PSYCHOANALYTIC POLITICS Freud’s French Revolution SHERRY TURKLE Basic Books, Inc., PublishersChapter 8 Psychoanalysis as Popular Culture: The Perils of Popularity V Vv. have seen French psychounlytic pois played out inthe ‘word ofthe psyeboaralytic societies and extended ito words peopled by political acivis, psychiatric paints, medical profesional, uni- veslty-sudents, and a bourgeois inteligentsia tha has wadtonally ‘made a career out of Keoping up with what is now. But the social i= fusion of psychoanalysis extends even father, deep no French popular calture, Books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and casual conversation are communicating how to we" payshoanalyti" ideas to ‘many millions of French people who may never have been snd may ever be inside payehoanalys' afc, In this chpter, we del with payehoanalyss ts itis woven through French popular cite. The picture that emerges ean be characterized by thee propositions, Fst, there is avery ral diffusion and pence tion of psychoanalytic ideas into French society. Second, these idea, ‘ven when we find them on eleislon arin women’s magtzines, elect the politcal valence and highly charged intral politics of French psy-ag In Porunan Cunrune chanalsi. Tie, although some aspects of the French Freud are wel! ‘represented in polar manifestations, other aspects ae not, in pati Tat, the ides that psychosnayas i a subversive way of thinking about the individual. In the popular culture, psychoanalysis olen is repre- sented a source of answers instead ofa a pratie thal ads the ind- vidual layer after layer of increasingly dificult questions. We have spoken of very marked diferencesbetwoen the Preach andthe Amer- ‘am eaings of read, In this chapter, we find many of them expressed jn popalar culture, though this also is place where many ofthe di ferences break down ‘rea once wrote to bahar: “Tad ot Hike the on that pyeho- andysis shoud sudenly become fashionable because of purely prac tical considerations." Yet, in both ranoe and Americ, Freud forthe mass has passed through the pris of pragmatism. The psyehoan- Iyucally “useful” fs what has made is way into the Sunday supple ‘ments. This isnot suprising. Mt people, busy with wtnaiing the nveesites of life, can rally © revolutionary doctrines during revalo- Yionary moment, bot most ofthe tie, dey are ying to ease the but eos ofa ditficoltdily life. In Amerie, the ideology of organized psy- choanalysis was in armeny wih tis popular prgratism, In France, it ‘comes into sant withthe beliefs of mich of the prychoanalytic ‘movement which sees peycboanalyss a incompatible with “making ‘hing ie betier" with “plastering over” socal conti with y= chonalytic language. [As we tm fo the widespread dtfsion of psychoanalytic ideas ito Feeneh popular este, we must begin with the novelty ofthe phenome ron. Indeed, a study of the social image of psychounalysi done by French aca psychologist Serge Moscovil inthe mid-19s0s suggested ‘hat psychoanalysis was not widely diffused in French popular eutue at al? Twenty years oe, I weot back over some ofthe tran that Mos ‘ovil ad covered and talked with over two hundred Paisians of sll ‘ages and walks f life about what thy knew an fet sot paychounal ysis, My work didnot fully epieme the ear study, which had co ‘acted over a thoosand informants, but by using the data rom the 19508 5 2 baseline, we can tablish some-major tends in how thS now French psychoanalytic culture has been growing? Paychogualisis as Popular Culture 299" Inthe mid-1970, it was common for people of all ages and classes to escribe their interest in peycoinalyss as new, “really only a few years old,” and to koow more about psychoanalysis than had their ‘counterparts of twenty years before, In the 1950s, even very wei rea people had Sty stereotyped ides about what heppens in sn svalysis ("You tlt your dreams"). Today, people seem fu more ikely to reflet some knowledge of whot i infact the psychoanalytic “base rules the patent is to say everything that comes ito his head. Ys a oh in mS at on ey aya Wishard tein nage. tose yous. say everyting, nebo and ey you leant higs "righ else at up. Wis not suprising that poope sem to have more information about the pyctionalytic process. We know tht there are more analysts (rom dozens to thousands inthe past twenty years), and becatee ofthe “short sessions” policy of many of hem, dhe number of patents hes increased ‘mote than proportionally. The percentage of middle-