American Imago 56.

4 (1999) 311-330

Freud's "Economic Hypothesis": From Homo Oeconomicus to Homo Sexualis.

Lawrence Birken
In his paper on the "Unconscious," Sigmund Freud explicitly delineated the three meta-psychological hypotheses underpinning psychoanalysis; the topographic (which posited the existence of separate psychic "spaces" for the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious), the dynamic (which outlined the mechanism of repression), and the economic !hile there are numerous wor"s dealing with the first two principles, the third has #een comparati$ely neglected In part the $ery u#i%uitousness of the "economic" hypothesis has made it almost too o#$ious to #e discussed & 'oreo$er, the idea of a "psychic economy" may appear too much a remnant of Freud(s earlier neurological wor" to interest scholars committed to "eeping psychoanalysis separate from its medical origins )e$ertheless, the centrality of the "economic hypothesis" in Freud(s wor" should ma"e it of interest to historians !hat, they may well as", did Freud actually mean #y the term "economic," and how was his use of the term related to economics as economists "new it* +he central thesis of this paper is that Freud(s use of the term "economic" implied that his new psychology was somehow analogous to the earlier science of political economy, precisely #ecause he had extended to the pri$ate the %uantitati$e approach already employed to analy,e the pu#lic sphere

. !he "eurolo#ical Ori#ins o$ the "Economic" Hypothesis

-n 'ay ./, &01/, Sigmund Freud wrote to his friend !ilhelm Fliess that his intention was to $iew psychology from a "%uantitati$e" perspecti$e, thus creating "a sort of economics of ner$e force" (Freud &10/, &.1) +his %uantitati$e conception %End &a#e ' ( was first wor"ed out in his a#orti$e Project for a Scientific Psychology, which attempted to explain psychic states solely on the #asis of neurology (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, 556 n5) 7$en after Freud a#andoned neurology completely and de$oted the rest of his life to psychology, he continued to spea" in terms of the "economic" or "%uantitati$e" forces underpinning psychoanalytic thought Freud(s wor" was thus full of the language of political economy 8sychic processes, he proclaimed, should #e e$aluated in terms of "gain" and

"loss"; hence the gain from ner$ous illness 3 Krankheitsgewinn4 which offset the loss generated #y a painful memory In The Interpretation of Dreams, the dreaming process itself was understood as a "ind of wor" 3Traumarbeit4 during which dreamers #eha$ed li"e entrepreneurs who drew upon the day(s residue of energy to #an"roll their nightly expenditure (Freud &122, /9&) :o"ing, li"e dreaming, was go$erned #y a "tendency to economi,e" 3Tendenz zur Esparnis4 which helped explain why #oth processes pac"ed separate memories together in a more economical use of psychic resources (Freud &12/, 66) +he Freudian "li#ido" could #e "impo$erished" or "enriched " ; person under stress might ha$e no mental energy left for e$eryday tas"s, <ust li"e "a speculator whose money has #een tied up in his $arious enterprises" might #e una#le to meet his payroll (Freud &1.9, 12) 7nergy directed toward o#<ects, whether sexual or nutritional, was also su#<ect to "economic" considerations -rganisms always economi,ed, Freud #elie$ed, e$en when they appeared not to do so; hence his dictum that "neurotic unpleasure" 3 nlust4 was really "pleasure that cannot #e felt as such" on a conscious le$el (Freud &1.2, &&) Freud(s idea of a "psychic economy" was no mere metaphor, #ut a fundamental set of axioms a#out the function of indi$iduals and the world in which they li$ed +o understand why this is so, we need to remem#er that Freud #egan as a neurophysiologist, only going into medicine in order to secure an income large enough to allow him to marry and start a family =uring this period, he came under the influence of #oth >harles =arwin and ?usta$e Fechner, drin"ing deeply from the wellspring of scientistic materialism while he wor"ed in the la#oratory of 7rnst !ilhelm $on @rAc"e ;ccording to %End &a#e ' )( 7rnest :ones, his most cele#rated #iographer, "Freud came from his early training deeply im#ued with the #elief in the uni$ersality of natural law," (:ones &1/5, 59/) including the notion that neurological phenomena o#eyed the constraints of a conser$ed field !hile this research #ac"ground permitted Freud to speciali,e in the treatment of ner$ous diseases, he had no intention of exploring psychology until he came up against the phenomenon of hysteria In the later decades of the nineteenth century, scientists were slowly #eginning to accept the notion of the "unconscious" as a reser$oir of humanity(s e$olutionary experience Freud(s first glimpse into that unconscious was through the window of hysteria =uring a fellowship in : ' >harcot(s clinic in &00/, Freud had #een introduced to patients whose ner$ous disorders made no "neurological sense " +he young Biennese physician was one of se$eral doctors who concluded that these patients had a functional rather than a structural defect, a "lesion in$isi#le upon autopsy" #ecause it existed only in the a#normal mo$ement of

