Sigmund Freud and the Origin of Circular Reasoning

Certainly, Fraud...er, Freud, was not the first person in history to engage in circular reasoning. It seems self-evident, however, that he was the first psychoanalyst to do so. I came across what is probably the classic example of his doing this, while I was reading his "Interpretation of Dreams".

In this book, he lays out his theory of dream interpretation, and he also gives examples of analyses of specific dreams, some of these dreams being his own and some being those of patients he has treated. Now, Freud's theory of dreams employs a fundamental principle whereby a dream is the fulfillment of a wish. He declares this to be true of all dreams, even in those where a dream is unpleasant to the dreamer, or otherwise seems to contradict the principle - once the dream has been properly interpreted, a theme of wish fulfillment is inevitably uncovered.

Far be it from me to dispute this based on my own relatively meager knowledge of dream interpretation (though if I were an expert in the subject of dreaming, I'd probably be more likely to go with the more recent "form theory" of dreams rather than what is now called "content theory", which was the basis of Freud's system). But what I find interesting is that in Freud's classic work "The Interpretation of Dreams", he relates to the reader an anecdote of a patient's dream (and its interpretation) which he believes to be another wish fulfillment, but in this case he has to resort to a circular reasoning of sorts to "prove" this to the patient.

To briefly summarize the anecdote: a certain woman patient is skeptical that all dreams are wish fulfillments, and states this to Freud in a session. Then a couple of nights after that session, she has a dream, and the theme of that dream is such that it seems to directly contradict the notion of wish fulfillment - it appears to be diametrically opposed to the fulfillment of a wish. When she goes to see Freud at the next session, she tells him about the dream, and triumphantly exclaims (paraphrasing), "see...I told you a dream is not always the fulfillment of a wish!!". Freud thinks about this for a few seconds, then he tells her "no, you are incorrect - your dream was in fact the fulfillment of a wish: you had recently been disagreeing with me about whether a dream is the fulfillment of a wish, and so your dream represents the fulfillment of your wish that I should be wrong about this!"

Thus circular reason came to be used in a new field, that of psychoanalysis; and thus was another card placed in the ongoing building of Freud's house.

It's never too early for the therapist to condescend

These days, many therapists call their patients "clients". Patients as a class are "mental health consumers" or some such thing. You know what they say: "The name's the thing." This stuff is all more or less benign, but something more insidious seems to have seeped into the system which is related to this idea of an "active patient" - you know, one who takes responsibility for her own healthcare (except that health professionals become annoyed when a patients actually tries to do that).

What I am referring to here, is the notion whereby the therapist tells the patient at the outset of therapy that she (the patient) is the boss. Here's a typical scenario:

Therapist: Okay, we did your intake last session, and now I'd like to briefly go over a couple of the principles and concepts I abide by when dealing with patients. First of all, the patient's the boss! You're in charge!

Patient (hesitates, sensing a snow job): What exactly do you mean by that?

Therapist: Well, for one thing, it means that in our sessions, we will talk about something, say a specific issue, only if you want to talk about it.

Patient: Okay, sounds good.

.....[twenty or so minutes elapse; the discussion has moved on to issues the patient currently has]

Therapist: So, you are ruminating about work..about how you perceive that some of your co-workers are giving you a hard time.

Patient: Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it anymore right now. I think talking about it a lot will make the rumination worse, in the long run.

Therapist (sensing that the patient is ruminating right in front of him): But..I sense that this is really causing you a problem - you seem very bothered by it...

Patient: Can we talk about something else?

[At this point, the therapist starts to look annoyed, and tries to think of what to say next. The patient then realizes that the fact that she doesn't want to talk about the work issue is really bothering the therapist; then she recalls the therapist's earlier statements about principles.]

Patient: Uh..remember when you said I'm the boss?

Therapist (hesitates, then turns beet red): But..hmmph!..it's really important! It's important to me! Ooops..I mean, it's important to you!!

Patient: Was that a Freudian slip? Actually, at this point, I have diagnosed you..this only half-way through the second session.

Therapist: Really? What's wrong with me?

Patient: You suffer from "Phantom Symptom Transference Disorder (PSTD)". What this means is that you become obsessed with a behavior which you believe the patient is experiencing, then you "transfer" the behavior such that it becomes your own. For example, in this case you yourself are, at this point, intensely ruminating about how my work issue should, in your opinion, be my top priority right now.

Therapist: Is there any hope that I can improve?

Patient: Yes, the solution is readily available to you. Take 500 cc (one half liter) of cyanide tonight, and see me next Wednesday. Don't worry if you forget the session, though...I won't be annoyed...

Reality counts - but don't tell the therapist

Trying to explain the importance of reality to a therapist, is like trying to explain the importance of time to a dead person. In neither case does the subject have the ability to comprehend the explanation; and as well, in neither case does what is being explained have any importance in the subject's "universe". This analogy breaks down, however, when one realizes that in the case where the subject is dead, time in fact is of no importance; whereas reality should of course be of interest to a therapist. The mystery is, why do therapists not understand the importance of reality?

I know of no answer to that eternal question. One might ask a psychologist to tell us why, but they tend to be out of touch with reality themselves. One thing I can do here, however, is give an example of a sustained attempt to jar a therapist into reality, thus enabling prospective patients to prepare for the level of difficulty which they will encounter (current patients are probably already familiar with the problem, but they can receive some "validation" here). As I often do on this blog, I will use a (supposedly) imaginary conversation between a patient (in this case, "Sandra") and her therapist to illustrate my point:

Therapist: "Hi Sandra, what's new?"

Sandra: "My arm is in a sling. Perhaps you didn't notice?"

Therapist: "I noticed, but how do you think that might affect the therapy?"

Sandra: "Duh. In our last session we were discussing how I have to hitch-hike to get here since my car broke down. And since it is my right arm that's broken, it makes the situation all the more difficult."

Therapist: "Well, you made it here, didn't you? Now let us begin with where we left off last time..how are things going at work?"

Sandra: "Well, as you may recall I work in an assembly plant, and this small physical problem here makes it nearly impossible to do my job. So now the boss is putting pressure on me to learn how to do the task with my left hand..."

Therapist: "I see. Do you feel that his complaints are unwarranted? In the past, we have talked about your sensitivity to criticism.."

Sandra: "Hey egghead, his complaints are due to the fact that I physically cannot do my job. It has nothing to do with how 'sensitive' I am."

Therapist: "Now hold on right there..did you notice the anger in your voice?"

Sandra: "Yes, and it's because I'm getting angry - mainly, because your pointy-headedness has still not 'validated' the reality of my situation."

Therapist: "Okay Sandra, I recognize that you are in fact having physical difficulty doing your job. All you can do is try your best; if you believe that you cannot get enough time off for your arm to heal, we will just have to see how things go. Well, time's up!"

[note here that the therapist is merely pretending to comprehend the reality of the situation, in order to assuage the patient.]

Sandra: "Okay..I'm off to the beauty salon."

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Sandra hitch-hikes to the beauty salon, and begins to converse with her hairdresser:

Hairdresser: "I see your arm is still broken. Thus you are no doubt still having physical difficulty doing your job. Well..all you can do is try your best. If your boss will not give you enough time off for it to heal, you'll just have to see how things go!"

Sandra: "Do you realize that I got here only three minutes ago, and already you have sympathized with my situation and given me some appropriate advice? It took me fifty minutes of wrangling with my therapist, to get to this point."

Hairdresser: "How much are you paying that therapist? It's probably a damn sight more than you're paying me!"

Sandra: "So true. Well, if I lose the job, at least I know who to dump first!"