1 - Varieties of Psychoanalytic Experience

Summary

Janet Malcolm famously described psychoanalysis as “the impossible profession.” Writing about “The Varieties of Psychoanalytic Experience” is an equally impossible task. Although the discipline of psychoanalysis was founded by Freud, it has altered dramatically since. I have chosen to focus on the following key issues and concepts: transference, countertransference, and intersubjectivity; the shift from oedipal to preoedipal concerns; the transformations wrought by feminism, social and political studies, and continental theory. These converge on questions of psychoanalysis in relation to history and culture, especially in regard to theories of trauma and mourning. In this sense, psychoanalysis (like literature and literary studies) demonstrates its flexibility, variability, and relevance to contemporary life. The very instability of Freud’s narrative method, as demonstrated in his Dora case history, insures its significance and continuity over time.