In the recent Freud and Man's Soul, Bruno Bettelheim portrayed
American psychoanalysis as soul-less, over-professionalized,
non-humanistic: an overstated but forceful case, distinguished by
Bettelheim's examination of distortions in English translations of
Freud. Here, far less persuasively, Jacoby argues that American
analysis has robbed the Viennese original of its radicalism as well
as its soul - in "a palpable retreat from the cultural and
political commitments that animated the early analysts, including
Freud." To begin with, however, Jacoby's attempt to demonstrate
"the close links between socialism and classical psychoanalysis" is
strained, with exaggerated highlighting of Freud's "reforming and
social impulse." Moreover, the book is largely devoted to an
intriguing but limited closeup of a small group of politically
oriented analysts - primarily Otto Fenichel, a flexible Marxist who
(unlike Wilhelm Reich or the neo-Freudians) remained orthodox in
his psychoanalytic beliefs while maintaining a political stance at
odds with the increasingly conservative Freudian establishment.
Jacoby follows Fenichel and his circle, "radicals devoted to a
social psychoanalysis," from Austria into far-flung exile. He
emphasizes the forces which made them play down, even keep secret,
their politics: their fearful caution, as refugees from Hitler;
their wish, above all, to advance psycho-analysis; conforming
pressures from the psychoanalytic establishment. Like Bettelheim,
Jacoby also focuses intently on the American stand (contrary to
Freud) against lay analysts: "monopolization by medical doctors
risked degrading psychoanalysis into a technique with no cultural
or political consequences." And this short essay ends in the 1950s,
with Robert Lindner (The Fifty-Minute Hour, Must You Conform?)
offering "a final and eloquent protest against the impoverishment
of American psychoanalysis." Jacoby's argument is repetitious,
sometimes shrill - with dubious premises and unexplored areas
(e.g., the post-1950s work of Joel Kovel et al.). But Fenichel
himself, if unconvincing as a symbol of
where-psychoanalysis-would-have-gone in the absence of Hitler, is
an often-fascinating figure - in the contrasts with Reich and
Fromm, in his quiet but tenacious balancing of dual allegiances.
(Kirkus Reviews)
By examining the private correspondence of a circle of German
psychoanalyst emigres that included Otto Fenichel, Annie Reich, and
Edith Jacobson, Russell Jacoby recaptures the radical zeal of
classical analysis and the efforts of the Fenichel group to
preserve psychoanalysis as a social and political theory, open to a
broad range of intellectuals regardless of their medical
background. In tracing this effort, he illuminates the repression
by psychoanalysis of its own radical past and its transformation
into a narrow medical technique. This book is of critical interest
to the general reader as well as to psychoanalytic historians,
theorists, and therapists.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(3)
