THE ETHNOPSYCHOANALYSIS OF DEVEREUX IN THE MOVIE JIMMY P.: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSCULTURAL CLINIC

ABSTRACT

Georges Devereux (1908-1985) is known for being, together with GézaRohéim (1891-1953), one of the creators of ethnopsychoanalysis, a subject that articulates the knowledge of Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. His first great work was Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines, a book published in 1951 and that narrates the analysis of a Blackfoot American Indian, ex-combatant of the Second War. The book was the basis for the elaboration of the movie Jimmy P., translated in Brazil as Terapiaintensiva. The aim of this study was to present an introductory discussion to some of Devereux’s ideas from clippings of the film Jimmy P., directed by Arnaud Desplechin in 2013. In addition, we also looked for the author’s approaches and innovations in relation to Freud. We concluded that, in the matter of approaching as a technique and practice between Devereux and Freud, we observe in the movie that Devereux incorporates to his technique the practice of dream interpretation, free association, and makes references to Freud’s theory during the treatment, as the Oedipus complex and transference. Starting from Freudian intuitions about the relation between culture and psyche, Devereux advances for the formulation of an ethnopsychoanalysis, a result of the recognition of the inseparable interweaving of individual and cultural schemes. If the propositions of Devereux promoted in France the development of a clinical practice that considers the cultural differences of populations of immigrants from different countries, more promising still appear to be the chances of a transcultural psychoanalysis flourishing in a fertile terrain in ethnic diversity such as Brazil.

Keywords:
Ethnopsychoanalysis; psychoanalysis and culture; transcultural psychiatry

RESUMO

Georges Devereux (1908-1985) é conhecido como, juntamente com Géza Rohéim (1891-1953), um dos criadores da etnopsicanálise, disciplina que articula os saberes da Psicanálise e da Antropologia. Sua primeira grande obra foi Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines, livro publicado em 1951 e que narra a análise de um indígena Blackfoot, ex-combatente da Segunda Guerra. O livro foi a base para a elaboração do filme Jimmy P., traduzido no Brasil como Terapia intensiva. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar uma discussão introdutória a algumas das ideias de Devereux a partir de recortes do filme Jimmy P., dirigido por Arnaud Desplechin em 2013. Além disso, também buscamos as aproximações e inovações do autor em relação a Freud. Concluímos que, no que diz respeito às aproximações enquanto técnica e prática entre Devereux e Freud, observamos no filme que Devereux incorpora à sua técnica a prática da interpretação dos sonhos, a associação livre e faz referências à teoria freudiana durante o tratamento, como o complexo de Édipo e a transferência. A partir das intuições freudianas sobre a relação entre cultura e psiquismo, Devereux avança para a formulação de uma etnopsicanálise, resultado do reconhecimento do entrelaçamento inseparável de esquemas individuais e culturais. Se as proposições de Devereux fomentaram na França o desenvolvimento de uma prática clínica que considera as diferenças culturais de populações de imigrantes oriundas de diferentes países, mais promissoras ainda parecem ser as chances de florescimento de uma psicanálise transcultural num terreno fértil em diversidade étnica como o Brasil.

Palavras-chave:
Etnopsicanálise; psicanálise e cultura; psiquiatria transcultural

RESUMEN

Georges Devereux (1908-1985) es conocido, juntamente con Géza Rohéim (1891-1953), como uno de los creadores del etnopsicoanálisis, asignatura que articula los saberes del Psicoanálisis y de la Antropología. Su primera gran obra fue Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines, libro publicado en 1951 y que narra el análisis de un indígena Blackfoot, ex-combatiente de la Segunda Guerra. El libro fue la base para la elaboración de la película Jimmy P. y fue traducido en Brasil como Terapia intensiva. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar una discusión introductoria a algunas de las ideas de Devereux a partir de trechos de la película Jimmy P., dirigida por Arnaud Desplechin en 2013. Además, buscamos las aproximaciones e innovaciones del autor con relación a Freud. Concluimos que, en lo que dice respecto a la aproximación en cuanto a la técnica y práctica entre Devereux y Freud, observamos en la película que Devereux incorpora a su técnica la práctica de la interpretación de los sueños, la asociación libre y hace referencias a la teoría freudiana durante el tratamiento, como el complejo de Edipo y la transferencia. A partir de las intuiciones freudianas sobre la relación entre cultura y psique, Devereux avanza para la formulación de un etnopsicoanálisis, resultado del reconocimiento del entrelazamiento inseparable de esquemas individuales y culturales. Si las proposiciones de Devereux fomentaron en Francia el desarrollo de una práctica clínica que considera las diferencias culturales de poblaciones de inmigrantes oriundas de diferentes países, más promisoras aún parecen ser las probabilidades de florecimiento de un psicoanálisis transcultural en un terreno fértil en diversidad étnica como Brasil.

