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May 15, 1967. PSYCHIC DETERMINISM: FREUD'S SPECIFIC PROPOSITIONS. Freud Anniversary Lecture. Mark Kanzer, M.D.
Although psychic determinism is an indispensable assumption in psychoanalysis, different constructions prevail as to its meaning. There is an apparent paradox in Freud's references to the 'illusion of free will' on the one hand and to his assertion elsewhere that changes in the external world produced by conscious intention are representative of the highest function of the ego.
Dr. Kanzer examined Freud's contributions to the subject in the perspective of the evolution of scientific thought. Theocratic determinism denied free will and created deities who predetermined all events. The Greeks subordinated their gods to the still higher laws of an inexorable destiny. In more modern times, Newton contrived a physical world that rigidly excluded the human will, although he found it necessary to introduce a god whose powers were not limited by the world of physics and who was himself the ultimate source of physical energy. John Locke established a mechanistic psychology but, like Newton, found science reconciliable with the will of an inscrutable deity. Marx defined man's will in terms of economics, Darwin in terms of biology. William James, though believing in God, rejected free will and indeterminism. Nevertheless his vision of psychology, like that of Freud's own teachers, was limited to the prediction of physiological explanations for mental acts.
Although psychophysiological determinism remained for Freud a basic tenet, his more immediate views of psychic determinism were shaped by two factors: the empirical observation of evolving psychoanalysis and his subjective reactions as elucidated through self-analysis. Responding empathically to patients who rejected hypnosis, Freud permitted them to take the lead in the relationship through free association and thus to assert their own wills. While there was no certainty that the resulting sequences ref