Compulsion as Cure: Contrary Voices in Early Freud
Schur, David B. 1949- "Compulsion as Cure: Contrary Voices in Early Freud"
New Literary History - Volume 32, Number 3, Summer 2001, pp. 585-596
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Excerpt
In certain neuroses, and in hypnosis, voices seem to travel through people rather than emanate directly from them. Unusual speech situations of this sort pervade Sigmund Freud's early text called "A Case of Successful Treatment by Hypnotism" (1892-93). 1 Freud's brief paper is divided into two parts: one, the case history of a woman whose lack of self-control is cured by hypnotic suggestion and two, the description of a psychical mechanism that may cause neurotics to act against their manifest intentions. According to Freud, the mechanism, which he calls "counter-will" (Gegenwille), could explain a wide range of compulsive, involuntary behavior. The following analysis of Freud's essay identifies counter-will as a voice whose dynamic range is replicated in both the story and the discourse of the case in question. 2
My use of the term voice here concerns attribution and control. Voice may ordinarily tell us who is speaking. 3 Yet even in the early work under consideration, Freud describes a crisis of attribution, as the notion of a unified subject grows inadequate for explaining neurotic phenomena. The question comes to be, who is in control of the utterance? 4 Symptoms are saying something, insists Freud; so we must ask, who--or what--is really speaking? Strictly speaking, this question also raises problems of enunciation and mood. 5 Linguistically, the subject of an everyday utterance may differ from the authority to which it is attributed. And reported or narrated speech can distance a voice, varying the degree to which it is audible and identifiable. When using suggestions to treat problems of volition, Freud enters a fray of competing wills only to perpetuate a dynamic of uncontrolled utterance. So the treatment repeats the problem, and Freud's compelling voice of healing, which dominates his narrative, is...
0 Comments:
Een reactie posten
<< Home