Witch of Metapsychology, The
WITCH OF METAPSYCHOLOGY, THE
Harking back to a remark of Freud's, "Witch Metapsychology" is occasionally invoked in an ironic or critical way to characterize the resort to general metapsychological principles as a way of avoiding some difficult problem.
In his article "Analysis Terminable and Interminable," Freud posed the following question: how, in the course of the analysis, can an instinct be "tamed"—that is to say, not suppressed, but brought, with its conflicts, "completely into the harmony of the ego." "It is not easy to find an answer," he wrote. "We can only say: 'So muss denn doch hie Hexe dran!' [We must call the Witch to our help after all!]—the Witch Metapsychology. Without metapsychological speculation and theorizing—I had almost said 'phantasying'—we shall not get another step forward. Unfortunately, here as elsewhere, what our Witch reveals is neither very clear nor very detailed" (1937c, p. 225; the quotation is from Goethe's Faust ).
And indeed Freud leaves his question unanswered in this paper, except for one sentence where he evokes the opposition between primary and secondary processes. This evasion is characteristic of the very problem he poses in the above-cited passage: when psychoanalytical thought runs into some difficulty or other (theoretical, practical, or technical), it is often tempted to wriggle out by invoking metapsychological principles of great generality. Their very generality renders the response of the "Witch" uncertain, however, for both question and answer can be reframed in such a way as to achieve harmony, opening the door wide to ill-defined disputes among the psychoanalysts themselves with no clear criteria to guide the discussion.
Over and above her picturesque quality, therefore, the Witch metapsychology raises a basic epistemological problem.
Roger Perron
See also: "Analysis Terminable and Interminable"; Goethe and psychoanalysis; Literary and artistic creativity; Science and psychoanalysis.
Bibliography
Freud, Sigmund. (1937c). Analysis terminable and interminable. SE, 23: 209-253.