. When can you and when can you not trust these diagnoses? Third, — and this is the main difference between Freudianism and conventional medicine, — for “healing” it is necessary to accept the worldview of a psychoanalyst, in otherwise nothing will work out. Freud himself emphasized this, and under his students the situation did not change. To answer the questions we have posed, we need to consider the method of psychoanalysis both in diagnosis (definition of the disease) and in treatment.
This method is often compared to the Christian Sacrament Confessions. What are the similarities? — is that the main condition for treatment by a psychoanalyst is the complete disclosure of the soul. The patient comes to a person, usually a stranger to him personally, and talks about his problems. The doctor sits at the head of the bed so that the patient does not see him and is not embarrassed (here there is an undoubted similarity with the Catholic custom of confession through bars), and asks some “leading questions.” In this case, only one thing is required from the patient — so that, discarding “false shame” and ordinary rational thinking, he indulges in the flow of his associations, directly related to the symptoms he has listed, the images of dreams that alarmed him or the events that aroused his attention... Completeness confession, which psychoanalysts demand from their patients, is comparable to what in asceticism is called “revelation of thoughts.” The goal also has similarities: a person must see himself in his true light, without coverings, as he is. As a result of his awareness of his true motives and secret desires, a “change of mind” will occur, a radical transformation of consciousness, values, and internal imperatives of the individual. But if in Greek “change of mind” (μετα?νοια) means “repentance,” then in Freud’s theory it is just the opposite. It demands not to hate sin, but to love it, to stop all internal resistance and thus eliminate the source of the struggle that torments the neurotic personality.
In fact, the method of psychoanalysis is anti-confession, and if there are hints of the Sacrament in it, then only in the sense of mockery. This is natural: after all, a true Freudian cannot be a believer, since Freud was firmly convinced that religion is a type of collective neurosis. During a session, the psychoanalyst does not just sit silently, he inserts his remarks, remarks, and new leading questions. In this way, he directs the person who has opened his soul to him into the mainstream of his theory. This is not so difficult if a person’s will is not strong and he is confused in himself, as usually happens in a state of neurosis. The psychoanalyst relies on those bad qualities that are really present in a person, which are even the most active and aggressive in his self-awareness. With the help of experience and “devilish” insight, the doctor gives these qualities of the patient one-sided and complete development. The dialogue between the patient and the doctor becomes a temptation, a seduction. The doctor, as if wanting to heal the patient, invites him to free himself from fear and disgust of the most vile vices. Moreover — recognize them as manifestations of the driving force of the soul, the necessary motivation for all life!
Seduction was even one of the elements of the “method”. Freud was based on the idea that the female patient experiences a kind of “fall in love” with her psychoanalyst and, in turn, unconsciously tries to seduce him. You need to take advantage of this phenomenon to establish trust. One of his students went further and considered sexual intercourse with a patient a method of treatment; but Freud did not publicly approve of this.
When the patient takes the first steps forward, for the sake of liberation from the disease, casts aside shame and reveals his secret vices (in deed, word, thought), the psychoanalyst begins to compose a concept of diagnosis, which A) must be unique, related to the symptoms of that particular patient, and b) must be based on the “dogmas” of Freudianism, that is, it must necessarily assume sexual desire as the main cause of everything that happens in a person. Further development of the logic of a psychoanalytic session (or series of sessions) flatters, first of all, the base side of the soul of a sick, unbalanced person. All fantasies, thoughts, guesses related to the sexual sphere of his life are updated. All the rest remain in vain. Let's imagine a large apartment in which the lights have been turned off in all rooms except one. And the whole life of the apartment’s inhabitants is transferred to this room. All objects that can be seen are illuminated only by the light from this room. Likewise, Freudianism absolutely interprets everything, if not as the energy of sexual desire itself, then as its symbols. Lacking his own worldview, a neurotic believes in these explanations of his mental world. At first they seem fantastic to him, but he either doesn’t have others at all, or they are too confusing. On the contrary, Freudianism makes everything clear and simple, breaks it down into homogeneous elements. This is the seductiveness of his philosophy.
By indulging base human passions and perversions, Freud's psychoanalysis not only attracts people to its side — but remakes it, assembles a whole personality from disparate parts and, thus, “heals” it in its own way. This is a person who forgives himself everything base. She can integrate into society and live according to its laws, no longer causing internal conflicts in herself, that is, without demanding from herself moral compliance with those rules that are followed externally, for the sake of decency. Freud teaches: “the desire for revenge and death for those closest and most loved in life — parents, siblings, spouse, own children — are nothing unusual." Thus, she deliberately engages in hypocrisy and lies. She becomes able to seduce others without feeling seduced. This is Freud's own ideal — a person who is self-confident and knows what and when to afford. Neurotic symptoms in such a person are almost non-existent. But everything else that is not within the framework of Freud’s theory no longer exists for him. He can truly communicate only with a person similar to himself, also “healed” by a psychoanalyst.
From the above it is clear that Freudianism has similarities with such sects as exist in religions and philosophical movements. Indeed, he has his own inviolable “dogmas”, without which the entire notorious experimental base and scientific validity disintegrates.
Philosophical "tenets" of Freudianism
The most important postulates underlying Freud's theory are not derived from psychiatric practice, but are taken from a philosophy most similar to the mechanistic materialism of the French Enlightenment. There are three of these postulates: (1) absolute materialism, (2) denial of free will and (3) Darwinian evolutionism. They are closely dependent on each other.
1. Absolute materialism.
There is no reality other than material reality. This belief is presented in Freud's works as self-evident and not requiring any justification. Only materialistic thinking can be scientific. This does not mean that psychoanalysis requires an outward renunciation of religion and “idealism,” like Marxism. He only carefully suggests that God and the soul should remain “outside the brackets” when analyzing human mental life; however, he himself unceremoniously examines the most subtle movements of the soul, the most sublime works of art and religious consciousness from his own positions. Thus, psychoanalysis translates all the phenomena it encounters into the language of the exclusively material world. Spiritual — “illusion”, that is, consciousness represents some things incorrectly, replacing them with other things that play a role characters. As we see, this scheme is one-dimensional. Therefore, Freud's absolute materialism cannot even be called dialectical. He understands matter as a comprehensive substance, all parts of which are determined.
2. Denial of free will.
In direct connection with this determinism is Freud's attitude to such a concept as freedom of human will. “You have the illusion of mental freedom, and you don’t want to give it up. I’m very sorry, but on this I most seriously disagree with you.” If one of the main claims of Christianity is that a person is free to choose between good and evil, and therefore is responsible for his choice, then psychoanalysis resolutely denies this. On what basis? — strictly speaking, without any reason. This is the same axiom as absolute materialism. Freud believes that if the concept of freedom is allowed, then psychology is deprived accuracy in their scientific research. It cannot explain human consciousness and the causes of disturbances in consciousness. And if there is no freedom, then consciousness can be deciphered, like a code written according to strict rules.
There is a certain amount of truth in this thought of Freud. Thus, he argues that every thought that arises in consciousness is unacceptable (unscientific) to be considered as random. And if so, then the sequence of thoughts is determined. But the assumption of freedom does not in any way interfere with this reasonable approach. After all, we are not talking about complete spontaneity, but about freedom within certain boundaries, given the presence of choice. Why can't Freud recognize this freedom if every person feels it? The fact is that then his theory of irresistible drives will collapse. To justify it, he introduces complete determinism of the will. If sometimes it seems that he still recognizes some “creative” work of consciousness, then this is an illusion. All the work of consciousness that is not related to the biological needs of a person is performed by the “super-ego,” that is, the culture and upbringing of a person, his social environment. What is “I” doing? — I observe the struggle between the “super-ego” and “It”, my true biological essence.
The pantheistic philosopher Spinoza took it to the extreme ancient teaching about freedom as a “conscious necessity.” In his opinion, when a person realizes that he is determined from the outside, then he will become free, because everything forced will accept the movements of the soul as own. Then there will be no internal conflicts or illusions. Freud says the same. In this sense alone, he recognizes (and promises) freedom: as the “enlightenment” of the human mind with the “scientific” truths of his theory.
3. Darwinian evolutionism.
By the time Freud began his work, the materialist worldview had already firmly accepted the theory of evolution as its sole explanation for the facts of biological diversity. It is therefore not unusual that psychoanalysis has Darwinism at its core. The doctrine of the origin of all types of living beings, including humans, from the simplest “clumps” of living matter was the only one acceptable for the philosophy of biological determinism. Added to it was the teaching of Haeckel (the founder of social Darwinism) that each individual in its individual development goes through stages similar to those that it went through in history whole view. Freud transferred this concept to psychological life: every person from childhood goes through the stages of human development from the “primitive horde” to the developed culture in which he was raised. “In 1912, I agreed with Charles Darwin’s assumption that the primitive form human society there was a horde over which a strong male had unlimited power. I made an attempt to show that the fate of this horde left indelible marks in the history of mankind." It is true that people are not born cultured, but in fact there is a trick in this theory. It allowed Freud to “reconstruct” the psychological history of humanity on the basis of his reconstruction of child psychology; and he built the latter on the basis of work with his adult patients, only for illustrative purposes resorting to the actual child mental phenomena.
The doctrine of “libido” and the transformation of the sexual sphere into the absolute dominant of mental life
Libido — Latin term meaning a passionate desire for something. "Libido, completely similar hunger, is called the force in which attraction is expressed." Why Freud uses a word from Latin instead of the German Lust, Neigung or Trieb is a separate question. Apparently, with the help of Latin, he wants to give scientific weight to his theory: just as body organs, medicines and diseases traditionally have Latin names, so the key concept of psychoanalysis should be voiced in the ancient language of medicine.
