In the
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
, afterwardsness is a "mode of belated understanding or retroactive attribution of sexual or traumatic meaning to earlier events...
rom the German word''Nachträglichkeit'', translated as deferred action, retroaction,
après-coup, afterwardsness". As summarized by another scholar, 'In one sense, Freud's theory of deferred action can be simply stated: memory is reprinted, so to speak, in accordance with later experience'.
History and development of the term
Freud
The psychoanalytical concept of "afterwardsness" (german: Nachträglichkeit) appeared initially in
Freud's writings in the 1890s in the commonsense form of the German adjective-adverb "afterwards" or "deferred" (''nachträglich''): as Freud wrote in the unfinished and unpublished "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" of 1895, 'a memory is repressed which has only become a trauma ''after the event'' '. However the 'theory of deferred action had already been
ubliclyput forward by Freud in the ''Studies on Hysteria'' (1895)', and in a paper of 1898 'he elaborates on the idea of ''deferred action'': the pathogenic effect of a traumatic event occurring in childhood...
anifestingretrospectively when the child reaches a subsequent phase of sexual development'.
The same idea would feature prominently a couple of decades later in his study of the "Wolf Man": 'The effects of the scene were deferred, but...had the same effect as though it were a recent experience'. 'Thus although he never offered a definition, much less a general theory, of the notion of deferred action, it was indisputably looked on by Freud as part of his conceptual equipment'.
Lacan
It was
Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...
who brought the term back from obscurity after Freud's death—his translation in the French language as the "
après-coup" fits into the context of his "return to Freud" ("rapport de Rome", 1953)—and certainly French
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
has since taken the lead in its explication. Lacan himself claimed in his Seminar that "the real implication of the ''nachträglich'', for example, has been ignored, though it was there all the time and had only to be picked up," while writing in Ecrits of "'deferred action' (''Nachtrag''), to rescue another of these terms from the facility into which they have since fallen...they were unheard of at that time."
Jean Laplanche
After Lacan's ''après-coup'',
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
's contribution to the concept of the afterwardsness signifies something very different: with Jean Laplanche and in the relation to Freud (theory of the seduction, ''neurotica''), Lacan's "Other" loses its capital letter of the "
Symbolic", that links
Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...
to French
structuralism (
Saussure's
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
,
Lévi-Strauss's
ethnology
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...
), and that links also Lacan ''afterwards'' in the history of the ideas (from the 1960s on)—by "inversion in the opposite direction" (a "destiny of the
drive" in psychoanalytic theory)—to the
French theory at the place of
Jacques Derrida's
deconstruction.
"Afterwardsness" becomes the key concept in Laplanche's "
theory of the general seduction" (''
théorie de la séduction généralisée'') and of the corresponding importance of 'the act of ''psychic translation''... of
nigmaticdeposits by the other'—an approach which develops further Freud's letter 52/112 (to
Wilhelm Fliess
Wilhelm Fliess (german: Wilhelm Fließ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have n ...
). In his "Notes on Afterwardsness" (1992), based on a conversation of
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
with
Martin Stanton
Martin Stanton (born 21 March 1950) is a British writer, teacher and psychoanalyst.
Biography
He is known for his pioneering work in establishing ''Psychoanalytic Studies'' as a distinct and thriving academic subject that is now taught in univers ...
, there is an excellent definition of ''afterwardsness'' in Laplanche's sense, including the category of the ''enigmatic message'', that highlights Laplanche's contribution to
Freud's concept:
Deferred obedience
For Freud,
deferred obedience Deferred obedience is a psychological phenomenon first articulated by Sigmund Freud, whereby a onetime rebel becomes subservient to the very rules and standards against which they had previously been rebelling.
To father figures
Deferred obedience ...
was closely related to deferred action: again, "a ''deferred'' effect...a 'deferred obedience' under the influence of
repression". Thus for instance Freud explored the different phases of a man's infantile attitude to his father: "As long as his father was alive it showed itself in unmitigated rebelliousness and open discord, but immediately after his death it took the form of a
neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...
based on abject submission and deferred obedience to him".
In ''Totem and Taboo'' he generalised the principle and "depicted the social contract also as based on posthumous obedience to the father's authority"—offset at times by its converse, occasional
Carnival-like licence such as "the memorial festival of the totem meal, in which the ''restrictions'' of deferred obedience no longer held".
[ Julia Kristeva/Jeanine Herman, ''The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt'' (Columbia 2001), p. 13]
Notes and references
Bibliography
*
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
and
Joseph Breuer: ''
Studies on Hysteria'' (with
Josef Breuer
Josef Breuer ( , ; 15 January 1842 – 20 June 1925) was a distinguished physician who made key discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work in the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., developed the talking cure (cathar ...
) (''Studien über Hysterie'', 1895)
* ''The Complete Letters of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
to
Wilhelm Fliess
Wilhelm Fliess (german: Wilhelm Fließ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have n ...
, 1887-1904'', Publisher: Belknap Press, 1986,
* Sigmund Freud, ''Complete works'', Standard edition.
*
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
and
Jean-Bertrand Pontalis : ''Vocabulaire de la psychanalyse'', Paris, 1967, éd. 2004 PUF-Quadrige, No 249, ; ''The Language of Psycho-Analysis''. W. W. Norton and Company. .
*
Alain de Mijolla: ''"Dictionnaire international de la psychanalyse'', Ed.: Hachette, 2005, ; ''International dictionary of psychoanalysis''. Thomson Gale, Detroit, 2005.
*
Jacques Lacan, ''Écrits'', Paris, Seuil, 1966, .
* Jacques Lacan, ''Le Séminaire'' Livre I ''Les écrits techniques de Freud'', 1953-1954, Paris, Seuil, 1975, .
*
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
and
Jean-Bertrand Pontalis, ''Fantasme originaire Fantasmes des origines Origines du fantasme''
964 Paris : Hachette (Collection « Textes du XXe siècle »), 1985 ; Paris, Hachette Pluriel, 2002.
*
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
, ''Nouveaux fondements pour la psychanalyse'', Paris, PUF, 1987 (''New foundations for the psychoanalysis'').
* ''
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
: Seduction, Translation, Drives'', A dossier compiled by John Fletcher and
Martin Stanton
Martin Stanton (born 21 March 1950) is a British writer, teacher and psychoanalyst.
Biography
He is known for his pioneering work in establishing ''Psychoanalytic Studies'' as a distinct and thriving academic subject that is now taught in univers ...
, Translations by Martin Stanton, Psychoanalytic Forum, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, 1992.
*
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on p ...
: ''Problématiques VI: L'
après-coup - La
Nachträglichkeit dans l'après-coup (1990-1991)'', Paris, PUF, 2006, .
* ''Revue française de psychanalyse'', t. XLVI, 3, « L'après-coup », 1982 et t. LXX, 3, 2006.
* Michel Neyraut: ''Considérations rétrospectives sur "l'après-coup"'', in
Revue française de psychanalyse, 1997, no. 4, {{ISBN, 2-13-048501-4
* Bernard Chervet: ''L'après-coup. Prolégomènes'' in Revue française de psychanalyse, 2006, no. 3
Continental philosophy
Psychoanalytic terminology
Freudian psychology