Blanco, I. M. (1989). Comments on 'From Symmetry to Asymmetry' by Klaus Fink.

(1989). International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 70: 491-498

Comments on 'From Symmetry to Asymmetry' by Klaus Fink Ignacio Matte Blanco

PROCEDURE In the first place I wish to point out that in my opinion Fink has masterfully discovered and defined all the factors which, put together, explain this extraordinary therapeutic success. I may mention, here and there, some little addition to the very convincing explanations that he gives 'to understand these events'. My main task, however, will be another: in the first place to try to understand the various aspects of his therapeutic activity in this case so that we may arrive at the specific factors which led to his success. Furthermore, to make an attempt at formulating these factors in a general way so that they may also be used in cases where we may not find some of the actual facts and coincidences mentioned by Fink. To do this I shall avail myself of a summary of these events. I hope the reader will understand that some repetition of his comments is inevitable and even desirable for a complete grasp of the question. In order to make things easy to follow I shall number each item which in my opinion must be considered. 1.

Just by chance the patient overheard the analyst 'talking energetically in German on the telephone, and from thereon Peter talked at length for several weeks about how his father handled the German occupation troops by being energetic. How his father was big and strong …'

2.

'At this stage I interpreted his occupation problems, being occupied by fears (in German besetzt [in both cases] …) using this opportunity to tell him that he had one year to finish his analysis and that I would no longer put up with him missing sessions because of his phobia since we had to use all the available time to end the analysis properly.'

3.

'He was incensed at first; how could I do such a thing to him? He then used the next few weeks to explain what I felt was the importance … of his agoraphobia …'

4.

The analyst said 'that he would not let go of his agoraphobia and that he used it as if on his visiting card he had put his name and underneath "Agoraphobic" instead of "Dentist".'

5.

'He became indignant, got up and left the session slamming the door behind him.'

6.

'Nevertheless, he came punctually the next day apologizing for his behaviour. He said that I seemed to be right, that his wife had confirmed this when he told her about it.'

7.

'From there on, Peter never again missed another session. During the next six months he improved in astonishing leaps. He threw away his supply of tranquillizers …'

8.

'… sold his old car and bought a new and bigger car with the help of his father, drove alone to the sessions, went out with his friends etc.'

9.

'About two months before the ending date he was almost asymptomatic and we ended the analysis in a way he considered to be very successful.'

MY COMMENTS I suppose any analyst will agree that what is described on this page is most astonishing. In fact, the patient's symptoms disappeared in a year in contrast with the failure of two competent analysts in the course of ten years. Therefore, I feel that what was achieved is so striking that it must contain some facts which, if understood, may give precious information about the

(MS. received April 1988) Copyright © Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London, 1989 - 491 -

ways to improve the efficacy of psychoanalytic technique. In order to carry out my task in a satisfactory way I shall now comment on each of these points. 1.

The casual fact that he heard Fink talking energetically led the patient to remember that his father had also been energetic in his handling of the German occupation and to talk for several weeks about his father's admirable behaviour. From the point of view of classical logic this means that the analyst Fink had one property in common with his father: being

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energetic. As Fink points out, they were equivalent, which in mathematics means that they shared one or more properties but not all the properties which define each of them. From the point of view of the logic of the unconscious if both were energetic this meant that both were identical in all properties and, therefore, they actually were the same person. From another corollary of the principle of symmetry it followed that all energetic men are identical, i.e. they are also the same person! Furthermore, if according to the logic of the unconscious they are the same one and only one person and nothing in each of them had disappeared, we may say, following and slightly enlarging what Fink says, that this fact means that however absurd this may appear to normal logic this new person was at the same time analyst and father, the one who had confronted the German occupation troops with courage and success, etc. Note that if there were only one thing or trait belonging to one of them which was not present in the new 'composite figure', to use Freud's expression when he describes condensation, then the new person would not have arisen from the two persons in question. At this point I must momentarily interrupt my discourse to make some comments which I consider important for the understanding of our subject. First: In order to avoid misunderstandings I will point out that the expression 'composite figure' employed by Freud in his description of condensation is usually understood to mean that the new figure is a new person which has, say, the beard of one, some other feature of another, and so on. But it does not have all the features of all its components. I am using it here in this latter, legitimate and much more radical way, which leads to the total identity of its various components. This becomes more visible with the help of the principle of symmetry. In other words, at this moment of the discussion of the case I am trying to draw all the consequences which would result if reality is seen only from the point of view of what is distinctive of the Freudian unconscious and which can be succinctly described and fruitfully explored with the help of the principle of symmetry. Second: In this whole question there is a problem which haunts us and is always disturbing the transparency of our formulations: the word 'unconscious'. I quote myself (Matte Blanco 1975, pp. 93–4): Freud's fundamental discovery is not that of the unconscious, not even in a dynamic sense (however important this may be) but that of a world—which he unfortunately called the unconscious—ruled by entirely different laws from those governing conscious thinking … he was the first to make the fundamental discovery of this 'Realm of the Illogical', submitted, in spite of it being illogical, to precise laws which he found in an extraordinary stroke of genius.

