Dominique Scarfone, “The Unpast: The Actual Unconscious” (The Unconscious in Translation, 2015)
Apr 24, 2018
auto_awesome
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.
Scarfone's book reinterprets Freud's metapsychology, asserting that the unconscious is actively influenced by unresolved temporal experiences rather than merely being a spatial repository.
The therapeutic engagement with transference reveals crucial links between past unresolved traumas and present symptoms, guiding analysts toward deeper client understanding.
Deep dives
Impact of the Unconscious
The concept of the unconscious is explored through the idea of the 'actual', which refers to elements produced in the present but are neglected in conscious understanding. This includes an analysis of Freud's notion of actual neuroses, where symptoms may arise without a clear psychic history. The book argues that there exists a kernel of experience within each neurosis that resists analysis, highlighting the persistent nature of unconscious material. This challenge leads to a rethinking of how psychoanalysts approach their clients’ narratives, especially when symptoms emerge that seem disconnected from past experiences.
The Role of Timeliness in Analysis
The author emphasizes the temporal aspect of the unconscious, arguing that the unconscious cannot truly exist outside of time. This counters the traditional view of the unconscious as a spatial repository of repressed memories, instead suggesting that repressed experiences affect present behaviors continuously. The idea of 'the unpast' is introduced to illustrate how unresolved issues remain active within the psyche, demanding recognition and processing. By acknowledging this temporal nature during analysis, therapists can better assist clients in navigating these unresolved elements, bringing them into consciousness for processing.
Transference and Actual Neuroses
Dominic Scarfoni elaborates on the concept of transference in relation to actual neuroses, underscoring the importance of recognizing pervasive themes that emerge in the therapeutic setting. He describes transference as a potential crisis point where the patient's unconscious material surfaces, often revealing fragments tied to unresolved childhood experiences. The challenge for the analyst is to stay open to these moments, allowing their own reactions to inform understanding and shifts within the therapeutic narrative. This engagement can lead to significant breakthroughs, linking the past and present through the analysis of transference dynamics.
Translation and Meaning in Psychoanalysis
The process of translation in psychoanalysis is highlighted, focusing on how clients' experiences and narratives can be creatively reinterpreted to derive meaning. Scarfoni cites Laplanche’s concept of enigmatic messages, stressing how a child's inability to comprehend adult complexities can leave unresolved tensions within their psyche. The failures in translation result in 'thing-like' elements that manifest as symptoms or crises in adulthood. Understanding these components is crucial for therapists, who must facilitate the construction of meaning around these experiences to allow clients to integrate them into their current narratives.
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