Metapsychologica - rivista di psicanalisi freudiana

Metapsicologia dell’interpretazione

2023-06-05T07:57:40+00:00

This paper aims to show the deep connection between metapsychology and the technique of interpretation. Besides the subdivision between construction and interpretation, the motivations behind the use of the rule of free association will be understood. Evidence will also be provided of the fact that - contrary to the claims of many contemporary psychoanalysts - the Freudian interpretation procedure is a very sophisticated device, whose rules depend neither on a general sacralisation of the setting nor on intentions to safeguard the patient’s well-being. Indeed, it will be shown that the interpretation technique becomes a perfectly sterile tool if not subordinated to pretensions of objectivity and precise references to the psychic dynamics that metapsychological theory describes.

Eros e pulsione di morte: una libido, due regimi

2023-06-05T07:58:08+00:00

In the years between 1920 and 1924 Freud is engaged in a significant improvement of metapsychology, conceived as a physics of the subject. Freud is dealing with a redefinition of the economic principles that govern psychic dynamics and with an extension of drive theory; he also proposes a new theory on the problem of pleasure, the development of which also has important consequences at an ethical level. These new theoretical achievements shed new light on the purposes of treatment, which are based on acknowledgment and not on therapy. The question of castration as an outlet of analysis is also rearticulated.

Dualismo pulsionale e fenomeni biologici: un parallelismo?

2023-06-05T07:58:30+00:00

This paper will take into consideration the dual drive theory of the second Freudian topic, characterized by Eros and Thanatos, and will build an analogy between anabolic and catabolic tendencies, highlighting how both are necessary for the existence of a biological balance inside the organism and how they act simultaneously generating something similar to «compulsive kneading», as described by Freud, and how the dismantling or prevailing of one process over the other, might provoke the disease, altering the ecological balance of the organism.

Metapsicologia della nevrosi ossessiva: meccanismi eziologici e patologici partendo dal caso dell’uomo dei topi

2023-06-05T07:59:03+00:00

The importance of metapsychological theory is emphasized both for the purpose of an etiological understanding of psychoneurosis and for an articulated explanation of character and symptomatic manifestations. Oriented mainly on the theoretical problems prompted by obsessive neurosis, an attempt will be made to highlight those invariants that are, in some cases, typical of the aforementioned neurosis, in others, generally present in every psychoneurotic affection. The case of «obsession neurosis» treated in 1907 and 1908 by Sigmund Freud in a case known as Rat Man will be the subject of our theoretical reflections. This will focus particularly on examining the most significant features of the disposition to obsessive neurosis; on the weight of fixation in psychosexual development; on what constitutes the relationship between hate and love in neurotic affections; on how ambivalence is determined in object relations; on the effects of the removal of hate; on the influences of drive events in the formation of character traits; on what constitutes the relationship between symptom and removal and on what kind of relationship exists between destruction and knowledge.

Repliche a una pretesa critica di Schatzman a Freud sul caso clinico del presidente Schreber. Contributi eziologici precipui della psicanalisi sulla paranoia (Parte prima)

2023-06-05T07:59:28+00:00

This article, as pars destruens, constitutes the first of two parts of a study aimed towards a rereading of Freud’s Psycho-analytic notes (Psychoanalytische Bemerkungen, 1910) on the clinical case of President Schreber, described in the latter’s auto-biographical book entitled Memoirs of my nervous illness (Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken, 1903). Taking a cue from Morton Schatzman’s essay entitled Soul Murder: Persecution in the Family (1973) – which devotes ample space to the examination of the psycho-pathogenic potential of certain family contexts and the educational methods that are practiced therein while recognizing the undoubted value of the contribution of the American psychiatrist. In particular the attention he pays both to the absurd «educational» precepts contained in the writings of Schreber’s father, and for the surprising similarities and correspondences existing between many of those precepts and the delusional ideas from which his son later suffered. It nevertheless aims to reply to Schatzman and, more specifically, to the criticism that the latter moves towards Freud, who, in his opinion would not have recognized the causal role of paternal persecutory behavior in the genesis of the son’s paranoid imagery. Seeing in Schatzman’s speech an ambiguity in the use of the concept of cause itself, this article also focuses on some other weak points which include firstly, the absence of an etiological reference framework suitable to support the alleged causal explanations and secondly, an incomplete consideration of the pathogenic effect of the repression of a possible homosexual disposition in the child. (An explanation of the strengths of Freud’s analysis on the other hand will be the subject of the second part, which has the function of pars construens).

Lettera a Karl Abraham del 19.01.1908

2023-05-29T08:52:10+00:00

Understanding metapsychology with the computer paradigm

2023-05-29T08:51:43+00:00

In this article we want to assail the task of providing an answer to the much-disputed question whether psychoanalysis is, as Freud claimed, a natural science or not. We want to argue in favour of Freud’s view, but at the same time break out of the polarization that emerged around the assumption that the only way to develop a natural scientific approach to the human mind is the neuroscientific approach. We will do so by explaining the basis of our understanding of metapsychology: the computer paradigm and why it is not only a valid natural scientific paradigm but also in line with Freud’s thinking. Based on this paradigm we shall provide an explanation of how we interpret the concept of the mental apparatus and why it is that metapsychology is the only psychological theory that allows for experimental testing and refinement. We will illustrate our understanding of metapsychology by providing an interpretation of Freud’s Project for a Scientific Psychology that tries to overcome the usual polarization in the discussions of this text. The core thesis of this interpretation is that the Project cannot be seen as a metapsychological text.

Some considerations on the formal structure of freudian metapsychology

2023-05-29T09:00:05+00:00

We will present a few brief general considerations about metapsychology, with particular reference to the arguments put forward in Volker Hartmann Cardelle and Dietmar Dietrich's essay in this issue of the journal. In particular we demonstrate that, in opposition to the claims of many psychoanalysts and experts, the differences between the metapsychology model and the model of the Project are substantial. These depend on the radical change in Freud's approach to the problem of the mind. We show that a proper neurobiological reduction of metapsychology is impossible. We also show that any parallelism between computer science and metapsychology becomes inadmissible if we consider the mind only in terms of its relationship with an organic substrate. It will also be shown how, despite the fact that the link between physics and metapsychology is generally regarded as a mere analogy, the metapsychological model is actually a physical model. It is specifically physics and not for example computer science, which can provide an important aid to a better understanding and development of metapsychology. Finally, although any possible formalization of metapsychology is undoubtedly useful and desirable, we maintain that such formalism must again be translatable into natural language given that the unique character of psychology is that it contains both the instrument for and the object of investigation.

Perché associarsi alla Scuola di Psicanalisi Freudiana

2023-05-29T09:02:03+00:00