The incidence of Freudian self‐analysis in the construction of the psychoanalytic theory of anxiety

Abstract

The value and function of self‐analysis has been a contentious issue in several studies dedicated to the Freudian legacy. For some writers, Freud's experience of self‐analysis is rightly considered to be the master key to an understanding of the origins of the fundamentals of psychoanalysis. For others, the exaggerated importance attributed to the process merely led to the construction of a foundational myth. Nevertheless, if it is recognized to be a process in which Freud, in collaboration with Fliess, analysed personal aspects, working hypotheses and psychopathological debates, a reconsideration of self‐analysis may contribute new elements to our understanding of the paths that were taken in the elaboration of the theory and practice of pyschoanalysis. Starting from this premise, the present work will consider the systematic examination that Freud conducted of his own phobia in the course of his self‐analysis to be a process of great relevance to the elaboration of the early psychoanlytic conceptualizations of anxiety, in that in the course of this process the possible role of sexuality, fantasy, memory and unconscious determinism in the etiology of anxiety became part of the discussion.

Translations of summary

Das Auftreten der Freud'schen Selbstanalyse in der Entstehung der psychoanalytischen Theorie der Angst

Der Wert und die Funktion der Selbstanalyse werden in verschiedenen Untersuchungen, die sich Freuds Erbe widmen, kontrovers diskutiert. Manche Autoren betrachten Freuds Erfahrung der Selbstanalyse regelrecht als zentralen Schlüssel zum Verständnis der Grundlagen der Psychoanalyse. Aus der Sicht anderer führte die übertriebene Bedeutung, die man diesem Prozess zuschrieb, lediglich zur Entstehung eines Gründungsmythos'. Ungeachtet dessen – wenn er als ein Prozess anerkannt wird, in dem Freud in Zusammenarbeit mit Fließ persönliche Aspekte analysierte, Arbeitshypothesen aufstellte und psycho‐pathologische Diskussionen führte, dann kann eine Neubetrachtung der Selbstanalyse zu neuen Elementen unseres Verständnisses über die Wege beitragen, die in der Ausarbeitung von Theorie und Praxis der Psychoanalyse gegangen wurden. Ausgehend von dieser Prämisse betrachtet die vorliegende Arbeit die systematische Untersuchung, die Freud im Verlauf seiner Selbstanalyse hinsichtlich seiner eigenen Phobie durchführte, als einen Prozess von großer Relevanz für die Entstehung der frühen Konzeptualisierungen von Angst insofern, als im Verlauf dieses Prozesses die mögliche Rolle von Sexualität, Phantasie, Erinnerung und unbewusstem Determinismus in der Ätiologie der Angst zum Bestandteil der Debatte wurde.

La influencia del autoanálisis de Freud en la construcción de la teoría psicoanalítica de la angustia

El valor y la función del autoanálisis han generado controversia en varias investigaciones dedicadas al legado freudiano. Algunos autores consideran, con razón, que la experiencia de autoanálisis de Freud es la clave para entender los orígenes de los fundamentos del psicoanálisis. Para otros, en cambio, la importancia excesiva atribuida al proceso simplemente llevó a la construcción de un mito fundacional. Sin embargo, si se reconoce el autoanálisis como un proceso en el cual Freud, en colaboración con Fliess, analizó aspectos personales, hipótesis de trabajo y debates psicopatológicos, reconsiderarlo puede aportar nuevos elementos a nuestra comprensión de los caminos que se tomaron en la elaboración teórica y en la práctica del psicoanálisis. Partiendo de esta premisa, este trabajo considera el estudio sistemático que Freud realizó de su propia fobia en el curso de su autoanálisis como un proceso de gran relevancia para la elaboración de las conceptualizaciones psicoanalíticas iniciales de la angustia, ya que en el curso de este proceso, el posible papel que juegan la sexualidad, la fantasía, la memoria y el determinismo inconsciente en la etiología de la angustia pasó a formar parte de la discusión.