ner$ous energy in the li$ing person from moment to moment Furthermore, se$eral physicians including 8ierre :anet and Freud came to #elie$e that this functional "lesion" or "neurosis" was the result of some traumatic experience, the memory of which was no longer accessi#le to consciousness +he lesion thus functioned li"e a cyst which, surrounding infected tissue to protect the #ody, ended up interfering with it +o cut open such a "mental cyst," it was necessary to find it, lance it, and expose its mnemonic contents to consciousness so that it no longer interfered with normal functioning !hile the preferred method was hypnosis, Freud and his friend :oseph @reuer #egan to experiment with a "tal"ing cure" as a less drastic alternati$e )ot merely content to treat hysterics, Freud wanted to use hysteria to gain admittance to the unconscious itself and reduce it to scientific law Cis theoretical flights of fancy were already #eginning to exceed the more restrained speculations of his co-wor"ers in the field It is thus no surprise to find that in &01/, he made an a#orti$e attempt at a comprehensi$e theory of mental functioning +he purpose of his unpu#lished Project for a Scientific Psychology was to deri$e mental states %End &a#e ' '( directly from neurology In the Project, Freud #egan with the postulate that the primary principle of any ner$ous system was to di$est itself of excitations which arose from either internal or external stimuli (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, .1/-D) >onse%uently, pleasure could #e defined as the discharge of ner$ous energy, pain as the accumulation of energy @ut Freud immediately disco$ered a secondary principle which modified the first; the exigencies of reality made immediate discharge impossi#le From the start, the first reality of ner$ous life was that gratification must #e postponed, and the first impediment to the discharge of ner$ous energy was the structure of the ner$ous system itself In order for the ner$ous system to perform the function of discharge, that system had to preser$e a certain le$el of charge in a #ound form (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, .19-D) In other words, #y their $ery existence, ner$e cells ("neurones") offered a certain resistance to the charge they con$eyed +o accomplish the tas"s of life, organisms had to "eep the amount of energy they used at a constant le$el !hen Freud postulated that organisms sought to discharge excess (and thus painful) ner$ous energy, he meant that they were attempting to get rid of a definite %uantity of charge along the shortest route possi#le, a "least action path" analogous to the route of a lightning #olt @y distinguishing #etween relati$ely permea#le neurones which facilitated discharge and impermea#le ones which tended to resist it, Freud was a#le to explain why this was not always possi#le !hile the structure of the permea#le neurones permitted them to conduct sensory impulses through the #rain with $irtually no resistance, the structure of the impermea#le

neurones resisted discharge 8ain was thus percei$ed as a result of an "irruption of large %uantities" of energy into the impermea#le neurones, pleasure as a result of the discharge of those %uantities (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, 529-D) !hen impermea#le neurones were gradually worn down so that new neural pathways were created, the result was memory ;t last, when the num#er of these newly facilitated pathways reached critical mass, the elements of an "ego" appeared (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, 5..6) %End &a#e ' *(

). !he "Economic Hypothesis" and &sychoanalysis

Unfortunately, Freud(s Project hit a dead end when he found himself una#le to explain clearly enough in neurological terms how painful memories were encysted and #anished from consciousness (Sulloway &10., &.5-9) Eeturning to clinical wor", he simply assumed the repression of memories as a psychological fact whose neurological #asis would #e disco$ered at a later date In a sense, the Project itself was #anished from consciousness, e$en though its fundamental assumptions (including the "economic" principle of least action) remained the #asis for Freud(s later analytic wor" Cis studies of phenomena li"e dreams, slips of the tongue, and <o"es thus all #egan with the assumption that the #rain sought to reduce psychic expenditure (i e the accumulation of tension) as efficiently as possi#le +he "condensation" of unrelated ideas in dreams, or the use of puns in <o"es, thus created a "short-circuit" achie$ing an "economy" which seemed "to #e the greater the more alien the two circles of ideas #rought together #y the same word" (Freud &12/, &.2) 'oreo$er, <ust as dreams allowed the #ody to discharge stored up tensions, <o"es ena#led the mind to literally "laugh off" stored charge in order to achie$e pleasure (Freud &12/, &61) Since Freud saw indi$iduals as self-contained economies of psychic energy, the role of external o#<ects appeared pro#lematic in his theory In fact, he #elie$ed that organisms were propelled out of their solipsistic existence only when they could not remo$e a source of stimulation #y themsel$es !hen "no discharge" could "produce an un#urdening result, since endogenous stimulus continue3d4 to #e recei$ed," the stimulus could only #e remo$ed "#y extraneous help" from another person It was thus "the original helplessness of human #eings" that was the "primal source" of relationships #etween them (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, 5&D-0) ?radually, Freud #elie$ed, dependence on the external world forced the child to defer the desire for an immediate (#ut impossi#le) discharge in order to achie$e a later discharge with the help of someone else @ut once he showed that a round-a#out (and thus more time-consuming) path toward %End &a#e ' +( pleasure may sometimes #e necessary to secure

pleasure, then it made sense to assume that an organism might in$est energy in others in order to secure pleasure for itself +hus was esta#lished the Eeality 8rinciple (!ealit"tprinzip) which, Freud #elie$ed, did not "depose" the 8leasure 8rinciple (#ustprinzip) #ut merely "safeguarded" it (Freud &1&&, ..5) !hen nutritional (and sexualF) needs produced ner$ous excitations #eyond a certain %uantitati$e threshold, pain compelled an indi$idual to see" aid from an outside o#<ect such as its mother(s #reast In this way, round a#out "o#<ect-relations" gradually extended the pathways of ner$ous energy in greater and greater loops Freud thus explained how #oth painful and pleasura#le memories might di$ert the flow of charge from its normal path In the first case, Freud suggested, the #rain somehow made a calculation that a round-a#out pathway was actually faster and less tension-producing than an apparently shorter pathway interrupted #y an encysted painful memory +he painful memory was thus #ypassed or "repressed" In the second case, a pleasura#le memory of discharge might lead to a round-a#out in$estment of energy in the external o#<ect which had originally facilitated the discharge (Freud &1/2 3&01/4, 5.D-556)