Palabras clave:
Etnopsicoanálisis; psicoanálisis y cultura; psiquiatría transcultural

Introduction

One of the authors who defends the renovation produced by ethnopsychoanalysis in the field of human sciences, Roger Bastide (2015) informs us that, among the concerns that drove the considerations of Georges Devereux (1908-1985), there is one referring to the realization of an expressed difficulty in the communication between the disciplines integrating this area of knowledge. Since his first ethnic studies, Devereux suggested the reflection about the foundations of both disciplines involved in his work, ethnology and psychoanalysis, in order to trespass the disorder that reined in part of this domain of knowledge. The proposal of an ethnopsychoanalysis as a new discipline, broader and thoroughly reasoned, would result from this enterprise.

It is clear from these preliminary considerations the importance and range of Devereux’s enterprise, which presentation would surpass the limits of this study. On the other hand, considering the lack of studies on the subject in Brazil, the aim of the present study is to present an introductory discussion to some of the author’s ideas. Given that some of our studies focused on the discussion of some aspects of the practice and the technique of ethnopsychoanalysis, and that, as informed by Menninger, quoted by Devereux (2013), “[...] the first theory and the first concrete example of the use of cultural mechanisms in psychotherapy” (p. 41-42, authors’ translation)³, is found in Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines: realité et rêve, book in which Devereux describes the analysis developed with a native American Indian, that will be an indirect basis for the discussion in the present study; indirectly because the discussion will be mainly based on the analysis of some parts of the film Jimmy P. (Desplechin, 2013), based on the book.

The movie allows the exploration of some characteristic aspects of the transcultural approach developed by the author, consisting of the fundamental rule of the need, from the part of the analyst, of knowing the culture in which the patient is inserted (Nathan, 2013a). The main thesis of Devereux (2013), according to which the knowledge of the analyst, if not derived from specific cultural factors, rise at least from the general dominant cultural scheme of the economy and the psychodynamics of patients from different cultural fields, and opens the possibility of thinking on the novel sense, the reach the importance of a transcultural psychoanalytic clinic on present days.

To Devereux, it is fundamental that the analyst considers culture as an experience, because regardless of the patients’ culture, what varies among societies are not “[…] the cultural materials used - these are rigorously the same in Patagonia and Japan, in Madagascar and Canada - but the way in which they are organized” (Laplantine, 1998, p. 72). In this sense, it is important to clarify that Devereux distinguishes culture in the particular sense (the culture of a specific group or society) from Culture itself as a universal phenomenon (Araújo, 2016), derived from general human experience.

The idea of a Culture, with capital ‘C’, comes from the comprehension of the constitutive role of the cultural factor for the human psyche, so that a correspondence or homology can be made between them. This means that, to Devereux, one cannot be conceived without the other, and the other way around. The co-emergence between them implies that “[…] it is impossible to conceive a culture that is not experienced through a psyche […] and, mutually, it is impossible to think the formation of personality itself […] independent of culture” (Laplantine, 1998, p. 73).

From the point of view of clinical practice, Devereux (1978) differentiates three types of ethnopsychiatric psychotherapies⁴: intracultural, intercultural and transcultural. In the first, patient and therapist are from the same culture and the latter considers the cultural dimension in the treatment. In the second and third, the patient and the therapist are from different cultures, but while in the intercultural therapy the therapist is well aware of the specific culture of the patient and would be able to manage it therapeutically, in transcultural therapy the therapist would take into consideration Culture itself and would use this assumption in diagnosis and conduction of treatment.