One may ask why this constitutes a problem. My answer is that there are other psychical manifestations and even abstract formulations which are human conceptions and in which the question of being unconscious or not is irrelevant in various ways, and which actually are bi-logical. I am referring to frequent everyday conscious thinking, to emotional manifestations, to what I have called bi-modal frenzy and to the mathematical conception of the infinite. In this last case the question of being conscious or unconscious is similar to asking whether a sunset is conscious or unconscious. We know that a sunset is not and cannot ever be conscious. Since being unconscious is defined as the negation of being conscious, it follows that a sunset is neither conscious nor unconscious. However, despite the fact that this ambiguity may create some problems in the understanding of our discourse, I feel this is not the moment to tackle this problem in full: I shall try only to avoid it or minimize it when it appears. From the point of view of common sense, Fink's assertions that he and the patient's father were a completely unique person who had handled energetically the German occupation troops and now was an energetic psychoanalyst - 492 -

may seem a pure, wild and scandalous fantasy. It must be recognized, however, that they are fully in the atmosphere of Freud's discoveries about the unconscious and actually are an expression of something which was implicit in them. I shall make two quotations to show what I mean. In his last book 'An outline of psychoanalysis' (Freud, 1940), he writes: 'The governing rules of logic carry no weight in the unconscious; it might be called the Realm of the Illogical' (pp. 168–9). The reader will agree that in this sentence Freud shows no hesitation whatsoever in affirming with no ambiguity that the unconscious has a radical neglect of classical logic. I would add that, in the light of this quotation and of what I have already discussed we might also affirm that the unconscious belongs to the Realm of the bi-logical Illogical. At the present moment I wish to examine only the symmetrical aspects of the illogicalities of this case. Note that the principle of symmetry describes what I have called symmetrical logic which, as such alone, cannot be antinomic. Instead, if we consider the bi-logical illogicalities we shall become aware that the unconscious and all the other manifestations mentioned a moment ago also belong to the Realm of the antinomies for the simple reason already discussed that symmetrical and classical logic are incompatible. The principle of symmetry is a tool which may help us to know whether we are in front of the most characteristic traits of the unconscious. In this way it renders more explicit things already said by Freud. Yet, what we find is so strange as to seem scandalous. WARNING! This text is printed for the personal use of the owner of the PEP Archive CD and is copyright to the Journal in which it originally appeared. It is illegal to copy, distribute or circulate it in any form whatsoever.

Perhaps not even this may be convincing. At this point I remember a paragraph (Freud, 1900, p. 312), where there are various examples which appear as wild or wilder than what I am discussing. This is one of them: Freud says that the same thing 'can represent foreground and background …' This sentence confronts us with the neglect of the fact that something cannot be foreground and background in the same situation which is obviously what Freud means: it is the same type of incompatibility that we have found with the help of the principle of symmetry. And the reader may also find it in the various other strange things that Freud mentions in the same paragraph. After the discussion of this point we may draw five conclusions: a.