'. Freud on ,apitalism and Socialism

)ow Freud was #y no means the only scientist to propose an "economic" or %uantitati$e interpretation of mental phenomena during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century 8hysicians li"e Ca$eloc" 7llis and 8ierre :anet also constructed "economies" of the mind, e$en though their teachings were soon eclipsed #y Freud(s more daring formulations @ut the $ery fact that other writers were applying notions of "economy" to psychology raises the %uestion of whether these notions somehow mirrored fin de siGcle social conditions . >ritics desiring to contain psychoanalysis within the world of money may find it easy to critici,e Freud on purely ad hominem grounds as the son of a wool merchant who certainly must ha$e pic"ed up some "nowledge of #usiness from his %End &a#e ' -( father, and who de$eloped a sense of scarcity from his own penny-pinching student days )e$ertheless, e$en though Freud was thoroughly trained in the #iological sciences, his "nowledge of political economy was s"etchy Cis medical training included courses li"e "anatomy, #otany, chemistry, microscopy, and mineralogy" as well as se$eral semesters of physics #ut alas, no economics nor anything li"e it except philosophy from @rentano (:ones &1/5, 5D) -f course, critics of all stripes ha$e long critici,ed Freud(s tendency to ta"e the conflicts and character of the Biennese upper middle-class as trans-historical law 8sychoanalysis, as Freud de$eloped it, was a la#orintensi$e and exhausti$e process mainly suited to educated people with a great deal of insight and e$en more money, a state of affairs that pro$o"ed

mem#ers of the "Freudian Heft" li"e ;lfred ;dler to #rea" with Freud after &1&2 In the twenties, the So$iet psychiatrist B ) Boloshino$ echoed ) @u"harin(s dismissal of marginalism as a "rentier" ideology #y arguing that psychoanalysis was the expression of a disintegrating #ourgeoisie fixated on the indi$idual as an "a#stract #iological person" (Boloshino$ &1D9 0, &6-&/2) 'ore recently, =a$id Eiesman saw Freud as a figure steeped in nineteenth century "scarcity economics and 'althusian fears," while 7ric Fromm dismissed his dependence on a "principle of scarcity characteristic of middle-class thought" (Eiesman &1/2, 5; Fromm &1D2, 5.-5) ;l#ert Hauter#ach has thus asserted that Freud(s concept of psychic "economics" had a "semantic resem#lance" to political economy precisely #ecause his "concept of man" was "colored #y the economic society around him" (Hauter#ach &1D6, &&5) In the same $ein, Eo#ert Smither has argued that "psychoanalytic theory adhered to the capitalist #elief than man is a self-interested creature who see"s to optimi,e his own pleasure" (Smither &106, //) In reality, Freud(s attitudes toward the $arious schools of political economy (in so far as he was aware of them at all) was agnostic !ithout ideali,ing capitalism, he was wary of 'arxism Ce e$en claimed to #e una#le to "in%uire into whether the a#olition of pri$ate property" was either "expedient or ad$antageous" (Freud &152, &&5) !hile expressing sympathy %End &a#e ' .( for the suffering of the lower classes, he also stressed the importance of the upper ;nd although he admitted capitalism suffered from its ina#ility to distri#ute wealth more e%ually, he also disparaged state control of industry, complaining that "e$erything run #y the go$ernment is #ad" and noting that psychoanalysis was "not suited to state super$ision" since it had "found no place in social insurance schemes" (!ortis &106, &2D, &/.) It is true that Freud(s ideas on psychic economy resem#led certain marginalist doctrines Hi"e the marginalists, the founder of psychoanalysis started with the assumption that indi$iduals were consumers #efore they were producers For example, Freud would ha$e certainly agreed with 'enger that "needs" were not generated #y a self-contained economic system, #ut were "im#edded" in the "dri$es" of particular indi$iduals at a gi$en time (He$ine &1DD, &02-&; 'enger &1D9, DD) Freud always started from the perspecti$e of the radically idiosyncratic unconscious in which the reduction of tension could only #e accomplished #y the consumption of utilities, irrespecti$e of whether they #e material or immaterial 8sychoanalysis thus regarded commodities as neutral o#<ects whose $alue was assigned to them only when they entered a "field" populated #y desiring #eings (>f 'irows"i &101, ..5-/) From this perspecti$e, at least, all o#<ects were scarce in so far as there was no time through which they could #e produced Indeed, the poignant #eauty of "sexual" o#<ects (of

