Seduction Theory Research Articles

Influence of perceived economic dilemma on ethical choices of auditors

This paper is an in-depth analysis of the pressures that come upon the auditors in public practice and corporate organisations. Struggle is the meaning of life. When you try to solve one problem you tend to complicate others. Several literature and previous were reviewed, the majority of them with discovery and strong perception that ethical dilemmas involved choosing powerful seemingly ‘justifiable’ non-ethical considerations over strict ethical choices. Such is sometimes the economic dilemma created when auditors are being accountable for their actions. The auditors are sometimes confronted with conflict of interest as considered in most literature reviewed. The TP (Temporary Predictive Behaviour) Cognitive Model with Moral Seduction Theory also forms part of the analysis in this paper. This economic dilemma faced is prop out of fright of the “self-fulfilling prophecy effect” which was further described as the auditor’s fear to precipitate client failure after the release of a warning signal because of its impact on current and potential investors, creditors, suppliers, and customers. The paper concluded that the eventual evaluation of the auditors is vital to the investment decision of the clients’ financial statement users and poses a danger to the continued existence of the client. The study further recommended action that may provide greater economic incentives for the auditor to conduct an ethical audit.

L’anti-Œdipe du point de vue de la philosophie des sciences et des perspectives foucaldiennes du savoir-pouvoir

BackgroundFreud identified his theory of the Oedipus complex as his greatest scientific contribution, made it the centerpiece of his clinical theory of the etiology and cure of the psychoneuroses, and adamantly defended it throughout his life. The theory dominated psychoanalysis for almost a century and determined how the problems of countless patients were interpreted. However, recent scholarship suggests that the arguments Freud used to support the theory are unsound and that, far from being harmless pseudoscience, the Oedipal theory constitutes an oppressive form of Foucauldian “knowledge-power” that rearranges family relationships in sociosyntonic but emotionally harmful ways. Continued identification of psychoanalysis with Oedipal theory poses an obstacle to fresh psychoanalytic thinking and psychoanalytic credibility. To liberate psychoanalysis from its Oedipal shackles, a clear understanding of the theory's faulty origins and deleterious effects is essential. Objectives and methodsThis paper distills the conclusions of two recent books that consider how and why Freud staunchly defended the Oedipal theory and the deleterious effects on the modern family that resulted. After the failure of his seduction theory, Freud developed the Oedipal theory to defend his central theoretical claim, the sexual theory of neuroses. However, the Oedipal theory remained an entirely ad hoc, scientifically unpersuasive defense without novel evidential support less dependent on psychoanalytic method, which had also been cast into doubt by the seduction theory's failure. Freud attempted to provide such “more direct” evidence in the case of Little Hans, on which my analysis focuses. Regarding the evaluation of Freud's evidence, the method is philosophy-of-science logical reconstruction, analysis, and evaluation of the arguments Freud offered. Regarding the theory's effects, the method is neo-Foucauldian analysis of how acceptance of the theory changed family power relations — that is, the theory's knowledge-power. ResultsI identify four pivotal arguments Freud presents in the Hans case to support Oedipal theory. Each argument is brilliant as a logical construction but unsound when compared to the evidence of the Hans case history. I then analyze the knowledge-power of the Oedipal theory as it appears in the Hans case as well as in modern family life. Acceptance or awareness of the theory serves to create a sense of danger in mother-son physical affection, leading to separation of children from parents — especially at bedtime — and thus protection of the marital bed in the new era of egalitarian sexual and emotional marriage that started at about the time that Oedipal theory was proposed. ConclusionsFreud's arguments defending Oedipal theory are brilliantly conceived, but Freud misreads the facts of the Hans case so that his arguments are unsound. In failing to confirm novel predictions, Freud's Oedipal theory remains ad hoc and scientifically unacceptable. It was nonetheless widely accepted because of its distinctive knowledge-power, which supported the evolving nature of marriage in a way that limited parent–child interaction, co-sleeping, and affection. The theory of the Oedipus complex of both false and harmful, and in clinical intervention it is a form of theoretical counter-transference.