That, as Fink has pointed out, the fact that they shared one property in common led to the conclusion that the patient's father and the analyst became, in terms of symmetrical logic, identical. In other words they were only one and the same person. This in its turn meant that father and analyst were one analyst and at the same time the courageous person who had fought with the German occupation troops! Hence, from then on the patient's emotional and intellectual reactions towards his analyst were identical to those towards his father. At this period of the analysis they were clearly positive, as we can conclude from what Fink writes. He also adds that this meant that the patient no longer felt him to be the same person as the other two analysts.

b.

Yet, according to classical logic which obviously was also present in the patient, they were different. In other words, this strange process of thinking is a bi-logical structure of the type which I have called Simassy, i.e. Sim ultaneity of as ymmetry and sy mmetry.

c.

This antinomy is an expression of the fundamental antinomy of beings.

d.

In other words, it is the expression of the co-presence of the heterogenic and the indivisible mode (see Matte Blanco, 1975, pp. 349–58) which are incompatible in our present epistemology though they may not be so in a wider epistemology yet to be formulated.

e.

From the fact mentioned by Fink, that the patient spoke for several weeks in an admiring way of his father, we may conclude that his reaction towards the new bi-logical composite figure, father-analyst, was extremely positive.

2.

We shall now consider the second item I have chosen to discuss. I feel that Fink's remark that the occupation of a country by troops and the patient's 'occupation problems, being occupied by fears' are both described in German with the same word, besetzt, together with the patient's discovery that the analyst was energetic, marks a second most important event in the treatment which we may describe as symmetrical identification. To explain, it seems that without the participation of classical or Aristotelian logical thinking to a greater or lesser degree, there is no possibility for us, humans, to think or - 493 -

perceive (physically) anything, consciously or unconsciously. In other words, classical logic is a constitutive of the logic of the unconscious. What I am adding now is that the proportion of the participation of classical and symmetrical aspects of unconscious thinking may vary from one case to another. I propose to call symmetrical identification those unconscious manifestations based on the fact that two persons who have one or more properties in common treat these persons as if they were the same person, which means the identity of all properties. As is well known in classical logic, no person can have just all the properties of another because this would mean that he is himself and also another person. On the other hand, if classical and symmetrical logic participate, it means that we are in front of a bi-logical structure which, as such, is antinomic. Note that the identification of analyst and father which we considered in point 1 is also a symmetrical identification. I had not discovered this concept at that moment and this is the reason why I did not mention it. Consider again the fact that through the German double meaning of the word besetzt the patient became his own father and also became Klaus Fink. From this follows that he (the patient) also became the energetic father who had handled the German occupation troops and a very good energetic analyst as well. But if we remember that he was also aware of being himself and not the other two persons in question, we conclude that we are in front of a second bi-logical structure of the Simassy type and, we can now add, of the symmetrical identification variety of this type. This new structure contains the first one mentioned, between father and analyst, as a substructure, I believe that a full awareness of the meaning of the potentialities of this wider structure may lead to further exploring and exploiting the therapeutic possibilities of the road courageously opened by Fink. I shall not do so now. But Fink at the same time did something else which I believe was, if put together with what we have already seen, a most fundamental component which led to the therapeutic success. 'Using this opportunity' to make a radical change in the analyst's analytical behaviour he fixed a date to finish the analysis and said that he would 'no longer put up with him missing sessions'. I believe that this new attitude fused into one thing what was obviously good for the patient and for the analyst: it expressed the analyst's intention not to be subjected to the frustrating situation of a prolonged therapeutic WARNING! This text is printed for the personal use of the owner of the PEP Archive CD and is copyright to the Journal in which it originally appeared. It is illegal to copy, distribute or circulate it in any form whatsoever.