What's happened libido in Freud's understanding? This is, first of all, sexual desire. But it is such only in development. From the very beginning, it is simply about the desire for physical pleasure, about “eroticism.” In ancient Greek mythology, Eros — god of sensual love, and " Eros", in the crudest sense, — love for a thing that gives pleasant sensations. From all other types of love Eros differs in that the mind does not participate in it. Over time, however, this word became attached primarily to the love associated with childbearing. Freud uses this history of the term for some clever sophism. At first he speaks of “erotic” attractions to the pleasant. For example, a baby likes to suck and therefore gets pleasure from the pacifier, although it does not satiate. In further stages of human growth the same thing is repeated with other organs capable of giving pleasure; finally it comes to reproductive organs. But why in the end All Freud reduces it precisely to “sexuality”, i.e. to sexual problems? He himself tries to justify this in the 21st lecture of Introduction to Psychoanalysis, but his argument is frankly weak and does not withstand logically consistent criticism. The very fact that in addition to the main argument he cites “two other considerations” indicates the incompleteness of the first. This basic argument boils down to the fact that it is difficult to separate what is related to sexual function from what is not related to it where the purpose of procreation is not directly pursued. There is an obvious trick here, sophistry: after all, this difficulty is not a basis for generalization. But then Freud makes a very significant reservation: in the analysis of child psychology, he uses data obtained from working with adults, and, moreover, prone to perversions. That is why the child’s psyche, during the reconstruction, is painted in the same color.
The main goal, as we see, is inclusive drive theory. Continuation of the family line — the only “eternal” thing that man and any other creature has. Freud borrowed this idea from the neo-Darwinian biologist Weissmann, who spoke of germ plasm as a kind of “immortal” substance that continues to live in the mortal bodies of individuals. Man himself is “from a biological point of view, only an episode in a series of generations, a short-term appendage of germ plasm, endowed with virtual immortality, like the temporary owner of the primordial property that outlives him.” Nature has subdued All one principle of transfer of this substance, ensuring the continuity of life. Here is the basis of Freud's main theory — theories of the "unconscious". Many psychologists before him spoke about unconscious phenomena in the psyche, but no one argued that they express the most important thing in human nature. The founder of psychoanalysis himself compared his “revolution” with the discovery of Copernicus and the teachings of Darwin. The first one removed man from the center of space, the second — made him an animal, and finally Freud deprives this animal of the royal crown called “I”, personality, turning it into an arena of struggle between the “Id” and the “super-ego”.
The struggle between gender and culture is the idea-fixe of psychoanalysis, its “golden key” with the help of which it explains absolutely everything. The idea is quite simple: a person wants the irrepressible fulfillment of his carnal desires, and society (represented by parents, state, religion) cannot allow this and “suppresses” them. Perfect balance between them impossible. “Society does not know a more terrible threat to its culture than the release sexual desires», — Freud admitted. However libido materially, and even has its own “quantity”. It doesn't go away; it can only be transformed into something: into artistic creativity, music, philosophy, religion... The deep meaning of all this, meanwhile, will remain exclusively in the field of gender. “Rejected libidinal aspirations are able to achieve the goal in a roundabout way, although yielding to protest in the form of certain distortions and mitigations.”
If the transformation is not successful, or too much “amount” of unsatisfied desire has accumulated in the reservoirs of the “subconscious”, it spills out from there in neurotic symptoms, or even straight out into madness. So Freud reduces all mental activity to one, the reproductive function of the body. But he is not interested in having children, as such, — A pleasure principle. He believes and wants everyone to believe that for man there is no more high principle. If the bodily pleasure of sexual intercourse were not the most intense, one can guarantee that Freud would have abandoned the philosophical doctrine of the “eternal” seed in order to direct his attention entirely to the sphere where the pleasure is stronger. However, his theory underwent a change of a different nature, even more tragic.
II. A turning point in Freud's life. Changing Theory
The First World War showed Europe unprecedented examples of cruelty and claimed the lives of millions of people. The very structure of culture has changed: literature, painting, music — everything now spoke of suffering, violence, hunger and death. Freud, impressionable and jealously following all cultural innovations, could not help but be deeply impressed. In 1920 - 1923, grief visited him. Freud survived the death of his second daughter and grandson. One of his best students (Victor Task) committed suicide; A. von Freund, who sponsored psychoanalysis for a long time, died. By this time, Freud already knew that a cancerous tumor was developing on his face, which would sooner or later kill him. Under the influence of all these events, he makes a significant reassessment of his theory. Main — to give death its “appropriate place” in the world of psychoanalysis. Freud admitted in a letter to Lou Salome in 1919 that the topic of death became “food” for his thoughts.
What was this revaluation? Psychoanalysis, in general terms, remains the same as it was. But he reached his logical limit, from the worship of flesh becoming the worship of death. The main principle of all life is no longer instinct as such, but the one behind it. nirvana principle. This Freudian concept is less widely known than the concept of libido, but no less important for a holistic understanding of his theory.
The concept of the "death drive": its comprehensive significance for Freud's system
“Every instinctive life tends to fail Living being to death." “The guardians of life, which are the instincts, are simply — companions of death." In such expressions Freud outlines the true boundaries of his anthropology. But why does death become the center of gravity?
This is very logical from the point of view of the entire system. After all, the main factor determining a person’s motivation is — attraction. And the goal of desire, according to Freud, is only satisfaction. So what remains after satisfaction? Only peace. This means that any living being strives not for activity, but for peace, and peace is the goal of all activity.
True, this is a subjective desire: objectively, we are talking about the transfer of “eternal” germplasm, about the self-development of living matter, about the mechanism of the universe, which has its own special rhythm. But it is precisely subjective beings, individuals, who live and die. What is this if not the reign of death?
Freud goes even further and tries again to find the reflection of the objective in the subjective. If earlier he talked about mothers as the first and, because of this, the most important object of human desire (and even agreed that the mother always “seduces” her baby with tender care for his body), now the image of the mother is intertwined with the image of personified Death. For Freud, all that is most sacred that people have is entangled in these two filth. — pleasure and corruption of the flesh. Around this time, the cancerous tissues of his face begin to show signs of decay. In 1926 he turns 70; operation follows operation, and he is in a hurry to finish his life's work. Freud chooses religion as the object of attack. He writes “The Future of an Illusion” (1927), and in the 1930s he worked on the essay “Moses and Monotheism”, in which he tries to give a psychoanalytic reading bible book Exodus. This work was the last in the life of Freud, who died in 1939.
Freudianism as a pseudo-religion. Similar character of Jungianism
Studying Freud, one can easily notice the too authoritarian, for empirical science, nature of his theory. It requires unconditional and unaccountable faith in some dogmas that have no scientific significance. In the field of the doctrine of death, this even acquires some kind of mystical character. Psychoanalysts are often spoken of as a semi-religious sect that engages in a kind of preaching. How fair are such accusations?
First of all, there is undoubtedly a certain esotericism in psychoanalysis. Freud (and his students) repeatedly emphasized that truly understand psychoanalysis is possible only by directly participating in its practice. And for this, as we have seen, you must first accept its main provisions.
Further, psychoanalysis is undoubtedly philosophical. In 1922, the University of London and the Jewish Historical Society jointly celebrated “ five Jewish philosophers» different eras: Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza, Freud and Einstein. When Freud says that his teaching “offers psychiatry the psychological basis it lacks,” he means psychology precisely as part of a philosophical system. Elsewhere he confesses: “In the depths of my soul I cherish the hope of achieving my first goal through medicine — philosophy".
But the matter is not limited to just systematic philosophy (materialist direction). The unconscious, which psychoanalysis studies, is the abyss of human weakness, sinfulness, and the absence of God. It is not for nothing that the central point of “analytical” work, along with the method of free associations, is dream interpretation, and Freud's work of the same name is one of the most popular. Delving deeper into the abyss, people evoke monstrous fantasies from there. Not being able to fully rationally comprehend them, the analyst always gives them a somewhat unclear, as if gloomy interpretation. On the one hand, there is a fixed connection to the body and its instincts, but on the other hand — endless death, “eternal” plasma, the mysterious love-hate of a person for his loved ones... This is more than just a game of mysticism and idle conversations in free time. Carl Gustav Jung, Freud's greatest associate and competitor in the field of psychoanalysis, wrote: “the observations of spiritualists, no matter how strange and dubious they may have seemed to me at first, were still the first objective evidence of psychic phenomena.” He considered the unconscious to be the leading principle in human life, endowing him with some higher knowledge, which is expressed in “archetypes” — the most common mental images mass consciousness.
If at the end of his life Jung actually deified himself, created an aura of mysterious theurgicity around his teaching, surrounded himself with religious fans and even decided to dedicate a temple to himself, then the glory of his teacher seems more “down to earth.” But during his lifetime, Freud, to his delight, was called a “demon” and compared to Lucifer. In several cities around the world, including St. Petersburg, there are “Sigmund Freud Dream Museums,” semi-virtual, semi-esoteric institutions organized by local psychoanalysts. “The Sigmund Freud Dream Museum, opened on November 4, 1999 to mark the centenary of the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, is dedicated to the psychoanalytic ideas, dreams, fantasies, theories, and passions of Freud — his collection of antiquities. At the very end of the 19th century, he begins to collect archaeological artifacts, conduct excavations of mental life and write a book about dreams. The museum is dedicated to theories, dreams, and the book of Sigmund Freud... A speculative walk through Sigmund Freud’s dreams (he compares reading “The Interpretation of Dreams” to a walk in the forest) invites you to close your eyes to the outside world and immerse yourself in the world of those images that once contemplated the eyes of the father of psychoanalysis, which entered into his dreams, with which his fantasies were connected, as well as into the world of those words that once came to his mind. ... We can carry them with us in our memory, they can become the property of our dreams.”
Conflicts within the teaching. Metastases of Freudianism
In addition to his faithful and completely devoted students, Freud had many followers with whom he entered into polemics and even sharp contradictions. He was very jealous of the “purity of doctrine”; philosopher A. Rutkevich, Russian editor of Roger Dadun's book, mentions “ secret committee"of five members, created by Freud within the psychoanalytic community to supervise his associates. But, in essence, these dramatic clashes were disputes about some particulars: Freud remained the “founding father” of an entire movement to which his opponents belonged. For example, the famous psychiatrist A. Adler, the creator of “individual psychology,” instead of sexual desire, proposed as the main attraction to self-affirmation which creates in a person inferiority complex, resulting in mental illness. Another student, O. Rank, paid primary attention to the “trauma of birth,” that is, the moment when a child leaves the mother’s womb. The conditions of birth radically influence the entire mental life of a person, and psychoanalysis should free him from this trauma. Common to all these systems — purely Freudian narrowness of thinking, which wants to consider the entire human soul from one position. Two major psychoanalysts who dissociated themselves from Freud and created their own teachings — Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and Erich Fromm (1900-1980).
