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.
Dr. CARL GOLDBERG'S BOOK is as much a critique of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis as it is a treatise on destructiveness. Dr. Goldberg cannot explain the effectiveness of his therapeutic strategies without showing us how he had to abandon traditional metapsychology in order to do so. The psychoanalysis he attacks is orthodox analysis, and he does it by lambasting Freud for not including the development of a social conscience as an integral part of the human psyche. Freud's notion of the superego is hardly up to the task that Goldberg sees as necessary. Focusing on that part of Freud's theory, which elaborates the superego as the heir to castration anxiety, Goldberg sees its functioning as tied to fears of retaliation. Conscience, on the other hand, ought to have a more compassionate, altruistic character. In fact, “Freud confused conscience and superego” (p. 48).
Goldberg runs some risk of preaching to the converted. To his credit, he does not go after the “usual suspects” in his reproach, such as the detached analyst. Rather, he takes on classical analysis at a more trenchant level, one that requires the reader to look at moral and social considerations. Disciples of Fromm will welcome his critique. Goldberg's reading of classical psychoanalysis is that it portrays human beings as devoid of prosocial motivation and pays excessive attention to interior concerns. The idea that we live in a world with responsibilities towards others is not sufficiently articulated. Analysts working within this framework cannot make compelling appeals for equity, empathy, and repentance because these are seen as defenses. Instead, the analyst must remain neutral even in the face of what Goldberg calls “destructiveness.”
“Destructiveness” is an omnibus word for Goldberg. He uses it as an overarching term for those who act without a conscience—on a spectrum from lying, cheating and minor dishonesty to large-scale crimes such as rape and murder.