Charles Brenner (18 November 1913, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

– 19 May 2008) was an American psychoanalyst who served as President of the

New York Psychoanalytic Society The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute — founded in 1911 by Dr. Abraham A. Brill — is the oldest psychoanalytic organization in the United States. The charter members were: Louis Edward Bisch, Brill, Horace Westlake Frink, Fre ...

, and is perhaps best known for his contributions to

drive theory In psychology, a drive theory, theory of drives or drive doctrine is a theory that attempts to analyze, classify or define the psychological drives. A drive is an instinctual need that has the power of driving the behavior of an individual; an " ...

, the structure of the mind, and

conflict theory Conflict may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton * ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne * ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...

. He was for half a century an exemplary figure for psychoanalysis in America, being termed by

Janet Malcolm Janet Clara Malcolm (born Jana Klara Wienerová; July 8, 1934 – June 16, 2021) was an American writer, journalist on staff at ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and collagist. She was the author of '' Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (198 ...

“the intransigent purist of American psychoanalysis”.

Early contributions

Brenner first made his name as the author of the ''Elementary Textbook of Psychoanalysis'', which

Eric Berne Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior. Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud but ...

paired with

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 in ...

's ''Outline of Psychoanalysis'' as the best guide to the subject. In it he stressed for example how, unlike 'conscience', the

superego The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...

functions mainly or entirely unconsciously. He went on to co-author, with

Jacob Arlow Jacob A. Arlow (1912–2004) was an American teacher, scholar, and clinician who served as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Arlow was an editor of the ''Psychoanalytic Quarterly'' fro ...

, ''Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory'', which, initially controversial, would become a standard advanced text. Brenner himself conceded that probably “my most significant influence was as author of ''An Elementary Textbook''”.

Technique

While Brenner favored a cool, aseptic analytic technique, and opposed the idea that the

transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...

could be separated off from the so-called working alliance, he also challenged the mechanical use of the analysis of defences without consideration of the instinctual impulses involved. Brenner pointed out that just as “it is presumptuous to act the analyst, unbidden, in a social or family situation. It is a technical lapse to be other than an analyst in one's relations with an analytic patient”. His technique epitomised what Malcolm called “taking respect for individual experience and generosity of spirit toward human frailty very far indeed'”.

Late revisions

Brenner has been notable for his readiness to challenge psychoanalytic dogmas, - something perhaps most apparent with his late revision of Freud's

structural theory In chemistry, structural theory explains the large variety in chemical compounds in terms of atoms making up molecules, the arrangement of atoms within molecules and the electrons that hold them together. According to structural theory, from the st ...

, culminating in his article "Conflict, Compromise Formation, and Structural Theory"(2002) which he himself considered “the most useful and valuable contribution I have been able to make to the field of psychoanalysis”. His late development of conflict theory went back to Freud's early concept of 'compromise formation', as well as drawing on Arlow's idea of 'fantasy function' in a mixture of conservatism and innovation. Arguably the result was to produce the leading analytic theory for 21stC American psychoanalytic training.

Criticism

Brenner has been criticised for a tendency to follow his own theoretical furrow, rather than engage with other points of view.

Early contributions

Technique

Late revisions

Criticism

See also

References

Further reading