Swiss psychiatrist Jung was for some time Freud's favorite student. But then a break occurred: Jung refused to consider libido as the energy of sexual desire. In his opinion, libido — This is psychic energy in general, which has a source outside a person’s own consciousness, that is, in the unconscious. Biological Freud's unconscious Jung replaces it with some more ideal and mystical “collective unconscious”. It underlies culture, although some people do not realize that they think in archetypes — innate mental structures on which culture itself depends. This should be researched" deep psychology“Trying to unite culture and the unconscious drives of a person into a single whole (while Freud, on the contrary, opposed them), Jung came to an understanding of culture that gave it a mysterious, irrational, occult connotation. He himself was seriously interested in the occult various kinds. Like Freud, Jung tried to view religion, including Christianity, from his own point of view. He believed that religion is developing, and this development is directed towards the philosophy that Jung discovered.
Fromm was never personally acquainted with Freud, but fell under the strong influence of his works and became a psychoanalyst. He was published in the main Freudian journal — "Imago." Also coming from a Jewish family, Fromm was preparing to become a rabbi in his youth, but, passing by a kiosk, he was tempted by the smell of pork sausage. As he later admitted, this sealed his fate. Freudianism, however, did not satisfy Fromm again due to its fixation on the sexual issue. He began to develop the theory of “neo-Freudianism,” trying to balance the biological and cultural, and return a higher meaning to the concept of “love.” He was interested in problems of religion. In liberation from any external coercion, which is expressed fear, Fromm saw the task of man. But freedom without responsibility entails loneliness. These correct thoughts, however, led him to false conclusions: he considered possible “rational religion” as the worship of man instead of God. With the help of "social therapy" it is possible to "rehabilitate" people without coercion or intimidation. Thus, the ideal of a “healthy society” is achievable on earth. But it was nothing more than new utopia.
Although "dogmatic" Freudians are considered a rather rare phenomenon, in general Freud's ideas were without a doubt the most influential of the entire school of psychoanalysis. In fact they conquered modern world, penetrated philosophy, economics and political technologies.
Anna Freud(1895-1982), Freud's youngest daughter, followed in her father's footsteps, but began to work primarily in child psychology. She — creator child psychoanalysis, big center which exists in London. The works of Anna Freud are little known in Russia, but one can guess, including from many school curricula that come from the West, what consequences the application of psychoanalytic principles to children leads to, if Freud believed that “in childhood one can find the roots of all perversions.” Probably, as in adults, in some cases neurotic symptoms can be eliminated, and even some kind of “healing” can be achieved. But as a result, consciousness turns out to be completely rebuilt for life, and the irreversibility of this in the case of a child is much more severe than in the case of an adult.
A friend of Anna Freud and a faithful student of Freud himself, she was even more strange personality, Lou Andreas Salome, a German writer who “collected” famous people in her life. In 1921 she was sixty; before that, she knew closely such people as Nietzsche (for whom her refusal and affair with his close friend was the strongest blow in his life), Wedekind, Rilke and other “heroes” of that time. According to her biographers, for some special reasons she always resolutely refused to have a love relationship with her intimate friends, and even with her own husband (who was also an eccentric person); but in the second half of her life she suddenly began to become violently debauched. She did not hesitate to describe in literature, including scientific literature (it was published in the Freudian magazine “Imago”) those perversions that she learned about or reached with her mind. Freud greatly appreciated her “frankness,” although Salomé was not his patient, but rather a colleague. The magical aura that surrounds her personality casts an ominous shadow not only over the entire cause of Freudianism, but also over the European intellectual culture of the twentieth century in general.
III. The last years of Freud's life. His death
Freud continued to work tirelessly. The illness sapped his strength, but with amazing persistence he wrote more and more works that destroyed the image of man and humanity that was created by Christian culture. From 1923 to 1939, constant operations and courses of therapy followed, which, however, could not prevent cancer metastases. Freud did not believe in God. If he was somehow religious, it could only refer to the shadow, even dark side his personality. The state of doom that he experienced pushed him towards the philosophical deification of death, which became the final touch of psychoanalysis.
Freud's attending physician Max Schur promised many years before his death that he would “help” him die when the pain became unbearable. In the last year of his life, even Freud's dog went into another room when he appeared. — the smell of pus from his cheek was so heavy. The upper tissue was dead, as with leprosy, and the wound gaped outward. He could not eat without a special apparatus. Finally, on September 21, 1939, Freud told Schur: “Now all this is just torture and no longer makes sense.” The doctor injected a significant dose of morphine under his skin, and the same dose twelve hours later. He entered a coma, from which he died two days later, on September 23, 1939.
Freud died at the height of his fame. He could be proud that he turned the world upside down. Not a word of repentance was heard from his bedside. But a complete aimlessness of life, fatigue and even some kind of hostility towards life, which cannot be explained by a painful illness alone, accompanied him in recent years. His world, which he built, was only the world of his fantasy, which attracted many more people after him, but did not bring any happiness either to himself or to these people.
Freudism after Freud. Influence on contemporaries and descendants
Visiting America for the first time in 1909, Freud joked at the airport: “They don’t yet know that I brought them the plague.” The dominance of Freudianism came in Western culture in the second half of the twentieth century, as a result of the so-called. “sexual revolution”, but in reality it was being prepared much earlier. The civilization that accepted Freud was ready to accept him and deserved it. She was waiting for an opportunity to emancipate her animal instincts, since she had already lost her moral and religious foundation. Participates in every seduction free will two — the seducer and the seduced, although “woe to the man to whom the temptation comes” (Matthew 18: 7).
The indignation with which Freud's contemporaries greeted his theory was more external, formal. They might have been angered by his self-confidence, but not by the content of the theory itself. Knowing this, Freud issued an open challenge to them: admit, he said, that all those phenomena that psychoanalysis analyzes are inherent to the majority of people, our contemporaries. This means that perversions were already the norm back then. And gradually the voices of critics became weaker. In fact, from a scientific point of view, it is not difficult to refute Freudianism if you oppose it another a life that does not fit into the narrow framework of his far-fetched concepts. This life is given by Christianity in the teaching of holiness, purity, chastity. But if you live “according to Freud”, in disorientation, chaos and moral entropy, proving his ideas by your own example, it will be impossible to crush this theory as a whole, and it is pointless — challenge its individual fantastic positions, replacing them with others of the same kind.
The onset of the “sexual revolution” in Russia — a bitter example of the powerlessness of people of good will in the face of the falling away of many people from God. We see the practical application of Freud's theory everywhere — in art, advertising, show business and, unfortunately, even in education. Repeated attempts to introduce corrupting ideas into school programs bore fruit. But even without them, television alone is enough to poison the entire moral atmosphere in the country, including in the world of childhood. Most all-Russian radio channels do not lag behind television channels in this regard. A completely uncontrollable flow of literature, sweeping the shelves of bookstores like a mudslide, carries the same information, only presented more intellectually. Thus, Freud's theory is one of the main strategic weapons with which the war is waged against the Russian people. If good will had not been so recklessly neglected by the people; this crafty weapon of temptation would not have been so deadly.
Freud's teachings in the light of Christian anthropology
Many Catholic and Protestant scientists, even theologians, guided by the principle “if you cannot resist, then you need to lead,” are making attempts to transform Freudianism and incorporate it, in a transformed form, into their systems. According to the authoritative Catholic author Carlos Valverde, Freud's ideas are “among the most important discoveries for human knowledge... In fact, Freud discovered the deepest structures of the human psyche and proposed a language for their description that reveals many personality problems. Undoubtedly his major contribution anthropology became the discovery of those deep and dark layers of the psyche, which he called unconscious and subconscious." Authors such as Valverde want to "purify" Freudianism of its focus on the sexual instinct, but retain its concept of the human personality. Is it possible? Firstly, Freud himself did not think of one without the other: if the irrational “pleasure principle” does not dominate in the soul, then its concept unconscious loses its meaning. After all, even before Freud, everyone knew that there are involuntary thoughts, movements, states. Secondly, the founder of psychoanalysis admitted that his scientific language was borrowed from (1) communication with patients and (2) introspection. This is the language of painful fantasies and dreams, supplemented with individual technical terms. It cannot be torn away from the core of Freud's entire theory and used without it. Third, the most important method psychoanalysis, anti-confession, is anti-Christian and causes irreparable harm to the human soul. Thus, Christians who want to make psychoanalysis serve themselves are in danger of serving it. Indulgence of passions, which takes place in the apostasy age, is fertile ground for this. As Freud himself noted, “one could say about psychoanalysis: whoever gives him a finger, he already holds the whole hand.”
The Word of God states that man is morally free. “If you do good, don’t you lift your face? And if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he attracts you to himself, but you have dominion over him” (Genesis 4: 6-7). Or, in the Slavic text: “his address is to you, and you have it.” Moses says to the Jews: “I have given life and death before you, a blessing and an oath. And choose life, that you and your seed may live” (Deut. 30:19). The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans teaches about two types of slavery. One kind — slavery to sin, passion. Second — obedience to God's law. This is in the will of man: “Know ye not, as ye also are slaves to obey him: either sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness” (Rom. 6:16).
What organ in a person is responsible for choosing good rather than evil? Undoubtedly this — a mind whose importance was so downplayed by Freud. Leaving the mind the role of an organ of cognition, he at the same time deprived a person of freedom; it turned out that a person can know only own sin and impurity of the soul. The Holy Fathers knew that with moral knowledge the mind is directed to the vision of sins. Their teaching about the mind also includes the teaching about conscience, as a spark of God in a person, which does not allow him to live in complete ignorance. But not only is it required to see one’s sin, it is required to fight against it! This is a difficult ascetic struggle for purity of heart, but victory in it is achievable for everyone. Indeed, sin is so powerful in natural man that Rev. Abba Dorotheos says: “evil has embraced the entire soul, taken possession of all its powers.” But what is evil? This is not the very nature of man, but the state of the soul at a distance from God. The soul remains free, but its freedom is constrained by ignorance of goodness and the mortality of the body. “For Adam was not wholly perverted by nature, that is, changed from incorruptibility to corruption; only the body, as having originated and formed from earth and perverted nature, suffered this transformation” (Venerable Anastasius Sinaite).
