POLYMETIS FREUD: SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE PSYCHOANALYTIC SIGNIFICANCE OF HOMER'S ODYSSEY Author(s): Dany Nobus Source: Comparative Literature

Studies, Vol. 43, No. 3, Classics and Contemporary Literature/Culture/Theory (2006), pp. 252-268 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25659530 . Accessed: 05/04/2013 18:12
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POLYMETIS FREUD:

SOME REFLECTIONSON THE PSYCHOANALYTIC

SIGNIFICANCE OF HOMER'S Dany Nobus ODYSSEY

Freud s "Good Books" and theQuestion of Homer In 1907, the editorial board ofNeuen Blatterfur Literatur und Kunst, a Vi ennese arts and humanities, invited a number journal for criticism in the of renowned intellectuals, including Hermann Hesse, Arthur Schnitzler, Ernst Mach, and Sigmund Freud, to compile a list ofwhat they regarded as

out that good merely "good books." Freud justified his response by pointing books are "books towhich one stands in rather the same relationship as to one owes a part of one's to knowledge of life and view good' friends, whom which one has enjoyed oneself and gladly commends of theworld?books to others, but in connection with which

ten "good books." Freud's answer was most extraordinary, because all in all he mentioned more than twenty titles,whilst at the same time discarding half of these as irrelevantwith regard to the question, since they concerned "most magnificent," "most significant," and "favourite" works, rather than

the element of timid reverence, the own smallness in the face of their greatness, is not particularly one's of feeling Freud's actual list of "ten good prominent."11 shall refrain from reproducing it is books," here, not because the "good books" lack importance?indeed, see who is featured amongst Freud's "literary friends," to quite interesting not in alphabetical order but (as we may assume) especially since the list is in descending order of influence?but because it is quite clear from Freud's
LITERATURE COMPARATIVE Copyright ? 2006 The Pennsylvania Vol. 43, No. 3,2006. STUDIES, State University, University Park, PA.

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a name rather than a whereby he startedwith single specific book: Homer. Trivial as thismetonymy may seem, the rhetorical figure definitely deserves some closer attention, partly because nowhere else in his enumeration of Homer books did Freud identify a text as completely with its author, partly because is no doubt the most elusive and paradoxical author in the entire

message or, as Freud himself put it, "[to be accustomed] to paying attention to small signs."3 Instead of immediately listing his "ten good books," Freud preferred to world literature)" (245), contemplate first "the tenmost magnificent works (of

comments that his true reverence lay elsewhere.2 And ingood psychoanalytic fashion, it is always better to focus on what appears in the margin of the

literature.Not only does his provenance remain couched Western history of inmystery, but the precise nature of his talent has puzzled and divided more researchers than anything else in the academic study of epic authorship, so much so that ithas become quite common forHellenic scholars, Classicists, and Ancient historians to refer to "the Homeric question."4 If there is one author in world literaturewhose books cannot be identifiedwith his own act ofwriting, let alone displaced metonymically to a single authorial identity, it must be Homer. Whether Homer himself was able towrite, and whether he himself wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, is not really the issue here.What matters is that both works derive their structure, composition, and aesthetic from if oral Even Homer did write his books, qualities epic performance. he constantly drew on themusicality of the spoken word, and even ifhe did want his audience to read, he constantly forced his readership to listen. As Alexander Pope proclaimed in a famous phrase: "Homer makes us Hearers

and Virgil leaves us Readers."5 In mentioning Homer, rather than The Iliad and The Odyssey, Freud thus placed a question mark at the beginning of the most magnificent works ofworld literature. Ifwe take Freud's list of "good books" and his aforementioned defini tion of "good" seriously,we can only arrive at the conclusion that "Homer" was not someone towhom the inventor of psychoanalysis owed part of his of life view of and the In world. what follows I shall argue that knowledge we must guard ourselves against interpreting this conclusion as indicative of Freud's intellectual and emotional indifference towards theHomeric canon. world If Freud could not have owed part of his knowledge of life and view of the toHomer, at leastwhen we take seriously his list of "good books," this does not by definition imply that he was in no way indebted to the poet. I shall demonstrate that much like Sophocles' tragedies (especially Oedipus Rex), Goethe's Faust and Shakespeare's Hamlet, Homer may have featured amongst the "mostmagnificent books" rather than the "good books," precisely

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because Freud did not owe "part," but "all" of his knowledge of life and view of theworld to them. In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that Freud could already boast good familiarity with Homers works during adolescence, yet re-dis covered their extraordinary value for his budding psychoanalytic explorations when he compared his own clinical discoveries with those of the archaeologist Schliemann thatwhereas Schliemann at the presumed site ofTroy. However, had used The Iliad as the guidebook

Heinrich

I shall argue of choice for

mind. My

was much better suited for directing his archaeological quest, The Odyssey Freud's psychoanalytic recovery of the hidden treasures of the unconscious

unfortunate hero, but on a reading ofHomer's narrative as a multi-layered, a cunning scheme of desire inwhich "being driven off course" is not only central characteristic of the hero's desperate search for home, but also an essential featuie of the narrative as such. Viewed

argument will not draw on the identification of the analysand's treatment with the circuitous journeying psychic wanderings during the nor on the identification of Freud himself with The Odyssey s of Odysseus,

from this angle, The Odys as excellence for will the Freudian psychoanalytic appear sey guidebook par is latter also because the crucially geared towards the revelation of practice, the analysand's unconscious desire.

