Passionate forms and the problem of subjectivity: Freud, Frau Emmy von N. and the unconscious communication of affect

Abstract

This article considers the transfer and circulation of affects in Freud’s first clinical case, ‘Emmy Von N.’ We are especially concerned to tease out the unconscious communication of affects within Freud’s case study. In part, this is to contribute to an understanding of the relationship between affect and its representative, passionate, forms. In part, our close reading of the case study is also designed to contribute the recent debates about ‘the problem of subjectivity’. In our reading of the course of Emmy’s treatment and Freud’s therapeutic interventions, we disclose the unconscious communication between them, especially involving the transfer of affects – with Emmy insisting on their passionate nature and Freud’s attempts to undermine her passions. We argue that it is precisely through appreciating the unconscious exchange of affects and their passionate forms that Freud came to understand the possibility of new forms for those passions.