202: Freud IV: Structural Model and Character

Course Description

Instructors

Eric Weitzner, M.D.
Jonathan Koblenzer, M.D.

November 29, 2023 – February 21, 2024
Wednesdays, 8:35 – 10:00 pm

No class: 12/20, 12/27, 2/7

Co-requisites

Candidates must have at least one case in supervised psychoanalysis to be eligible to take second year courses.

Course Description

This course will describe the structural model and explain why Freud felt he needed to replace the topographic theory. This theoretical shift led to a major evolution in the technique of psychoanalysis, especially after the development of the concept of signal anxiety in 1926. We will explore how this theoretical change was necessary because of certain theoretical problems associated with the topographic theory as well as technical advances in Freud’s work which preceded his theoretical advance. The two major papers we will study are “The Ego and the Id” and “Inhibition, Symptoms and Anxiety.” We will also explore some of Freud’s late papers, including his final ideas about infantile and female sexuality, his explication of the defensive operations of negation and splitting, and his last technical work “Analysis, Terminable and Interminable.”

Educational Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
1) describe how Freud’s view of the relationship between anxiety and defense changed when he developed the structural theory, and to list the four major danger situations that mobilize defense according to this theory.

2) discuss Freud’s final views on the limitations of analytic treatment; how they were influenced by his understanding of instinct, fixation to trauma, resistance, and transference; and how they were related to his concepts of “archaic heritage,” “alteration of the ego,” and psychic “bedrock.”

Evaluation Method

Each student’s participation in class discussion and his or her demonstration of understanding of the course objectives and reading material is assessed in a written evaluation by the instructor(s).

Schedule of Classes & Course Readings

These articles are protected under relevant copyright regulations. They are available in the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Electronic Reserve for your convenience, and for your personal use.

READINGS ARE CONFIRMED.

CLASS 1: November 29, 2023

Freud begins “The Ego and the Id” by redefining the term “ego” and explaining the genesis of neurosis in a new way. Be prepared to discuss the nature of the change in meaning of the term “ego” and his new conception of the generation of neurosis. In Chapter Two, what is his explanation for how we can make something that is unconscious conscious? In Chapter III, Freud describes the use of identification as a defense and first proposes that the superego forms as a result of the resolution of the Oedipus Complex. What is his model for how this occurs? Can you identify any problems with this theory?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1923) The Ego and the Id, Chapters I -III. SE 19:12-39; Appendix A 60-62.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Brenner, C. (1957) The nature and development of the concept of repression in Freud’s writings. Psychoanal. Study Child, 12:19-46.

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Freud, S. (1921) Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Ch. VII Identification. SE XVIII, pp105-110.

Freud, S. (1930) Civilization and its Discontents, SE 21:66-68.

Loewald (1951) The Ego and Reality. In Papers on Psychoanalysis. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1980, pp. 3-20.

Paul, R.A. (2010). Incest Avoidance: Oedipal and Preoedipal, Natural and Cultural. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 58(6):1087-1112.

CLASS 2: December 6, 2023

Chapter IV attempts an integration of the dual instinct theory with Freud’s newly developed conception of the ego. Appendix B discusses the complex development of Freud’s attempt to locate the source of libido within the structural model. Are the energic concepts described here clinically useful or theoretically tenable? In Chapter Five, how does Freud define the negative therapeutic reaction? How does he explain it and what does he suggest is the best technical approach for dealing with it? Later in the chapter Freud uses the concept of instinctual defusion to explain the genesis of the dictatorial superego. What does he mean by this? The supplemental reading concerns the question of whether the topographic model remains useful despite the limitations that led Freud to abandon it.

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1923) The Ego and the Id, Chapters IV-V, SE 19:40-59; Appendix B SE 19;63-66.

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Freud, S. (1933) New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. SE 22: 58-65, 109-111.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Brenner, C. (1982). The Concept of the Superego, a Reformulation. Psychoanal. Q., 51:501-525.

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Pollens, David. Libido. From Auchincloss and Samberg (2012) Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts. pp137-139.

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Loewald, H. (1960) On the Therapeutic Action of Psycho-Analysis. Int. J. Psychoanal. V, section II, pp21-23.

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Smith, D. (1988). The Ego (And its Superego) Reconsidered., Int. J. Psychoanal., 69:401-7.

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Arlow, J. (1975). The Structural Hypothesis-Theoretical Considerations. Psychoanal. Q., 44:509-525.

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CLASS 3: December 13, 2023

Having changed his model of the mind, Freud reconsidered his ideas about infantile sexuality. His paper on female sexuality eventually inspired a rigorous debate about differences in male and female sexuality.

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1924) The dissolution of the Oedipus complex. SE 19: 171-180.

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Freud, S. (1925) Some psychical consequences of the anatomical distinction between the sexes. SE 19:241-258

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Freud, S. (1931) Female Sexuality. SE 221: 221-244.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Aboody, A. Z. (2022). Feminine Sexuality and the Work of the Negative. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 82:112-143.

Schafer, R. (1974). Problems in Freud’s Psychology of Women. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 22:459-485.

CLASS 4: January 3, 2024

Freud’s 1926 book led to a monumental shift in clinical technique. What is the ultimate danger-situation underlying all the others? How and why did Freud change his understanding of the nature of anxiety? What are the technical implications of this change? Please note that Addenda A is an important part of the reading.

