Paranoia
Paranoia (French: paranoïa) is a form of psychosis characterised principally by delusions.
Contents
Sigmund Freud
Projection
Prior to the Schreber case, Freud linked the defense mechanism of projection to paranoia.
The paranoiac defends against unacceptable impulses (such as hate and aggression) through projection.
Schreber Case
Freud's experience of treating paranoiacs was limited, and his most extensive work on the subject is not the record of a course of treatment, but the analysis of the written memoirs of a paranoiac man (a judge by the name of Daniel Paul Schreber).[1]
It is in this work that Freud puts forward his theory that paranoia is a defence against homosexuality, arguing that the different forms of paranoiac delusion are based on different ways of negating the phrase "I (a man) love him."
It should be noted that Freud's formulations in the Schreber case were based upon the utilization of the libido theory and an attempt to understand paranoia in terms of psychosexual disturbance.
Oedipal conflict
The psychoanalytic understanding of paranoia shifted to a core oedipal conflict.
The paranoid defends against unconscious homosexual wishes.
In the paranoid male the unconscious proposition: "I, a man, love him, a man," is contradicted in the following ways:
- delusions of persecution: "I do not love him, I hate him. Because of this he hates and persecutes me,"
- erotomania: "I do not love him. I love her, and she loves me,"
- megalomanic disavowal: "I do not love anyone else, but only myself."
Jacques Lacan
Lacan's interest in paranoia predates his interest in psychoanalysis.
It is the subject of his first major work, his doctoral dissertation.[2]
In this work, Lacan discusses a psychotic woman whom he calls 'Aimée', whom he diagnoses as suffering from 'self-punishment paranoia' (paranoïa d'autopunition) - a new clinical structure proposed by Lacan himself.
Lacan returns to the subject of paranoia in his seminar of 1955-6, The Psychoses which he devotes to a sustained commentary on the Schreber case.
Lacan finds Freud's theory about the homosexual roots of paranoia inadequate and proposes instead his own theory of foreclosure the specific mechanism of psychosis.
Like all clinical structures, paranoia reveals in a particularly vivid way certain basic features of the psyche.
The ego has a paranoiac structure[3] because it is the site of a paranoiac alienation.[4]
Paranoiac Knowledge
Knowledge (connaissance) itself is paranoiac.[5]
Analytic Treatment
The process of psychoanalytic treatment induces controlled paranoia into the human subject.[6]
See Also
References
- ↑ Freud, 1911c
- ↑ Lacan, 1932
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.20
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.5
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.2, 3, 17
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.15
- Freud, Sigmund. (1911c [1910]). Psycho-analytic notes on an autobiographical account of a case of paranoia (dementia paranoides). SE, 12: 1-82.
- ——. (1922b [1921]). Neurotic mechanisms in jealousy, paranoia and homosexuality. SE, 18: 221-232.
- ——. (1937d). Constructions in analysis. SE, 23: 255-269.