L'incidence de l'auto‐analyse de Freud sur la construction de la théorie psychanalytique de l'angoisse

La valeur et la fonction de l'auto‐analyse ont constitué une question litigieuse dans plusieurs études consacrées à l'héritage freudien. Pour certains auteurs, c'est à juste titre que l'expérience auto‐analytique de Freud devrait être considérée comme la clé centrale pour comprendre l'origine des fondements de l'analyse. Pour d'autres, l'importance exagérée accordée à ce processus aurait mené à construire un mythe fondateur. Néanmoins, s'il est admis que l'auto‐analyse, le processus grâce auquel Freud, en collaboration avec Fliess, a analysé des aspects de sa personnalité, des hypothèses de travail et des controverses psychopathologiques, un nouveau regard porté sur l'auto‐analyse pourrait apporter de nouveaux éléments à notre compréhension des chemins qui furent empruntés pour élaborer la théorie et la pratique de la psychanalyse. Partant de ces prémisses, nous considérerons l'examen systématique que Freud fit de sa propre phobie au cours de son auto‐analyse comme étant un processus d'une grande pertinence pour comprendre l'élaboration des premières conceptualisations psychanalytiques de l'angoisse. Ceci car, au fil de ce processus, le possible rôle de la sexualité, du fantasme, de la mémoire et d'un déterminisme inconscient dans l'étiologie de l'angoisse devinrent parties intégrantes du débat.

L'incidenza dell'autoanalisi freudiana nella costruzione della teoria psicoanalitica dell'angoscia

Il valore e la funzione dell'autoanalisi ha costituito una questione controversa in diversi studi dedicati all'eredità freudiana. Per certi autori, L'autoanalisi di Freud è considerata a giusto titolo l'elemento fondamentale per la comprensione dei concetti chiave in psicoanalisi. Per altri, l'esagerata importanza attribuita a questo processo non ha portato che alla costituzione di un mito fondativo. Ciononostante, se si riconosce l'autoanalisi come un processo in cui Freud, in collaborazione con Fliess, ha sondato aspetti personali, collaudato ipotesi operative e dibattuto questioni psicopatologiche, ne consegue che una sua riconsiderazione potrebbe apportare nuovi elementi alla comprensione dei percorsi che hanno portato all'elaborazione della teoria e prassi psicoanalitica. Muovendo da questa premessa, si considera, nel presente lavoro, che l'esame sistematico condotto da Freud sulla propria fobia nel corso della sua autoanalisi abbia costituito un processo fondamentale per le prime concettualizzazioni psicoanalitiche dell'angoscia. È stato infatti nel corso di tale processo che ebbero luogo le prime discussioni intorno al possible ruolo della sessualità, della fantasia, della reminiscenza e del determinismo inconscio nell'eziologia dell'angoscia.

Key words:

• Freud
• self‐analysis
• anxiety
• phobia

Notes

1. For Ellenberger (1970), “A creative illness generally follows a period of intense intellectual work, long sessions of thought, meditations, and the investigation of a certain truth. Seen from the outside, it is a polymorphous state that can take the form of a depression, a neurosis, a psychosomatic affliction, or a psychosis. Whatever the symptoms may be, they are always painful and present phases of relative relief and aggravation. Throughout the illness, the subject is obsessed by an overriding preoccupation that sometime manifests itself but is often concealed, and by the investigation into a thing or an idea that matters above all else and which he never loses sight of. Creative illness is often compatible with a normal professional activity and family life” (p. 470).

2. Janet (1903) charted his nosographic innovation by indicating: “the illnesses that form the object of this new study are obsessions, impulses, mental manias, doubt madness, tics, agitations, phobias, contact delirium, anxieties, neurasthenia, bizarre sensations of alienation and depersonalization, often described under the name of cerebral–cardiac or Krishaber's disease. It can be seen that these patients have been designated under very different names: sometime they are referred to as ‘delirious degenerates’, ‘neurasthenics’, ‘frenasthenics’; often they have been designated to be ‘scrupulous’, because scrupulousness is one of the essential chracteristics of their way of thinking or under the more precise name of ‘psychasthenics’, which I think describes very well the weakening of their psychological functions”(p. vii).