Homeric Atmosphere Freud and the as one of Freud's great mentors will no doubt appear Designating Homer as a to many a Freud-scholar hugely overstated claim. For if Sophocles, are and Goethe, among the most widely quoted literati in Shakespeare seems to play less than a secondary part within his Homer Freud's writings, in his published works does Nowhere pantheon of seminal literary figures. Freud explicitly refer to The Iliad. None of his major epistolary exchanges with friends and colleagues that have hitherto been published contains a toHomer's most important work. As far as The Odyssey is single reference concerned, Freud's published works and letters contain no more than a few scattered comments on brief episodes in the narrative ofOdysseus's journey. Dreams and The Psychopathology ofEveryday Life, In The Interpretation of Freud took his lead fromDergriine Heinrich by the Swiss author Gottfried Keller, whose Die Leute von Seldwyla he considered a "good book" (246), in as an accurate order to read theNausicaa episode in Book 6 of The Odyssey In wanderer.6 The of of dream the the unhappy Interpretation representation

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(Book 11 of The Odyssey), which spring to life as soon as they taste the blood of Odysseus's animal sacrifice (249, 553n 1). Reflecting on status of life after death in his 1915 essay the religious and mythological on and Death," Freud subsequently quoted for the War Times "Thoughts Achilles' lament to Odysseus, also in Book 11, in order to show how the of theDead And

Dreams, Freud also drew an analogy between the "undead," indestructible of character of the unconscious dream-wishes and the ghosts in the Kingdom

afterlife had not always been regarded as a precious, joyous experience.7 on "The finally, in his paper Uncanny," he pointed out that "Homer's an not induce uncanny affect in the reader, owing to theway in ghosts" do which theHomeric universe is laid out.8 Alongside Freud's total lack of engagement with The Iliad, the paucity it really concerns only three frag of his references to The Odyssey?although ments from two books?could easily be used to substantiate the claim that is by no means

Homer

Although Freud did not write any book or paper that deals specifically the Oedipus complex, Sophocles' tragic hero is indissolubly linked to the Freudian edifice, much like Hamlet, Faust and Dmitri Karamazov, whose creators have the added privilege of detailed psychoanalytic scrutiny in exclusive essays.13 In sharp contrast, Freud interprets neither Homer nor with

than Freud. Jung seemed to have been much more enchanted by Homer Drawing on passages from Jung's autobiography, Henri F. Ellenberger has some time reported that during the early 1910s, i.e., around the time of his traumatic break with Freud, Jung embarked on a four-day cruise on Lake Zurich, during which he asked his lifelong friendAlbert Oeri to recite Book 11 of The Odyssey ("The Kingdom of the Dead"), as the backdrop for his own into the is unconscious.11 It than rather Freud who, by journey Jung virtue of his familiarity with Homer's world, to a a write agreed preface to new German edition of James text the in Joyce's Ulysses, although question was never used as such on account of Jung's profound dislike for the book, which he described as a "transcendental tape worm."12

in the same Freudian league as Sophocles, Goethe, and the crucial (we may add) Dostoevsky. Freud modelled Shakespeare on a of the hero of Sophoclean psychoanalytic concept Oedipus complex in and Hamlet his heirs and The Brothers Karamazov.9 Yet tragedy literary for all I know, theHomeric question never inspired Freud to consider the an Achilles, or possibility of Agamemnon, Telemachus, Odysseus complex. If anyone was inspired at all to extract another complex fromHomer's legacy, was Freud's greatest intellectual rivalCarl Gustav it in who 1913 intro Jung, name of the duced the "female" version of the Oedipus under the complex Electra complex.10 In keeping with the "wandering" nature of his own mind,

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his works, even less (in psycho-biographical fashion) a combination of both. the exception of the brief fragments mentioned above, Homer com With common to pletely escapes Freud's psychoanalytic knife. Yet contrary what sense would dictate, the absence of theHomeric question inFreud's oeuvre, to resist or rather the fact that Freud?unlike Rank and others?managed

the temptation to formulate a psychoanalytic answer to it, might verywell turnHomer into an even more fundamental reference forFreudian psycho Had Freud ever analysis than any of the other "giants" ofworld literature.14 been quizzed about his apparent failure to engage with Homer, his answer could have been very similar to that he gave, on two separate occasions, in response to questions about his ostensible omission of Spinoza. On June 28, 1931, Freud wrote to Lothar Bickel: "I confess without hesitation my If I never cared to cite his dependence regarding the teachings of Spinoza.