Anti-Oedipus from philosophy of science and Foucauldian knowledge-power perspectives

BackgroundFreud identified his theory of the Oedipus complex as his greatest scientific contribution, made it the centerpiece of his clinical theory of the etiology and cure of the psychoneuroses, and adamantly defended it throughout his life. The theory dominated psychoanalysis for almost a century and determined how the problems of countless patients were interpreted. However, recent scholarship suggests that the arguments Freud used to support the theory are unsound and that, far from being harmless pseudoscience, the Oedipal theory constitutes an oppressive form of Foucauldian “knowledge-power” that rearranges family relationships in sociosyntonic but emotionally harmful ways. Continued identification of psychoanalysis with Oedipal theory poses an obstacle to fresh psychoanalytic thinking and psychoanalytic credibility. To liberate psychoanalysis from its Oedipal shackles, a clear understanding of the theory's faulty origins and deleterious effects is essential. Objectives and methodsThis paper distills the conclusions of two recent books that consider how and why Freud staunchly defended the Oedipal theory and the deleterious effects on the modern family that resulted. After the failure of his seduction theory, Freud developed the Oedipal theory to defend his central theoretical claim, the sexual theory of the neuroses. However, the Oedipal theory remained an entirely ad hoc, scientifically unpersuasive defense without novel evidential support less dependent on psychoanalytic method, which had also been cast into doubt by the seduction theory's failure. Freud attempted to provide such “more direct” evidence in the case of Little Hans, on which my analysis focuses. Regarding the evaluation of Freud's evidence, the method is philosophy-of-science logical reconstruction, analysis, and evaluation of the arguments Freud offered. Regarding the theory's effects, the method is neo-Foucauldian analysis of how acceptance of the theory changed family power relations — that is, the theory's knowledge-power. ResultsI identify four pivotal arguments Freud presents in the Hans case to support Oedipal theory. Each argument is brilliant as a logical construction but unsound when compared to the evidence of the Hans case history. I then analyze the knowledge-power of the Oedipal theory as it appears in the Hans case as well as in modern family life. Acceptance or awareness of the theory serves to create a sense of danger in mother-son physical affection, leading to separation of children from parents — especially at bedtime — and thus protection of the marital bed in the new era of egalitarian sexual and emotional marriage that started at about the time that the Oedipal theory was proposed. ConclusionsFreud's arguments defending Oedipal theory are brilliantly conceived, but Freud misreads the facts of the Hans case so that his arguments are unsound. In failing to confirm novel predictions, Freud's Oedipal theory remains ad hoc and scientifically unacceptable. It was nonetheless widely accepted because of its distinctive knowledge-power, which supported the evolving nature of marriage in a way that limited parent–child interaction, cosleeping, and affection. The theory of the Oedipus complex is both false and harmful, and in clinical intervention it is a form of theoretical countertransference.

"Repressed Memory" Makes No Sense.

The expression "repressed memory" was introduced over 100 years ago as a theoretical term purportedly referring to an unobservable psychological entity postulated by Freud's seduction theory. That theory, however, and its hypothesized cognitive architecture, have been thoroughly debunked-yet the term "repressed memory" seems to remain. In this paper, I offer a philosophical evaluation of the meaning of this theoretical term as well as an argument to question its scientific status by comparing it to other cases of theoretical terms that have either survived scientific change-such as "atom" or "gene"-or that have perished, such as "black bile." Ultimately, I argue that "repressed memory" is more like "black bile" than "atom" or "gene" and, thus, recommend its demotion from our scientific vocabulary.

Beheadings and Self-Portraits in Caravaggio’s Work

The present study aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms beneath the change in the facial expression of some of the beheaded characters in Caravaggio’s works, starting from The Head of Medusa, from the artist’s youth, and reaching David with the Head of Goliath, a mature workpiece, searching the continuity between them through a series of self-portraits/ self-insertions of the artist in his work. The psychodynamic analysis is limited by the constitution of its practice to the study of the process of image production and the artistic imaginary, rather than to the investigation of man or the artist out of reach by means of figurative and symbolic language. This approach aims to highlight the drives of the unconscious, the structures of censorship and the technique of operating of the defensive mechanisms that ultimately could contribute to the production of such masterful images that are both seductive and confusing. The study incorporates and continues the contribution of authors such as Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit who applied Laplanche’s theory of generalized seduction theory in the analysis of Caravaggio’s works, but also the mirror stage of Lacan and the masterful study of Winnicott regarding the reflection of the baby in the mimics of his mother, an unconscious unclear image that will stand forever for the perception of the self. The change of the affective resonance, expressiveness and emotional relating to violence is natural in the course of human evolution. While not even the artist Caravaggio can elude it, his work can illustrate by deflection these transforma­tions of the dynamics of the mind, it can raise new questions and open new perspectives of understanding the artistic drive.

