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New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

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In 1932 the financial [[situation ]] of the [[world]], shaken by the aftermath of World War I and the [[economic ]] crisis that had struck the [[United States]], threatened the [[existence ]] of the Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag (International [[Psychoanalytical ]] Publishers). Measures were taken, including an appeal to [[psychoanalytic ]] societies and the creation of an international management committee, at the Twelfth International Psychoanalytic Congress held in Wiesbaden in September 1932.Beginning in the spring of that year, however, [[Freud ]] was occupied with [[writing ]] a follow-up to the volume that, of all his works, remains the most popular worldwide: his <i>Introductory Lectures on [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]]</i> (1916-17 [1915-17]). This follow-up was the <i>New Introductory Lectures on [[Psychoanalysis]],</i> completed at the end of August and released on December 6, 1932, despite the 1933 copyright date.In his preface, Freud explained that [[illness ]] prevented him from teaching courses as he had done in 1915, but that he had used "an artifice of the [[imagination]]" (p. 5) to write these lectures, which, he said, were only "continuations and supplements" (p. 5) of the earlier lectures—hence their numbering. In [[reality]], these [[texts ]] represented a major [[synthesis ]] and updating of theories that had been considerably modified since 1923. They were no longer intended for a neophyte [[public]], but for informed readers who were to find in [[them ]] [[theoretical ]] and [[practical ]] advice and refinements.The twenty-ninth lecture is titled "Revision of the [[Theory ]] of [[Dreams]]." It contains few new elements, except for the assertion that not all dreams can be [[interpreted]], and the attenuation of the former [[understanding ]] of dreams as "[[wish]]-fulfillment" by taking into account [[repetition ]] in [[traumatic ]] [[neuroses ]] or the reproduction of painful [[childhood ]] events.The thirtieth lecture, "Dreams and Occultism," takes on a universally contested [[subject]]. Although Freud set forth all the arguments that [[cause ]] the [[scientific ]] [[mind ]] to [[doubt ]] the existence of telepathic transmission, he also gave some examples of observations that had perplexed him, including that of Vorsicht/Forsyth, and he wrote, "I must encourage you to have kindlier [[thoughts ]] on the [[objective ]] possibility of [[thought]]-[[transference ]] and at the same [[time ]] of [[telepathy ]] as well" (p. 54).The thirty-first lecture, "Dissection of the [[Psychical ]] [[Personality]]," emphasizes [[subjects ]] that had characterized theoretical research in psychoanalysis since the establishing of the second [[topography ]] ([[structural ]] theory): stress upon the ego, the importance of the superego, the abandonment of the [[agency ]] of the [[unconscious ]] in favor of recognizing an "unconscious" [[character ]] in [[other ]] sectors of the personality, and its replacement by the agency of the id. The lecture concludes with the well-known propositions concerning "the therapeutic efforts of psychoanalysis. . . . Its [[intention ]] is, indeed, to strengthen the ego, to make it more independent of the [[super-ego]], to widen its field of [[perception ]] and enlarge its organization, so that it can appropriate fresh portions of the id. Where id was, there ego shall be [<i>Wo Es war, soll Ich Werden</i>]. It is a [[work ]] of [[culture]], not unlike the draining of the Zuider Zee" (p. 80).The thirty-second lecture, "[[Anxiety ]] and [[Instinctual ]] [[Life]]," describes the new theory already put forth in "Inhibitions, [[Symptoms ]] and Anxiety" (1926), which holds that [[repression ]] is not what creates anxiety; rather, anxiety, residing in the ego alone, is what creates repression. Moreover, "the instinctual situation which is feared goes back ultimately to an [[external ]] situation of [[danger]]" (p. 89): the danger of the [[state ]] of powerless to [[help ]] oneself (<i>[[Hilflosigkeit]]</i>) in the earliest period of life, the danger of [[castration ]] in the [[phallic ]] [[stage]], anxiety in the face of the superego during the [[latency ]] period. The lecture ends with a presentation of the "theory of the [[instincts]]" which "is so to say our mythology" (p. 95). The [[return ]] to a description of the instincts and their vicissitudes leads, above all, to a new picture of the opposition and blending of the [[sexual ]] instincts, [[Eros]], and the [[aggressive ]] instincts, "the expression of a '[[death ]] [[instinct]]' which cannot fail to be [[present ]] in every vital [[process]]" (p. 107).The thirty-[[third ]] lecture, "Femininity," has caused a [[good ]] deal of controversy. The "riddle of femininity" (p. 116) is not explained, and rather than trying to describe "what a [[woman ]] is" (p. 116) Freud tried to [[understand ]] "how she comes into [[being]]" (p. 116). He emphasized the [[girl]]'s [[preoedipal ]] attachment to her [[mother ]] and the frequency of its transformation into [[hate ]] at the time of the organization of "[[penis ]] [[envy]]." Henceforth, he would view this early bond of [[love ]] and the [[needs ]] that accompany it as the source of [[fantasies ]] of [[seduction]]. However, faced with "the riddle of femininity," he concluded: "If you [[want ]] to [[know ]] more [[about ]] femininity, enquire from your own experiences of life, or turn to the poets, or wait until [[science ]] can give you deeper and more coherent information" (p. 135).The thirty-fourth lecture, titled "Explanations, Applications and Orientations," returns to the points of dissent that had marked the [[history ]] of psychoanalysis and comments on them. In the section on applications there is a plea in favor of teaching—with Freud commenting, "I am glad that I am at least able to say that my daughter, [[Anna Freud]], has made this study her life-work" (p. 147)—and thus in favor of the use of [[analytic ]] [[therapy ]] for [[children]]. "[E]ducation must find its way between the Scylla of non-interference and the Charybdis of [[frustration]]" (p. 149), Freud reminded readers, before giving his concluding considerations on psychoanalysis as therapy: "You are perhaps aware that I have never been a therapeutic enthusiast" (p. 151), but nevertheless, "[c]ompared with the other psychotherapeutic procedures psycho-analysis is beyond any doubt the most powerful" (p. 153). However, in cases such as [[psychoses ]] where a constitutional factor comes into play, the weight of the [[family ]] [[environment ]] for children, and the rigidity of some [[adults ]] shows the limits of possible [[action]]. Further, the analytic work requires a long period of [[treatment]], despite attempts that had been made (Otto Rank) to shorten cures.The final lecture, "On a [[Weltanschauung]]," was actually written first, and it refuses psychoanalysis the pretension of offering a new world view. Its scope is limited to the scientific, and in this it differs from [[religion ]] and [[philosophy]], as well as from [[political ]] [[ideologies ]] such as bolshevism.Freud concluded with a paean to science, to which psychoanalysis must link itself. "A Weltanschauung erected upon science has, apart from its emphasis on the [[real ]] external world, mainly [[negative ]] traits, such as submission to the [[truth ]] and [[rejection ]] of illusions. Any of our fellow-men who is dissatisfied with this state of things, who calls for more than this for his momentary consolation, may look for it where he can find it" (p. 182).
==References==
<references/>
# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1933a [1932]). Neue folge der vorlesungen sur einfürhung in die psychoanalyse. Leipzig, [[Vienna]], and Zurich: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag; New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. SE, 22: 1-182.
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