which economic o#<ects are merely a su#set) resided precisely in their ina#ility to #e reproduced in an instant !ithin such a system, a "mallea#le" desire (li#ido) simply flowed from one su#stitute o#<ect to another, so that exchange was essentially "autistic " Freud(s consumerist perspecti$e thus made production <ust as pro#lematic in psychoanalysis as it was in marginalist thought 7conomists li"e 7ugen $on @Ihm-@awer" seemed to #elie$e that the mere act of refraining from consumption itself created $alue since "there is interest without any production whate$er, #ut ne$er without time" (@Ihm-@awer" &01/, ./5) Faced with the similar dilemma of explaining how the timeless unconscious could adapt to the exigencies of production, Freud formulated the notion that wor" resulted from the %End &a#e ' /( emergence of the time-sensiti$e "reality principle" which modified the more primiti$e "pleasure principle " @ut since a deferred #ut certain pleasure may actually #e #etter than a more immediate #ut less certain pleasure, the Eeality 8rinciple actually reaffirms the 8leasure 8rinciple rather than a#olishing it In this context, Shlomo 'aital has noted the similarities #etween Freud(s concept of the "Eeality 8rinciple" de$eloped in &1&&, and Ir$ing Fisher(s notion of the "Impatience +heory of Interest" pu#lished the same year ('aital &10., /9-/D) Hi"e the marginalists, Freud saw the necessity of la#or as an eternal disutility Freud(s "marginalist" perspecti$e was also reflected in his criti%ue of 'arxism @ut his re<ection of communism was not so much directed against its insurrectionary spirit as against its utopianism @ecause Freud saw scarcity as an eternal condition rooted in human desire, the whole 'arxist pro<ect appeared to him as nothing more than a form of wishfulfillment !hile he conceded that 'arx might #e right a#out the in<ustices of capitalism, 'arxism dealt only with the limited sphere of commodities production which made up #ut a small part of the uni$erse of desired o#<ects 8recisely #ecause commodities were merely a su#-category of eternally scarce things, the sociali,ation of property must #e ultimately irrele$ant "For if we do away with personal rights o$er material wealth," Freud noted, "there would still remain prerogati$es in the field of sexual relationships" (Freud &152, &&.-5) +his passage deser$es further analysis for it shows how clearly Freud (li"e the marginalists) re<ected the nai$e materialism of the early economic schools, whether socialist or capitalist From Freud(s perspecti$e classical thought in general (and not merely 'arxism) had thus attempted to fill the $oid left #y the disintegration of the 'edie$al notion of a transcendent and omnipotent deity !here 'arx, $ia Feuer#ach, argued that the concept of ?od was nothing more than the "exteriori,ation" of human la#or power, Freud saw 'arxism itself as a

secular su#stitute for the older idea of ?od Freud(s s"epticism a#out 'arx was less a #ourgeois defense against 'arxism as it was a post7nlightenment attac" on the optimistic 7nlightenment assumptions which underpinned it "+he %End &a#e ' 0( writings of 'arx," he #elie$ed, had merely "ta"en the place of the @i#le and the Joran as sources of re$elation" (Freud &155 3&15.4, &02) @ut Freud(s criti%ue of classical thought applied to marginalism as well Cere, the 'aster(s e$ocation of the "field of sexual relationships" is instructi$e Freud did not condemn 'arx from the standpoint of political economy (e$en in its marginalist form) #ut from a perspecti$e that claimed to #e more fundamental than any political economy ;ny attempt to see Freud as a mere capitalist ideologue must therefore deal with the fact that Freud(s emphasis on the heretofore undisco$ered country of the unconscious su#$erted the idea of rational choice underpinning all forms of economic thought, whether capitalist or socialist, classical or neoclassical !hile Freud can #e accused of descri#ing the psychic world in #usinessman(s terms, he actually reduced #usiness affairs to a mere su#set of the larger world of psychic %uantities ;ccordingly, 8aul !achtel notes that "the psychoanalytic emphasis on self-deception" su#$erted e$en the marginalists( "claim that choices in the mar"et place are a clear expression of what we (want (" Freud in fact teaches us that "the (so$ereign consumer( of the economist" is "in important respects not e$en master of his own house" (!achtel &105, &.6-/) From this perspecti$e, psychoanalysis transcended the limits of e$en the most psychologicallyoriented political economy of his time #y extending the notion of the indi$idual still further

*. !he Limits o$ the Economic Field

+o understand how psychoanalysis extended indi$idualism, the reader will permit a slight di$ersion ;s I ha$e argued in se$eral earlier pu#lications, modern ci$ili,ation has increasingly re<ected the traditionalholistic $iew that society is made up of %ualitati$ely different types of human #eings, in fa$or of the indi$idualistic #elief that society is composed of similar people who $ary from one another only %uantitati$ely ;ccording to Houis =umont, the emergence of the idea of the economic as an autonomous domain thus represented the %End &a#e ')1( moment in which "in the guise of possession of property indi$idualism raises its head, "noc"s down any remnant of hierarchy, and installs itself on the throne thus made $acant " Cere, the medie$al ideal of three incompara#le different types of humanity, one priestly, the other military, the third creati$e, was replaced #y the notion of a single domain of interchangea#le indi$iduals creating measura#le (and thus compara#le) amounts of wealth >lassical political economy as a "philosophical category" thus appeared to

#e nothing less than indi$idualism extended to its furthest limit (=umont &1DD, /5-/6) @ut it soon #ecame apparent that the sphere of economic indi$idualism continued to #e "encompassed" #y a more fundamental holism rooted in the continued existence of the family In other words, the realm of contracts remained encased in the larger realm of natural relationships !hile property was defined in indi$idualistic terms, the desire for property was understood in a more holistic fashion as a set of "needs" ultimately rooted in the household In this context, classical 7uropean social thin"ers distinguished #etween %uantities of wealth on the one hand, and the %ualities of family life on the other 5 In a sense, the world of hunger stood in opposition to the more elusi$e (and hard to measure) world of lo$e 8recisely #ecause political economy was concerned only with those o#<ects which could #e exchanged for money, it excluded the o#ligatory transactions of the household 7xchange $alue, not use-$alue was the concern of homo oeconomicus @ut #y the mid-nineteenth century, the "classical" notion of an autonomous economic sphere #egan to #e dissol$ed into an e$er more monist $iew of the uni$erse From Celmholt, on, natural scientists increasingly understood #oth social and #iological phenomena as part of a larger cosmos "powered" #y %uantities of "protean energy, perpetually renewed, indestructi#le, and infinitely mallea#le" (Ea#in#ach &112, 69) !ith the #rea"down of the old classical distinction #etween the social and the familial sphere, political economy tended to #e replaced #y a more open-ended "economics " Cermann ?ossen(s #aws of %uman !elations (&0/6) represented one of the earliest examples of this transformation ?ossen claimed that the scope of political economy had pre$iously #een %End &a#e ') ( limited to the realm of "material goods" only #ecause it had always "seemed impossi#le to formulate rules applica#le a#o$e and #eyond 3those4 material goods " Ca$ing gi$en up the notion of $alue as "su#stance" which separated the masculine sphere of the tangi#le ("hunger") from the feminine world of the intangi#le ("lo$e"), ?ossen argued that "the present con$entional name of this science 3i e political economy4" was "no longer appropriate if we extend the purpose of this science to its real dimensions--to help man obtain the greatest sum of pleasure during his life" (?ossen &105, 50-1) !hile ?ossen(s pro<ect came to naught, it was ta"en up again in different forms #y !alras and :e$ons in the &0D2(s +hese different formulations all started from the %uasi-=arwinian assumption that indi$iduals competed for scarce resources in a closed uni$erse Indeed, it was only within this context that >arl 'enger could specify that "the end of economy" was "not the physical accumulation of goods" #ut "always the