3. For Beard, the term neurasthenia derives from the Greek: “[νεύρο nerve, α privative, and δύναμη strength], and literally interpreted means lack of nerve strength” (Beard, 1880, p. vi). Pichot (1998) notes that of the heterogenous symptomatology of neurasthenia – composed of more than 50 symptoms! – the two essential symptoms are general physical exhaustion, principally weaknesss and pain in the legs, and mental exhaustion characterized by difficulty in concentrating, memory loss, indifference and demotivation. The remaining symptoms can be classified into five categories: “muscular spasms and pains with headaches, morbid fears, insomnia, neurovegetative cardiovascular conditions that affect the regulation of body temperature, and sexual disorders, in particular, impotence” (p. 19).

4. At the end of 1892, Freud began to outline a project with Fliess devoted to neurasthenia – “our future work” (Freud, 1985[1893], p. 39), “our common work” (Freud, 1985[1893], p. 39) – that would lead him, independently, to publish his text on anxiety neurosis.

5. These principles, propagated by religious authorities, medical science, schools, and the family, sought to establish an ideal conduct for men and women and to consolidate a concept of “sexual hygiene” without precedent in history (Hale, 2002, p. 44).

6. Beard (1881) considered neurasthenia to be an eminently modern pathology that did not exist in earlier historical epochs: “The Greeks were certainly civilized, but they were not nervous, and in the Greek language there is no word for that term. The ancient Romans were civilized, as judged by any standard. Civilization is therefore a relative term, and as such is employed throughout this treatise. The modern differ from the ancient civilizations mainly in these five elements – steam power, the periodical press, the telegraph, the sciences, and the mental activity of women. When civilization, plus these five factors, invades any nation, it must carry nervousness and nervous diseases along with it” (Beard, 1881, p. 96). Indeed, he even proposed the idea of an American nervousness and an etiological formula that considered: “civilization in general + American civilization in particular (young and rapidly growing nation, with civil, religious, and social liberty) + exhausting climate (extremes of heat and cold, and dryness) + the nervous diathesis (itself a result of previously named factors) + overwork or overworry, or excessive indulgence of appetites or passions = an attack of neurasthenia or nervous exhaustion” (Beard, 1881, p. 176).

7. Freud (1895b) had distinguished two groups of typical phobias, one of which he would call common physiological threats (storms, darkness, insects, etc.) while the other was connected to locomotion (agoraphobia). He insisted that the psychic factor had no role in the production of symptoms; in the first group “[&] the available anxiety is simply employed to reinforce aversions which are instinctively implanted in everyone” (p. 97). With regard to the second group, he concluded that in phobias related to anxiety neurosis: “(1) this affect always has the same colour, which is that of anxiety; and (2) the affect does not originate in a repressed idea, but turns out to be not further reducible by psychological analysis, nor amenable to psychotherapy. The mechanism of substitution, therefore, does not hold good for the phobias of anxiety neurosis” (Freud, 1895b, p. 97).

8. For Freud (1899) this referred to a memory “[&] whose value lies in the fact that it represents in the memory impressions and thoughts of a later date whose content is connected with its own by symbolic or similar links [&]” (p. 316).

9. “Three children are playing in the grass. One of them is myself (between the age of two and three); the two others are my boy cousin, who is a year older than me, and his sister, who is almost exactly the same age as I am. We are picking the yellow flowers and each of us is holding a bunch of flowers we have already picked. The little girl has the best bunch; and, as though by mutual agreement, we – the two boys – fall on her and snatch away her flowers. She runs up the meadow in tears and as a consolation the peasant‐woman gives her a big piece of black bread” (Freud, 1899, p. 305).

10. For Stamm (1968) and Schur (1969) the material anlysed in the Acropolis memory was directly related to the elaboration of Freud's work on dreams (Freud, 1900) and to the dilemmas associated with his relationship with Fliess.