name

never drew the tenets ofmy thinking from the directly, it is because I When but rather from the atmosphere he created."15 that of author study turn his in Freud about the Spinoza-scholar questioned Siegfried Hessing indebtedness to the philosopher a year later, the answer was equally surpris my entire life,an extraordinary esteem for the person and ing: "I have had, for for the thinking of that great philosopher. But I do not believe that attitude me the to say for the good reason anything publicly about him, gives right that Iwould have nothing to say that has not been said by others."16 could it possibly mean, then, for Freud not to draw the tenets of his thinking from the study ofHomer, "but rather from the atmosphere he created?" From a letter Freud wrote to his friend Eduard Silberstein on What

was only seventeen years old, it appears that he had July 10,1873, when he at least, that he was familiar with the epithets already read The Odyssey or, Homer applies toOdysseus: using the original Greek, Freud described his chum Silberstein as "polymechanos" (of many resources).17 In light of the fact that Freud subsequently said to Silberstein "I would not advise you to read Homer" (23), we can also infer that The Iliad and The Odyssey were not for theGreek classes in the "Leopoldstadter Real- und required reading which both Freud and Silberstein Obergymnasium (Sperl Gymnasium)," in his spare time, either for leisurely read Homer Freud but that attended, Ancient world. purposes or to supplement his classroom knowledge of the created seems to have enveloped Freud from an The atmosphere Homer himself on his ability to remember early age on, and he subsequently prided entire passages from the poet's work.18 to acquire real significance for Freud Homer's atmosphere started when he compared his during the last decade of the nineteenth century, own clinical "discoveries" to the sensational archaeological excavations of

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Heinrich

Schliemann. On May 28, 1899, Freud wrote to Wilhelm Fliefi: "I gave myself a present, Schliemanns Ilios, and greatly enjoyed the account of his childhood. The man was happy when he found Priam's treasure, because happiness comes only with the fulfilment of a childhood wish."19 If Freud's choice of present may still seem rather trivial, here, it rapidly to Fliefi on December 21,1899 proved extraordinarily fortuitous.Writing

about his clinical accomplishments with Mr E?his favorite patient at the own childlike time?and barely concealing his happiness, Freud revealed: "It is as if Schliemann had once more a fable."20 excavated Troy, which had hitherto

been deemed

Yet ifSchliemann investigation to the very end of his intellectual itinerary.21 was indeed "theman inwhose life history Freud took the greatest pleasure,

Freud-scholars agree that Schliemanns work gave the impetus to the famous "archaeological metaphor" with which Freud intermittently explained the process of his clinical practice, from the earliest days of psychoanalytic

life and career.22 Although he is currently remembered as one of the greatest archaeologists of all time, Schliemann was a complete amateur whose lack of theoretical education in ancient history and sketchy techni Schliemanns cal knowledge

and whom he probably envied more than any other," as Peter Gay has claimed in his Freud-biography, it is worth recalling some remarkable aspects of

ingAmerican citizenship, access to particular sites, or a decent share of the discovered treasures.Most noticeable, however, is the fact that Schliemann did not rely on any previous archaeological accounts in order to identify the most interesting places for excavation. Instead, he unearthed the remains of Troy ("Priam's Treasure," as he called it) by merely relying on a close reading of The Iliad, which he regarded as an accurate description of real places. If Freud envied Schliemann, to the point of identifyingwith him when scene from discovered "a his [Mr E's] having primal period," he may thus have been enthralled not only by the archaeologist's successes, and the happiness they had yielded, but also by his amateurish modus operandi, his zealous a pursuit of juvenile dream and his utter determination in the realisation

Turkish officials. In addition, Schliemann did not hesitate to use deception and treachery in order to get what he wanted, whether it concerned obtain

regarding excavation caused much controversy amongst his contemporaries, and regularly brought him into conflictwith theGreek and

of his aims.23After all, Freud was but an amateur psychoanalyst too,whose no to succeed doubt also him from time to time to have eagerness prompted recourse to rather unconventional "fieldwork" and dubious practices. Yet, above all, Freud would have been particularly Schliemanns deci impressed by sion to discard all available of Hellenic and take scholarly knowledge society

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his bearings from a source as allegedly unreliable as Homers poetry. Unlike most of his contemporaries in the field of archaeology, Schliemann was a reader and interpreter ofHomeric verse, not with the aim of generating an a view to interpretation of the text,but with identifying and acknowledging the epic as an already existing, descriptive interpretation of real historical as a own circumstances. Schliemann read Homer specific reading in its

use it as a valuable archaeological guide and right,which iswhy he could not engage in any lengthy exploration or interpretation of the he did why text as such. Homeric as concur with Peter Although I Gay thatFreud "saw himself forhis part the Schliemann of themind" (326), it is important to tease out the implica

much

the crucial question emerges as towhy and how Freud Freud's oeuvre)?then on Homer as an expert guide for his own psychoanalytic could have drawn "excavations" of themind. For if it may still seem too imaginative formany

tions of this statement for Freud's own relationship with Homer. If Freud, is to say ifhe did not like Schliemann, did not interpretHomer?that or use his works as an object suitable for, requiring any type of interpreta tion other than thatwhich interprets it as an interpretation in its own right in (which would indeed explain the scarcity of explicit references toHomer

to believe thatThe Iliad contains detailed and accurate representations people would probably seem delusional to anyone of a historically existing society, it thatHomer's poetry could include detailed and accurate representations of the darkest recesses of the human mind. This is nonetheless what I venture

to propose, and what I wish to argue with regard to Freud's position vis-a vis Homer. Freud did not interpretHomer, because Homer was not Freud's most important guide. Freud did not tell his object of study, but rather his readerswhat Homer is about, because Homer told him (Freud) what he was about, concerning his position as a psychoanalyst and the direction of the treatment. Freud did not interpretHomer because Homer psychoanalytic as an an was interpretation Homer guided Freud already interpretation, and in the implementation of his amateurish psychoanalytic practice, and the was it capable of generating. discovery and interpretation of the objects of themind" did want to "Schliemann the I that also However, propose or same not use the same the part of the guide that his role-model had guide, The Iliad had proven itsworth as a travel companion employed. Whereas for the archaeological excavation of a buried society, Freud ismore likely to have focused on The Odyssey as the guidebook of choice for conducting his structural configurations of the psychoanalytic practice, and discovering the unconscious psyche. In other words, ifSchliemann had regarded The Iliad as a poetic text replete with clues concerning the location and social organiza

