?Re the article on psychoanalytic psychotherapy to which Mike Palij linked: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/magazine/08Psychoanalysis-t.html?pagewanted=all
Daphne Merkin wrties: >Therapy, as Freud himself made clear, is never about finding a cure for what ails you. Its aim… was always more modest. Freud described it as an effort to convert “hysterical misery” into “common unhappiness,” which suggests a rather minimalist framework against which to judge progress.< It is not generally appreciated that this well known statement of Freud's was made (in Breuer and Freud's *Studies on Hysteria*) in 1895, before he had developed psychoanalysis proper. It is not clear that he retained this view when he wrote the following in the chapter "Analytic Therapy" in *Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis* (1917): "An analytic treatment demands from both the doctor and patient the accomplishment of serious work, which is employed in lifting internal resistances. Through the overcoming of these resistances the patient's mental life is permanently changed, is raised to a level of development and remains protected against possibilities of falling ill." Maybe others will see it differently, but to my mind this is going considerably further than saying that psychoanalytic psychotherapy merely converts hysterical misery into common unhappiness. Famously, Freud expressed a more pessimistic view of the possibilities of psychoanalytic psychotherapy towards the end of his life, most notably in *Analysis Terminable and Interminable* (1937), where he wrote that it is only in a very few cases that "can one speak of an analysis having been definitely ended." Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------- From: Mike Palij <[email protected]> Subject: Therapy Addiction Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 12:20:36 -0400 There is a curious article on the NY Times website with the title "My Life in Therapy" whose author describes her lifelong (since age 10) "involvement" with therapy, typically talk therapy of a Freudian or psychoanalytic nature; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/magazine/08Psychoanalysis-t.html?pagewanted=all Although the author tries to make clear what it is she has been searching for in therapy, it is not at all clear to me that she really had needed all those years of therapy. Perhaps one of her therapist should have simply said "This is life. Get used to it." but that might have been too directive. Then again, perhaps the process of being in therapy had become an addiction and life without it would be too painful. I would probably advise the author to put "Tokyo Story" on the old DVD player and ponder the exquisite sweetness and sadness of life. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4082 or send a blank email to leave-4082-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
