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

[Miles Jackson]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2003, Doug Henwood wrote:

> 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

Okay, I see what you're getting at.  I agree, the therapeutic
practice of p-a is not just catharsis.  All the other processes
you mention are significant in p-a therapy too.  I was thinking
in terms of p-a as the source of testable scientific hypotheses
about human behavior, not just p-a as a therapeutic tool.

Miles