Jeffrey Masson

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Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (born on March 28, 1941 as Jeffrey Lloyd Masson in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American author and trained psychoanalyst , who emerged primarily through his criticism of Sigmund Freud's theoretical concepts . Masson has also written about animals and animal rights .

Life

Masson is the son of Jacques Moussaieff, a Frenchman of Sephardic origin, and Diana Zeiger. Both parents were followers of the British Jewish mystic Paul Brunton . In 1956, Diana and Jacques Masson moved to Uruguay at Brunton's urging and for fear of nuclear war . Jeffrey and his sister Linda followed in 1959.

At the suggestion of Brunton, Masson studied Sanskrit at Harvard University and graduated with a doctorate (PhD) in 1970. How Masson lost his illusions about Brunton was described in his 1993 autobiographical book My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion . Masson also studied abroad at the École normal supérieure in Paris , the University of Calcutta , and the University of Poona .

Masson taught Sanskrit and Indian Studies at the University of Toronto from 1969 to 1980, from 1969 to 1980 and from 1981 to 1992 he was a Research Associate in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley .

In 1970 Masson began training at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Toronto, which he graduated with disappointment in 1978.

Masson and Freud's theory of seduction

Masson was interested in the early history of psychoanalysis , in particular the relationship between Freud and Wilhelm Fliess , from whose correspondence Freud's letters were received but were only partially published. In this context he got in touch with Anna Freud , who acted as co-editor for the first publication of these letters from her father ( From the beginnings of psychoanalysis , 1950) in the considerably edited form. She agreed to a complete new edition proposed by Masson.

In 1980 Masson met Anna Freud and Kurt Eissler , the director of the New York Sigmund Freud Archives , in London. As project manager and designated successor to Eissler, he was given access to sealed correspondence and Maresfield Gardens , Freud's last, apparently unchanged residence:

“ In Freud's desk I discovered a notebook by Marie Bonaparte that she kept in 1936 after buying Freud's letters to Fliess. Freud's reactions to the letters written decades earlier are recorded in it. I also found a number of letters concerning Sándor Ferenczi , who in later years had been Freud's closest friend among analysts, including the last lecture Ferenczi had given before the 12th Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association in Wiesbaden . It is about the sexual seduction of children, a subject that Freud dealt intensively during years of his friendship with Fliess. "

- Masson (1984), p. 10.

On the basis of Freud's correspondence, Masson came to the conclusion that Freud had turned away from the seduction theory ( traumatisation through sexual abuse ) for personal reasons (because of the lack of social acceptance of such a thesis of widespread sexual abuse).

The historian Peter Swales , the journalist Janet Malcolm and the New York Times journalist Ralph Blumenthal , who made it known through a series of articles, took part in the controversy surrounding Masson's thesis that broke out in 1981 .

Many psychoanalysts rejected Masson's action as a breach of trust, and Masson lost his membership in relevant professional associations. Alice Miller, on the other hand, appeared as a critical defender of Massons, although she took a differentiated position. Even Muriel Gardiner was full of praise about Masson.

The controversy led to a protracted libel lawsuit by Masson against Janet Malcolm and The New Yorker magazine , which the New Yorker ultimately won. In the last few decades (since around 1990) Masson has mainly been concerned with animal psychology.