Amphibious Magical Realism? The Shape of Water as Cinematic Trauma Narrative

Amphibious Magical Realism? <i>The Shape of Water</i> as Cinematic Trauma Narrative

Acting out and enactment: An effort at clarity

ABSTRACT Acting out and enactment are terms in widespread use colloquially and in psychoanalytic psychotherapy to describe patient and therapist behavior. Both terms are poorly defined in the literature and have varied in interpretation as theoretical frameworks have changed. The advent of relational and inter-personal therapeutic approaches has blurred both the distinction between talking and action established by Freud and the boundaries of clinical practice. A review of the history of both terms reveals their core meaning as transgressive; by one of the analytic pair or by both, respectively. Behavior violating therapeutic boundaries and the analytic attitude, including those triggered by countertransference, are important indicators of repressed trauma as Freud originally thought. His retreat from the seduction theory led to the confusion of acting out with transference and to later authors confusing enactment with countertransference. Traumatic memories are uniquely stored and difficult to recover and characterized by hypofunction in the default mode network and hyperfunction in the central executive and salience networks leading to their behavioral expression in acting out and enactment in contrast to verbal expression. Thus understood these forms of behavior can make an important contribution to the “talking cure.”

Men explain Things to her: Misuse and Abuse in Lou Andreas‐Salomé's Novel Ruth (1895)

Despite much scholarship on Lou Andreas‐Salomé—her person, her friendships, her philosophical and psychological theories, and her fiction—, her second novel Ruth (1895) has received little critical attention even though it is of foundational importance for her later fiction. This article examines the charismatic character of Ruth, an orphan, in relation to her male tutor and guardian. This predatory pedagogue and self‐styled advocate of women's emancipation seeks to dominate and seduce her as she in turn seeks to overcome her fears of abuse and abandonment. Her needs and fears link back to her early childhood, parallel to Sigmund Freud's Studies on Hysteria (1895) and lecture on the “Aetiology of Hysteria” (1896) on childhood sexual trauma, introducing his so‐called “seduction theory.” These texts may have influenced Andreas‐Salomé's writing of Ruth around the same time, long before she became herself a psychoanalyst and friend of Freud. The character of Ruth develops in relation to male Gewalt (physical, sexual or rhetorical) in a patriarchal society.

REFLEXÕES SOBRE O CONCEITO DE FANTASIA NAS OBRAS DE FREUD E LACAN

INTRODUCTION: Introduction: the term fantasy is a correspondent of the idea of psychic reality, elaborated in the midst of the circumstances that put the seduction theory in check, and concerns the subject's imaginary life. OBJECTIVE: To identify and present appearances of the term fantasy throughout the psychoanalytic work, more specifically in the writings of Freud and Lacan, and to establish discussions between the classic authors mentioned and other contemporary ones, about the controversies and evolution of the concept. METHODS: The present bibliographical research was constructed in the format of a theoretical essay. The article cuts through the way fantasy as an object of study is developed, based on the different arguments discussed below. RESULTS: In Freud's view, fantasy unfolds in three stages, starting from a present impression, from a dissatisfaction in the present that awakens the subject to his or her unfulfilled desire, the subject searches in the past for some moment when this desire was fulfilled and then creates a scene for the future in which the present dissatisfaction can magically be transformed into a fulfilled desire. As for Lacan, it is related to desire and points, right from the start, to the originary subjection of the subject to the other. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that fantasy can be considered a set of ideas and feelings, ideas where affective memories predominate. The term can also be thought of as an unconscious satisfaction of the libido, of desires, due to its particular character, but it can also be thought of in the sense of lack.

Priority of the other: Psychosis through the lens of Laplanche’s general theory of seduction

ABSTRACT Jean Laplanche’s interest in psychosis dates back to at least the early 1960s, that is to say, the period of his cooperation with Lacan. As Laplanche’s thought developed towards the general theory of seduction, which was his most significant theoretical achievement, the conceptualization of the aetiology and symptomatology of psychosis became increasingly complex. The paper aims to present crucial elements of the Laplanchian theory of psychosis, such as the role of sexual reality and ego-agency, the concept of intromission and implantation, and finally the concept of the radical failure of translation. The last part of the article is devoted to the possibility of psychoanalytic or psychoanalysis-inspired treatment of psychosis. In addition, a modified topography model proposed by Laplanche is presented. A “unified theory of the apparatus of the soul” – as Laplanche calls his topography – is an attempt to reconcile the theory of psychosis with the general model of psychic apparatus.