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tion of a forgotten world, Freud would have been more enthralled by The as verses ofwisdom pertaining to the nature and psychic constella Odyssey tion of a forgotten section of subjective experience. In thisway, Freud was less the "Schliemann of themind" than the "Finley of themind," insofar as was Moses it Finley who, in his hugely influential book The World ofOdys seus, argued for the firsttime, yet fifteenyears after Freud's death, that The a realworld, same pervaded by the psycho-social structures Odyssey depicted of kinship, labor and morality as other "primitive" societies.24

"The Odyssey" as a Psychoanalytic Guide How could The Odyssey serve the purpose of a general guidebook for psy an choanalytic exploration? In what way could Freud have benefited from

a epic account of the vicissitudes of homebound Achaean hero for setting the wayward King up his psychoanalytic practice? Why would Odysseus, of Ithaca, who "is somewhat of a liability as a guide" for his companions, as Lacan put it,be a better guide forFreud?25The trivial answer,which Jung also

sometimes feel victorious and enthusiastic about the prospect of regaining the comfort of her familiar surroundings, and be halted in the realization of her aims by the totally unexpected intervention of "fate." Much like Odys seus, the analysand can escape captivity, brave the elements and find his way home, merely to discover that home is no longer what it used to be: a safe haven transformed into a pernicious sojourn, where he can only arrive and survivewith a disguised identity. However convincing the analysand may appear, here, as a latter-day this Odysseus, analogy between the contents of The Odyssey and the nature of the psychoanalytic process is trivial, mainly because it does not capture the specificity of psychoanalysis. Many forms of psychotherapy, including those relying on the virtues of "spiritual self-discovery,"maybe characterized

like Odys "changes of fortune" and lots of "unexpected detours." Much can as someone the is be who seus, analysand regarded constantly driven "off course," or halted in his journey home, as a result of peculiar decisions thatwere somehow made on his behalf by agencies beyond his control and for reasons he can only surmise.Much like Odysseus, the analysand may

intimated when he decided to undertake his four-day trip on Lake Zurich, is that a psychoanalytic process, when conducted well, invites analysands to embark on their own personal odyssey?a which long circuitous itinerary, the English dictionaries describe as an "adventurous journey" involving many

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numerous a as "adventurous "changes of fortune" and journeys" containing because it does is also trivial detours." The great many "unexpected analogy not as such explain the nature of what is taking place during the time of

if the analogy may help the reader an in visualizing and concretizing abstract theoretical principle, it does not contribute in anyway to an explanation of the principle as such. Although it a simile between unconscious wishes in themind might be useful to create for the purpose of clarification, the rhetorical figure still does not explain why the unconscious wishes operate in this particular way. was Freud's con principal guide for My argument that The Odyssey on a not simple comparison rely ducting his psychoanalytic practice does and undead souls in the underworld

the journey The problem is similar to thatwhich is generated when Freud compares the twilight existence of the ghosts in Book 11 of The Odyssey to the inchoate state of unconscious wishes:

thewandering course of Odysseus and the rambling excursions of the analysand, but on a consideration of the narrative structure and evoca tive scope of Homer's epic, in light of the aims and objectives of Freudian the "trivial" answer to the question as to psychoanalytic practice. Whereas how The Odysseymay be important for psychoanalysis focuses on the travels and travails, the trials and tribulations of the analysand, my own (hopefully less trivial) answer focuses on the position of the analyst. To the best ofmy knowledge, only one author has ever made this type between

did not contain a detailed theoretical exposition of the title-theme, it por as a the odds, latter-day Odysseus, fighting against trayed Freud the analyst of all kinds with and obstacles, struggling defying unexpected onslaughts without ever losing confidence in his ability to bring his arduous task to fruition. From 1927 until his death, Freud maintained a regular correspon dence with Zweig, exchanging ideas on the art of writing, the practice of anti-Semitic sentiments inAustria and psychoanalysis and the escalating does not Germany, yet remarkably the published record of this exchange was contain anymention of Zweig's paper.27Given the fact that it reprinted in two psychoanalytic periodicals published under Freud's supervision, it is nonetheless hard to imagine that the text escaped his attention. on the side Just as I do not wish to designate the psychoanalytic process of the analysand as an odyssey, I am reluctant to accept Zweig's identifica tion of Freud and Odysseus. Freud was not a king returning home from

of connection between The Odyssey and the purpose (the ethics) of Freud ian psychoanalysis, as defined by the analyst's position in the treatment. In 1932, the famous German writer Arnold Zweig submitted a short text to the journal Weltbuhne entitled "Odysseus Freud."26 Although Zweig's text