fullest possi#le satisfaction of 3indi$idual4 human needs" ('enger &1D9, &12), while ! Stanley :e$ons argued that $alue was not "an o#<ect at all" #ut merely the "circumstance of an o#<ect" for a gi$en consumer, at a gi$en instant in time (:e$ons &1.6, DD) 'arginalism thus represented a certain logical de$elopment in the history of social science -n the one hand, the marginalists extended economic analysis from production to the heretofore unexplored domain of consumption, in the process challenging the outmoded notion of a metaphysically pri$ileged "masculine sphere" of tangi#le property for sale -n the other hand, they <ettisoned the old concept of $alue as mere su#stance with at least the hope of constructing a more uni$ersal social science em#racing #oth spheres of social action From the perspecti$e of this paper, howe$er, the most significant thing a#out marginalism was the way in which it opened up the %uestion of indi$idual psychology If :e$ons really #elie$ed that "e$ery manufacturer "nows and feels how closely he must anticipate the tastes and needs of his customers," then it was essential to understand the psychological determination of those "tastes and needs" (:e$ons &0D&, 6D) =a$id He$ine has thus complained that while the needs of the classical producers were determined from within the economy %End &a#e '))( #y their existence as property-owners, neoclassical consumers were moti$ated #y personal desires gi$en to economic life from #eyond its #orders (He$ine &1DD, &0&) +o an extent, this appeared to adum#rate the "self-li%uidation of political economy" as an autonomous discipline #y transforming it into a mere #ox of tools to accomplish the desires of indi$idual psychologies ('ee" &1DD, &D.) ;nd yet the fact remains that political economy really did not li%uidate itself Se$eral factors help explain why the marginalists did not more wholeheartedly em#race psychology In the first place, there were important institutional constraints that tended to forge lin"s #etween marginalism and earlier forms of political economy +o start with, the marginalists came to psychology #y way of economics, not the re$erse +hey #egan with an interest in economic literature that made it necessary to express their new doctrines in the language of the earlier economists 7$en a radical li"e :e$ons was mindful to define his new research program in classical terms 'ore specifically, they had in common with their predecessors an interest in mar"etplace phenomena 6 +he fact that commodities could #e exchanged for money remained the central way of defining them as %uantifia#le economic o#<ects :e$ons, for example, #elie$ed that political economy "must #e mathematical, simply #ecause it deals with %uantities" (:e$ons &15&, 5) -r consider 8areto(s conception of political economy as "(choice which falls on things the %uantities of which are $aria#le and suscepti#le of measurement(" (?ross and +arascio &110, &D1) Finally, the marginalists limited their in%uiry to conscious states of

mind and moti$ations ;ctions not maximi,ing utility on a conscious le$el were thus excluded from the domain of political economy, and #anished to the realm of the irrational and the %ualitati$e In a sense, marginalism ne$er fully ac"nowledged the =arwinian disco$ery that conscious rationality was a recently ac%uired $eneer, which #y no means disclosed the indi$idual(s essential nature It was precisely here that Freud(s fundamental ideas seemed to fill a gap in social science that #egan to #e apparent #y the &002s; namely, the pro#lem of accounting for the apparently non-rational (and thus noneconomic) aspects of %End &a#e ')'( certain types of #eha$ior :ust as the marginalists re$ealed production to #e a mere mechanism for satisfying consumer choice, Freud re$ealed choice itself to #e a mere superficial expression of e$en more fundamental forces deeply rooted in humanity(s e$olutionary past ;nd <ust as production might appear as a special case of exchange #etween rational indi$iduals, so psychoanalysis now suggested that rational exchange itself was only a particular instance of a much more general principle of #eha$ior @ut if Freud appeared to depose the principle of the utility-maximi,ing indi$idual #y offering numerous exceptions to that principle, he actually showed that these exceptions were only apparent on the surface le$el of consciousness Unconsciously, #oth "normal" and pathological indi$iduals o#eyed a single uni$ersal principle of "economy" rooted in the logic of psycho-physics itself For example, while gam#lers might exhi#it what appeared to #e selfdestructi$e and thus non-economic #eha$ior on a conscious le$el, their self-destructi$eness actually resol$ed tensions on the more fundamental le$el of the unconscious Ket Freud went e$en deeper !hile the "economic" principle postulated that mental energy too" the fastest possi#le route to discharge, Freud #elie$ed that all possi#le routes in the indi$idual #rain were themsel$es determined #y its prior endowments and memories Indeed, Freud(s main criticism of his ri$al, 8ierre :anet, was that he failed to place the "economic" principle in its larger context (Freud &1./ 3&1.64, 52-5&) For Freud, that larger context was the differentiation of the indi$idual personality @y tracing that differentiation, Freud claimed to ha$e expanded the sphere of social science so that final determination no longer rested upon the conditions of production (as the 'arxists claimed) #ut upon the material conditions of reproduction +oward the end of his life (in &155), he could thus write that "sociology, too, dealing as it does with the #eha$ior of people in society, cannot #e anything #ut applied psychology," so that "strictly spea"ing there are only two sciencesL psychology, pure and applied, and natural science 3streng genommen gi#t es <a nur ,wei !issenschaften, 8sychologie, reine und angewandte, und

