Let every man in mankind’s
frailty

Consider his
last day; and let none

Presume on his good fortune
until he find

Life, at his death, a memory
without pain. (Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex)

Despite, or perhaps thanks to, continued controversy, and, over
the past two decades, dismissal, of Freud’s psychoanalytic thought, the
long-dead thinker remains a powerful source of fascination. While psychiatry
departments seem to have simply abandoned Freud, others, inspired by our
contemporary preference for cheap and easy, trash Freud’s legacy in favor of
Prozac and Viagra. Still others, despite Freud’s unyielding conviction that
philosophy can learn from psychoanalysis and not the other way around, philosophize
Freud, and while they’re at it, augment and alter his theories. Then there are
those who demand more political interpretations of psychoanalytic theory and
see psychoanalysis as a foundation of democracy.  In stressing psychoanalysis
as having extensive social and cultural dimensions, Paul Roazen, a political
theorist himself, might be seen as a representative of the latter group. Yet
the thoughtful and carefully balanced inclusion of this argument makes On
the Freud Watch: Public Memoirs a gem in the midst of the vehement
arguments and pleas on the various Freud Front Lines. For Roazen, pluralism is
clearly something more than ‘verbal adherence’ (p. 201.) And maintaining the
integrity of the book’s fabric of diversity is, as the opening quote suggests, Roazen’s
reminder that at the core of Freud’s psychoanalysis lies the ancient question
as to how to live. Roazen suggests that in answering that question, Freud
departed from the presupposition that tragedy is an inevitable part of human
experience and that human nature is frail. Following Freud, Roazen suggests
that the best we can do is to learn to live with this frailty, as well as with
pain and distress. Neurosis and inner conflicts, Roazen reminds us, are part
and parcel of the kinds of beings we are. We cannot, nor should we, be cured
from our condition. The notion of progress then, Roazen suggests, is, while
promoted as the new faith, one of our most dangerous delusions- progress, if
possible at all, can only be made in our rather fragile ability to live with
our foibles and woes.

On the Freud Watch does not get of to a
good start, however. Early on, Roazen confesses that having been heavily
criticized by Kurt E. Eissler as well as by Anna Freud (who called him ‘a
menace’) was traumatic for him. Unfortunately, this trauma inundates the first
few chapters, which are permeated with self-vindicating discourse and
consequently make for a rather tedious read.  Yet, the latter part of the book
makes up generously for these somewhat wearing early chapters. These chapters
are scholarly treasures of poised equilibrium. Vigilant of naiveté and
continually reminding the reader of the complexities, inconsistencies and
ambiguities of human affairs, Roazen intersperses references to Freud’s
connections with the Hitler regime and enthusiasm for Mussolini with beautiful
and moving excerpts of Freud’s writing. He juxtaposes Freud’s moral ethics with
his criticism of the United
States
and psychoanalysis’ initial problematic approach to race with its bold and
profound human insights. He reminds us that we are too often and too easily
misled by our traditional faith in progress and warns against chauvinistic
hindsight when it comes to the study of the past. For Roazen, the past is a
central concern- for individual lives, and for our
social institutions as well.

Real
gems in On the Freud Watch are Chapter 11, Canada:
Political Psychology, and Chapter 6; Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield
and Chapter 7, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. In
these latter two chapters, Roazen, continually supporting his ideas and
interpretations with psychoanalytic thought, weaves together discerning
interpretations of the life and writings of Dickens and O’Neill with insightful
renderings of their main characters, thoughts on early trauma, child
psychoanalysis and Freud’s thoughts and comments on arts and artists.  These
chapters are marvelous collages of theoretical interpretations, philosophy,
fragments of letters, excerpts of stories, quotes of poems and bits and pieces
of conversations.

Another must-read is
Chapter 13, called Winners and Losers in the History of Psychoanalysis. This
discussion of the history of psychoanalysis follows the, what Roazen calls,
"teeter-totter" framework of history. On this teeter-totter of the
history of psychoanalysis, as Roazen describes it, the elevation of some is
accompanied by the fall of others. One of the ‘winners,’ and sitting on the
elevated part of the teeter-totter, is Emil Kraepelin. Roazen connects the
revival of Kraeplin’s biological psychiatry (to the extent that there is a
whole movement called the neo-Kraepelins striving to expand this thoroughly
dated orientation) with the ‘excessive rationalism’ of our contemporary
fascination with diagnostics, classification and heredity. Furthermore, he
places the Kraepelin renaissance €“ whose representatives appear to be quite
critical of psychoanalysis– within the very same historical pragmatism in
which American receptivity toward Freud was once grounded. Yet what makes this
chapter particularly penetrating is the considerable time and attention Roazen
spent on those on the floored part of the teeter-totter. Roazen explains early
on that he is not interested in ‘historical cheer-leading,’
(p.21) and he lives up to that assertion. Instead, he forcefully shapes
his self-proclaimed role as ‘historical witness’ (p. 48) in bearing witness not
only to the winners in the history of psychoanalysis, but also to
long-forgotten, but important and original voices such as those of Mikhail Bakunin,
Franz Alexander, Sandor Rado and Abram Kardiner.

Roazen
brings not only Freud’s skepticism and irony back into clinical thought, but
also revives many voices which were formative in the history of psychoanalysis
but which have nonetheless been left and forgotten on the floored part of the
teeter-totter of the history of psychoanalysis. Roazen includes these voices,
as well as a wide variety of ordinary and extraordinary, provocative and
controversial documents. Notwithstanding the somewhat rough start, On the
Freud Watch: Public Memoirs is not only a powerful critique of contemporary
insurance-driven, drug-dispensing psychiatric practices, but also an
extraordinary account of the history of psychoanalysis.  

©
2005 Gerda Wever-Rabehl

Gerda
Wever-Rabehl holds a Ph.D from Simon Fraser University, and has published extensively in the
areas of social science, philosophy and philosophy of  education.

Categories: Psychoanalysis, Philosophical