6/11/2014 0 Comments Primal desire for mother love / protection and Primal fear: mother as the devourer, which can be a realistic fearErich Fromm writes in "The Heart of Man": The incestuous tie to mother very frequently implies not only a longing for mother's love and protection, but also a fear of her. This fear is first of all the result of the very dependency which weakens the person's own sense of strength and independence; it can also be the fear of the very tendencies which we find in the case of deep regression: that of being the suckling or of returning to mother's womb. These very wishes transform the mother into a dangerous cannibal, or an all-destroying monster. It must be added, however, that very frequently such fears are not primarily the result of a person's regressive fantasies, but are caused by the fact that the mother is in reality a cannibalistic, vampire-like, or necrophilic person. If a son or a daughter of such a mother grows up without breaking the ties to her, then he or she cannot escape from suffering intense fears of being eaten up or destroyed by mother. The only course which in such cases can cure the fears that may drive a person to the border of insanity is the capacity to cut the tie with mother. But the fear which is engendered in such a relationship is at the same time the reason why it is so difficult for a person to cut the umbilical cord. Inasmuch as a person remains caught in this dependency, his own independence, freedom, and responsibility are weakened. Fromm points out an important psychological truth: in the unconscious and, yet, well-meaning pursuit for healing love and protection (mature eros), one may “find” a personal “mother” figure or a collective “mother-substitute” who are “in reality … cannibalistic, vampire-like, or necrophilic” [1] What Fromm seems to mean here is that such an imago as understood from the subject's dreams, nightmares, or visional experiences, are not only “regressive fantasy” (à la Freud) but typically in their totality also represent some kernel of a truth about the actuality of the suffer's problem or situation.
Fromm’s important observation of this “objective side” [2] of a personal or institutional neurotic split [3] typically plays out in unconscious manifestation of the power instinct: actions on the part of the “mother” figure or institution to control, or if that is not possible to devour and destroy the “rebellious” one. [4] In my clinical work, this “script” frequently plays out in actuality in the lives of many young adults. Fromm’s advice — to “cut the tie with the mother” — often takes the support of an outside person (a counsel, pastor, rabbi, therapist) who loans the patient their own experiences of courage with an attitude of non-judgmental support until their own efforts to gain greater freedom, independence, and adult responsibility become manifested in their behavior and in confronting the more problematic actualities of life. 1 For more on Fromm’s meaning of this term, see Chapter III “Love of Death and Love of Life” in The Heart of Man. 2 I use this term psychologically to help the reader distinguish it from another categorial term referring to the “personal” or “subjective” aspect of any psychological framework. 3 Yes, sadly, I do mean that there are “neurotic” institutions which are in reality more destructive, immature, and even “toxic” than being constructive, mature, or nurturing. 4 Strong language, but the use of the term “rebellious” characterizes the conscious or unconscious frame shown by the behavior: the actions, decisions, or explicit standpoint of a particular personal mother figure or institution. Copyright 2014, Robert Winer, M.D. (May not be used without permission).
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4/21/2014 0 Comments The unconscious as "inside"Freud and others have shown that there's an "inside" to actions, feelings, motivation, and thinking. No one can seriously doubt that this is so. However, since then being that we have rightly used the term "unconscious" as an adjective put before these nouns, some have inadvertently made a valuable concept into something like a definite fact. To my mind, this well-proven inference – that there is an "inside" – becomes confused with fact, because now there is 1) knowledge about the different ways in which these phenomena of behavior and symptom manifest and also 2) these rhetorical forms have led to the discovery of therapies that may be used to clinical benefit. When we last left Carl Gustav Jung, he proved himself able to perform at the zenith of academia, earning an M.D. and a doctorate in Psychiatry from the University of Zurich and beginning work under Eugen Bleuler at the Burgholzli Clinic in Switzerland. Bleuler was nearly 20 years Carl’s senior, however they had much in common. Eugen, too, was from a small town near Zurich, and also a University of Zurich trained Psychiatrist. Blueler’s intellectual influences clearly left their imprint on Jung. He encouraged Jung’s research into unconscious mental phenomenon using the Word Association Test. In the process, Jung with the help of his psychiatric colleague Franz Riklin unearthed the empirical scientific evidence for the action of unconscious complexes and the verified some of the ideas put forward by Freud’s repression theory. It was also during this time that Jung married Emma Rauschenbach, with whom he would have five children over the next 11 years. In 1906, the 31 year-old Jung sent Freud a copy of his book, “Studies in Word Association”. The two met a year later at Freud’s home in Vienna. The landmark spring 1907 meeting lasting 13 hours remains one of the most important moments in psychological intellectual history. After their meeting, Jung and Freud regularly corresponded and their relationship deepened. Jung experienced significant professional successes in the years that followed. Jung became editor of the Yearbook for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research in 1908. Colleagues in America invited him to lecture there and in 1909, Clark University in Massachusetts honored Jung and Freud with honorary doctorates which they received at a lecture series and ceremony that greatly increased the acceptance of Psychoanalysis in the United States. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) elected Jung to become its permanent “Chairman.” Together, Freud and Jung ushered in a new phase for the field of Psychoanalysis in which it became a global community that included Europe, Latin America, and North America. During the time he worked upon his famous book published in 1912, the “Psychology of the Unconscious,” Jung’s disenchantment with Freud’s insistence upon an exclusively sexual causation for unconscious psychological phenomena grew. By 1913, the relationship fractured beyond the point of repair. Afterwards, Jung found himself grappling to find his own non-Freudian psychological standpoint. He continued his busy psychoanalytical practice, served in the Swiss army as the commander of internment camp for British soldiers, and wrote the beginning articles that led to the publication of his important book, “Psychological Types.” |
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