Centers Of Power Book

It really is a different perspective. Most of the forays into Freud, Freudianism, and pyschoanalysis (or at least the dozens that I have encountered) focus primarily on drilling into the psychology, fleshing out the various theories of the psycho-social stages, applying Freudian insights to the broader society and culture, or a combination of the three. This was uniquely, among other focuses, on the dynamics of analysis.

As Malcolm accurately depicts, psychoanalysis and the surrounding literature were engaged in sectarian, internecine struggles that most patients knew little about. Patients making an appointment inquired little if their analyst was a practicing Ferenczian, Kleinien, or orthodox Freudian. However, these matters make considerable practical significance in the course of analysis and guide how an analyst will interpret and respond (or don't respond) to transferences and countertransferences.

It's interesting. Freud, Fredianism, and psychoanalysis were considered passe for most of my lifetime. It was thought they hit their heyday from the early 1900s to when this book was published in 1977, and then were supposedly eclipsed. (Parenthetically, the same was said of Marx, Marxism, and the critical analysis of capitalism.) As pointed out by Malcolm and her pseudonymous interlocutor "Aaron Green" every generation must rediscover Freud's insights for themselves. The understanding of the drives is one of Freud's key insights. We can try to deny--or culture can try to convince us to deny--our basic biology, our human biologic basis, but it only comes back to hit us again with the "return of the repressed." From my perspective, this is one of the real fundamental things that Freud's insights about the drives unconcealed.

What's equally interesting, is that for these and other reasons, Freud, Freudianism, and psychoanalysis are mounting a comeback. While they were in the wilderness since the mid 80's, there were of course little outposts holding down the fort. The truth of the matter is, probably, that they were heretofore really the avant-garde (even during their heyday) but never mainstream; imagine a 1920s or 1970s working class guy in Kansas or Oklahoma espousing Freudian insights - hardly. But now strikingly, they are becoming de rigueur on campuses again. This is a positive development. As Freudianism and psychanalysis are coming out of the wilderness, I am hoping that the new generation of practitioners and theorists were able to put to bed the old doctrinal issues. The pessimist in me knows this will not be the case.