Saint Demetrius of Rostov wrote: “man is an animal furious, lustful, reasonable" We are talking about three forces of the soul: irritation, desire, reason. If the structure is incorrect, the first force turns into the passion of anger (what psychologists call aggression), second — into lust (wordless attraction), the third is suppressed by the first two and serves them. But if a person lives according to Christ, his soul changes radically. What is the difference between a carnal and a spiritual man? Clear definition gives St. Tikhon of Zadonsky: “a carnal man has all his mind and plans only for the acquisition of temporary things: but a spiritual man always strives for eternal things.” If you don’t believe in overcoming sin, it means — not to believe in the Atonement of Christ. “Man has nothing of his own except infirmities, sins, poverty and damnation; but he accepts everything from his Creator.” The Lord, who created man, really cannot cleanse and sanctify him? Only for this you need a desire on the part of a person. St. Ephraim the Syrian wrote about the eradication of evil thoughts: “Think about the good, so as not to think about the bad; because the mind does not tolerate being idle.” The patristic teaching about goodness, about the positive ideal is very important. All virtues have both negative (indicating what needs to be fought) and positive (what needs to be cultivated) meaning. Yes, chastity — not only purity from carnal passion, but also decoration of the soul from God. Alms — not only overcoming stinginess, but also caring for one’s neighbor. Humility — not only the fight against pride, but also boldness in prayer. In order to understand this, a person must stop identifying yourself and your vices.
Regarding the reproductive function, so important to Freudian theory, the Fathers have a simple and clear teaching about it. St. Amphilochius of Iconium taught: “So that death could not completely destroy the human race, marriage was introduced, which with its fertility resists death: death reaps generations, and marriage gives birth to new ones and thus balances the destructive activity of death. Since marriage was introduced for the preservation of the race and for the increase of nature, God put pleasure in the man and attractiveness in the woman so that they would unite for legal marriage. So the purpose of marriage — childbearing." As we see, attraction to representatives of a different sex is, indeed, inherent in a person beyond his will and consciousness. But this does not mean that it dominates them. It simply exists, like many other phenomena of our created being. It is humiliating for a person that he must produce the birth of his own kind through pleasure, which is also characteristic of the dumb. From the beginning it should not have been this way: but just as angels reproduce purely and intelligently, so Adam and Eve had to populate the earth, according to the commandment given in Paradise. However, after the Fall, God clothed them in mortal “robes of skin” (Gen. 3:21), that is, rough flesh. He put mutual attraction in them, because a sinful person would not conceive his children voluntarily and independently. For what reason? First, birth is painful and parenting is difficult. Secondly, this life is full of sorrow, so multiplying offspring makes it sadder and adds more unhappy people. Moreover, no one knows God’s plan for humanity as a whole, that St. Gregory of Nyssa called in Greek plyroma, "completeness". This is why “angelic” generation is unthinkable under earthly conditions. That is why the notorious “pleasure principle” is inherent in man. Step over it — means to become like the angels, although not in giving birth to one’s own kind, but in dispassion. Give him your share of vital energy in a legal marriage — means waiting for the birth of children and accepting responsibility for them. Taking advantage of pleasure for pleasure's sake — means to pervert.
Freud himself understood and recognized this very well. “We call sexual life perverted precisely if it abandons the goal of procreation and strives for pleasure as a goal independent of it. [...] In reality, the perverted are rather pitiful creatures who pay very dearly for their difficult-to-achieve satisfaction.” Unfortunately, what was really behind his rhetoric was faith into the inevitability and universality of perversions. But this is not the Christian faith at all. “For you have heard of Him and learned in Him, — because the truth is in Jesus, — put off your former way of life, the old man, which is corrupted by the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, created according to God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:21-24).
And the Lord Himself gives man a choice: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp for the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?” (Matthew 6:21-23).
Freud Z. Introduction to psychoanalysis. St. Petersburg: “ABC-Classics”, 2003.
Dadong R. Freud. M.: "H.G.S.", 1994.
Ferris P. Sigmund Freud. Minsk: 2001. P. 4. . Me and It. Works of different years. Tbilisi: 1991. Book. 2. P. 153.
Quote By: Popov I.V. Proceedings on patrolology. T. I. Holy Fathers II - IV centuries. Sergiev Posad: 2004. P. 292.
Introduction to psychoanalysis. pp. 316, 321.
Freud psyche individuality fromm
Freud Sigmund (1856-1939) - Australian psychologist and neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis. The conceptual core of Freud's theory includes the concept of psychoneurosis and the doctrine of the mental apparatus, based on the idea of the unconscious. The unconscious (“It”) is that part of the psyche where instinctive impulses (desires) and ideas repressed from consciousness are concentrated. The unconscious is fenced off from consciousness by the region of the preconscious (the rational “I” of a person, memory, thinking). It censors the desires of the unconscious and the ideas that represent them, in accordance with the reality of the external world, and resists their attempts to penetrate consciousness. And undischarged desires that remain active find roundabout ways to penetrate consciousness. Such paths include dreams, slips of the tongue, humor, as well as phenomena of mental pathology. Another cornerstone of Freud's theory was the doctrine of libido and childhood sexuality. From the point of view of the doctrine of libido, the process of human mental development is in its essence biological deterministic process transformations of his sexual instinct. Freud's teaching, while not strictly philosophical, has significant ideological potential. It is connected, first of all, with a specific understanding of man and culture. It was based on Freud's belief in the antagonism of the natural principle in man, the sexual and aggressive impulses of the unconscious, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, culture. The reason for this antagonism at the intrapsychic level is culture with its ideals, norms, and requirements. Culture, according to Freud, is based on the refusal to satisfy the desires of the unconscious and exists due to the sublimated energy of libido.
The consequence of this understanding of culture was a romantic criticism of it. Freud concludes that cultural progress leads to a decrease in human happiness and an increase in feelings of guilt due to growing restrictions on the fulfillment of natural desires.
When explaining the origin and essence of cultural instincts, Freud proceeded from the belief in the similarity of individual and collective psychological patterns, as well as in the similarity of the mechanisms for the formation of normal and pathological phenomena of the psyche. This allowed him, seeing similarities between the symptoms of obsessional neurosis and religious rituals, to declare religion a “collective neurosis”, and the presence in the human psyche of typical forms of reaction (Oedipus complex) and collective symbols indicates, according to Freud, real events in the history of mankind, memory about which these mental phenomena appear.
From the same positions, Freud approaches the problem of leadership. He believes that the connection between people in a group has a libidinal basis. This libidinal connection is the identification of individuals with a leader who becomes an intrapsychic ideal for everyone. By adopting this ideal, a person renounces part of his own “I” (ideal “I”) and communicates with others through a group ideal common to all - the leader.
Freud's psychological and sociological views had a significant influence on art, sociology, ethnography, psychology and psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century.
Freudianism - in a broader sense, means classical (orthodox) psychoanalysis, in contrast to neo-Freudianism, analytical psychology Jung and Adler's individual psychology. In a more strict and precise sense this term denotes the teaching of S. Freud in the form in which it was created by him in the period from 1900 to 1938. Freudianism thus acts as the theoretical basis of psychoanalysis as a psychotherapeutic method, as well as as a theoretical source of modern psychoanalytic concepts. Representatives of classical psychoanalysis still remain committed to the basic tenets of Freudianism, in contrast to representatives of neo-Freudianism, who partially discarded and partially rethought many of them
Psychoanalysis - 1) in in the narrow sense words are a psychotherapeutic method developed by S. Freud in the late 90s. XIX century for the treatment of psychoneuroses. Psychoanalysis as a method of therapy consists of identifying, then bringing to consciousness and experiencing unconscious traumatic ideas, impressions, and mental complexes. 2) B in a broad sense The word psychoanalysis refers to various schools of dynamic psychotherapy. Moreover, we can talk not only about the theoretical platforms of these schools, but also about the institutionalized movement that is carried out on their basis. Psychoanalysis as a movement dates back to a circle of supporters of S. Freud, who united around him in 1902 and founded the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908. Modern successors and imitators of this movement belong to the so-called “classical” or “orthodox” psychoanalysis - its most numerous, powerful and influential direction.
In theoretical terms, classical psychoanalysis represents Freudianism, in some matters refined and reformed in the 30s and 50s. A. Freud, H. Hartmann, D. Rapaport and others. The changes they made concerned mainly the functions of the “I”. Their research led to the development of a new theoretical aspect called “ego psychology.” Unlike Freud, who paid main attention to the unconscious mechanisms of the “IT,” in modern classical psychoanalysis, great importance is attached to the preconscious mechanisms of the “I,” aimed at adaptation to the social environment. Very noteworthy is also the attempt at a formalized presentation of psychoanalysis by D. Rapaport, who also sought to translate the concepts of psychoanalysis into the terms of behavior that were used in the 40-50s. Behaviorist-oriented experimental psychology is the main rival of psychoanalysis. D. Rapaport tried to bring psychoanalysis closer to the canons of science, which were dictated by the post-positivist philosophy of science.
The concepts of Sigmund Freud and his followers concerning problems of human behavior, culture and the development of society belong to the so-called sociobiology, which has declared itself by almost completely ignoring the social factors of the functioning and development of society. First of all, the role of social connections and relationships in the behavior and activities of people is ignored. Each individual is considered for himself; the driving forces of his behavior are seen in his biological needs and instincts.
Subsequently, Freud expanded the field of study of psychobiological instincts. Along with the instincts of life and self-preservation, sexual instincts, he identifies the instincts of destruction, aggression and death. The struggle of these instincts is manifested, according to Freud, in human behavior and his activities - industrial and political, creative and destructive. Ultimately, the struggle between the instincts of life and death, Eros and Thanatos, determines, according to Freud, the course of development of man, society and its culture.
By culture, Freud understood the totality of social properties of people, their knowledge and skills for various types of activities, norms of behavior, the totality of material and spiritual values, political and state legal institutions, etc.
The problem of the unconscious and conscious in philosophical anthropology, reflecting an important aspect of human existence, is closely related to questions of the biological and social, essence and existence.
For a long time, philosophy was dominated by the principle of anthropological rationalism; man, his motives of behavior and existence itself were considered only as a manifestation of conscious life. This view found its vivid embodiment in the famous Cartesian thesis “cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I exist”). In this regard, man acted as a “reasonable man.” But, starting from modern times, the problem of the unconscious occupies an increasing place in philosophical anthropology. Leibniz, Kant, Kierkegaard, Hartmann, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, from different sides and positions, begin to analyze the role and significance of mental processes that are not consciously realized by man.
