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Date: December 5, 2013
Allan Frosch, a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytical Association, is a Training Analyst and Supervisor at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, where he is on faculty. He is also on the faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education (associated with NYU Medical School) and the Manhattan Institute, in New York City.
In this talk, Frosch presented a variety of perspectives of major historical figures in psychoanalysis as well as contemporary analysts, describing how varying beliefs regarding psychoanalytic theory continue to shape practice. He highlighted the propensity of the analytic community to “enshrine” or cherish as sacred, aspects of a philosophy, thereby protecting them from change. Frosch argued that change and growth in theory and practice is imperative for the stimulation of new ideas. He portended that as a result, development of theory is prevented, obstructing new realities that may help the most vulnerable who seek analysis. He warned that the analyst may seek comfort from feeling on the side of the sacred, unknowingly obstructing productivity. He also warned against faulty beliefs, which claim that deviation from the enshrined will be profane and thus punishable.
Frosch drew our attention to the historical underpinnings of psychoanalysis in 20th century America, which was defined by a yearning for acceptance into the medical community, resulting in the adoption of an ideological absolutism. Aspects of Freud's theory can be interpreted at times with drastically different conceptualizations, Frosch explained. He noted that that very process must be embraced not shunned in analytic practice. The rich complexity of Freud's theory of perception was outlined in this talk. On the one hand, that perspective can be viewed as an active and constructive theory, but could also be seen as passive, with its roots in the principle of immaculate perception. This principle, with roots to Aristotle, refers to the bel