failure. This fundamental change coincided with what was good for the patient: both analyst and father had to get away and to overcome this frustration. This also implied that not only had he become the analyst-father through the fact of besetzt as his father-analyst which did lead him to become this composite figure. To this fact was now added that through the decision of the analyst both would get the same benefit of overcoming their identical frustrations provoked by his not healing. In other words he assumed the attitudes of father and analyst who avoided the same frustration. As a result of this contemporary assumption of two different roles this second symmetrical identification was much more powerful and greatly potentiated the first symmetrical identification. I shall now try to understand better the interrelations between the facts mentioned in order to search for an explanation of the great impact they had on the patient. The initial symmetrical identification between father and analyst clearly resulted in creating a very respectable and lovable single person who had all the positive traits from both. The beloved father was no longer a father but also an analyst. The love towards his father also reached the analyst. This implied that he would no longer have the traits of that sort of analyst he had fought for so many years: the third analyst became somebody completely different from the other two previous analysts. Perhaps the following may help our understanding of these puzzling results: Fink's various pertinent remarks about the fact that the three analysts were only one; about the patient's feeling that indefinite time meant timelessness in the unconscious, although most probably this indefinite delay was a form of unconscious attack against the father-analyst. I suggest that this set of various feelings damaged him and his future on the one hand; on the other they did not help him to discharge his aggression against the father-analyst simply because, being linked to timelessness, it could never disappear. This situation-trap is an example of what I have proposed - 494 -

to call a non-vital bi-logical structure, i.e. one which does not help but damages the subject. Fink swept it away through the identification resulting from the new fact that they now shared the same interest in one thing, analytical success. They both became still more the same person, embedded so to speak, in the same good path towards a better life. This identification is what I am used to call a vital bi-logical structure. Now, the identification of the analyst with the energetic father and all its good consequences already discussed resulted in an instantaneous disappearance of the non-vital structure and its replacement with a first vital bi-logical structure. Note that this fundamental change took place as a result of a fortuitous and not a programmed episode. But Fink was quick to grasp its meaning and use it for the benefit of the patient in the way I have just commented. This led to a second vital bi-logical structure which led to a more intense fusing-identification between patient and analyst. I believe this question should be explored further but at this moment I shall stop here. I have reflected about this and other opportune things Fink did for the patient just at the right moment, as we shall see. There was such an accurate promptness in his various moves that it does not seem to me that this could have taken place as a result of a purely conscious reasoning process of thinking. I imagine that he kept himself in a state of 'evenly suspended attention' (Freud, 1912), so that his unconscious could instantly discover the relations between the various aspects of this complex situation and instantly put them to good use when the right moment arrived. I believe something of this kind happened when he says: 'using this opportunity …' The second, more vast symmetrical identification brought Peter into becoming beloved father and beloved analyst: to love himself. In contrast to the first one this identification required that he dropped the negative features of a rebel child-patient who was resisting-attacking the father-analyst. In conceptual terms we may say that in order to have the privileges of being a father-analyst-himself-Fink he had to renounce some infantile features: small price for such a good gift! This means that this second symmetrical identification was less symmetrical and more bi-logical than the previous one. So far so good. But Fink added another ingredient to this mixture: he warned him about the conditions he attached to his help, that is, no more than a year of further analysis and no acceptance of him missing sessions. I believe these conditions tended to stress the advantage of the vital bi-logical structure but at the same time represented an imposition on the patient to accept and assume the better behaviour corresponding to the new vital bi-logical structure which led towards health. He resisted. 3.

'He was incensed at first …' and for several weeks explained the importance of his agoraphobia. We may say that he was defending and trying to justify his non-vital behaviour. Then came Fink's ironical remark.

4.

'Agoraphobic instead of Dentist', which brought about the great explosion we shall consider in the next point. I feel that Fink became healthily impatient about the patient's reluctance to accept the new and better course he was offering him. This reluctance was seen in Peter's defence of his agoraphobia for several weeks. Quite spontaneously Fink finally reacted with a smiling irony which confronted Peter with the really ridiculous aspects of the defence of his agoraphobia. In other words, he put a mirror in front of him so he could see himself in a proper perspective.

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This behaviour of the analyst reminds me of an episode I heard in the early 40s when I was visiting St. Elisabeth Psychiatric Hospital in Washington. I was told of a patient who was disturbed by auditory hallucinations and complained about his disturbing voices. Perhaps, I do not remember, he spoke to them and, therefore, the other patients knew about it. There was a journal managed by the patients themselves. One day this journal contained a short message for this patient, not identified by name but I think by the number of his bed in the ward where he was. It read something like this: 'are the voices still molesting you?' The patient was quite struck, felt ashamed in front of the other inmates and tried to explain his behaviour. It seems that this message helped him to acquire some knowledge of his pathology. The ironic comment was more helpful than other therapies. And I feel that the same type of result followed in the case of Fink's comment. Let us now see the patient's reactions: - 495 -

5.

