Category Archives: Conferences and Lectures

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS: A Doctor’s Warning – 1924

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in 1920s, Australian History, Conferences and Lectures, historical source material, Lay analysis, Medical circles, NSW, Press, Public debate, Sydney

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By the early 1920s public interest in psychoanalysis in Australia was broad, and certainly not restricted to medical circles. The president of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association, Dr L.S. Latham used his retiring speech to warn that psychoanalysis should not be utilised indiscriminately. At the very least, he argued,  psychoanalysis should be practised ‘under skilled medical direction’. It is clear that there was sufficient interest for the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald  to publish Latham’s speech in the edition of 1 January 1924. Here is the text:

“The widespread and general interest in psycho-analysis is to be viewed with some concern. I am anxious not to indulge in cheap criticism, but it may be pointed out (what should be clear to anyone who has practised with any concentration psycho- logical method of introspection) that there are many pitfalls to be avoided in a logical tracing out of psychological associations. Follow a train of thought in your own mind and the associations are frequently most difficult to connect. The ideas would appear to be associated in time, but in little else.

Psycho-analysis affords by the “word association tests” a valuable means of examination of mind and determining the lines along which association tends to occur, but recognition of the occasional value of this method is consistent with the view that it should be but rarely applied, and that the Freudian symbolic interpretation of many phenomena thus observed need not be endorsed. The efforts of ancient philologists In derivations such as faba, fabaricus (fab-aricot-us) (h) aricot, and mus muris (mu-rat-us) rat, are ingenuous and simple in comparison with some of the psycho-analytic symbolisms.

Probably the whole profession makes use from time to time of suggestion, and many of our patients need above all things inspiration or, it may be, comfort, and these constitute a form of psycho-therapy.

It should be strongly emphasised that In cases of nervous disease psycho-analytic methods should not be employed by non-medical exponents alone, even though they may be expert psychologists, for it is necessary before application of such methods that the presence of organic disease liable to be aggravated by the employment of such methods be first excluded. Such conditions aro encephalitis and other inflam- matory states. Of course, the ideal method would be that persons suitable for this method of investigation should be handled by an expert psychologist in association with skilled medical direction”.

 

 

Deciding Who Will Be In Charge

18 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Conferences and Lectures

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In the Middle east at the moment dictatorships are being overthrown by the will of the people – some of whom are making and publishing films like this: The source of these videos, Qunfuz,is a blog following these events – tracking this conflict between government and governed. He highlights not just the loss of confidence in the government, that was gone long ago, but the ‘something’ that enables people to gather, join forces and work towards their own brand of collective freedom.

At the Australian Psychoanalytical Conference yesterday Dr Claudio Laks Eizirik a Brazilian and past president of the International Psychoanalytic Association talk about Power and its legitimisation.  He spoke of the power of repression, of unconscious drives; the power relationship between parent and child ( does he mean ‘authority’ here?) and of the relational nature between government and people. Eizirik cited Winnicott‘s ideas on democracy – a convenience whereby power is ceded to ‘government’ by the larger group so that individuals can get along with their lives.. It is a little different, I think, from the parent-child relationship; perhaps more expressive of a collective (unconscious) will.

But what if this relationship breaks down?  In answering this we may begin to see what it is that is ceded to the leader and why it is they come and go. In Britain Winston Churchill was the leader for the war, between 1939 and 1945. He related to and articulated something necessary for the British to be able to continue to fight and survive against enormous odds. Before and after this he seems unable to find the necessary pulse to be able to lead.

Claudio Laks Eizrik’s questioning was illustrated with his own experience of the Brazilian uprising followed by the takeover by the military in 1964. It had begun in 1961 when the president,Quadros, in office just seven months, resigned. He was to have been replaced by the Vice President, Goulart, then out of the country visiting China – a country a long way away and suspiciously Communist. Goulart was accused of being such by right-wingers. He was initially not able to take office, only doing so after protracted negotiations by his brother-in-law in 1963. He legitimized his position through a referendum.

Goulart’s attempts to socialize the country were countered by demonstrations -popular uprisings –  followed by the Army’s decision to take control. More detail  is here. Claudio Laks Eizrik remembered being in the crowd of protesters facing the Generals outside the presidential building when someone began to sing the national anthem. The crowd followed. After a pause the general joined them.  At that moment, ( this is my reading of it), the General joined the people. He gained enough legitimacy for the coup to succeed without bloodshed.

I don’t have any great insights to offer here. Other than to say that when the leader is out of touch with the people’s will but continues to rule, a kind of tyrannt can be set up where the leader holds the governed in thrall. As a ‘metaphor’ for the analytical situation, it is also a warning…