Träume und Übertragung
(1990)
>Dreams and Transference<: Freud (1915-16, p. 181f.) states: >It is natural that we should lose some of our interest in the manifest dream... In general we must avoid seeking to explain one part of the manifest dream by another. as though the dream had been coherently conceived and was a logically arranged narrative.< For Fromm (1951a, p. 28) man has two poles of experiencing: on the one hand those pertaining to his waking state and his dreams are the other pole; our waking experinece will help us understand the latent, unconscious content of our dreams, and our dreams will help us comprehend the unconscious motivations of our waking lives. For him (cf. 1951a and 1979a), it is true that the ideographs of the manifest dream may often seem absurd, confused, incoherent, but it does lead us to their coherent intrinsic logic. The manifest dream allows us to formulate some tentative affirmations, but above all, it imposes questions whose answers will emerge in our continued dialogue with the dreamer, for he alone has the answer that will allow us to grasp the intimate over-all symbol of his dreams. The totality of the dream must be appraised as a global symbol that represents at the same time an >instantaneous snapshot< of the moment of his being. From a teleological perspective, it is as if the sites presented, the actors and the rest of the cast, other living beings (be they animals, plants, nature) and diverse objects have all been chosen for what they reveal of the dreamer, thus objectifying and demystifying him. Each dream symbol represents a condensation, thus it is a mistake to jump to the conclusion that such a figure is of necessity mother or father or that another is a penis or a vagina; maybe it will all turn out to be so, but we can wait until all is unequivocally clear. As Freud (1900a, p. 608) stated, the understanding of dreams leads us along >the royal road< to what has been unconscious to the dreamer. Only a few dreams fulfill wishes (cf. E. Fromm, 1979a, p. 72 and p. 95f.); the vast majority tend to objectify our present situation and, not too infrequently, they allow us insight into the personality of others. This paper presents some aspects of the humanist psychoanalytic concept of conscious – unconscious and its import for the understanding of transference phenomena and the process of transcending it. Since our dreams clarify our Here and Now it stands to reason that dreams will clearly reveal the state of the >dream-day< transference. By-and-large, the manifest dream reveals the unconscious relationship to significant individuals of the dreamer’s environment, which always includes the therapist whether or not he (she) is present in the dream. Quite often one can see the waking relationship to the analyst and quite another what is evinced in the analysand’s dreams... We must never loose sight of what these latter reveal, for in our dreams we are free and candid. – This paper also presents clinical material.
>Erich Fromm in Mexico: 1950-1973<: Drawing on his intimate knowledge of Erich Fromm’s personality and on the experience of many years as one of Fromm’s colleagues, the author – who belongs to the first generation of psychoanalysts trained in Mexico – describes Fromm’s activities during the years 1950 to 1973. Although he had originally come to Mexico to seek remedial treatment for his seriously ill wife, Henny, at medicinal baths, Fromm became more and more drawn to the task of training up-and-coming psychoanalysts at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and acquainting them with his vision of >humanist< psychoanalysis. The strict >teacher< Fromm – who was at first sometimes experienced as arrogant – underwent a transformation over the years into the humane and humorous >master<, for all his constant readiness to pounce on errors whenever his watchful eye detected them. Indeed, with his astonishing creative gifts Fromm remained an elusive and hardly approachable ideal. Lastly, Fromm’s writings in the abovementioned period are commented against the background of his involvement as teaching professor, instructing analyst, and organizer of congresses and guest lectures by distinguished contemporaries – e. g. by D. T. Suzuki (1960) on the subject of Zen Buddhism.