The Truth About Freud's Technique: The Encounter with the Real(Psychoanalytic Crossroads)

In this unusual and much-needed reappraisal of Freud's clinical technique, M. Guy Thompson challenges the conventional notion that psychoanalysis promotes relief from suffering and replaces it with a more radical assertion, that psychoanalysis seeks to mend our relationship with the real that has been fractured by our avoidance of the same. Thompson suggests that, while avoiding reality may help to relieve our experience of suffering, this short-term solution inevitably leads to a split in our existence. M. Guy Thompson forcefully disagrees with the recent trend that dismisses Freud as an historical figure who is out of step with the times. He argues, instead, for a return to the forgotten Freud, a man inherently philosophical and rooted in a Greek preoccupation with the nature of truth, ethics, the purpose of life and our relationship with reality. Thompson's argument is situated in a stunning re-reading of Freud's technical papers, including a new evaluation of his analyses of Dora and the Rat Man in the context of Heidegger's understanding of truth. In this remarkable examination of Freud's technical recommendations, M. Guy Thompson explains how psychoanalysis was originally designed to re-acquaint us with realities we had abandoned by encountering them in the contest of the analytic experience. This provocative examination of Freud's conception of psychoanalysis reveals a more personal Freud than we had previously supposed, one that is more humanistic and real.

About the Author :
M. Guy Thompson, Ph.D founded the Free Association in San Francisco, an analytic training scheme devoted to integrating phenomenology and psychoanalysis. He is the author of The Death of Desire: A Study in Psychopathology, also published by New York University Press. He currently practices psychoanalysis in San Francisco.

Review :
"As in his previous works, Horne proves adept at detailing the saga of a politically minded individual confronted with race-based constraints. He is admirably evenhanded in addressing a character with political views diametrically opposed to his own. Horne rightfully portrays Dennis as 'heartless, pitiless, and desensitized [in his] approach to life and politics, ' but he also convincingly argues that the author of "The Coming American Fascism" (1936) developed such a personality due to discrimination as a youth and fear of radical exposure as an adult." -"Journal of American History", "I am almost certainly not alone in expressing surprise that Lawrence Dennis, the principal American intellectual fascist, was an African American who 'passed' for white. In the process of explaining Dennis's rise and how his secret minority status shaped his political extremism, Gerald Horne has researched and written a compelling and significant history of American fascism." -Kenneth Janken, author of "White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP" "Shedding light on both passing and the formation of a proposed "fascism with a human face," this book will prove useful for scholars of race and class in the US as well as scholars of fascist doctrine and theory." -"Choice", "This is, then, a serious and important book written by a very talented historian." -"American Historical Review", "With his characteristic verve, Horne has written an excellent book about the fascinating and mysterious Lawrence Dennis. This pairing of the leftist black intellectual Horne and the racially-closeted fascist Dennis makes for an exciting exploration of obscure terrain that warrants more notice. Horne has performed an important service by revealing so vividly Dennis's strange but instructive career." -Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School