'He became indignant …' and;

6.

'Nevertheless, he came punctually … apologizing … his wife had confirmed this …' Note that this is the first time that the wife-mother is explicitly agreeing with the father-analyst. In fact, when she accompanied Peter to the sessions, she was cuddling his pathology.

7.

(I am changing Fink's order for reasons which will be easily understood): 'sold his old car and bought a new and bigger car with the help of his father …' This shows his progress in various ways and the help of a good father image (as in 1 and 2) with whom he was now solidly identified just on account of 1 and 2.

8.

'… never again missed another session …'

9.

'About two months before the ending date …' My comment: these last two numbers give an account of his progress.

SOME GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT THESE HAPPENINGS I shall start first with an important question: how can we explain the dramatic change in the therapeutic results of the analysis? As I see the question, it seems that the casual episode of the patient becoming aware that Fink was energetic started a change in the attitude towards him which essentially consisted of identifying him with his father, with the corresponding positive effects on his figure as an analyst. A second important step forward ensued when Fink facilitated the identification of the patient with his own father through the double meaning of the German word besetzt: it seems to me that the analyst took the hint from the identification made by the patient between him and his father. This time it led to the identification of both with the patient. I consider this a very important intuition. The third positive move was 'using this occasion' to put a date to end the analysis and to warn him that he would not accept his absences. All this was favourable for the patient and a decidedly energetic measure which made him feel the analyst as somebody strong who was unhesitatingly and almost ruthlessly trying to do what was best for him. Then came a fourth positive fact which initially provoked a violent reaction: Fink's irony about the patient's agoraphobia. A fifth and final factor was the change of attitude of his wife, from being an accomplice of the patient's illness to becoming a collaborator and supporter of the analyst's therapeutic efforts. However, all I have mentioned so far could not have taken place if the analyst did not possess two distinctive traits: the first, already mentioned before, of his being so sensitive as to grasp his spontaneous unconscious intuitions and to act accordingly by pressing the right key at the right moment. We have already seen the various examples of this capacity. The second and probably most important trait is not easy to define. I would describe it by saying that Fink's paper transmits to me the image of an analyst who, quite spontaneously and not as the consequence of a process of reasoning, does not exclude from his work anything which he feels may be useful. I am thinking of his ironic comment about the agoraphobia. All this, of course, must be submitted to the control of good sense and of the respect for the patient, both of which lead to a sober way of behaving that, nevertheless, is not incompatible with a healthy spontaneity. This is an important subject very pertinent to the technique of psycho-analysis. I do not think, however, that this is the moment to enlarge upon it.

FROM SYMMETRY TO ASYMMETRY THROUGH SYMMETRY I feel this is a very fundamental question for psychoanalysis, one which, expressed in other terms, has preoccupied Freud. With the exception of the last two words, it is the title of Fink's paper. Fink has shown us that the patient employed timelessness, a characteristic of the unconscious, for deceiving himself about the non passing of time. This resulted in an endless unsuccessful analysis. We have seen that this behaviour was linked to a non-vital bi-logical structure. Its disappearance, thanks to the analysis, resulted in an increase of asymmetry in the patient. Therefore, the title of the paper expresses a truth which we probably find in various other aspects of therapeutic analysis. WARNING! This text is printed for the personal use of the owner of the PEP Archive CD and is copyright to the Journal in which it originally appeared. It is illegal to copy, distribute or circulate it in any form whatsoever.

- 496 -

But this is not the whole truth. In fact, we have seen that the two symmetrical identifications that the patient developed are clearly bilogical structures which are the expression of the most distinctively symmetrical characteristic of the unconscious. I also feel that, once established, they will remain for the rest of the patient's life as something incorporated in his mental structure, something which through his identification with a two-one parental image, will be most important for his self-confidence and for his relations with all father images. At this point we must remember that the notion of the indivisible mode, a most essential aspect of human beings and—so it seems—of the world, was arrived at as a consequence of the principle of symmetry. The conclusion we may draw is that if we had no bi-logic in our nature we would not be what we are. This is an important subject but now we must leave it at that. I believe Freud can give us an important light to increase our understanding of this important question. In his 'New introductory lectures' (Freud, 1933) he writes: Nevertheless it may be admitted that the therapeutic efforts of psycho-analysis have chosen a similar line of approach. Its intention is, indeed, to strengthen the ego, to make it more independent of the super-ego, to widen its field of perception and enlarge its organization, so that it can appropriate fresh portions of the id. Where id was, there ego shall be. It is a work of culture—not unlike the draining of the Zuider Zee (p. 80).

