ABSTRACT

Freud attempted to conceive of the scientific character of subjectivity in the analytical process, in the course of which both analyst and patient agree to submit to a certain number of rules: even though Freud saw these as very simple, the effects that they have are surprisingly complex. To put it simply, forgetfulness, which lies at the heart of the analytical method in the way that it involves the analyst in the process, is fundamentally a forgetting of oneself. The point at which the fundamental rule is formulated, he writes, "consists in getting the patient to forget that it is merely a matter of words". The word "fright" evokes a nameless dread that gives rise to traumatic fascination and paralysis. What comes to the surface and becomes visible here is a monstrosity of some kind, the Medusa's head, or a Gorgon, or, perhaps, even more frightening, a terrifying presence that can be given no figurative representation. '.