Maintaining the Tension Between the Classic Seduction Theory and the Role of Unconscious Fantasies: A Contemporary Reconsideration

This article describes the long‐term psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a young woman who had experienced trauma during her childhood. The details of the trauma were unknown, as all memory of the trauma had been repressed. Past trauma is analysable through a prism of transference, dreaming and dreams, mental states and thinking processes that offer an opportunity to explore and analyse the influence of both reality and fantasy on the patient. The presented case describes a therapeutic process that strives to discover hidden meanings through the unconscious system and illustrates the movement from unconscious to conscious during exploration of the patient's personal trauma in treatment. The author discusses the importance of classical and contemporary psychoanalytic models of childhood sexual trauma through the discovery of manifest and latent content, unconscious fantasies and actual events of trauma. It is suggested that the complexity of trauma is clarified by the tension between these models and by the inclusion of aspects of both of them for a complete understanding.

Battered and sexually abused children: connections with the Freudian theory of seduction and its rejection

It refers to what Masson says about Freud's abandonment of the theory of seduction. Then two different versions of Freud's dream about "closing one's eyes" are analyzed, as well as recent criticism of Freud by Miller, Krüll and Bowlby, and past criticism by Ferenczi. Finally, the importance given to real traumatic events in recent literature is highlighted.

The Seduction of the Name: Universal Marranism and the Secret of Being-in-Language

The author combines Walter Benjamin’s speculations on language, naming, and horror with Jean Laplanche’s general theory of seduction and his notion of the enigmatic signifier in order to reconstruct what he identifies as the primal scene of initiation into language. Further, the author develops this construction by linking it to a similar structure which he extracts by means of interpretation from Jacques Derrida’s commentaries to the Biblical stories of the Tower of Babel and of the Binding of Isaac. Finally, the author shows how the primal scene thus reconstructed should be seen as the transcendental condition of being in language as described by Derrida in his seminal essay on Monolingualism of the Other and how this very condition should be understood as a universalized form of the Marrano condition. The most far-reaching conclusion of the argument is, then, that at least for Jacques Derrida, every subject of language is a Marrano.

The non-symbolic level of psychical reality

ABSTRACTFreud introduced the concept of psychical reality as a consequence of abandoning the theory of seduction, and although this meant a turning point in his theoretical thinking he never defined the concept concisely and systematically. Thus it is possible to delineate at least two meanings of psychical reality that run through Freud´s writings as well as the writings of contemporary analysts. On the one hand psychical reality encompasses the whole field of subjective experiences. On the other, it is understood more narrowly as a transformation of experiences in the unconscious.Substituting the idea of different meanings ascribed to Freud´s concept this article proposes to differentiate between levels in the psyche with the main focus on the unconscious level of the dream and of phantasy and the real unconscious. Starting from the most superficial level of subjective reality the text moves to that of fantasy formation illustrated by primarily Freud´s text on `A child is being beaten´. Adding Laplanche´s translational model the article ends up at the deepest level represented by the late Lacan and his concept of the real Unconscious.The paper concludes that the term real points to something exceeding symbolization and the imaginary—thus escaping comprehension—and yet is absolutely indispensable to the organization of unconscious processes.

から へ/精神分析からPTSDへ : S・フロイト 読解史の批判的検討

から へ/精神分析からPTSDへ : S・フロイト 読解史の批判的検討

Du traumatisme au fantasme : l’émergence du moi

Les révisions de la théorie de la séduction posent à nouveau le problème du traumatisme et du fantasme dans la métapsychologie de Freud. Par ailleurs, dans la ¬clinique actuelle, apparaissent des fonctionnements mentaux plus régressés, aussi bien que le récit à travers les enfants des patients. Au regard de la psychanalyse contemporaine, l’auteur propose une réflexion sur la reconstruction du fantasme à partir du traumatisme, illustrant avec un cas clinique, sensibilisé par la maternité, l’importance du jeu identificatoire, du processus onirique, et du cadre clinique en tant qu’espace potentiel générateur du tiers.