In France, for example, the ideas of Devereux would have contributed to the development of therapeutic practices with immigrants, initially with Tobie Nathan, Devereux’s student, and Marie Rose Moro. According to Saglio-Yatzimirsky (2015), the first ethnopsychiatric consultation would have been conducted by Tobie Nathan in 1979, in the psychiatric service of Serge Lebovici, at the Hospital of Avicenne, in Bobigny, Seine-Saint Denis. The Avicenne hospital is a public institution, opened in 1935 with the objective of being a Frank-Muslim hospital in Paris to serve mainly the Algerian and Moroccan population of Paris in the context of colonization. However, this hospital started to serve the northern population of Paris, which concentrates a population marked by poverty, strong cultural miscegenation and African and Asian communities.

From the experience in Avicenne, Tobie Nathan founded the George Devereux Center in 1993, linked to the Department of Psychology of the University of Paris 8. Georges Devereux Center is the first and only clinical university center in a French Training and Research Unity and comes to be with the goal of being strictly directed to psychology and clinical research, offering free ethnopsychiatric consultations to immigrant families. (Nathan, 2013b)

As in France, we believe that in a multicultural country as Brazil, Devereux’s ethnopsychoanalysis can bring contributions to research and intervention among individuals from different cultural contexts, not only those from other countries, but also with our own indigenous population, which count 305 ethnicities (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE], 2012).

Considering the exposition, after a brief presentation of some historical background to contextualize minimally the emergence of ethnopsychoanalysis, we will proceed to the discussion of some aspects of the technique used by Devereux in the treatment of his indigenous patient, called Jimmy P.Some aspects of the handling of transference, the technique of interpretation of dreams and the consideration of the Oedipus complex will be taken into account, for example, in order to highlight, from excerpts of the movie together with the reading of the book, their similarities and differences in relation to Freud, as well as some of the innovations introduced by Devereux.

Some ethnopsychoanalysis background in Freud’s work

Ethnopsychoanalysis is a discipline that articulates the knowledge of anthropology and psychoanalysis. A milestone of the approximation between these disciplines is the publication of the book ‘Totem e tabu’, in which preface Freud (2012, p. 14) says that the book is a first attempt to “[...] apply perspectives and results of psychoanalysis to problems not yet solved by the psychology of peoples”. Besides, he clarifies that the book tries to “[...] make intermediation between ethnologists, linguists, folklorists etc., on one side, and psychoanalysts on the other [...]” (p. 15). At the end of his life, when he wrote Moises y la religion monoteísta, Freud (1996) summarized the hypothesis in which he was based to write ‘Totem e tabu’:

From Darwin I took the hypothesis that men originally lived in small hordes, each one brutally dominated by an older male, who appropriated all the females and punished or killed all younger males, including their own offspring. From Atkinson, proceeds the second part of this transcription: the patriarchal system met its end in a rebellion of the sons, who allied against the father, killed him and together devoured his body. Following the totem theory of Robertson Smith, I presumed that the paternal horde soon gave place to the fraternal totem clan. In order to live together in peace, the victorious renounced the women, for whom they killed the father, and submitted themselves to exogamy. [...] In the place of the father, an animal was elevated as totem, being accepted as collective antecessor and as tutelary deity: no one could mistreat or kill it; but once every year all the male community united in a feast in each the totem animal, until revered, was torn apart and devoured together (p. 3320, authors’ translation)⁵.

From these ideas, Freud based and broadened his notion of Oedipus complex and formed his theories on the social and the culture. To him, the ambiguous sentiment experienced by children and by the neurotic in the Oedipus complex would be related to the feeling nourished by the siblings in the primordial horde in relation to the father (the ontogenesis repeats the phylogenies). Both the former and the latter would hate the father who impaired the fulfilling of the sexual desire, at the same time that they feel love and admiration. With the assassination of the father, the feeling installed in among the siblings in the primitive horde would have been of guilt, and the dead father, substituted by a totem, would have assumed a much larger symbolic strength than he had when alive. His prohibitions in life were imputed by the siblings to themselves, originating the totem taboos - not killing or mistreating the totem, and the law of exogamy, which prohibited sexual relations among members of the opposite gender of a same totem - which coincided with the repressed desires in children during the period of the Oedipus complex. These prohibitions instituted with the assassination of the father aimed to secure the maintenance of the new order. In the name of equality and fraternal society, the brothers renounced the women and the dispute for the place of that who dominated them by force, i.e., the brothers made a pact of renounce.

