Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Luiz Eduardo Prado. Metapsychology in its entirety. Nat. hum. [online]. 2017, vol.19, n.2, pp. 68-94. ISSN 1517-2430.

I will try to launch here a new method of reading psychoanalysis. My aim is to insert between the pages of Freud's theoretical writings the sheets of his letters. Quite often Freud's correspondences are sort of laboratories. He draws and test in his letters hypothesis which will become his theories. He announces them, he waits for his friends reactions, he reformulates his thesis, he gets infuriated, he expresses his pleasure, he puts them aside. If grey is all theory and spring embalms creation, we have to recognize that quite often Freud's theory blooms. New psychoanalysts gather his ideas. Frequently the concept of metapsychology is inflated in psychoanalytical writings, it becomes a fetish, a cult object. It becomes a jingle, a mantra, it is supposed to explain everything. It becomes a long word, a shibboleth, a particular word or a way of pronouncing a word, which distinguishes members of in-groups from those of outgroups. In the Bible, Ephraimites who wanted to cross the Jordan had to pronounce this word shibboleth which they did in a different way than Gileadites, who would then kill them. Thus, shibboleth is also a war word, a rallying word. Metapsychology is a word created or renewed by Freud, almost a synonym of psychoanalysis. And hence - or even, therefore - both hide their surprises. Their richness comes from their heuristic value, that we better spare. "Thrift, Horatio, thrift"², remarked Freud.

Keywords : Psychoanalysis; Metapsychology; Freud; Theory.

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