Mind as text: Freud’s “typographical” model of the mind

ABSTRACT

All publications in Freud’s fin de siècle society were subject to strict governmental censorship specifically tasked with distinguishing “real” academic scholarship from subversive “fictions” masquerading as such. Cures that relied on suggestion also became a target of mistrust. This contextualization, alongside the examination of Freud’s literary references and a variety of other literary texts, encourages the conjecture that realistic concerns over the risks of censorship and obscenity charges informed a proto-model of the topographical model, in which Freud conceptualized the mind as a subversive “manuscript” that must undergo “censorship” before it can be “published”: a “typographical” model of the mind.

Toutes les publications datant de l'époque de Freud – contemporaine de la société fin de siècle – étaient soumises à une censure gouvernementale stricte, chargée spécifiquement d'établir une distinction entre le savoir académique « véritable » et les « fictions » subversives qui cherchaient à se faire passer pour tel. Les cures qui reposaient sur la suggestion devinrent aussi un objet de méfiance. Cette contextualisation, en même temps que l'analyse des références littéraires de Freud et d'une sélection d'autres œuvres littéraires, soutiennent l'hypothèse que des préoccupations d'ordre réaliste relatives au risque de se voir exposé à la censure et accusé d'obscénité ont façonné un proto-modèle du modèle topographique, où Freud a conceptualisé le psychisme, en tant que « manuscrit » subversif devant être soumis à la censure avant de pouvoir être « publié » : un modèle « typographique » du psychisme.

Sämtliche Publikationen, die in Freuds Fin-de-siècle-Gesellschaft erschienen, unterlagen einer strengen behördlichen Zensur, die ganz speziell die Aufgabe hatte, „reale“ akademische Wissenschaft von subversiven, als Wissenschaft getarnten „Fiktionen“ zu scheiden. Behandlungen, die auf Suggestion beruhten, weckten Misstrauen. Diese Kontextualisierung sowie die Untersuchung von Freuds literarischen Verweisen und einer Vielzahl anderer literarischer Texte legen die Vermutung nahe, dass realistische Bedenken wegen der Risiken, die durch die Zensur und durch Anklagen wegen Obszönität drohten, ein Protomodell des topischen Modells entstehen ließen, in dem Freud die Psyche als ein subversives „Manuskript“ konzipierte, das der „Zensur“ unterliegt, bevor es „veröffentlicht“ werden kann: ein „typographisches“ Modell der Psyche.

Nella società di fine secolo in cui visse Freud, tutte le pubblicazioni erano sottoposte a una censura governativa che aveva il compito specifico di distinguere tra lavori scientifici “veri” e “invenzioni” sovversive travestite da scienza. Anche le terapie basate sulla suggestione divennero, in questo quadro, oggetto di diffidenza. Questa contestualizzazione storica, unita all’analisi dei riferimenti letterari di Freud e di una serie di altri testi letterari, porta a ipotizzare che la preoccupazione realistica da parte di Freud di venire censurato e accusato di oscenità abbia contribuito a dar forma a un proto-modello del modello topografico, in cui Freud concettualizzava la mente come un “manoscritto” sovversivo che doveva essere sottoposto a “censura” prima di poter essere “pubblicato. Si tratta, in sostanza, di un modello della mente “tipografico”.

En la sociedad fin de siècle de Freud, todas las publicaciones estaban sujetas a una estricta censura gubernamental encargada específicamente de distinguir la erudición académica “real” de la “ficción” subversiva que se disfraza como tal. Las curas que dependían de la sugestión también se volvieron blanco de desconfianza. Esta contextualización, junto con el estudio de las referencias literarias de Freud y de una variedad de otros textos literarios, alientan la conjetura de que la preocupación realista sobre los riesgos de censura y acusaciones de obscenidad fundamentaron un protomodelo del modelo topográfico, en el que Freud conceptualizó la mente como un “manuscrito” subversivo que debe someterse a la “censura” antes de poder ser “publicado”: un modelo “tipográfico” de la mente.

KEYWORDS:

• Censorship
• suggestion
• topographical model
• Sigmund Freud
• Arthur Schnitzler
• Paracelsus

Acknowledgement

Given as the Heinz Hartmann II Memorial Lecture, 6 February 2018, New York Psychoanalytic Institute. The author wishes to thank Drs Daria Colombo and Robert Smith.

Notes

1 The broader significance of Goethe’s novel and the character of Mignon are further discussed in a separate paper (author, in preparation).

2 Grinstein (1968, 67) discusses Freud’s resistance to what he interprets as “forbidden incestuous feelings toward his sister Anna.”

3 In the seminal contribution, Persecution and the Art of Writing, political philosopher Strauss (1952) demonstrates how heterodox Early Modern thinkers were able to express objectionable or even heretical views via dissimulating processes of auto-censorship that required the informed reader to “read between the lines” to divine the author’s actual intent. These auto-censorial processes are remarkably analogous to the operations of dreamwork and psychic defences. It is tempting to speculate that Strauss’s theorizing was impacted by the writings of Freud discussed here, especially the passage regarding metaphorical use of archaic censoring practices, mentioned later in this paper.

4 Predating James Joyce’s Ulysses and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway by more than two decades, Schnitzler’s 1900 novel Lieutenant Gustl is considered by many the first novel in the form of an interior stream-of-consciousness monologue.

6 Likewise, Freud interprets Dora’s “calm” [ruhig] state in her dream of the big book as concealing an erotic agitation (1905, 100), a conclusion that Akavia (2005) persuasively contests, inviting the possibility that Freud’s interpretation of her dream was informed by his misreading of Schiller’s poem (or vice versa).