)atur"unde4" (Freud &155 3&15.4, &D1) %End &a#e ')*(

+. &sychoanalysis as a 2ni$ied Social Field !heory

Freud(s claim that psychoanalysis might ser$e as the framewor" for a uni$ersal social science had a certain #asis in reality >ertainly, =arwinian monism offered a new perspecti$e in which #oth hunger and lo$e might #oth #e go$erned #y the principle of "least action " It was only gradually that !estern thought #egan to in$est the sphere of economic relations with the nascent characteristics of a conser$ed field in which indi$idual agents #eha$ed as particles @ut in the social sciences, the progressi$e deployment of the field metaphor signalled the spread of indi$idualism !hile the classics (including 'arx) saw exchange alone as conser$ed, the marginalists extended the field to include production as well as exchange, #oth go$erned #y the "conser$ation of utility plus expenditure" ('irows"i &101, ../) Since it was precisely this principle of conser$ation which irrational #eha$ior appeared to $iolate, it is not surprising that psychoanalysis had to de$elop the elements of an e$en more general field theory to account for it +he "field" characteristics of Freud(s "li#idinal economy" arose from the notion that li#ido is real energy, deployed #y ner$ous systems, and in$ested in internal or external o#<ects >onscious choice thus turned out to #e the sum of $arious forces impinging on indi$iduals from #oth their inner and outer worlds )e$ertheless, while Freud early introduced the notion of %uantity to the study of mental energy, he hesitated to extend that approach to its o#<ects )er$ous "charge," he first maintained, was at the disposal of two %ualitati$ely distinct classes of goals; those which satisfied the self-preser$ation instincts and those which satisfied the sexual instincts -nly #y a gradual process, and one lasting two decades, did the %ualitati$e distinction #etween these two great classes #egin to erode in Freud(s wor" ;t the #eginning, Freud accepted the con$entional notion that the proper sexual o#<ect was an adult of the opposite sex ;ll other o#<ects were essentially patterned on the nutritional $ariety +his %ualitati$e distinction #etween the sexual and the nutritional was at first so significant that Freud regarded childhood manifestations of sexuality as a "ind %End &a#e ')+( of unnatural distortion #rought a#out #y molestation (Freud &019, &1&-..&) ;fter &01D, howe$er, Freud a#andoned this socalled "seduction theory" in fa$or of the "oedipal theory" of infantile sexuality @y accepting the notion of childhood (and thus polymorphous per$erse) sexuality, Freud came to see all forms of sex as %ualitati$ely similar, with only the self-preser$ation instinct as separate =uring the first decade of the twentieth century, Freud #egan to #lur e$en this distinction #y lin"ing the $arious forms of self-preser$ation to

particular stages of sexual de$elopment In particular, he ela#orated the notion that the emergence of money economy was rooted in the "anal" phase of sexuality (Freud &120, &D5-/) +he child(s attitude toward excretion thus adum#rated its later attitude toward possessions Since fecal matter was the first o#<ect created #y the infant which could #e alienated from it in exchange for others( praise, an anal retenti$e character prefigured excessi$e parsimony, an anal expulsi$e character excessi$e impro$idence Feces itself #ecame the prototype for gold, a hypothesis Freud defended #y referring to cross-linguistic data suggesting a connection #etween "filthy lucre" and precious metal (!arner &11&) !hile Freud(s theory of the anal #asis for money is extremely contro$ersial, it does illustrate his attempt to portray economic moti$ation as a mere #yproduct of human desire In another sense, it may also ha$e announced Freud(s oedipal $ictory o$er his wool merchant father, whose commercial efforts were thus disparaged as nothing more than "shit " Freud(s &1&6 paper "-n )arcissism" further su#ordinated political economy to desire #y arguing that "the first auto-erotic sexual satisfactions are experienced in connection with the $ital functions which ser$e the purpose of self-preser$ation " Freud thus explained how desire for external o#<ects was merely an extension of self-lo$e (Freud &1&6, 0D) !ithin this framewor", "-n )arcissism" delineated the way in which social exigencies forced the indi$idual to gradually direct mental energy #eyond one(s own #ody to a similar indi$idual (of the same sex), and e$entually to a more differentiated indi$idual of the opposite sex in marriage >on$ersely, a sudden impo$erishment of energy might force the ner$ous system to withdraw its "in$estments" #ac" into the #ody (Freud &1&6, &2&) %End &a#e ')-( In his paper on narcissism Freud not only suggested that homosexuals, narcissists and schi,ophrenics had a more impo$erished 3 $erarmt4 "psychic economy" than that of purely differentiated heterosexuals, #ut that these different states might arise from the natural flow of an indi$idual(s li#ido when frustrated #y certain o#stacles )er$ous energy, in other words, automatically directed itself along the path of least resistance @ut, as Jurt Hewin has noted, it was <ust this "attempt to characteri,e the situation at a gi$en time and to ma"e the topology of the life space responsi#le for a certain e$ent" that made Freud(s li#ido concept "essentially a field theory" (Hewin &1/&, 1.) It was within this context that Freud finally a#olished any distinction #etween the sexual and nutritional class of o#<ects #y proclaiming #oth the goal of the so-called "life" instinct In &uture of 'n Illusion, he thus noted that one indi$idual is wealth 3gutes4 to another "in so far as the other person ma"es use of his capacity to wor" 3;r#eits"raft4, or chooses him as a sexual o#<ect" (Freud