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to be a technical, instructive paper for supposed wrote: he "The practicing analysts, extraordinary diversity of the psychi cal constellations concerned, the plasticity of all mental processes and the wealth of determining factors oppose any mechanization of the technique; and they bring it about that a course of action that is as a rule justified may at times prove ineffective,whilst one that is once in a usually mistaken may to while lead the desired end."28The significance of Zweig's characteriza tion of Freud thus lies in its suggestion that The Odyssey and the practice of

life,but he was also confronted with them in his clinical practice. not to include any Justifying his decision specific guidelines for analytic personal intervention inwhat was

a better definitely guide for his companions If Zweig's poetic depiction of Freud deserves to be taken seriously, it is because it conveys a mixture of (mis)fortune and determination, unpredictability and resilience, thewhimsicality of fate, and the resourcefulness of reason. Freud not only recognized these powers in his than Odysseus ever was.

the battlefront and he was

are animated as directed same forces. psychoanalysis, by the analyst, by the And this iswhat deserves further elaboration. the unconscious wish

ways, by circumnavigating the obstacles of censorship, deceiving thewatch ful eye of the Ego or advancing in cunning disguise. Theoretically, Freud argued that unconscious wishes manage tomake themselves heard and felt in dreams, slips of the tongue, bungled actions, jokes, and neurotic symptoms, an although rarely (if ever) in immediately recognizable, overt fashion. Only through thework of analysis did he consider it possible to dismantle these a phenomena with view to revealing the underlying unconscious desire. Yet, even then, he also believed that it was impossible for psychoanalysis to access, and the unconscious in its entirety. desire As he pointed out capture identify in a famous paragraph from The Dreams'. Interpretation of There is often a passage in even the most thoroughly interpreted dream which has to be left obscure; this is because we become aware

The main force permeating Freud's theory and practice is the force of (Wunsch), a repressed desire which continues to strive towards satisfaction yet which can only accomplish its aim in roundabout

adds nothing to our knowledge of the content of the dream. This is the dream's navel, the spotwhere it reaches down into the unknown. The dream-thoughts towhich we are led by interpretation cannot, are from the nature of things, have any definitive endings; they bound to branch out in every direction into the intricate network

during thework of interpretation that at that point there is a tangle of dream-thoughts which cannot be unravelled and which moreover

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of our world of thought. It is at some point where thismeshwork is a particularly close that the dream-wish grows up, like mushroom out of itsmycelium.29

This which wish

or, at the very least, to allow desire to reveal itself in a less disguised form. In essence, this professional stance itself relied on a certain desire, which can be summarized in a very simple way as a desire for the patient to speak, without any reservations, about whatever comes up in his mind, and regardless of chronology, coherence and general consistency. As Freud states in "On Beginning theTreatment": "What thematerial iswith which one starts the treatment is on thewhole a matter of indifference?whether

theoretical principle prompted Freud to adopt a professional stance gives the patient the opportunity to approximate the unconscious

the opening lines of The Odysseywill immediately be struck by the similarity to Muse: of Freud's statement, here, and the poet's invocation of the "Sing me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights ofTroy ... Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus, start from where you will?sing for our time too."31 Freud may not be Odysseus, then, but his "analytic opening" is virtu

it is the patient's life-history or the history of his illness or his recollections of childhood. But in any case the patient must be left to do the talking and must be free to choose atwhat point he shall begin."30 Anyone familiar with

to the a launch out on your story, Muse: ally blueprint of the poet's request where to begin is a matter of indifference, start fromwhere you will. ... Hel lenic scholars are still puzzled by the opening verses of The Odyssey, ifonly because epic narrative "characteristically announces the point in the story at which it begins and then proceeds in chronological order to its end."32 to start at any point, The Odyssey contravenes this In allowing theMuse not with the vicissitudes of Odysseus, principle and consequently opens, but with the story of his son Telemachus, who sets sail in search of news of his beloved father. Remarkably, Knox and others have interpreted the first four books of The Odyssey (the so-called Telemacheid) as a purposely chosen the poet's proposed contingency to a narra literary device, thus reducing tive necessity: "The reason for this startling departure from tradition is not far to seek. If the poet had begun at the beginning and observed a strict to interrupt the flow of his narrative chronology, he would have been forced as soon as he got his hero back to Ithaca, in order to explain the extremely to deal with in his home."33 Perhaps complicated situation he would have in Hellenic studies and epic poetry prevents of lack my scholarly expertise

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me from appreciating the strength of this argument, but I have to admit that I find it everything but persuasive, partly because the poets explanation of

"the extremely complicated situation" at home only covers the first chapter of the Telemacheia, and partly because the narrative flow of The Odyssey is an endless series of interruptions anyway, fundamentally characterised by As an amateur Hellenist, I am inclined much likeOdysseus's journey itself. to to the posit that in response poet's invitation to start at any given point, a starts narrative of the current situation in Ithaca, because the Muse with it just happens to be at the forefront of theMuse's mind. And only very an extensive gradually, after description of the voyages ofTelemachus, does the Muse "launch out" on the story of the epic hero. If I were to attempt a more Muse's "decision" to start with provocative reading, Iwould say that the

and turns," thus avoiding the question in the contents of her narrative, but at once to it in her responding seemingly "arbitrary" point of departure.

the story ofTelemachus demonstrates how she herself is driven off course. In being asked to sing about the "man of twists and turns" she herself "twists