But the decisive influence on the development of this problem was made by S. Freud, who opened a whole direction in philosophical anthropology and established the unconscious as most important factor human dimension and existence. He presented the unconscious as a powerful force that opposes consciousness. According to his concept, the human psyche consists of three layers. The lowest and most powerful layer - “It” (Id) is located outside of consciousness. In terms of volume, it is comparable to the underwater part of an iceberg. It concentrates various biological drives and passions, primarily of a sexual nature, and ideas repressed from consciousness. Then follows a relatively small layer of consciousness - this is the “I” (Ego) of a person. The upper layer of the human spirit - the “Super Ego” - is the ideals and norms of society, the sphere of obligation and moral censorship. According to Freud, the personality, the human “I” is forced to constantly be tormented and torn between Scylla and Harbida - the unconscious condemned “It” and the moral and cultural censorship of the “Super-Ego”. Thus, it turns out that one’s own “I” - the consciousness of a person is not the “master in own home“It is the sphere of “It”, completely subordinate to the principle of pleasure and enjoyment, that, according to Freud, has a decisive influence on the thoughts, feelings and actions of a person. Man is, first of all, a being controlled and driven by sexual aspirations and sexual energy (libido).
The drama of human existence is enhanced by Freud by the fact that among the unconscious drives there is also an innate tendency towards destruction and aggression, which finds its ultimate expression in the “death instinct” opposed to the “life instinct”. The inner world of man, therefore, also turned out to be an arena of struggle between these two drives. After all, Eros and Thanatos are seen by him as the two most powerful forces determining human behavior.
Thus, Freudian man turned out to be woven from a whole series of contradictions between biological drives and conscious social norms, the conscious and the unconscious, the life instinct and the death instinct. But in the end, the biological unconscious principle turns out to be decisive for him. Man, according to Freud, is primarily an erotic being, controlled by unconscious instincts.
The irrationalistic tendencies of the “philosophy of life” are continued and deepened by psychoanalytic philosophy. The empirical basis of psychoanalytic philosophy is psychoanalysis. It arose within psychiatry as a unique approach to the treatment of neuroses using the method of catharsis or self-purification. Gradually, it grew from a medical technique to the level of a philosophical movement that seeks to explain personal, cultural and social phenomena.
The founder of psychoanalysis was the Austrian doctor, psychopathologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). The main ideas of psychoanalysis are set out in his works: “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920), “Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human Self” (1921), “I” and “It” (1923). ) and etc. Classical psychology before Freud, she studied the phenomena of consciousness as they manifested themselves in a healthy person. Freud, as a psychopathologist, while exploring the nature and causes of neuroses, came across an area of the human psyche that had not been studied in any way before, but which was of great importance for human life - the unconscious.
The discovery of the unconscious, the study of its structure, influence on individual and social life was the main merit of S. Freud. According to Freud, many of our desires and impulses are unconscious. Quite often the unconscious breaks through in hypnotic states, dreams, in some facts of our behavior: slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, incorrect movements, etc. According to Freud, the human psyche is an interaction of three levels: unconscious, subconscious and conscious. He considered the unconscious to be the central component corresponding to the essence of the human psyche, and the conscious to be only a special intuition built on top of the unconscious. Freud's model of personality appears as a combination of three elements. “It” is the deep layer of subconscious attraction - the mental self, the basis of the activities of individuals, “I” is the sphere of the conscious, an intermediary between “It” and the “external world”, including natural and social institutions. “Super-ego” (super-ego) is an intrapersonal conscience that arises as an intermediary between “It” and “I” due to the constantly arising conflict between them. The “super-ego” is, as it were, the highest being in man. These are socially significant norms and commandments internalized by the individual, social prohibitions of the power of parents and authorities.
The deep layer of the human psyche, according to Freud, functions on the basis of natural instincts, “primary drives,” in order to obtain the greatest pleasure. Freud first considered purely sexual drives as the basis of primary drives. Later he replaces them with more general concept"libido", which already covers the entire sphere of human love, including parental love, friendship and even love for the Motherland. Ultimately, he puts forward the hypothesis that human activity is determined by the presence of both biological and social drives, where the main role is played by the so-called “life instinct” - eros and the “death instinct” - thanatos.
Since in satisfying his passions the individual faces external reality, which opposes in the form of “It”, the “I” stands out in it, striving to curb unconscious drives and direct them into the mainstream of socially approved behavior with the help of the “super-ego”. Freud did not absolutize the power of the unconscious. He believed that a person can master his instincts and passions and consciously manage them in real life. The task of psychoanalysis, in his opinion, is to transfer the unconscious material of the human psyche into the realm of consciousness and subordinate it to its goals.
Freud believed that psychoanalysis could be used to explain and regulate social processes. A person does not exist in isolation from other people; in his mental life there is always an “Other” with whom he comes into contact.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) - Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist, creator of the so-called “individual psychology”. Being a practicing doctor, in 1902 he joined Freud's circle. Gradually he developed his own concept of mental illness, which was based on the idea of compensating for feelings of inferiority. According to this concept, mental illness is the result of an unconscious desire for superiority, fueled by a feeling of inferiority that is associated with some bodily weakness or defect.
Adler criticized Freud's teachings for exaggerating the role of sexuality and the unconscious in determining human behavior. In contrast, he emphasized the role of social factors, in particular, emphasizing the social orientation of drives - the basis of human character. A person’s character, according to Adler, grows from his “life style.” The latter is a system of purposeful aspirations that develops in childhood, in which the need for superiority and self-affirmation is realized and which act as compensation for feelings of inferiority. For example, the famous ancient Greek orator Demosthenes suffered from a speech defect since childhood, and many famous generals- people of short stature (Napoleon, A.V. Suvorov).
Adler's ideas contributed to the modification of Freudianism, which ultimately led to the emergence of neo-Freudianism. “Individual psychology” became most widespread in the 20s and 30s, especially in the USA. The term “inferiority complex,” introduced by Adler, entered the mass, everyday consciousness.
Fromm Erich (1900-1980) - psychologist, philosopher, sociologist, one of the founders of neo-Freudianism. Together with M. Horkheimer, T. Adorno and G. Marcuse, he became the creator of the Frankfurt School. In my first major work“Flight from Freedom” (1941) Fromm examined the phenomenon of totalitarianism within the framework of the problem of freedom. He distinguishes between “freedom from” (negative) and “freedom to” (positive). The downside of “freedom from” is loneliness and alienation. Such freedom is a burden for man. Fromm described three typical neurotic mechanisms of “escape” (psychological defense) from negative freedom. This is the authoritarian, conformist and destructive variety of the neurotic character. The first is expressed in a masochistic passion for subjugating oneself to others or in a sadistic passion for subordinating others to oneself. The second consists of renouncing one’s individuality and striving to be “like everyone else.” The third is an uncontrollable craving for violence, cruelty, and destruction.
Fromm sees a way out in a reform of society that would open up space for “freedom on” (“A Mentally Healthy Society,” 1945; “The Art of Loving,” 1956). The main task in building a mentally healthy society is to educate people of a productive character. Unproductivity is the inability to love and realize oneself, to use one’s strengths, the place of which is taken by forms of activity imposed by unconscious anxiety. Fromm describes four historically emerged types of unproductive character orientation: receptive, exploitative, accumulative and market. Productivity, on the contrary, is a person’s ability to love, to use one’s strengths, and the ability for self-realization. Fromm outlined in most detail the basic principles on which a mentally healthy society should be built in his book “To Have or to Be?” (1976). There he calls for replacing the currently dominant attitude in a person’s character with the possession of an attitude toward being.
An important theme in Fromm's work is religion ("Psychoanalysis and Religion", 1950). He understands religion as any system of collective beliefs and actions that provides the individual with a system of orientation and an object of worship. Religions are divided into authoritarian and humanistic. Authoritarian religion is based on recognition higher power, requiring a person to submit and worship. In a humanistic religion, the main thing is not the doctrine, but the attitude towards man. God is a symbol here own strength person.
E. Fromm tried to combine the ideas of psychoanalysis, Marxism and existentialism. He believed that there is nothing innate about personality. All its mental manifestations are a consequence of the individual’s immersion in various social environments. However, unlike Marxism, Fromm derives the nature of the formation of one or another type of personality not from the direct influence of the social environment, but from the duality of human existence: “existential” and “historical”. Towards the existential component human existence he attributes two facts: 1) a person, according to him, is initially between life and death, “he is thrown into this world in a random place and time” and “is chosen from it again by chance”; 2) there is a contradiction between the fact that each human is the bearer of all the potentialities inherent in it, but cannot realize them as a result of the short duration of its existence. A person cannot avoid these contradictions, but reacts to them different ways according to their character and culture.
According to Fromm, historical contradictions have a completely different nature. They are not a necessary part of human existence, but are created and resolved by man either in the process of his own life, or in subsequent periods of history. Fromm associated the elimination of historical contradictions with the creation of a new humanistic society. In the book "Revolution of Hope" (1968), Fromm sets out his ideas about ways to humanize modern society. He places great hopes on the introduction of “humanistic planning”, “the activation of the individual by replacing the methods of “alienated bureaucracy” with methods of “humanistic management”, changing the way of consumption in the direction of increasing the “activation” of a person and eliminating his passivity, the spread of new forms of psycho-spiritual orientation”, which must be "equivalents of the religious systems of the past." At the same time, Fromm puts forward the idea of creating small communities in which people should have their own culture, lifestyle, behavior, based on common “psycho-spiritual orientations”, reminiscent of the results and symbols of church life.
Outstanding Events
The founder of psychoanalysis, Freud, had many followers, but at the same time he often lost his brightest like-minded people. The example of Fliess, who at first actively supported Freud's research, is illustrative. Warm friendship and an unexpected, sharp break - this is the typical development of his relationships with his comrades.
Particular attention should be paid to the stories of Freud's ruptures with his most talented followers, who subsequently created their own directions in science. We are talking about Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung.
Adler was one of the first members of the Society of Psychological Environments, formed in 1902. But from the very beginning he differed from the young neurologists who adored Freud, such as Otto Rank and Hans Sachs. Adler, already engaged in psychiatric practice, wrote a newspaper article in support of the works of the unknown Freud. After reading it, he sent Adler a personal invitation to a meeting of his “Society”. After such a beginning, a “teacher-student” relationship simply could not be established between them.
