"Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame Re: Radio Doug

[Doug Henwood]

Miles Jackson wrote:

>Catharsis is a fundamental concept for Freud.  Release the
>unconscious conflict indirectly (e.g., by watching violent
>sports or Macbeth), and direct manifestations of aggression
>should be reduced.  That's psychoanalysis 101 as I
>understand it!

Rather an early one. It's a much more extended process than that (as 
any Woody Allen fan knows), involving lots of association, narrative, 
speculation, introspection, reliving, recalling.... There's hardly 
some magic cathartic moment. And there's also the transferrence, the 
mix of real and fantastic attachment to the shrink, which is quite 
mysterious and powerful.

Doug