&1.D, 9) Freud(s a#olition of the difference #etween classes of desired o#<ects go$erned #y ri$al instincts thus extended the %uantitati$e approach to its furthest limits @y destroying the %ualitati$e distinction #etween "hunger" and "lo$e," he contri$ed to create a "ind of unified field theory in which the o#<ects of the political economy originally #ased on satisfying non-sexual needs were re$ealed to #e a mere su#set of the larger "li#idinal economy" in which energy could #e in$ested in oneself, one(s relati$es, one(s wife, or a shiny new #icycle down the street +he only (ualitati$e distinction which thus remained was that #etween a life-affirming consumption and the extinction of consumption itself in death / :ust as :e$ons, !alras and 'enger had su#$erted the distinction #etween the producti$e and unproducti$e, Freud had #egun the process of a#olishing the difference #etween lo$e and mere appetite %omo )economicus thus ga$e way to %omo Se*ualis !e are li$ing with the conse%uences to this day
Department of %istory +all State ni$ersity ,uncie- I. /0123

"otes
& +hroughout this paper, I ha$e ta"en the li#erty of putting the Freudian words "economic" and "economy" in %uotation mar"s to remind the reader that their meaning in psychoanalysis is analogous #ut not identical to their meaning in political economy . For a detailed discussion of this %uestion, see @ir"en &100 5 +he relation #etween gender and social categories is complex, especially #ecause the #oundaries of those categories are constantly shifting ;mong the ?ree"s and Eomans, oikonomia was the science of household management, roughly e%ui$alent to today(s "home economics " Eelegated to the sphere of women, children, sla$es and other non-citi,ens, the production of wealth stood in opposition to the sphere of politics >on$ersely, when the economic "category" re-emerged in se$enteenth and eighteenth century 7uropean thought, it did so in a society where the creation of wealth was increasingly identified with the political rather than the household sphere +he philosophes thus contrasted a social world of expanding %uantities with a familial world of %ualities >lassical economic discourses (in the #roadest sense), in other words, re$ersed the age-old association of fertility with the family #y rooting it in social production !ith Jarl 'arx, this paradoxical contrast #etween a producti$e society and a sterile family was ta"en to its furthest limit Eegarding all natural processes including human reproduction as essentially unproducti$e in themsel$es, they could #e $alori,ed only within the social sphere #y la#or-power For a "feminist" ta"e on the relationship #etween 7nlightenment social thought and gender see >lar" and Hange (&1D1) 6 . ;lfred 'arshall in particular sought, in his theory of the firm, to reconcile the "su#<ecti$ist" tendencies of marginalism with the older "o#<ecti$ist" tendencies of the classics Cowe$er, e$en the "su#<ecti$ism" of 'enger, !alras and :e$ons only appears

su#<ecti$e #ecause it is "gi$en" to the economy ;lthough 'arxists li"e Boloshino$ refuse to admit it, Freud rooted this apparent "su#<ecti$ism" in a wider "o#<ecti$ism " / Since this so-called "=eath Instinct" (Totentreib) represented the tendency toward a total discharge which would dissol$e an indi$idual(s psychic economy itself, it appeared to represent the one exception to the notion of "the conser$ation of energy " In fact, howe$er, it merely shifted the conser$ation principle to a #roader context em#racing #oth matter and energy, analogous to the expansion of the same principle in physics

3e$erences
;l#anese, 8aul &100 Psychological &oundations of Economic +eha$ior4 )ew Kor"L 8raeger @audrillard, :ean &10/ #e miroir de la production4 8arisL Mditions ?alilNe @ella", Heopold &115 Psychoanalysis as a Science4 @ostonL ;llyn and @acon @ir"en, Hawrence &100 5onsuming Desire6 Se*ual Science and the Emergence of a 5ulture of 'bundance &rom 7807 to 797/ IthacaL >ornell Uni$ersity 8ress @Ihm-@awer", 7ugen $on &01/ "+he 8ositi$e +heory of >apital and Its >ritics II " :uarterly ;ournal of Economics 1 (;pril &01/) @u"harin, )i"olai &1.D Economic Theory of the #eisure 5lass )ew Kor"L International 8u#lishers >lar", Horenne and Hynda Hange &1D1 7ditors The Se*ism of Social 'nd Political Theory4 +orontoL Uni$ersity of +oronto 8ress >ohen, I @ernard &115 ";nalogy, Comology, and 'etaphor in the Interactions #etween the )atural Sciences and the Social Sciences, 7specially 7conomics " In .on< .atural Social Science6 !eflecting on the Enterprise of =,ore %eat than #ight= 7dited #y )iel de 'archi =urhamL =u"e Uni$ersity 8ress =arwin, >harles &10& 3&0/14 )n the )rigin of Species4 >am#ridgeL Car$ard Uni$ersity 8ress =asgupta, ; J &10/ Epochs of Economic Theory HondonL @asil @lac"well =umont, Houis &1DD &rom ,ande$ille to ,ar*6 The >enesis and Triumph of Economic Ideology >hicagoL Uni$ersity of >hicago 8ress Fechner, ?usta$e &12D Elemente der Psychophysik Heip,igL @reit"opf O Cartel Freud, Sigmund &1/2 3&01/4 "8ro<ect For ; Scientific 8sychology " S 7 & PPPPPPP &019 "+he ;etiology of Cysteria " S 7 5

