Claification and Agreement!

• The Roles of Control Mastery Theory in a New Model of REM Dreaming by Vic Comello, 5/8/97
  • Welcome Vic! by Jesscia Broitman, 5/9/97
    
    

I am sorry that my reaction was disconcerting to you. I was referring to the application of Weiss's ideas to a psychobiography of Freud. I haven't seen Weiss's concepts used to understand Freud and I think it is a great contribution. I hope you write it up for publication and also and post it here . There has been a psychobiography done of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. using Weiss's plan formulation model, by Beverly Conrad: (Conrad, B. Personality and psychopathology reconsidered: A quantitative /qualitative Control-Mastery psychobiography on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Wright Institute 1995. ). You might enjoy reading it and can get a copy through our office which can be reached at: sfpsych@wenet.net. Joe Weiss was pleased to learn of your work, analysis of Freud's dreams, and interest in his theories. He has a great fascination for historic figures and has written about Monk the painter of the " Scream" . He agrees with your analysis of the Irma dream and sees Freud as attempting to avoid feeling over-responsible and that as you say, the fear that he has done something wrong. .Weiss also suggests that Freud's dreams of feeling jealous and envious toward others might be in response to feeling superior (survivor guilt) toward his colleagues. Weiss agrees with the idea that Freud was trying to feel free to take himself seriously and not feel compelled to act subservient. I hope Joe can join in the discussion as he has many ideas similar to your own. I am afraid that I am not the Freudian scholar it would require to fully address these interesting issues but love hearing, discussing and learning about your ideas! Others who are more familiar please join in!

Your point about Control Mastery being a theory of normal development is excellent. I agree that we all do have life plans. I do not know if you have read Joe's latest book " How Therapy Works" but it includes a chapter on normal development and how children attempt to adapt to their world. Testing is a normal human activity that goes on in all aspect of life. In the therapy room we have the opportunity to study and carefully consider what a patient's life goals are and respond in the way that might best address our patients concerns. In real life it is much more of a arbitrary process. One has some hits and lots of misses. In a healthy family and environment one has a much better chance of having one's tests passed. A healthy parent will try to take their child's needs into account. You are right in believing that it is inevitable that a parent (or lover) will fail. It is not the few failures that cause real psychic traumas and send our patients into treatment. It is most often the ongoing "strain" or repeated traumas that cause the pathogenic beliefs that are most resilient and difficult to shift. They tend to be most problematic and constricting. The stakes are to high to comfortably test these beliefs as the patient often feels that he or she has too much at risk. The patient is also less likely to test in the healthy ways that will lead to the belief's being disconfirmed. I hope these ideas will become a part of normal child raising theories- they have been extremely helpful to me in raising my son!

There is a new article just published in the 1997 Journal of Counseling Psych (vol44#2222-231) by Shilkret and Nigrosh on assessing student's plans for college. They discuss the potential for using Weiss's ideas to infer an unconscious process for normal development. I think you would enjoy it. Shilkret will be joining Joe and I at the Cape for our class in July. Might you attend?

• Psychobiography of Freud by Vic Comello, 5/11/97
  • Wow! What a Wonderful Project! by Jim Duffy, 5/11/97
    • Psychoanalyzing Freud by Vic Comello, 5/11/97
• Promised Dream Reply by Vic Comello, 5/11/97