The Cunning Schemes of Desire opening of The Odyssey is tantamount to the opening of a Freudian in the position ofHomer psychoanalytic process, with Freud-the-analyst a reason in be This itself for considering The good enough the-poet. might as a for the of direction the splendid guide Odyssey psychoanalytic treatment. Yet I believe there is more psychoanalytic value to be found beyond the answer to Muse's opening lines ofHomer's epic. As I pointed out above, the The the poet in the four books of the Telemacheia

opposition between the surface and content of the Muse's message, and the intention that is operative behind this message, may serve as a poetic paradigm for themulti-layered aspect of human speech and, par excellence, for the way inwhich the analyst is asked to approach the analysand's speech in the context of the psychoanalytic treatment. If an seem to "resist" the analysand may analyst's invitation to talk about some

ignores and satisfies the poet's same at the time. It his invocation, because instead of requirements ignores a song about into the Muse launching Odysseus, sings about Telemachus. Yet it also satisfies his invocation because theMuse's song indeed appears as an of in arbitrary point departure, and being "off themark," it represents an essential feature of the hero's story?a man of twists and turnswho is course. off driven constantly being The dialectical

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put it,between the subject of the statement and the enunciating The subject of the statement is the subject who is being represented subject. by language in the content of the message; the enunciating subject is the

can still be regarded thing (his life-history), startingwherever he wants, he as accepting the invitation, on condition that the analyst distinguishes be tween the content of themessage and the place fromwhere it is spoken or, as Lacan

it launches into a song about Telemachus (rather than to the is still the enunciating (speaking) subject responsive Odysseus), yet not poets invocation because it is "off course." In talking about Odysseus, as deceitful because Muse the

as he is currently speaking."34 Put differently, the subject of subject "insofar the statement is the subject as it appears inwhat is being said, whereas the s enunciating subject is the subject who is actually saying it. In theMuse response to the poet, the subject (content) of the statement at first appears

course." As

talks about him anyway, purely by virtue of theway inwhich she talks about him. In not talking about Odysseus, and drifting off into another means to be driven "off story, she is still successful in talking about what it such, the narrative structure of Homer's nature of its central character. epic duplicates the

wandering The convergence of The Odyssey $> enunciating subject (theMuse who is driven "off course") and the fundamental characteristic of its hero makes of one more point tomy designation of The Odyssey as possible the addition the subject of the statement epitomizes Freud's analytic guidebook. Whereas a form of linguistic (grammatical) representation, the enunciating subject

coincides with a wish, a point of desire. It is from a certain desire that the starts to speak, over and above the demand thatmay become audible subject at the level of the message. In articulating thoughts, beliefs and emotions, or the dream), the subject whether in waking life during sleep (at the level of acts upon a certain desire or, in a less voluntaristic vocabulary, a desire is to express itselfAs Freud conceded inThe Interpretation of Dreams, seeking on the task the main this is desire although psychoanalytic agenda, retracing its source is verymuch an asymptotic process: "dream-thoughts pinpointing are [...] cannot, from the nature of things, have any definite endings; they our of world into intricate the network bound to branch out in every direction must remain unknown taken has desire Where of thought."35 shape exactly and so the true nature of desire itself escapes our knowledge. Its emergence and wanderings appear to us as unfathomable and unpredictable, following a course whose beginning and end can neither be recovered nor anticipated. Ifwe accept this quality of human desire, then itdoes not require great acumen to ascertain thatOdysseus is not somuch aman inhabited by desire, but the personification of desire as such. Odysseus does not have any desire,

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It suffices to look at the epithets with which the poet embellished his hero in order to recognize these characteristics of desire. The most pervasive of these epithets is no doubt "polymetis,"which expands on Odysseus's unique attribute of "metis. "The term "metis" has attracted an enormous amount of a scholarly interest, including book-length study by two pre-eminent French Hellenists.36 The term is traditionally translated as "scheme," yet it includes

in the enunciating subject of The in its hero-protagonist, Homer gave flesh to the wandering, and Odyssey restless, unpredictable activity of a human mental function, illustrating its indestructible force, its ostensible irrationality, its cunning disguises and its quest for fulfilment.

for the sole reason that he is desire. Both

the "metis" flows and the multitude of forms with which it presents itself. In a perceptive essay on the resonances of "metis," Laura M. Slatkin has referred toOdysseus as "the ultimate man ofmetis": "Odysseus the dis sembler, the man who assumes many identities, is called superior in metis to all mortals?and is the only mortal bearer of the epithet polumetis in the Homeric corpus."37 Paired with this other extraordinary attributewith which which

connotations of cunning, metamorphosis, fluidity and shape-shifting. The addition of "poly" to "metis" inOdysseus's most common epithet serves to reinforce this protean quality by emphasizing themultifarious sources from

ade. The Odyssey stages the human life of desire and the desire of human life, and this iswhy Odysseus can only sing his "kleos" (glory, fame) by virtue of "dolos" and "metis." In order to conjure up desire, the poet (much like the to start Muse wherever shewants, for only without a analyst) must allow the rigorous prefabricated narrative, that is to say only through another cunning scheme is it possible to elicit and follow the cunning schemes of desire. In Detienne and Vernant s words: "The onlyway to get the better of a polumetis one is to exhibit even more metis."3* is the lesson of The Odyssey, and this is what makes it into the best that a framework could have Freud wished for when guidebook designing This

its polymorphy and its capacity for disguise through camouflage" (236). on Freud, I to feel inclined that in argue Drawing myself subjective history, "metis" is the property of desire, with its perennially shifting, proteiform manifestations and its inexhaustible capacity for disguise through masquer

is endowed, the infamous "dolos" (ruse, guile), "metis" allows the Odysseus to hero escape the cave of Polyphemus, yet it also enables him to arrive at Ithaca in disguise, and thus to startweaving a cunning scheme in order to defeat the suitors and regain Penelope's love and trust. on Detienne and Vernant, Slatkin has reminded us that in Drawing natural history "metis' is the property of such creatures as the octopus, with