Adler considered the concept of “inferiority complex” to be key to psychoanalysis, but Freud did not agree with this, putting sex in the first place. In turn, Adler contrasted Freud, who argued that a woman experiences an inferiority complex in front of a man because she does not have a penis, with his theory. In his opinion, a woman, unlike a man, has the experience of childbearing, and, in addition, men suffer more from an inferiority complex than women. True, Adler agreed with the initial position of Freud's theory that people do not know their own zones of consciousness, but subsequently the differences in their views became more and more.
The Swiss psychiatrist Jung became acquainted with Freud's works thanks to the advice of Bleuler, head of the clinic at the University of Zurich. Jung was amazed by what he read. In 1907, their first meeting took place, lasting as much as 13 hours. Jung maintained an extensive correspondence with Freud. But their relationship turned out to be a repeat of the story with Flis.
The first tension in their communication arose in 1909 during a joint trip to the USA. Freud and Jung recognized the importance of dream analysis, but Jung was dissatisfied with the way Freud interpreted them. For example, Jung did not agree with the decoding of his own dream, in which he saw two old skulls on a pedestal. Freud believed that the dream symbolized Jung's desire to see the death of Freud himself and his student. Jung believed that Freud placed too much emphasis on libido. Freud considered dreams a modified form of satisfying sexual desires, and for Jung, dreams were associated with an unknown world, which he later called the “collective unconscious.” He argued that the content of dreams reflects the vast world of the subconscious, universal for all people. In it, as in legends, things are turned into symbols. Subsequently, Adler and Jung began to develop their own directions in psychoanalysis. However, their creation would have been impossible without the works of Freud.
Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation
Higher professional educational institution
Tula State University
Department of Psychology
Course work
Sigmund Freud: biographical sketch, formation of the school, relationship with students
Posted by: student gr.820 572
Polyakova Nina
Checked by: Bragina T.A.
Introduction
Chapter 1. Biographical sketch
Chapter 2. Relationship with students
2. Ferenczi
5. Anna Freud
Chapter 3. Formation of the school
1. Otto Rank as a chronicler of the history of psychoanalysis
2. "Development"
3. “Letters in a Circle”
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
“Ask a hundred people on the street to name a famous deceased psychologist,” suggests Kate Stanovich, “and Sigmund Freud will probably be the winner.” Although in currently Freud's influence on psychological science does not seem to be so significant; his fame continues to play a role in people's perception of psychology. His legacy is used in literary interpretation, psychiatry and popular psychology. So who was Freud and what did he teach?
For a long time, and even now, the amazing personality of Sigmund Freud has interested, interests and most likely will interest all scientists who have ever encountered his works. So we were also interested in this great man, who opened the door to the world of the unconscious.
We decided to take a closer look at his life and works, so the objectives of our work are as follows:
À Take an interest in the biography of Freud Z.
À Consider his relationship with his students
À Observe the formation of S. Freud’s school.
His personality was examined by various scientists, for example, E. Fromm, a famous American neo-Freudian, who in his book “The Mission of Sigmund Freud” provides an analysis of the personality of the founder of psychoanalysis. This study compares favorably with other biographies of Freud written by his students and followers in its objectivity and impartiality - Fromm describes both the strengths and weaknesses of Freud's personality. From this book you can learn and understand why and for what reason works were created, what influenced their creation. We can say that in the book Freud appears before us as an object of study, from the point of view of his theories, since from each of his “movements” in life some kind of concept or addition to it was created, and Fromm analyzed Freud’s personality, applying in part to it his own theories.
In a very easy and accessible form, with a little humor, R. Osborne depicted the life of the founder of psychoanalysis. It reflects the main points of both the scientist’s life and his works. There is a three-volume encyclopedia, edited by Bokovikov, which fully examines the life, works, and legacy of S. Freud. The encyclopedia contains inserts of letters written by Freud personally, which assess the relationship between the author of the letters and their recipients. The pioneers of psychoanalysis and all those with whom Freud once knew are present here. So what was he like: passionate and loving towards his family, kind towards his students, fair and tolerant of the antics of his opponents, or was he like a common person who has enough worries and problems, who can be callous, insensitive and selfish? Why didn’t he develop a relationship with his students? Among the many analysts who broke with Freud and created their own theoretical schools, Alfred Adler and Carl G. Jung should be mentioned first. They were both among the earliest and most significant followers. What led to the rift between them? Therefore, we set out to find out how Freud’s life proceeded, what the relationships were like in the school that he formed.
Perhaps it can be assumed that the formation or certain origin of his school began with how he became interested in revealing the causes of his patients’ illnesses not from the point of view of physiology, but from the point of view of the psyche, and when he began to conduct his correspondence with like-minded people and with those who understood and accepted him. How did Freud "come" to create psychoanalysis? What was the impetus for the ideas? Maybe the environment influenced him, or did he, like Mendeleev, “dream”?
Let's try to find answers to the questions posed.
Sigismund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the small Austrian town of Freiberg, Moravia (in what is now the Czech Republic). He was the eldest of seven children in his family, although his father, a wool merchant, had two sons from a previous marriage and was already a grandfather by the time of Sigmund's birth. When Freud was four years old, his family moved to Vienna due to financial difficulties. Freud lived permanently in Vienna, and in 1938, a year before his death, he emigrated to England.
From the very first classes, Freud studied brilliantly. Despite limited financial resources, which forced the whole family to huddle in a cramped apartment, Freud had his own room and even a lamp with an oil wick, which he used during classes. The rest of the family were content with candles. Like other young men of that time, he received a classical education: he studied Greek and Latin, read the great classical poets, playwrights and philosophers - Shakespeare, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His love of reading was so strong that the debts in the bookstore grew rapidly, and this did not evoke sympathy from his father, who was strapped for money. Freud had an excellent command of the German language and at one time received prizes for his literary victories. He also spoke fluent French, English, Spanish and Italian.
Freud recalled that as a child he often dreamed of becoming a general or minister. However, since he was a Jew, almost any professional career was closed to him, with the exception of medicine and law - so strong were the anti-Semitic sentiments then. Freud chose medicine without much desire. He entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna in 1873. During his studies, he was influenced by the famous psychologist Ernst Brücke. Brücke put forward the idea that living organisms are dynamic energy systems, subject to the laws of the physical universe. Freud took these ideas seriously, and they were later developed into his views on the dynamics of mental functioning.
Ambition pushed Freud to make some discovery that would bring him fame already in student years. He contributed to science by describing new properties nerve cells in goldfish, as well as confirmation of the existence of testicles in male eels. However, his most important discovery was that cocaine could be used to treat many diseases. He himself used cocaine without any negative consequences and prophesied the role of this substance as almost a panacea, not to mention its effectiveness as a pain reliever. Later, when the existence of drug addiction to cocaine became known, Freud's enthusiasm began to wane.
After receiving his medical degree in 1881, Freud took a position at the Institute of Brain Anatomy and conducted comparative studies of the adult and fetal brain. He was never attracted to practical medicine, but he soon left his position and began to practice privately as a neurologist, mainly because scientific work was poorly paid, and the atmosphere of anti-Semitism did not provide opportunities for promotion. On top of that, Freud fell in love and was forced to realize that if he ever got married, he would need a well-paid job.
The year 1885 marked a critical turn in Freud's career. He received a research fellowship, which gave him the opportunity to travel to Paris and train for four months with Jean Charcot, one of the most prominent neurologists of the time. Charcot studied the causes and treatment of hysteria, a mental disorder that manifested itself in a wide variety of somatic problems. Patients suffering from hysteria experienced symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, blindness and deafness. Charcot, using suggestion in a hypnotic state, could both induce and eliminate many of these hysterical symptoms. Although Freud later rejected the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic method, Charcot's lectures and clinical demonstrations made a strong impression on him. During a short stay at the famous Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, Freud changed from a neurologist to a psychopathologist.
In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays, with whom they lived together for more than half a century. They had three daughters and three sons. Youngest daughter, Anna, followed in her father’s footsteps and eventually took a leading position in the psychoanalytic field as a children’s psychoanalyst. In the 1980s, Freud began collaborating with Joseph Breuer, one of the most famous Viennese doctors. Breuer had by that time achieved some success in treating patients with hysteria through the use of the method of freely telling patients about their symptoms. Breuer and Freud undertook a joint study of the psychological causes of hysteria and methods of treating this disease. Their work culminated in the publication of Inquiries into Hysteria (1895), in which they concluded that hysterical symptoms were caused by repressed memories of traumatic events. The date of this significant publication is sometimes associated with the founding of psychoanalysis, but the most creative period in Freud's life was yet to come.
The personal and professional relationship between Freud and Breuer came to an abrupt end around the same time that Studies in Hysteria was published. The reasons why colleagues suddenly became irreconcilable enemies are still not entirely clear. Freud biographer Ernest Jones argues that Breuer strongly disagreed with Freud on the role of sexuality in the etiology of hysteria, and this predetermined the break (Jones, 1953). Other researchers suggest that Breuer acted as a “father figure” for the younger Freud and his elimination was simply predestined by the very course of development of the relationship as a result of Freud’s Oedipus complex. Whatever the reasons, the two men never met again as friends.
Freud's claims that hysteria and other mental disorders Underlying problems related to sexuality led to his expulsion from the Vienna Medical Society in 1896. By this time, Freud had very little, if any, development of what would later become known as the theory of psychoanalysis. Moreover, his assessment of his own personality and work, based on Jones's observations, was as follows: “I have fairly limited abilities or talents - I am not good at science, mathematics, or numeracy. But what I possess, albeit in a limited form, is probably developed very intensively.”
The period between 1896 and 1900 was a period of loneliness for Freud, but a very productive loneliness. At this time, he begins to analyze his dreams, and after the death of his father in 1896, he practices introspection for half an hour before bed every day. His most outstanding work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), is based on the analysis of his own dreams. However, fame and recognition were still far away. To begin with, this masterpiece was ignored by the psychiatric community, and Freud received only a royalty of $209 for his work. It may seem incredible, but over the next eight years he managed to sell only 600 copies of this publication.
