Dual evidence: a perspective on the methodology of reading clinical materials— a concurrent commentary on "après-coup"

Abstract

By drawing on the "dual evidence" approach proposed by the famous Chinese archaeologist Wang Guowei, this article distinguishes between two types of material in the psychoanalytic clinic: the life history material of the analysand, centred on the repressed material; and the transference material, centred on the transference relationship between the analyst and the analysand. Second, by examining Freud's concept of après-coup (deferred action), and in particular by clearing out its "aprèscoup modification" effect, this article highlights the fact that the first kind of material, whilst becoming more complete as the analysis progresses, is distorted in certain places by the processing of fantasy and the après-coup effect. This is why there is a corroborative relationship between the first and the second type of material which is incomplete but relatively "true" because it can only repeat a certain part of the Oedipus complex.