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MPSA 1(1):126-127 (1976)

Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Psychoanalysis. Revised edition. By Lawrence Kubie. New York: International Universities Press, 1975.

Abstract

This book is the second revised edition of Practical Aspects of Psychoanalysis, which was originally published in 1936. Its intent, now as then, is “to help people recognize sound psychoanalytic procedure when they meet it …” The following comments were extracted from a comprehensive review by Oscar Sternbach:

Kubie describes himself, and rightly so, as a deviationist from Freudian psychoanalysis. His tendency to deviate, noticeable quite early, increased considerably with his growing age. However recent his theoretical deviations, by which he attempts to make psychoanlysis more modern—though making it less Freudian—his book shows many of the earmarks of a bygone era … [For example,] in line with the oldest id-analysis, he holds that the unconscious is not “normal,” i. e., it is pathological, taking no cognizance of the fact that even the most normal ego is largely unconscious—which must have been known at least since 1923 (Freud's The Ego and the Id) to Kubie too. But Kubie rejects ego-analysis as a term as well as a technique. In a curious way, he finds his scientific position compatible with an optimistic
Page 126
and happy indeterminism, which promises that “to the extent … to which conscious processes govern our lives we are free …. Such freedom … is the essential core of normality … normality means freedom.” His technical advice is, one might say, “hyper-orthodox.” Among other statements, he says that experience has proved that it is not possible for the analyst to advise and guide a patient in his practical affairs without seriously undermining his value as analyst. This point of view, although it was held for years by many analysts, is quite in contrast with Freud's statement in his Outline of Psychoanalysis in 1940: “We serve the patient in various functions, as an authority and a substitute for his parents, as a teacher and educator ….1”—which shows that Freud, even late in life and analytic experience, was much less worried about technical “purity”.

MPSA 1(1):126-127 (1976)

Practical and Theoretical Aspects of Psychoanalysis. Revised edition. By Lawrence Kubie. New York: International Universities Press, 1975.

Abstract

Kubie describes himself, and rightly so, as a deviationist from Freudian psychoanalysis. His tendency to deviate, noticeable quite early, increased considerably with his growing age. However recent his theoretical deviations, by which he attempts to make psychoanlysis more modern—though making it less Freudian—his book shows many of the earmarks of a bygone era … [For example,] in line with the oldest id-analysis, he holds that the unconscious is not “normal,” i. e., it is pathological, taking no cognizance of the fact that even the most normal ego is largely unconscious—which must have been known at least since 1923 (Freud's The Ego and the Id) to Kubie too. But Kubie rejects ego-analysis as a term as well as a technique. In a curious way, he finds his scientific position compatible with an optimistic
Page 126
and happy indeterminism, which promises that “to the extent … to which conscious processes govern our lives we are free …. Such freedom … is the essential core of normality … normality means freedom.” His technical advice is, one might say, “hyper-orthodox.” Among other statements, he says that experience has proved that it is not possible for the analyst to advise and guide a patient in his practical affairs without seriously undermining his value as analyst. This point of view, although it was held for years by many analysts, is quite in contrast with Freud's statement in his Outline of Psychoanalysis in 1940: “We serve the patient in various functions, as an authority and a substitute for his parents, as a teacher and educator ….1”—which shows that Freud, even late in life and analytic experience, was much less worried about technical “purity”.