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DR. JEFFREY SEINFELD MEMORIAL   PSYCHOANALYTIC LICENSE  MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS  NEURO-PSYCHO-EDUCATION

Object Relations Perspectives on Classical Cases in Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Schreber Case

Certificate Course with 12.5 hrs of post-graduate/ CE credits in psychoanalytic education; no pre-requisites
with Stefanie Teitelbaum, LCSW, NPsyA

Dates: April 4, 2019 - June 6, 2019, Thursdays, 8:15-9:40pm

Where: 99 University Place, florr # 4, New York, NY 10003  OR VIRTUALLY (with minimal technical requirements for in real time participation and/ or via use of video-taped sessions)

Tuition: $450/ 10-week course. Ask for our need-based scholarships and payment arrangements (call the administrator at 646-522-1056).

In his 1914 paper "On Narcissism," Freud names the psychoses as narcissistic disorders not suitable for psychoanalytic treatment.   He did, however, have a powerful and imaginative understanding of these condition – revealed, most notably, in this analysis of a remarkable memoir. By 1937, in "Analysis Terminable and Interminable," and in "Constructions in Analysis,"  Freud spoke of an alteration of the ego existing even in 'normal' patients which more closely resembled psychotic than neurotic function and of delusions as efforts to reconstruct reality. There are many instances between 1914 and 1937 which could be read as Freud's thinking he may have been over-hasty in so limiting the scope of his method. Certainly the early Object Relations expanded the scope of the psychoanalytic method to directly address psychotic states.

In 1903, Judge Daniel Paul Schreber, a highly intelligent and cultured man, produced a vivid account of a “nervous illness” dominated by the desire to become a woman, terrifying delusions about his doctor, and a belief in his own special relationship with God. Eight years later, Freud’s penetrating insight uncovered the unacceptable impulses and feelings Schreber had about his father, which underlay his extravagant symptoms. Yet he also demonstrated the link with more normal patterns of psychosexual development, as well as the human tendency to transform love into hate.

Original interpretation of the case of Schreber (1911) was based on understanding of psychoanalysis at the beginning of 20^thcentury, stressing the concepts of conflict over libidinal drives and the inverted Oedipal complex, as well as defenses against the homosexual desires towards Schreber’s psychiatrist, Dr. Flechsig (Osman, 2009). In this course, we will examine Freud’s classical Case of Schreber through the lens of object relations thinkers, utilizing the object relations defenses and phenomena.

Class 1: Introduction to the Case of Schreber

Freud, S. (1911). Psycho-Analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia (Dementia Paranoides). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XII: The Case of Schreber, pp. 1-82.            

Classes 2-5: Schreber and Spirituality; God as an Object

Freud, S. (1927). The future of an illusion. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXI (1927-1931): The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and its Discontents, and Other Works, 1-56.

Grotstein, J. (2000). Who is the dreamer who dreams the dream? Ch. 8 and Ch.9, Why Oedipus and Not Christ? Parts 1 and 2.

Eigen, M. (1986). Schreber and Rena. Chapter: The psychotic core.

Charles, M. (2009). Working with a patient claiming a direct relationship with God: Encountering otherness. Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 37(1), 21-33.

Classes 7-8: Schreber’s Object Relations and Their Developmental Functions

Meltzer, D. (1975). Adhesive identification. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 11, 289-310.

Grotstein, J. (1985). Splitting, projection and projective identification. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson,

Chapters: *Narcissistic Cathexis of the Object; *Personification of Affect.

Balint, M. (1979). The basic fault: Therapeutic aspects of regression. London/New York: Tavistock Publications.

Hermann, I. (1980). Some aspects of psychotic regression: A Schreber study. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 7, 210.

*We will look at Schreber’s regression through the viewpoint Primary Narcissism and Primary Love.  We will explore Freuds notion of delusion as an effort to reconstruct the world after all has been destroyed with Balint’s New Beginning. *Hermann has been referred to as the father of attachment theory.  His viewpoint on a baby’s reaching out to grab the mother links back to Ferenczi’s view of introjection, which is the piece of Klein’s analysis with Ferenczi that is present in her theory. 

Class 9: In Defense of Schreber

Lothane, Z. (1992). In defense of Schreber. Soul murder and psychiatry. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press. Selected Chapters.

In Lothane’s thesis diagnosing Schreber as bipolar, we will refer back to Freud’s sub-headings on manic depression in Mourning and Melancholia, and Klein’s Manic Depressive.  We will look at the Freud case through vertexes of derailed mourning.  We will highlight Lothane’s references to Fairbain and Eigen in his thesis.

Class 10: Wilfred Bion and Bionians on Schreber’s Case

While unable to find a direct reference to Schreber in Bion’s published works, we will extract the references to Bion from the works of Charles, Eigen, Grotstein, and Meltzer, in earlier classes, and use the Schreber story to illustrate Bion’s thoughts.

LEARNING POINTS:

After completing this course, the participants will be able to: 1) Discuss the object relations implications in Freud’s Schreber study – from the position of Grotstein; 2) Discuss the object relations implications in Freud’s Schreber study – from the position of Eigen; 3) Discuss the object relations implications in Freud’s Schreber study – from the position of Bion and Bionians; 4) Discuss the object relations implications in Freud’s Schreber study – from the position of Balint; 5) Discuss the object relations implications in Freud’s Schreber study – from the position of Meltzer; 6) Formulate clinical interventions with patients that claim direct communication with God; 7) Analyze the Schreber’s case as the example of psychotic regression; 8) Analyze the Schreber’s case as the example of derailed mourning/ melancholia; 9) Apply the object relations implications to formulate clinical interventions with patient’s delusional material; 10) Formulate clinical interventions with patients who exhibit the “basic fault” symptomatology; 11) Discuss treatment of Schreber’s case through therapeutic regression; 12) Compare Freud’s approach to Schreber’s case with interpretation of it by the object relations theorists and practitioners; 13) Describe and discuss the object relations phenomena of splitting and projective identification utilizing the case of Schreber.

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