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1926). Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, Editor’s introduction, Chapters I-IV, Addenda A, SE 20:77-110, 157-164.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

House, J. (2017). The Ongoing Rediscovery of Après-Coup as a Central Freudian Concept. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 65(5):773-798.

Makari, G. (2008). Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis. New York: Harper Collins pp. 352-355.

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Shill, M. (2004). Signal Anxiety, Defense, and the Pleasure Principle. Psychoanal. Psychol., 21:116-133.

CLASS 5: January 10, 2024

In these chapters Freud describes the mechanisms of defense seen in obsessional neurosis and hysteria and concludes that anxiety is a reaction to a situation of danger as opposed to an overflow of libido that has returned from repression. Does he then entirely reject the “transformed libido” theory of anxiety? How are his descriptions of defenses used in obsessional neurosis such as undoing, isolation, and regression clinically useful?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1926) Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, Chapters V-VII, Addenda B, SE 20:111-131, 164-168.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Jacobson, J. G. (1994). Signal Affects and our Psychoanalytic Confusion of Tongues. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 42:15-42.

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CLASS 6: January 17, 2024

Here, Freud defines the four danger situations. Examine your clinical experience for evidence of anxiety about these danger situations. What is the ultimate catastrophe that underlies all of the danger situations in Freud’s model? Do you think that Freud’s list of danger situations is complete? Freud completes his monograph by stating that the “fixating factor” in the repression of instinctual impulses that the ego sees as dangerous is the “unconscious id’s compulsion to repeat,” and expanding his conception of defense to include the avoidance of pain and mourning. How does Freud distinguish between traumatic and danger situations?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1926) Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, Chapters VIII-X, Addenda C, Appendix A, SE 20:132-156, 169-174.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Darwin, Charles. (1872) The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, Chapter 1

Solms, M. (2021). Revision of Drive Theory. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 69:1033-1091.

CLASS 7: January 24, 2024

In these papers, Freud shifts his focus from the ego’s defenses against conflictual instinctual derivatives to its efforts to avoid aspects of reality. What is the prototypical situation in which negation arises? Freud then uses the defense of negation to explain fetishism and eventually to propose that a split can occur in the ego under certain conditions? What are these conditions?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1925). Negation. SE 19:235-239.

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Freud, S. (1927). Fetishism. SE 21:152-157.

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Freud, S. (1938). The Psychical Apparatus and the External World, Ch VIII of An Outline of Psychoanalysis. SE 23:195-204.

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Freud, S. (1938). Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defense. SE 23:275-278.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Arlow, J. (1980). Object Concept and Object Choice. Psychoanal. Q., 49:114-121.

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Boesky, D. (1988). Comments on the Structural Theory of Teachnique. Int. J. Psychoanal., 69:303-316.

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Ross, J. M. (2003). Preconscious Defense Analysis, Memory, and Structural Change. Int. J. Psychoanal. 84:59-76.

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CLASS 8: January 31, 2024

In the last of Freud’s technical papers, he addresses a wide range of topics of essential importance, including suitability, the goals of analysis, and the negative therapeutic reaction. What do you think about his suggestion that the analyst should alternate between id and ego analysis?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1937) Analysis Terminable and Interminable, Editor’s Note; Chapters I-III. SE 23: 211-230.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Blum, H. (1987). Analysis Terminable and Interminable: A Half Century Retrospective. Int. J. Psychoanal, 68: 37-47.

Olinick, S. (1970). Negative Therapeutic Reaction. JAPA, 18:655-672.

CLASS 9: February 14, 2024

In the final sections of this paper, Freud introduces the notion of psychological bedrock in which each sex faces a fundamental issue that cannot be analyzed. What do you think of these notions? If you disagree with the particular ways that Freud conceptualized bedrock, do you think there are alternative ways to define it?

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1937). Analysis Terminable and Interminable, IV-VIII. SE 23: 230-253.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Lear, J. (1996). The Introduction of Eros: Reflections on the Work of Hans Loewald. JAPA, 44:673-698.

Sandler, J. (ed) (1987). On Freud’s Analysis Terminable and Interminable. Int. Psych. Assoc. Educational Monograph No. 1.

CLASS 10: February 21, 2024

In one of his last papers, Freud described the process of what we would now term “reconstruction,” in which the analyst observes the patterns of defense played out in the analysis and makes inferences about the patient’s early experiences that cannot be consciously remembered. One might view Freud’s development of this idea as an outgrowth of his shift in emphasis to defense and character. The clinical value of reconstruction is controversial today. Some contemporary analysts, like Fonagy, have focused entirely on the patient’s experience in the room with the analyst and regard the recovery of memories and reconstruction as useless, while others, like Blum, utilize transference (and often countertransference) analysis to clarify central aspects of the patient’s development while further elucidating the understanding of the transference and related unconscious fantasies.

REQUIRED READINGS

Freud, S. (1937). Constructions in Analysis, SE 23: 257-269.

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SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

Blum, H.P. (2005). Psychoanalytic Reconstruction and Reintegration. Psychoanal. St. Child, 60:295-311.

Gorman, J.M. Roose, S.P. (2011). The Neurobiology of Fear Memory Reconsolidation and Psychoanalytic Theory. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 59(6):1201-1219.

Gottlieb, R.M. (2017). Reconstruction in a Two-Person World May Be More about the Present than the Past: Freud and the Wolf Man, an Illustration. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 65(2):305-316.