Although Freud considered ‘Totem e tabu’ one of his best-written books, according to Strachey (2008), it was one of his most criticized ones. Among the several criticisms received is the questioning by the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski about the universality of the Oedipus complex. Malinowski, based on data collect in New Guinea with trobrianders, argued that the Oedipus complex was not present among this people, being applied only to bourgeoisie families of great cities, such as Vienne (Bastide, 2015; Barros & Bairrão, 2010).

Aware of the criticisms to ‘Totem e tabu’, Freud would have invited the anthropologist and psychoanalyst Géza Rohéim (1891-1953)to travel to New Guinea with the aim of answering the questionings about the universality of the Oedipus complex, task performed by Rohéim with the financial support of Marie Bonaparte (Barros & Bairrão, 2010). Rohéimwas the first anthropologist to become psychoanalyst and the only apt one, at the time, to rebuke the criticism by Malinowski with more than theoretical arguments (Roudinesco & Plon, 1998).

Georges Devereux and the formation of ethnopsychoanalysis

Géza Rohéim, together with Georges Devereux, was one of the creators of ethnopsychoanalysis, although Devereux has been the first to use the term. In the first issue of the journal Ethnopsichiatrica, Devereux (1978) thus defined the new discipline, also called by him ethnopsychiatry:

Ethnopsychiatry - necessarily conceived as ethnopsychoanalysis (infra)-is a pluridisciplinarity science, not an interdisciplinary one. It seems to be the most comprehensive of human sciences, both among pure sciences and applied ones, also from the diachronic and synchronic points of view. Being recognized as such or not, its base problem is the one which sustains all human sciences: the relationship of complementarity between the comprehension of the individual, the society and its culture (p. 1, authors’ translation)⁶.

Laplantine (1998) considers that the main characteristic of Devereux’s ethnopsychiatry is its complementary epistemology, which is based on three principles: disciplinary specificity, non-simultaneity and complementarity. The disciplinary specificity of ethnopsychology refers to its constitution by the articulation between ethnology and psychoanalysis and the separation between both disciplines, i.e., it is characterized by the complementarity between the approaches with particular methods and problems, both necessary to comprehend the complexity of phenomena (hence the idea of an epistemology of complementarity). In this sense, the pluridisciplinarity, and not the interdisciplinarity, is the one that brings the implicit idea that one discipline appeals to the other, being able to dismiss it when it is convenient (Laplantine, 1998).

The non-simultaneity, application of the principle of uncertainty of Heisenberg, implies in the possibility of a simultaneous analysis of a same phenomenon in different terms. Devereux (2015) tries to clarify this principle through a situation taken as example, of a husband who gives earrings to his wife; in this example, the more we explore the psychological reasons of the act, the less we comprehend its social dimension, which impairs a simultaneous analysis of both dimensions.

By commenting Devereux’s innovative method, Moro (2010) considers that the author build the theoretical bases of the discipline and an original and subversive method, the complementarism.

The complementarism is opposed to the comparativism in the sense that cultural logics are explored as such; they are the support to the association and the clinical material. The anthropological instrumental allows the proposal and the exploration of the domain of the relationship and the co-construction with the patient of the cultural senses over which the individual senses will be build. (Moro, 2010, p.36, authors’ translation)⁷.

The studies of Devereux in the field of anthropology are prior to his approximation to psychoanalysis. In Paris, he studied with Marcel Mauss, and in 1932 he was already writing papers to the journal American Anthropologist. In 1933, he was awarded a scholarship and moved to the United States, where he studied the Hopi and then the Mojaves. Afterwards he went to New Guinea and Indochina. In this period, he studied indigenous and non-occidental cultures, and wrote a kind of scientific autobiography, which became the basis of his epistemological writings about counter-transference and the anguish of the observer (Devereux, 2012). In 1935, he defended his thesis in anthropology in the University of California under advisory from Alfred Kroeber, entitled A vida sexual dos índios Mohaves, continuing with his researches on sexuality and suicide among indigenous (Bloch, 2000).

According to Roudinesco and Plon (1998), the fieldwork leads Devereux to reflect on the diversity of the mental illnesses in different cultures. However, only after the Second World War he focused on psychoanalysis, first in France, being analyzed by Marc Schlumberger, then being transferred to the United States. In Topeka, Kansas, he worked in the famous clinic of Karl Menninger, where he performed the analysis of an ex-combatant indigenous man of the Second World War. This analysis was thoroughly transcribed by Devereux and published in 1951 in the book Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines (first in English with the title Reality and dream: the psychotherapy of a plains indian), considered his first great work.

