“In analysis … a thing which has not been understood inevitably reappears; like an unlaid ghost, it cannot rest until the mystery has been solved and the evil spell broken”. S. Freud, ‘Analysis of a Phobia in Five-Year-Old Boy’
“It was incorrect to say that the perception which suppressed internally is projected outwards; the truth is rather, as we now see, that what was abolished internally returns from without”. S. Freud, ‘Psychoanalytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia’
0. The Freudian Revolution and Monument
Most would probably agree that at least since the 1970s, psychoanalysis began to be replaced by cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) supplemented by psychiatric medication and a host of alternative strategies (Mindfulness, Brain-spotting, EDMR, DBT, etc.). It is this double-therapy that is the treatment of choice not only for the U.S. but across both developed and developing nations. At least this is the story heralded by all the news.[1]
Without denying the actuality of such stories or examining the effectiveness of such treatments, what goes unheard of is how Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis had already disappeared long before it went out of fashion. In fact, this peculiar in-existence of psychoanalysis is often misunderstood in a way that has provoked much of the…
