NATHAN G. HALE, JR.
239
the sensation of his erect penis. Freud goes on to add that she seemed by
her behavior to confirm this second surmise.
What are we to make of Swales's assertion that "the edifice of Freudian
theory rests upon a simple fallacy-the fallacy that drugs are 'innately sexu–
al' "? According to Swales, Freud claimed an organic basis for psychoanalysis
as ultimately providing the objective evidence for his elaborate theoretical
assertions. Swales's conclusion is based on the assertion that Freud invest–
ed cocaine "with a primarily sexual significance," and that cocaine served
as his obsessive model for libido. I find Ii ttle evidence to support this curi–
ous interpretation. Freud did indeed write that the neuroses resembled the
phenomena of "intoxication and abstinence," and that sexuality was both
a biological and a psychological function, and cited as well the example of
Graves' disease. But this hardly supports the assertion that Freud saw
cocaine as primarily sexual. From the very pages in Ernest Jones that
Swales cites as support, we learn that Freud had a rather broader view of
the uses of cocaine: it made him cheerful; gave him the feeling of having
dined well; cured a case of "gastric catarrh"; cured Freud's bouts of
depression, anxiety attacks and indigestion; and increased his self-control,
vitality, and capacity for work. Here he advances startling claims, but the
note fails to support the argument and there are other footnote problems
with Swales's paper. Elsewhere, Swales suggests that Freud might have
wished to murder Fliess because of a flap over priorities for the theory of
bisexuality, an allegation based solely on the recollections of Fliess's
descendants.
In
that essay, Swales also argues that Freud "neglected, how–
ever, to seriously enquire whether there may have been any truth-past
or present-underlying Schreber's delusions of persecution in favor of
promoting his own theories of repressed wishful fantasies and defense."
This gives the impression that Freud made no attempt to investigate the
factors that might have operated in Schreber's early life. But in fact, Freud
wrote to a colleague near Schreber's home for information about
Schreber's family, particularly his father, a famous educational reformer,
and his brother. Indeed, much of Freud's speculation hinges on the nature
of the father-son relationship. Does Swales mention this concern? Not at
all.
Malcolm Macmillan hauls up a 687-page academic cannon to shoot
the hundred-year-old psychoanalytic elephant, but succeeds in barely
wounding what he construes as Freud's theory and therapy. He relies
heavily on the systematic criticism of psychoanalysts themselves, which
negates much of his critical stance. For if Freud had founded a cult rather
than an empirical discipline, it is unlikely that his propositions and meth–
ods would have been criticized and replaced by other psychoanalysts .
Indeed, if Freud's theories, now close to a hundred years old, had not been