In the five years following the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's prestige had grown so much that he became one of the world's most renowned physicians. In 1902, the Psychological Environments Society was founded, attended only by a select circle of Freud's intellectual followers. In 1908, this organization was renamed the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Many of Freud's colleagues former members of this society, became famous psychoanalysts, each in his own direction: Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi, Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler, Hans Sachs and Otto Rank. Later, Adler, Jung and Rank left the ranks of Freud's followers and headed competing scientific schools.
The period from 1901 to 1905 became especially creative. Freud published several works, including The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Three Essays on Sexuality (1905), and Humor and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1905). In “Three Essays...” Freud proposed that children are born with sexual urges, and their parents appear as the first sexual objects. Public outrage followed immediately and had a wide resonance. Freud was branded as a sexual pervert, obscene and immoral. Many medical institutions were boycotted because of their tolerance of Freud's ideas about the sexuality of children. In 1909, an event occurred that moved the psychoanalytic movement from its dead point of relative isolation and opened the way for it to international recognition. G. Stanley Hall invited Freud to Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts to give a series of lectures. The lectures were very well received and Freud was awarded an honorary doctorate. At the time, his future looked very promising. He achieved considerable fame; patients from all over the world signed up for consultations with him. But there were also problems. First of all, he lost almost all his savings in 1919 due to the war. In 1920, his 26-year-old daughter died. But perhaps the most difficult test for him was the fear for the fate of his two sons who fought at the front. Partly influenced by the atmosphere of the First World War and the new wave of anti-Semitism, at the age of 64 Freud created a theory about the universal human instinct - the desire for death. However, despite his pessimism about the future of humanity, he continued to clearly formulate his ideas in new books. The most important are “Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis” (1920), “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920), “I and It” (1923), “The Future of an Illusion” (1927), “Civilization and Its Discontents” ( 1930), New Lectures on an Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1933), and An Outline of Psychoanalysis, published posthumously in 1940. Freud was an exceptionally gifted writer, as evidenced by his being awarded the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930.
The First World War had a huge impact on Freud's life and ideas. Clinical work with hospitalized soldiers expanded his understanding of the variety and subtlety of psychopathological manifestations. The rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s also had a strong influence on his views on social nature person. In 1932, he was a constant target of attacks by the Nazis (in Berlin, the Nazis staged several public burnings of his books). Freud commented on these events: “What progress! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me, but now they are content with burning my books.” It was only through the diplomatic efforts of Vienna's influential citizens that he was allowed to leave the city shortly after the Nazi invasion in 1938. The last years of Freud's life were difficult. Since 1923, he suffered from a spreading cancer of the pharynx and jaw (Freud smoked 20 Cuban cigars daily), but stubbornly refused drug therapy, with the exception of small doses of aspirin. He worked persistently despite undergoing 33 major surgeries to stop the tumor from spreading (which forced him to wear an uncomfortable prosthesis to fill the empty space between his nose and nose). oral cavities, and therefore at times could not speak). Another test of his endurance awaited him: during Hitler's occupation of Austria in 1938, his daughter Anna was arrested by the Gestapo. It was only by chance that she was able to free herself and reunite with her family in England.
In February 1939, an inoperable recurrence of cancer occurred. On September 23, 1939, in London, where he found himself as a displaced Jewish emigrant, Sigmund Freud left this world.
His life was quite diverse and eventful. The great man lived a great and unique life.
Chapter 2. Relationship with students
Before we consider the formation of the school, it would be better to consider Freud’s relationship with his students, since it is from correspondence with them and with friends that one can see how the school of psychoanalysis began to emerge, how relationships were built within it, and what became of it. Here we will not consider all of the professor’s students (as Freud’s students called him), but only those who are different from the rest. Basically, the relationship was warm, one might say “family”; adherents of Freud’s psychoanalysis doted on him, which Freud liked.
Freud was “endowed” with addictions. Freud's dependence on the Mother was not limited to his dependence on his own wife or mother. It was transferred to men: to those who were older than him, such as Breuer, contemporaries like Fliess, students like Jung. However, Freud was endowed with a fierce sense of pride in his independence and a strong aversion to the position of protégé. This pride forced him to repress the consciousness of his dependence, to completely deny it, to break off friendship as soon as a friend no longer lived up to his intended role of “mother.” Thus, all of his most notable friendships followed the same rhythm: intense friendship for several years, then a complete break, often even to the point of hatred. Such was the fate of his friendships with Breuer, Fliess, Jung, Adler, Rank, and even with Ferenczi, a loyal student who never dreamed of separating himself from Freud and his movement. As long as he felt the effect of this love on himself, as long as he felt that his superiority was duly recognized and his teachings listened to, he was ready to show reciprocal sympathy. It was never in doubt that Freud offered his disciples love - albeit in a somewhat detached form - and devotion. He was even ready to allow a certain amount of open polemic criticism directed at him. But suddenly he felt that his position was beginning to waver to one degree or another, and he completely changed his attitude towards this or that person.
Freud's relationship with Carl G. Jung
As in all other relationships, the same dynamics are found here: great hopes, great enthusiasm and a gap. There is also dependence here, but dependence, where the dominant personality depends on those who are dependent on it. Jung became actively interested in psychoanalysis, which attracted Freud's attention. As Jones reports: “... He (Freud) soon decided that Jung should be his successor, and sometimes called him “his son and heir.” He said that Jung and Gross were the only original minds of all his followers. Jung was likened to Joshua, called to enter those lands of psychiatry that Freud, like Moses, was allowed to see only from afar.” But there was another important aspect to Freud's attitude towards Jung. Until that time, most of Freud's supporters were Viennese and Jewish. Freud felt that for the final victory of psychoanalysis in the world, the leadership of the “Aryans” was necessary. Freud sought to create a broader basis for psychoanalysis. At one of the Vienna congresses, he emphasized the pathological hostility that surrounds him and the need for external support in order to resist it. He then dramatically threw off his coat, saying that everyone wanted to see him "starve." His train of thought is clear; he was afraid not for himself, but for the psychoanalytic movement, and this prompted him to see in Jung a savior from troubles.
In April 1906, Freud began correspondence with Jung, which continued intensively, that is, up to 50 letters a year, for seven years and which contains evidence of the rise and decline of this friendship. Both of them freely exchanged opinions regarding their colleagues and further steps to develop the “business.” They discussed the experience gained in working with patients, analyzed major problems and particular details of theory and practice. Manifesting special interest to schizophrenia, mythology, anthropology and the occult. The end of the correspondence reflects Jung's growing reluctance to accept Freud's friendship, the latter's overbearing influence and his demands to continue the struggle, organization, management.
Freud wanted to completely take over Jung, make him his heir and leader of the movement. This can be confirmed by an episode that occurred in the United States. At dinner, Freud suggested breaking the “prohibition law” that Jung and his teacher Bleyer followed; breaking it would mean breaking with him and accepting allegiance to Freud. Throughout 1912, relations between Freud and Jung deteriorated. Freud became aware of Jung's antagonistic attitude towards his theories and towards himself. Moreover, Jung had already told Freud that incestuous drives should not be interpreted literally, but as symbols of other tendencies. They met in Munich in November 1912, Freud reproached Jung for his disloyalty, Jung “repented”, accepted all criticism and promised to improve.
Despite repeated assurances of loyalty, both personal relationships and scientific views became increasingly estranged until a final break occurred in 1914. The gap was inevitable, since the views were very different. Jung was a romantic, an anti-rationalist, while Freud was an ardent rationalist and sought to rationally control the unconscious.
Freud's relationships with some other people close to him, especially with Adler, Rank and Ferenczi, developed according to the same pattern: ardent friendship, dependence, then turning into suspicion and hatred.
Freud and Ferenczi
In 1907, after rereading The Interpretation of Dreams for the second time, Ferenczi felt the need to write to Freud. Through the mediation of the physician Dr. Stein, in 1908, shortly before the Salzburg Congress, their first meeting took place at Freud's apartment. Communication on both sides turned out to be so relaxed and intimate that Ferenczi was immediately invited to spend the summer holidays with Freud’s family - a privilege that he often enjoyed in the future.
Ferenczi, when he met Freud, had a medical practice in Budapest and had already begun his first experiments with hypnosis. Max Schur, portraying Ferenczi's lively and speculative spirit with charm and humor, notes that Freud treated this student and friend as if he were his own son and that therefore there is also complete openness in the correspondence. This can be seen even in a short passage: “We will continue our affairs with prudent confidence. I hoped that Jung would give me the feeling that the children were well settled, without which a Jewish father could neither live nor die. Now I rejoice that you and your friends inspire me with such confidence.
With heartfelt wishes for the next two thirds of your individual existence. Friendly, devoted Freud to you."
The most striking example of Freud's intolerance and authoritarianism is his attitude towards Ferenczi, who for many years was the most devoted friend and student without pretensions, and only towards the end of his life suggested that patients needed love, the kind of love that they needed but did not receive in childhood. This led to certain changes in technique, a transition from a completely impersonal, from the Freudian “mirror” position of the analyst to a more humane and loving attitude towards the patient.
With this proposal the student came to his teacher. But Freud did not tolerate amendments to his theory. He listened carefully to all of Ferenczi’s statements with growing impatience and warned the student that he was treading “on dangerous ground and at the very core” was at odds “with the traditional customs and techniques of psychoanalysis.” After which Freud turned around and left the room. Ferenczi was close to Freud almost all his life. They visited Paris, Florence, Naples and Sicily, Rome and many other places with him, but ten years before Freud's death in the fall of 1929, Ferenczi moved away from his teacher.
Freud and Adler
The first of the many disagreements that marked the beginning of the history of psychoanalysis occurred between Freud and Adler. Initially, the differences between these two directions did not seem so deep, therefore, when in 1910 the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society accepted him and appointed him president, after which disagreements began.
