You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The reading of a paper by Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (4) evoked certain relevant thoughts which led to this brief communication. It is obvious that a full discussion of all the problems implied by Fromm-Reichmann in her paper, in which she tries to delineate the differences and similarities between classical psychoanalysis and dynamic psychiatry would necessarily lead to a lengthy treatise, for it would have to include a discussion of Sullivan's doctrines. This would go far beyond the scope of this paper and I will therefore limit myself to a discussion of only four points.
In her paper Fromm-Reichmann contrasts Freud's conception of psychosexual development with "the developmental phases of the child's interpersonal relationships" of dynamic psychiatrists who.
speak about infancy as the period when the child cannot yet use language as a means of communication; childhood as the period when life centers around the relationship to and the verbalized communication with the parents and siblings, and they speak about the juvenile era as the period, when competition, co-operation and compromise with one's compeers are established … [and] adolescence as the period which is characterized by the onset of puberty. …
However, these phases have been known since the beginning of scientific psychology, i.e., long before Freud started his work. In fact, they are not only known to the classical analyst, but form part of the knowledge of anyone who deals with human beings of various age groups.
The theory of the libidinal development of the child is concerned