The Discrete and the Continuous in Freud's "Remembering, Repeating and Working Through". (February 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Friedman, Lawrence
• Is Part Of: Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Volume 62:Number 1(2014:Feb.)
• Page Start: 11
• Page End: 34
• Publication Date: 2014-02
• Subjects: working through -- resistance -- Freudian theory -- philosophy; Psychoanalysis -- Periodicals; 616.891705
• DOI: 10.1177/0003065114523782
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-0651

Abstract

There are two crucial passages in Freud's "Remembering, Repeating and Working Through" that require the analyst to think about entities in the mind while at the same time thinking about the mind as a continuum of activity. Although that is a challenging paradox, the passage that allows the analyst to find discrete memories in the patient's continuous behavior was easily absorbed into psychoanalytic custom. In the reverse direction, however, the description of the patient finding his way from the analyst's discrete interpretations to his own continuous experience of strain was most often pasted over with superfluous platitudes. A practical reason for this aversion is suggested.