Here is what Freud said regarding his attitude towards Adler: “Adler’s theories begin to deviate too much from true path, and it's time to establish order. He forgot the words of the Apostle Paul, those words that you know better than me: “and I know that you have no love.” He created a system of a world without love, and I am ready to fall on him with the punishing sword of the offended goddess Libido. My principle has always been tolerance, and not the imposition of one’s influence, although in practice this does not always work.” At one of the meetings of the Vienna Society at which Adler presented his theory, Freud took the opportunity to respond to his opponent in a manner that Fritz Wittels called an attempt to “destroy his opponent.” Then the most faithful disciples closed their ranks around Freud, and, as Wittels writes, “all together attacked Adler, it was something unprecedented in its fury, even in the controversial field of psychoanalysis.” But Freud not only attacked Adler, he also deliberately aggravated the situation. Later in February 1911, Freud achieved one of his goals when Adler resigned as president of the Vienna Society. Wilhelm Stekel also left with him. In June of the same year, Freud insisted that Adler be expelled from all other societies. In August 1911, the founder of psychoanalysis explained to Ernest Jones that a quarrel with Adler was inevitable and that if anyone was responsible for deliberately creating such a “critical situation,” it was Adler. How deep Freud’s hostility was towards his student can only be judged by the words he said about this so-called “crisis”: “this is the rebellion of an abnormal person,” Freud wrote to Jones, “whose ambition has driven him to madness; his influence is based only on manifestations of extreme sadism and terrorism towards others." Freud did not want to be content with a partial victory, so when the Vienna Society met in the fall of 1911, he further aggravated the already tense situation. It was then that the father of psychoanalysis announced that Adler had resigned along with his three most faithful followers and that they had united into the Adlerian group. Freud was categorically against cooperation with this organization and put everyone before a choice either with him or with Adler, then you completely break ties with him.
Freud and Theodor Reik
Doctor of Philosophy Theodor Reich joined Freud's Vienna psychoanalytic circle quite young and became one of Freud's first students. Freud, who from the very beginning considered Reik extremely gifted - "one of our main hopes" - and especially valued him along with Rank as a researcher and thinker, was associated with him for thirty years, first in person and then through letters.
In many of Freud's letters one can find praise and recognition of Reik's work, and sometimes also remarks about it. For example, Freud believes that they can be “uncouth, poisonous, quarrelsome.” In particular, regarding one review of Raik, he responds in a letter in the following way: “Humor is good, but not an insult, it would be better if you made friendly and reasonable suggestions.”
Even in 1928, when Freud was in Berlin in connection with the operation, where Reik was practicing at that time, he tried to care for and educate his colleague. At that time, Raik spoke out against one of his colleagues with an article full of bitter reproaches. Perhaps Reik understood that Freud would perceive this performance as something unworthy. With pain in his heart, Freud had to defend his young colleague from hostile attacks that had already crossed all boundaries. Even when Reik wrote “An Essay on Dostoevsky” as a response to Freud’s article “Dostoevsky and Parricide,” which contained both criticism and recognition of the professor’s thoughts. Freud responded approvingly to this.
Freud and Anna Freud
In December 1895, Anna, the sixth and last child, was born. When Anna was 13 years old, Freud introduced her to his theory of psychoanalysis, she began to attend his lectures and even attended patient appointments. After graduating from university, she became completely interested in psychoanalysis and entered the Vienna Society. She received patients in Freud's office. When Freud's illness broke her, she continued to give his lectures. Well, what can we say here? Although Freud was expecting a son, he “doted on his soul” and saw in her his continuation, the continuation of the life of his “child” - psychoanalysis.
Freud and Reich
In 1919, while still a medical student, Reich listened to a lecture on psychoanalysis for the first time and decided to devote his life to psychiatry.
Most of all, Reich was attracted by Freud's theory of libido; he looked for the biological basis of this concept of sexual desires. He believed that he had finally found this confirmation in the discovery of bioenergetic functions, the theory of orgasm and the theory of orgone. His attempt to carry out a “sexual revolution” and create a synthesis of Marxist theory and psychoanalysis met resistance on both sides - both Marxists and psychoanalysts ultimately moved away from Reich’s ideas. Reich believed that Freud was unhappily married and inhibited in his relationships with his students and friends. The personal and scientific break between them occurred in 1929. Reich attributed this to his tense relationship with Paul Federn, who conducted educational analysis with him. In September 1930, before leaving for Berlin, Reich visited the professor at Grundlsee for the last time to say goodbye. There was a sharp explanation between them, and that was the end. Freud's final sentence was: "Your views have nothing in common with the high road of psychoanalysis." At this historic meeting, Freud also allegedly said: “Saving the world is not the meaning of our existence.”
"Letters in a Circle"
The school existed not only in the form of personal meetings, but also in the form of correspondence between students and teachers. In them we can also observe the development of relationships within the school. The years from 1920 to 1924 to which these letters refer. In this post-war era, psychoanalysis was to a certain extent reborn. It was a time of preparation, dissemination and intense collaboration among all members of the Committee.
Communication between the six ring bearers (members of the Committee) scattered around the world was carried out through letters. These outstanding men, carefully selected by Freud - Abraham, Ferenczi, Eitingon, Jones, Sachs and Rank - who nurtured and nurtured the intellectual heritage of psychoanalysis and dispersed like apostles to foreign countries, worked closely with each other as the great pioneers of psychoanalysis .
Sixty-year-old Freud appears before us at the time of his first messages as a mentor, leader and organizer. At that time, psychoanalysis was considered not so much a theory of human behavior as a method of medical influence or important part Western ideology.
Freud and Rank were involved in composing the letters, even if the letter was composed by Rank alone, it was always signed by two. The letters mainly discussed problems of organizations, rules and charter, payment or non-payment of membership fees, that is, management problems. Scientific discussions arose only on rare occasions - and then only before congresses. Quarrels constantly broke out between Rank and Jones over problems with psychoanalytic publishing and copyright.
In addition, in some of the “circular letters” there are lines written by Freud in his own hand, proving his enormous personal interest in this work.
In all likelihood, at that time it was much easier to become a member of a psychoanalytic association. Several medical students from Leipzig, meeting to discuss psychoanalytic literature, wished to be admitted as members and almost succeeded if Ernest Jones, a true Englishman, had not opposed it. Letters are sent about the development of psychoanalysis in different countries.
1921: The organization expands.
Ferenczi tried to get rid of the discussion of administrative issues and reported on his work on symbol and fear. He also tried to understand the dynamics of progressive paralysis, which later became a classic case of psychoanalysis.
Professor Ferenczi assures that things are not going too well in Vienna either and he himself sees that the number of consultations is noticeably decreasing.
1922: the culmination of the correspondence.
Ferenczi, in his usual laconic style, reports from Budapest that psychoanalysis is developing poorly in Hungary.
Suddenly it turned out that the publishing house had to move from Vienna to Berlin. Ferenczi hoped in this way to avoid any economic crises.
1922: discord, doubt and quarrel.
In 1923, the volume of letters—but not their number—increased. It can be assumed that a significant part of the correspondence in the “circular letters” is not included. This year, Freud fell ill, and gradually everyone felt the severity of the illness, causing so much suffering, so many operations and ultimately ending Freud’s life and work. Freud intends to accept the Moscow group in order to thereby give even greater authority to the International Psychoanalytic Organization and gain the opportunity to influence this group.
Otherwise, all the letters this year speak only about the professor’s well-being. There is a quarrel between Ferenczi and Jones, whom Ferenczi accuses of appropriating his achievements.
Meanwhile, Rank fell ill and the letters became shorter.
1924: last messages.
Here there is a quarrel between Rank and Jones, but the professor does not allow Rank to inflame the quarrel. Letters became more private and were only sent to certain individuals.
Initially, the Committee of “Ring Bearers” was conceived as a kind of spiritual guard of the professor, designed to protect him from disappointment, which is what the committee did for a long time.
The Ring Bearers supported the professor and the psychoanalytic movement at a time when the concept of spiritual existence was clouded by inflation and world crisis. They did not overload him with many organizational issues and technical management problems. They did this out of loyalty to Freud and psychoanalysis as a “cause,” a movement, a faith, a worldview, a science, an art. They worked tirelessly, and they all knew the joy of discovery, adventure, and exploration of new territories.
Otto Rank, Freud's chief assistant, judging by the volume of work he performed, had more hands than the god Shiva. He suppressed his need for self-expression until the professor fell ill with an incurable disease, which for some time no one except Rank knew about.
Such complex and sometimes confusing relationships were evident in the letters, as well as between their authors.
Conclusion
In this study, we made an attempt to consider the biography of Freud, how it was formed, and what kind of relationships there were in the school that the professor founded, what kind of relationships there were between Freud and his students. Most of Freud's biographies are written by his followers, for whom he remains the Moses who led them to the promised land. Freud was a scientist who did not have an easy childhood, his family connections did not fit into his head, since he was already a grandfather and his nephew was older than him, perhaps that is why he created his concepts. On the other hand, he (like many people) had addictions that manifested themselves both in relationships with family and in relationships with students and friends. The formation of the school also occurred with some spontaneity and gradualism. At first, as some meetings at home, in the form of seminars, after growing into an organization, the Committee appeared, and even distances did not become an obstacle to the development of the work of psychoanalysis, they shared their experience through letters. Personal private communication between school participants and the professor also took place through letters. The relationship between Freud and his students was warm, like between “father and son” until the “son” begins to resist and not listen to the opinion of the “father”, or even more so try to change or make adjustments to his theory. Among the students there were “favorites” who, after disobedience, passed into the status of “outcasts”. We managed to find out that Freud was passionate about his wife at first, but after marriage all the passion went away, but he still loved his wife. Freud has approximately the same relationship with his students, as soon as they become his students, follow his theory, follow the traditions of classical psychoanalysis, he “loves” them in his own way, but if you break the rule, you could immediately fall out of favor with the professor. So diverse and unusual in its own way was the personality of the great scientist who became a pioneer in the open land.
List of used literature
1. #"#">/
#"#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""> Fromm Erich
Fromm Erich
Sigmund Freud's mission. Analysis of his personality and influence: Trans. from English – Ser.: Library of Psychoanalysis. – M.: Publishing house “The Whole World”, 1996. P.41.
Encyclopedia of depth psychology. Volume I. Sigmund Freud: life, work, legacy. Per. with him. /General Ed. A.M. Bokovikov. – M.: ZAO MG Management, 1998. – 800 p., illus. P.45
Encyclopedia of depth psychology. Volume I. Sigmund Freud: life, work, legacy. Per. with him. /General Ed. A. M. Bokovikova. – M.: ZAO MG Management, 1998. P.91.
#"#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""> http://www.krugosvet.ru
Tutoring
Need help studying a topic?
Our specialists will advise or provide tutoring services on topics that interest you.
Submit your application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.