Freud and Freudism

During the past month two new translations of Sigmund Freud made their appearance on U. S. bookstalls.

BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE-- Sigmund Freud--Boni & Liveright ($1.50).

GROUP PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE EGO--Sigmund Freud-- Boni & Liveright ($2.00).

In the first of these, a translation of Ienseits des Lustprinzips, the great apostle of psychoanalysis* explores a new realm in psychology. He is comparatively unconcerned with sexual problems; the subject matter may be summed up in the following syllogism:

The ultimate goal of all organic striving is its beginning;

All organic matter progresses in a cycle, absorbing external factors on its way without fundamental deviation from its course;

Therefore, "the goal of all life is death," or, "the inanimate was there before the animate."

Philosophically, it would seem that Montaigne were again speaking to the world in the modern language of psychology.

The second book, a translation of Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse, discusses the relations of the individual (ego) to the group or crowd; shows how the ego is absorbed by a mass ego, which then acts independently and often in violent opposition to the individual.

The chapter on Being in Love and Hypnosis, is a masterly exposition of the transfer of the ego to the object or person loved (distinguished from purely sensual love or, in psychoanalytical parlance, the libido). This transfer is due to mutual influences; absence of personal criticism; supreme evaluation of characteristics, usually to the detriment of outside persons; quasi-repression of the sexual passions. Two people in love, therefore, have absorbed each other's ego.. The author then parallels love and hypnosis or, in other words, he calls hypnosis love minus the sexual appetite.

The science of psychoanalysis, as Freud explains it, is so logical in appearance that the gravest error may be made in accepting its conclusions as great and devastating truths. One and one, the world is convinced, make two; but add one bad man to one good woman and the critics will argue forever on the sum. The fact is that psychoanalysis is a scientific method which, before it can be more generally accepted, will have to wait until much more water has flowed under London Bridge.

Career. Sigmund Freud was born of Jewish parents, at Freiburg, in Moravia, 68 years ago. At the Sperl Gymnasium in Vienna he was always the head of his class. His preliminary education over, he vacillated for some time between a career in law and one in natural science, decided much against his will to become a medical student and, after a journey to England, entered the University of Vienna, where he did brilliantly.

After leaving the university, he worked for a time in a children's clinic, then went to Paris and studied under Dr. Charcot, the famed neurologist. It was here, to use a paradox, that he became conscious of the unconscious mind and proceeded to make it the sole subject of his studies.

Not long after his return to Vienna, he married a Hamburg girl and had by her six children, three boys and three girls. Freud is said to "owe some of his success to his wife," but in what way is not known.

Character. Fritz Wittels, a student of Freud, writes :* "For a long time the Freuds lived in Kaiser Josef Strasse. . . . Since 1848, Joseph II has been regarded by the liberal bourgeoisie as the finest flower of the Hapsburg dynasty; as an exemplar of wisdom, benevolence, progress, and devotion to duty. . . .

"Long residence, during the impressionable years of boyhood, in a street whose name carries such associations, cannot fail to have an influence! Freud has become an emperor, one around whom legends begin to accrete, who holds enlightened but absolute sway in his realm and is animated by a rigid sense of duty. He has become a despot who will not tolerate the slightest deviation from his doctrine; holds councils behind closed doors; and tries to ensure, by a sort of pragmatic sanction, that the body of psychoanalytical teaching shall remain an indivisible whole."

Freud once referred to himself as "the only rogue in a company of immaculate rascals."

Pupils. Among Freud's pupils are such men as Adler, Jung, Stekel. It is important to note that Freud quarreled with each. Perhaps the most interesting is Carl Gustave Jung, a Swiss, who became a sort of official expounder of all Freud's ideas; Freud's devotion to him was said to be "altogether exceptional." This state of affairs was not to last long "for Jung has a proud stomach" and he parted company with Freud, to become, like his master, a luminary of the psychoanalytical world.

Doctrine. It is difficult to analyse Freud's doctrine of psychoanalysis. Is it a science or a philosophy? As there can be no science with a philosophy, it is both. Freud says that injuries are caused to the body by the mind (neurosis) ; not the conscious mind, for no one is so foolish, but by the unconscious mind. The psychoanalyst's job is, therefore, to bring into the conscious mind those factors which are disturbing the unconscious mind and so cause them to disappear.

The study of the problems of the unconscious mind led Freud to dream interpretation, which was to become the principal method of phychoanalysis. It was the quickest route of reaching a patient's unconscious mind. Freud, in his Interpretation of Dreams, goes deeply into the whole subject and, as he almost always uses his own dreams as examples, the book is also an autobiography. In theory, psychoanalysis is the philosophy of the unconscious mind; in practice it is a means by which mental disorders can be cured.

Writings. Freud is an indefatigable-worker. Up at 8 a.m. he receives patients until 7 p.m. and from eight or nine o'clock in the evening until one in the morning he does his literary work. His chief books which have been translated into English are:

The Interpretation of Dreams.

On Dreams.

Psychopathology of Everyday Life.

Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious.

Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex.

Delusion and Dream.

Leonardo da Vinci, a Psychosexual Study of Infantile Reminiscence.

Totem and Taboo.

Psychoanalysis and the War.

Neurosis.

One of the most important works, which has not yet been entirely translated, is Sammlung Kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehrs, five volumes.

*Psychoanalysis, according to the psychoanalyst, Ernest Jones, means "the study of unconscious mentation."

*SIGMUND FREUD -- Fritz Wittels --Dodd,Mead ($3.50)