Dominique Scarfone, an expert in revisiting Freudian theories, dives into his book, discussing the nuances of the unconscious and its temporal dynamics. He challenges the idea that the unconscious is timeless, revealing how repressed memories impact clients' behaviors. Scarfone also highlights the concept of 'apre-coup' in psychoanalysis and the significance of understanding transference through actual neuroses. This conversation provides valuable insights for clinicians looking to enhance their practice with contemporary interpretations of psychoanalytic ideas.
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insights INSIGHT
The Unconscious and Time
The unconscious is not simply timeless, as commonly believed.
It exists in a complicated relationship with time, resisting its flow but subject to a repetitive "now" time.
insights INSIGHT
The Actual and the Unpast
The "actual" in French has a temporal dimension, relating to the present.
The unconscious, being resistant to time, can be considered "unpast" like the "undead.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Navigating the Transferential Crisis
When encountering a "transferential crisis" (emergence of the unpast), maintain the analytic stance of listening.
Remain open to what emerges in you, which will eventually lead to helpful interpretations.
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Dominique Scarfone‘s The Unpast: The Actual Unconscious (The Unconscious in Translation, 2015) charts “a new itinerary through the vast landscape that is Freud.” For many North American readers, or others who may not appreciate the relevance of drive theory and Freud’s metapsychology in today’s world, this book serves as an inspiring re-visitation of that territory and presents a cogent theory for understanding clinical material and analytic aims in a faithfully Freudian context. The book is also an excellent introduction to many of the ideas that animate the French School of Psychoanalysis, especially for readers who may not have found an accessible way into that rich and stimulating tradition.
The title of the book is a reference to time and history as they affect the unconscious. Scarfone emphasizes the temporal dynamics of the unconscious as opposed to spatial dynamics (topographies and structures). He analyzes the psychoanalytic truism that “the unconscious is timeless” and shows us how that statement is not exactly true in the way people typically think about it. Scarfone says that a close reading of Freud’s work shows us that “time does exist for the unconscious, but somehow the repressed is protected from its corrosive effects.” This observation will ring true to any clinician who has witnessed the destructive repetitions that occur in clients’ lives and that manifest disturbingly in the transference. These repetitive phenomena are the “returns” of unconscious elements that remain presently active, unpast, until through analysis they can be inserted into another kind of time that transforms them into history, rescuing them from occurring as eternal symptoms.
Philip Lance, Ph.D. is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles. He is candidate at The Psychoanalytic Center of California. PhilipJLance@gmail.com
New Books in Psychoanalysis