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a "Odysseus Freud" but in order to become "polymetis Freud," woven for the cunning scheme of desire, cunning desires of his analysands.39 as the "Schliemann of the mind" and Freud of Zweig's Gays designation to become

for eliciting, retracing and following the analysand's desire. Freud used the as not in order "protean narrative" of The Odyssey, Albert Lord has called it,

not do full justice to the cunning schemes that "Odysseus Freud" therefore do the founder of psychoanalysis himself had toweave, not somuch with a view to singing his own "kleos," but in order to allow the "dolos" and "metis" of the analysand tomanifest themselves in thewandering schemes of desire. Brunei University

Notes
to a Questionnaire 1. Sigmund Freud, "Contribution Standard Edition, Vol. 9 (1907; London: The Hogarth on trans. James Strachey, Reading," Press and the Institute of Psycho

Analysis, 1959) 245-46.

2. In his biography of Freud, Peter Gay has drawn attention to the fact that Freud s choice than what could perhaps be ex of ten good books was "relatively safe" and less adventurous a maverick miner of the human soul, who "liked to say that he was from spending his pected life destroying illusions." See Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (New York: W.W. Norton,

245. Further citations in text. 3. Sigmund Freud, "Contribution," the identification and definition of 4. For a historical survey of the debates concerning to see James I. Porter, "Homer: The History of an Idea," inThe Cambridge Companion Homer, UP, 2004) 324-43. Homer, ed. Robert Fowler (Cambridge: Cambridge see for in "Homer and English Epic," 5. On Pope's Homer, example Penelope Wilson, to The Cambridge Companion UP, 2004) Homer, ed. Robert Fowler (Cambridge: Cambridge 272-86. trans. James Strachey, Standard Edition, 6. Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, Vols. 4/5 (1900; London: The Hogarth 1953) 247; of Everyday Life," trans. James Strachey, Standard Sigmund Freud, "The Psychopathology 1960) Edition, Vol. 6 (1901; London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 106-08. onWar trans. James and Death," for the Times 7. Sigmund Freud, "Thoughts Strachey, Press and the Institute of Psycho Standard Edition, Vol. 14 (1915; London: The Hogarth trans. James Standard Edition, Vol. 17 (1919; Strachey, 'Uncanny,'" and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1955) 250. Moussaieff 9. See Jeffrey Masson, ed., The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud toWilhelm The Belknap Press of trans. Moussaieff Masson (Cambridge, MA: Jeffrey Fliefi 1887-1904, Harvard University Press, 1985) 272; Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, 261-66; and Parricide," trans. James Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 21 Sigmund Freud, "Dostoevsky Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1961) 188. (1928; London: The Hogarth trans. R.F.C. Hull, The Col of Psychoanalysis," 10. See Carl Gustav Jung, "The Theory and Gerhard Adler Fordham lectedWorks ofC.G.Jung, Vol. 4, ed. Sir Herbert Read, Michael &c Kegan Paul, 1961) 154. For Freud's subsequent rejection of the (1913; London: Routledge in a see of a Case of Homosexuality "Electra-complex," Sigmund Freud, "The Psychogenesis Press The trans. 18 London: Vol. Standard Edition, (1920; Woman," James Strachey, Hogarth 8. Sigmund Freud, London: The Hogarth "The Press

1988) 166-67.

Analysis, 1957) 294.

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11. Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dy namic Psychiatry (New York: Basic Books, 1970) 670. trans. R.F.C. Hull, The Collected Works 12. Carl Gustav Jung, "Ulysses: A Monologue," ofC. G. Vol. ed. Michael Sir Herbert Gerhard Adler William McGuire and 15, Fordham, Read, Jung, trans. James 13. Sigmund Freud, "The Theme of the Three Caskets," Strachey, Standard Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, Edition, Vol. 12 (1913; London: The Hogarth and Parricide," 173-94. 1958) 289-301; Sigmund Freud, "Dostoevsky 14. For psychoanalytic of Homer's world, see Otto Rank, "Homer, Psycholo interpretations zur des Volksepos. I," Imago 5 (1917): 133-69; Alfred gische Beitrage Entstehungsgeschichte in der "Die Nausikaaepisode 6 (1920): 349-83; Peter Wiess Winterstein, Odyssee," Imago man,

and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1955) 155 n.l, and Sigmund Freud, "Female Sexuality," trans. James Standard Vol. 21 (1931; London: The Press and the Edition, Strachey, Hogarth Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1961) 229.