PPPPPPP &122 The Interpretation of Dreams S 7 6,/ PPPPPPP &12/ ;okes and their !elation to the nconscious S 7 0 PPPPPPP &120 ">haracter and ;nal 7rotism " S 7 1 PPPPPPP &1&& "Formulations on the +wo 8rinciples of 'ental Functioning " S 7 &. PPPPPPP &1&6 "-n )arcissismL ;n Introduction " S 7 &6 PPPPPPP &1.2 +eyond The Pleasure Principle S 7 &0 PPPPPPP &1./ 'n 'utobiographical Study S 7 .2 PPPPPPP &1.9 Inhibitions- Symptons and 'n*iety S 7 .2 PPPPPPP &1.D The &uture of an Illusion S 7 .& PPPPPPP &152 5i$ilization and its Discontents S 7 .& PPPPPPP &155 .ew Introductory #ectures on Psycho<analysis S 7 .. PPPPPPP &10/ Sigmund &reud to ?illiam &liess- 7880<792/6 The 5omplete #etters +ranslated and 7dited #y :effrey 'oussaieff 'asson >am#ridgeL Car$ard Uni$ersity 8ress Fromm, 7rich &1D2 The 5risis of Psychoanalysis )ew Kor"L Colt, Einehart and !inston PPPPPP &19& The !e$ision of Psychoanalysis @oulderL !est$iew Furnham, ;drian and ;lan Hewis &109 The Economic ,ind )ew Kor"L St 'artin(s 8ress ?ossen, Cermann &105 The #aws of %uman !elations +ranslated #y Eudolph @lit, >am#ridgeL 'I+ 8ress ?ross, 'artin and Bincent : +arascio &110 "8areto(s +heory of >hoice " %istory of Political Economy 52L. (Summer) Cowey, E S &192 The !ise of the ,arginal tility School- 7802<7889 HawrenceL Uni$ersity of Jansas 8ress Cuxley, ;ldous &1/0 +ra$e .ew ?orld !e$isited )ew Kor"L Carper O @rothers :e$ons, !illiam Stanley &0D& The Theory of Political Economy &st ed HondonL 'acmillan PPPPPPP &1.6 The Theory of Political Economy 5rd ed HondonL 'acmillan

PPPPPPP &15& The Theory of Political Economy 6th ed HondonL 'acmillan :ones, 7rnest &1/5 The #ife and ?ork of Sigmund &reud Bolume I )ew Kor"L @asic @oo"s Jauder, 7mil &19/ ' %istory of ,arginal tility Theory 8rincetonL 8rinceton Uni$ersity 8ress Jaulla, Eudolph &162 Theory of the ;ust Price )ew Kor"L )orton Hauter#ach, ;l#ert &1D6 Psychological 5hallenges to ,odernization ;msterdamL 7lse$ier Hea, Stephen, Eoger +arpy and 8aul !e#ley &10D The Indi$idual in the Economy >am#ridgeL >am#ridge Uni$ersity 8ress He$ine, =a$id &1DD Economic Studies HondonL Eoutledge Hewin, Jurt &1/& &ield Theory in Social Science )ew Kor"L Carper O @rothers 'aital, Shlomo &10. ,ind- ,arkets and ,oney )ew Kor"L @asic @oo"s 'arshall, ;lfred &12D Principles of Economics HondonL 'acmillan 'arx, Jarl &1D9 5apital6 ' 5riti(ue of Political Economy Bolume I +ranslated #y @en Fow"es )ew Kor"L Bintage PPPPPPP &191 Theories of Surplus @alue +ranslated #y 7mile @urns Bolume & 'oscowL 8rogress 'ee", Eonald &1DD Smith- ,ar* and 'fter HondonL >hapman and Call 'enger, >arl &1D9 Principles of Economics +ranslated #y :ames =ingwall and @ert Coselit, )ew Kor"L )ew Kor" Uni$ersity 8ress 'irows"i, 8hilip &101 ,ore %eat Than #ight >am#ridgeL >am#ridge Uni$ersity 8ress 8ri#am, Jarl and 'erton ?ill &1D9 &reud=s AProjectA !e<assessed )ew Kor"L @asic @oo"s Ea#in#ach, ;nson &112 The %uman ,otor6 Energy- &atigue and the )rigins of ,odernity )ew Kor"L @asic @oo"s Eiesman, =a$id &1/2 "+he +hemes of !or" and 8lay in the Structure of Freud(s +hought " Psychiatry &5L& (:anuary) Smither, Eo#ert &106 5ompetitors and 5omrades )ew Kor"L 8raeger Sulloway, Fran" &1D1 &reud- +iologist of the ,ind6 +eyond the Psychoanalytic

#egend )ew Kor"L @asic @oo"s Boloshino$, B ) &1D9 &reudianism6 ' ,ar*ist 5riti(ue +ranslated #y I E +ituni" )ew Kor"L ;cademic 8ress !achtel, 8aul &105 The Po$erty of 'ffluence )ew Kor"L Free 8ress !arner, Silas &11& "Sigmund Freud and 'oney " In ,oney and ,ind 7dited #y Sheila Jle#anow and 7ugene H Howen"opf )ew Kor"L 8lenum !eiss"opf, !alter &1D& 'lienation and Economics )ew Kor"L =utton !ortis, :oseph &106 &ragments of an 'nalysis with &reud )ew Kor"L :ason ;ronson