The Feminist Seduction: Cyborg Writing and Womanspeak

The Feminist Seduction:Cyborg Writing and Womanspeak Erin Holliday-Karre (bio) The death of Jean Baudrillard in 2006 brought about a resurgence of scholarship on his work. While writing this essay a wealth of specifically feminist scholarship appeared including a 2011 panel at the American Comparative Literature Association conference entitled "Rethinking Baudrillard and Feminist Theory." In her call for papers Ingrid M. Hoofd writes: "From Jane Gallop's 'French Theory and the Seduction of Feminism,'…to Douglas Kellner's 'Baudrillard's Affront to Feminism,' the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard has been widely condemned in the 80s and 90s as an anti-feminist philosopher." Hoofd suggests that it is not just Baudrillard's death but his increasing relevance that makes him important to feminism: "It has become urgent to revisit Baudrillard's relevance for feminist theory in light of the latter's decreasing grip on global politics." According to Hoofd, Baudrillard has become progressively relevant by defining many theories of global politics. Thus, Hoofd argues that feminists need to reconsider their earlier critiques of Baudrillard in order to increase and maintain their own political relevance. But in most of the recent feminist scholarship on Baudrillard, save for sociologist Victoria Grace's Baudrillard's Challenge: A Feminist Reading (2000), feminists have focused on Baudrillard's later theories of simulation, the trans-sexual, and cybernetics in order to maintain global relevance, forestalling any reconsideration of his earlier text Seduction (1979).1 In the most recent full length feminist work on Baudrillard, Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture, and the Posthuman Body (2007), Kim Toffoletti only tangentially addresses Seduction: "My purpose here isn't to defend Baudrillard on the topic of seduction…rather I look elsewhere in his body of work using his theory of simulation to make sense of posthuman images in a climate characterized by the abundance of signs and the implosion of meaning" (2007, 49). [End Page 295] Toffoletti's assumption here is that a theory of seduction is not as important as simulation for understanding today's "climate." A critical engagement with Seduction is, I argue, key to understanding just how we, as feminists, are now in the position of not only trying to "make sense" of the "implosion of meaning" but also defending our "grip on global politics." I agree that a feminist revaluation of Baudrillard's work is "urgent," but I also argue that as long as feminists refuse to engage with Seduction, they will continue to miss an unacknowledged historical strand of feminist theory that speaks to our continued grip on global politics. Contrary to popular feminist belief, Baudrillard's work on seduction is not rooted in a fundamental disregard for or antagonistic stance toward women. But the fact that this remains a prevailing point of view proves that feminists ban together more than most people give them credit for. Jane Gallop blacklisted Seduction in the 1980s and, since then, most feminist scholars skip over this seminal work, usually with a nod to Gallop,2 before moving on to engage later works, such as Simulations or Transparency of Evil.3 In "French Theory and the Seduction of Feminism" Jane Gallop states that the "primary" reason for her dismissal of Baudrillard is what she sees as a "rather rabid attack on feminism" (1987, 113). He is the French theorist who outright establishes "an adversarial relation to feminism" (1987, 113). Gallop is admittedly not upset with what Baudrillard says about the feminine but rather by his assertion that women should allow him to counsel them: "Baudrillard cannot seduce feminism with his truth, because he protects his truth from being seduced by feminism" (1987, 114). Gallop's issue with Baudrillard, then, is that he refuses to see feminism as itself seductive. Thus, Gallop has laid down a challenge that many feminists have been loath to take up, preferring to reduce Gallop's critique to the idea that Baudrillard is sexist. In one such example, Rebecca Schneider argues that the timing of Baudrillard's theory of seduction is significant because it occurred just as women and people of color were beginning to gain access to the spheres of production: "Baudrillard might be read as representative of an anxiety born of...

How it is Again

This essay examines How It Is in the context of Beckett’s personal creative crisis of the late fifties from which it arose, and also that of his psychoanalysis with Bion, 20 years earlier. Looking at How It Is as a work that tends to collapse the opposition between regression and renewal, the essay also examines the role of unpleasure in the text, as a complication of the oft noted sadism. Finally, the work’s parodic pedagogic episodes of “training” are compared to similar motifs in Murphy and Molloy, in light of Laplanche’s theory of seduction.

Ten Short Essays on How Trauma Is Inextricably Woven into Psychic Life

The author contends that it is possible to reconcile trauma and drive theories of psychopathology if we carefully examine the general notion of trauma and reexamine Freud’s () theory of war neurosis and of repression itself as an elementary form of traumatic neurosis. The logic of these views follows Laplanche’s reintroduction and generalization of the seduction theory in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Don Juan: the Discourse of Seduction as an Exercise of Power

The figure of Don Juan that emerged in Spanish baroque synthesised several important cultural issues related to the phenomenon of seduction, a subject of great social controversy since the very beginning of the Christian era. The present article analyses one of the fundamental parts of the universal appeal of the Don Juan figure – the discourse of seduction, considering it from the social and cultural point of view. The traditional discussion of the subject focuses on the contents of the discourse whereas the present article emphasises the implications rather than the contents, grounding its arguments on Jean Baudrillard’s theory of seduction, which claims that it is the signs and the play of signs that are important in seduction, not their meanings. The seduction discourse is seen as a means to exercise power on the women that Don Juan deals with as well as on the audience who gets involved into the discourse creation process. The article concludes with a claim that Don Juan is a figure of social domination, and his discourse is a means to achieve it.