& Kegan Paul, 1971) 112. (1932;London: Routledge

(Boston: 1953). Psychoanalytic Odyssey Christopher, Studyofthe

"Kirke und Odysseus. Versuch einer 4 Schweizerische Zeitschriftfur Deutung," Psychologie (1945): 124-36; Joel Friedman and Sylvia Gassel, "Odysseus: The Return of the Primal Father," at The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 21 (1952): 215-23; Arthur Wormhoudt, The Muse Length: A 15. Sigmund Freud, "Brief an Eliezer Lothar Bickel (28.6.1931)," inHeinrich Z. Winnik, and Recently Recovered Letter ofTreud," IsraelAnnual "A Long-Lost ofPsychiatry 13 (1975): 2. 16. Sigmund Freud, "Brief an Siegfried Hessing Gesammelte Werke, Nachtrags (9.7.1932)," band, ed. Anna Freud (London: 1987) 670. Imago Publishing Company, 17. Walter Boehlich, ed., The Letters Eduard Silberstein 1871-1881, trans. of Sigmund Freud to J. Pomerans (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1990) 20. 18. Ernst L. Freud, ed., The Letters Freud and Arnold ofSigmund Zweig (New York: Harcourt,

Arnold

The Golden Treasures of Heinrich 1972); Herve Duchene, Troy: The Dream of &c Hudson, (1995; London: Thames 1996); Susan Heuck Jeremy Leggatt theWalls of Allen, Finding Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann atHisarlik (Berkeley and Los Angeles: The U of California P, 1999). 23. Masson, The Letters to Wilhelm ed., Complete of Sigmund Freud Fliefi, 391. 24. Moses I. Finley, The World ofOdysseus (London: Pelican Books, 1977). (London: Schliemann, Gollancz, trans.

TheWalls of A Biography Heinrich Schliemann Hale, 1958); Marjorie Braymer, WindyTroy: of

19. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, ed., The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud toWilhelm Fliefi trans. Moussaieff Masson MA: The 1887-1904, Jeffrey (Cambridge, Belknap Press ofHarvard on all the latest discoveries in his archaeological UP, 1985) 353. In Ilios Schliemann reported on the northwestern corner of project of excavating the ruins of Troy at the hill of Hisarlik, Schliemann, Ilios: Stadt und Land der Trojaner. Forschungen contemporary Turkey. See Heinrich von Troja in der Troas undbesonders undEntdeckungen auf der Baustelle (Leipzig: FA. Brockhaus, 1881). 20. Masson, ed., The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud toWilhelm Fliefi, 391-92. 21. For the "archaeological inFreud's oeuvre, see metaphor" Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer, trans. James "Studies on Hysteria," Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 2 (1895; London: The 1955) 139; Sigmund Freud, "The Aetiology Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, ofHysteria," trans. James Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 3 (1896; London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of 1962) 192; Sigmund Freud, "Fragment of an Analysis of a Psycho-Analysis, trans. James Case ofHysteria," Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 7 (1905; London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, and its 1953) 12-13; Sigmund Freud, "Civilization trans. James Discontents," Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 21 (1930; London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of in 1961) 69-72; Sigmund Freud, "Constructions Psycho-Analysis, trans. James Press Analysis," Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. 23 (1937; London: The Hogarth and the Institute of 1964) 259-60. Psycho-Analysis, 22. Gay 172. For critical assessments of Schliemanns life and work, see Robert Payne, The Gold ofTroy: The Ancient Greece (London: Story ofHeinrich Schliemann and theBuried Cities of

Brace 6c World, 1970) 71.

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Almanack 27.

1970) vii. (New York: Harcourt, Brace &, World, 28. Sigmund Freud, "On Beginning the Treatment (Further Recommendations of Psycho-Analysis I)," trans. James Strachey, Standard Edition, Vol. Technique London: 29.

des Internationalen 8 (1933): 45-47. Psychoanalytischen Verlag cor Itmay just be the case, however, that Ernst L. Freud, the editor of the Freud-Zweig to cut these passages, as he did with the "all too respondence, decided frequent and exaggerated eulogies" of his father. See Ernst L. Freud, ed., The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Arnold Zweig on 12

25. Jacques Lacan, The Seminar. Book I: Freud's Papers on Technique, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans, with notes John Forrester (1975; UP, 1988) 240. Cambridge: Cambridge text was 26. Arnold Zweig, "Odysseus Freud," Weltbuhne January 19, 1932. The reprinted in 4.2 (1932): 97-99, and shortly after its original publication Psychoanalytische Bewegung

the

(1913;

The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1958) 123. Freud, Interpretation, 525. 30. Freud, "On Beginning," 134. On the desire for the patient to speak, see Jacques Lacan, trans. Alan Sheridan The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, (1973; Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1994) 11. 31. Homer, The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997) 77, italics added. trans. Robert inHomer, The 32. Bernard Knox, "Introduction," (Harmond Fagles Odyssey, sworth: Penguin Books, 1997) 10. 33. Knox 10. in the Freudian Norton, 2002)

ofDesire 34. Jacques Lacan, "The Subversion of the Subject and theDialectic inEcrits:A Selection, trans. Bruce Fink (1966; New York: W.W. Unconscious," 287.

236.

35. Freud, Interpretation, 525. and Jean-Pierre Vernant, Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and 36. Marcel Detienne, trans. Janet Press, 1978). NJ: Humanities Lloyd (1974; Atlantic Highlands, Society, of the Odyssey,1' in Reading and theMetis 37. Laura M. Slatkin, "Composition by Theme Selected Interpretive Essays, ed. Seth L. Schein (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996) theOdyssey: 38. Detienne 39. Albert and Vernant 30. and Gregory Nagy

B. Lord, The Singer ofTales, 2nd edition, ed. Stephen Mitchell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2000).

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