Selection from Masson's publications

  • 1974. "India and the Unconscious: Erik Erikson on Gandhi," International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 55: 519-26. Discussion by TC Sinha: 527.
  • 1976. "Perversions-some observations", Israel Ann. Psychiatry. rel. Disc. ,
  • 1978 (with Terri C. Masson), "Buried Memories on the Acropolis. Freud's Relation to Mysticism and Anti-Semitism," International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 59: 199-208.
  • 1980. The Oceanic Feeling: The Origins of Religious Sentiment in Ancient India . (Table of contents)
  • 1981. The Peacock's Egg: Love Poems from Ancient India , WS Merwin and J. Moussaieff Masson, eds. ISBN 0-86547-059-6
  • 1984. The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory . Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-10642-8
    • German translation: What has been done to you, you poor child? Sigmund Freud's suppression of seduction theory , Reinbek bei Hamburg, (1st edition) 1984. (quoted as: Masson (1984)) ISBN 978-3498042844
  • 1985 (editor). The Complete Letters from Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess , 1887-1904 . ISBN 0-674-15420-7
    • German edition (Hrsg.): Letters to Wilhelm Fließ 1887 - 1904 , (hardcover), publisher: Fischer (S.), Frankfurt; Edition: 2nd A. Unabridged edition. (1999), ISBN 3100228022 (10), ISBN 978-3100228024 (13)
  • 1986. A Dark Science: Women, Sexuality and Psychiatry in the Nineteenth Century . ISBN 0-374-13501-0 , last edition 1988
  • 1988. Against Therapy: Emotional Tyranny and the Myth of Psychological Healing . ISBN 0-689-11929-1
    • German translation: The Abolition of Psychotherapy , Publisher: Bertelsmann, Munich (1991), ISBN 3570027317 (10), ISBN 978-3570027318 (13)
      • (1993): Feminist Therapy; Munich (Goldmann); in: MASSON, JEFFREY (Ed.), The Abolition of Psychotherapy, pp. 255–260.
  • 1990. Final Analysis: The Making and Unmaking of A Psychoanalyst . Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-52368-X , new edition 2003
  • 1993. My Father's Guru: A Journey Through Spirituality and Disillusion , Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-56778-4
    • German translation: My father's guru. A childhood with Paul Brunton , translator: Hildegard Höhr and Theo Kierdorf, publisher: Theseus (1999), ISBN 3896201441 (10), ISBN 978-3896201447 (13)
  • Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs .
  • 1995. When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Life of Animals .
  • The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals .
  • The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats: A Journey Into the Feline Heart . ISBN 0345448820
  • The Cat Who Came in from the Cold . Wheeler. ISBN 1587249146

Reviews

literature

Web links

items

Supporting documents and comments

  1. ↑ University of Pune website ( Memento from February 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Cf. on this and the following: Masson (1984), pp. 9-18 (introduction); available online in English, see web links
  3. ↑ Published in 1985 under Masson's editorship (see: Selection from Masson's publications )
  4. ↑ Now the location of the Freud Museum, which was then being planned
  5. ↑ After the death of her husband, the widow Fliess had sold these letters to a Berlin bookseller who smuggled them to France in order not to sell them back to Freud (who in all probability would have destroyed them) to bring to safety. Marie Bonaparte, a loyal follower of Freud, had bought the letters without handing them over to Freud, who insisted on them. Cf. on this: Frank J. Sulloway : Freud. Biologist of the soul. Beyond the psychoanalytic legend ; Cologne-Lövenich (Hohenheim-Verlag), 1982, p. 201.
  6. ↑ Ferenczis is meant to be just as professional and self-critical as it is more disturbing to the inner circle around Freud, because dissident lecture confusion of language between adults and children (the language of tenderness and passion) , which reminded of the so-called "seduction theory" which Freud rejected; In this lecture, Ferenczi introduces the concept of identification with the aggressor after he has pointed out the negative consequences of medical hypocrisy and insincerity for the therapeutic relationship and the analyst's sensitivity ("clairvoyance") to it . Ferenczi had given the planned lecture to Freud. For Freud's reaction (letter to Anna Freud of September 3, 1932) see web links . Masson included this lecture as Appendix C (pp.317-330) in his book.
  7. ↑ Jeffrey Masson: The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory . Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1984, ISBN 0-374-10642-8 German translation: What has been done to you, you poor child? Sigmund Freud's suppression of seduction theory , Reinbek near Hamburg, (1st edition) 1984, ISBN 978-3498042844 .
  8. ↑ Jeffrey M. Massons: The revocation of the abuse theory ("seduction theory") by Sigmund Freud. Rudolf Sponsel, Department of Critical Work on Psychoanalysis and Analytical Psychotherapy. IP-GIPT. Gain.
  9. ↑ PSYCHOLOGIE HEUTE, April 1987, p. 21f: "In contrast to some interpreters who, such as Marianne Krüll , Marie Balmary or Jeffrey Masson, interpret Freud's turning away from the truth as a result of his family history, I see this step as a consequence and expression our millennia-old child-hostile tradition that we still live in. The results of the above historical researchers can still be correct, but I believe that Freud, despite his personal family history, would have been able to remain true to his discovery if society had been The whole thing would not have been so hostile to children if other, freer upbringing patterns had been conceivable back then. But in Freud's time it was still absolutely impossible to question the innocence of parents. " Interview title: How psychotherapy betrays the child
personal data
SURNAME Masson, Jeffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff (full name); Masson, Jeffrey Lloyd (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , USA