1. Psychoanalysis: The Current State

In the course of this book we will refer to Freud's writings frequently and at length. We would therefore like to begin by outlining our understanding of his work and our general position within psychoanalysis. Extensive quotation from Freud serves several purposes. The most important is that, despite some outstanding efforts at systematization, it remains true today that “the best way of understanding psycho-analysis is still by tracing its origin and development” (Freud 1923a, p. 235). The assimilation of the classic texts is the prerequisite for understanding the present problems in psychoanalysis and finding modern solutions.

Our aim with this volume is to create a historically oriented systematic description of psychoanalysis. We seek the springs which have fed the psychoanalytic stream, employing quotations to demonstrate lines of development which have led to current views. The passages we cite therefore serve as a means to an end: we ground and defend our opinions in a process of discursive interaction with Freud's positions. The contradictions which appear in Freud's work and have been repeated in various forms over the decades bear witness to the openness of psychoanalysis: “it… gropes its way forward by the help of experience, is always incomplete and always ready to correct or modify its theories” (Freud 1923a, p. 253). Its firm foundation is laid in the following three passages:

In psychoanalysis there has existed from the very first an inseparable bond between cure and research. Knowledge brought therapeutic success. It was impossible to treat a patient without learning something new; it was impossible to gain fresh insight without perceiving its beneficent results. Our analytic procedure is the only one in which this precious conjunction is assured. It is only by carrying on our analytic pastoral work that we can deepen our dawning comprehension of the human mind. This prospect of scientific gain has been the proudest and happiest feature of