Now, so far as I can see the ego's strength and independence from the superego, the widening of its field of perception and enlargement of its organization can all be achieved without taking any territory from the symmetrical indivisible mode: they all are asymmetrical activities. So, there is no problem there. But to appropriate fresh portions of the id and the draining of the Zuider Zee comparison and especially, 'where id was there ego shall be' seems more 'dangerous'. Upon further reflection, however, there seems to be no problem either. The reason is simple: if the principle of symmetry rules you can take away something and yet leave it there. If by id we understand the symmetrical mode, then it is possible that you can take something from it in terms of classical logic while this something still remains in terms of the symmetrical mode. The basic antinomy between both logics is such only from the point of classical logic. So, it is perfectly possible that the ego grows at the expense of the id but the id remains the same. The ego grows asymmetrically from symmetry but still leaves symmetry with not even a little scratch. This is the question of the unconscious as infinite sets. The indivisible mode is utterly incomprehensible in terms of the logic of the dividing mode: Parmenides was not accepted. Yet classical logic can, through a process of reasoning, understand that this mode can exist even if it does not comprehend it.

THE SECOND CASE I shall make a very brief comment. To be born after only six and a half months of gestation is a colossal deviation from normality. I have been told by a specialist in this subject that if she had been born a very few weeks earlier, probably she would have been or become blind. I know of one such case. Now, to be subjected to all the medical tortures mentioned by Fink constitutes a most severe and multiple trauma. So far as I am aware psychoanalysis is at the present moment quite incapable of dealing with very early post-natal trauma. I would say that it is completely incapable, so far, of dealing with the consequences of a trauma at an age when she should have been a foetus. In consequence I would say that it would have been a miracle if something would have been achieved in this case. There is something in Fink's report that has struck me: the fact that the patient had developed an intense repulsion to the idea of being penetrated in intercourse. This struck me as being isomorphic to the various brutal penetrations into her intimacy by all the various medical controls. All of it happened when she should have been in the darkness of the mother's womb, with only the mysterious relationship with her. The subsequent sexual perversion of being slapped on the bottom might symbolically mean a less catastrophic event than the penetration of light and other medical manipulations; and also less catastrophic than phallic penetration. It - 497 -

might, therefore, have the meaning of an effort to solve the anxieties of the brutal early invasion starting with an effort to overcome the fear of a milder invasion of her privacy, such as slapping. Psychoanalysis is better equipped to deal with such a problem. I would not exclude the possibility that if she had a psychoanalytical treatment for her perversion she could advance from there towards a normal sexual relationship. I repeat: the perversion might be a first attempt at solving the foetal penetration trauma. It also seems interesting to note that in spite of not having been cured she has remained in very good rapport with the analyst. This may be another reason for optimism. I am, of course, fully aware that what I have said may only be a fantasy with not sufficient basis. Who knows …?

REFERENCES FREUD, S. 1900 The interpretation of dreams S.E. 4[Æ]

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FREUD, S. 1912 Recommendations to physicians practising psycho-analysis S.E. 12[Æ] FREUD, S. 1933 New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis S.E. 22[Æ] FREUD, S. 1940 An outline of psycho-analysis S.E. 23[Æ] MATTE BLANCO, I. 1975 The Unconscious as Infinite Sets London: Duckworth. MATTE BLANCO, I. 1988 Thinking, Feeling and Being (Chapters 2 and 3.) London and New York: Routledge and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.[Æ] - 498 -

Article Citation [Who Cited This?] Blanco, I. M. (1989). Comments on 'From Symmetry to Asymmetry' by Klaus Fink. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 70: 491-498

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