Fragments of a clinical-psychoanalytical report: the treatment of Jimmy P. by Georges Devereux

In the book that presents the report of the treatment, Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines, in the French translation used here, Devereux (2013) narrates thirty analysis sessions of a North American Indian who, after fighting in the second world war, was admitted in a veteran hospital in Topeka, with complaints of anxiety crises, nightmares, phobias (of height and water), headaches and alcoholism. After failing to find physiological causes that explained the complaints and suspecting a case of schizophrenia, the physicians and the psychologist of the Topeka hospital decided to call Devereux to elaborate an anthropological diagnosis on the case. From the beginning, he discarded the hypothesis of schizophrenia and volunteered to conduct a psychoanalytical treatment of the patient. During the daily sessions, based on Freudian psychoanalysis, he drives the patient to evoke memories of his past and to relate his dreams.

Psychoterapie d’un indien des plaines, according to Nathan (2013a), disciple and main divulger of Devereux’s ideas in France, is one of the few books in the production of psychoanalysis that fully and rigorously exposes a clinical case, besides developing a novel hypothesis, according to which “[…] to treat a Blackfoot Indian, it is not enough to master psychopathology; it is necessary to know the Blackfoot - the Blackfoot culture - to find the nucleus of the personality and mobilize its own strengths” (Nathan, 2013a). In other words, Nathan clarifies that the hypothesis raised by Devereux established the necessary conditions to conduct adequately the treatment of the patient, and Indian of the Blackfoot tribe; it was necessary more than the mastering of psychopathology by the analyst, it was necessary to know the culture of the indigenous people that Jimmy P. was partof.

The book enchanted the movie director Arnaud Desplechin, who read it in the 1990s and adapted it to the screen. The director would have talked to Elisabeth Roudinesco, author of the preface for the French edition of Devereux’s book, published for the first time in France in 1998. Besides, Desplechin would have developed an extensive research work in the United States that included visitations and talks with the Blackfoot Indians in a reservation, a visit to the hospital in Topeka, interviews with people who knew Georges Devereux and lived with him, also with veterans of different wars (Jimmy P., 2017)

The movie was released in 2013 and was entitled Jimmy P., following the model of Freud’s clinical cases - in Brazil the movie was entitled Terapia intensiva (Desplechin, 2013). It brings excerpts of transcript sessions of the book and, as far as we can tell, is faithful to the text and well succeeded in the adaptation to the movie language.

The history of Jimmy P. and the meeting with Devereux

Jimmy P. was 30 years old when he went to the hospital in Topeka. He belonged to the Blackfoot tribe, called Wolf to preserve the identity of the patient (Roudinesco, 2013). He was born in an Indian reservation and his father died when he was 5 years old from a heart disease. Soon after his father died, he found his mother in bed with another man and went to live with his older sister. Jimmy was the youngest of many siblings, and his family was part of a very strict protestant cult (Devereux, 2013).

According to Devereux (2013), Jimmy’s infancy would have been marked by three traumatic incidents. The first, finding his mother in bed with another man; the second, the drowning and death of a playmate, situation in which he had done nothing to try and save her; the third, when his sister found him caressing the genitals of an older girl, sister to the dead playmate. All incidents are shown in the movie.

Jimmy studied in a confessional school in the reservation. When he was a teenager, he got a young girl pregnant, a close relative of his brother in law, and did not assume the child, a scandal that led him to drop out school. When he was admitted to the hospital, his daughter lived with her maternal grandmother and did not receive any support from the patient. During the sessions, Jimmy manifested an intense guilt of giving up his child and decided to assume her as soon as he left the hospital (Devereux, 2013).

When he was an adult, Jimmy worked at his sister’s ranch and took temporary jobs. He got married to a Blackfoot woman the same age as him, and was sent to fight in the Second World War, but did not participate in the fights, working in guard services. During the time he spent in Europe, he discovered his wife’s adultery, who was already living with another man in his property. He fractured his skull and was sent back to the United States, when he received a pension from the government for the accident, getting divorced right after he returned. With the divorce, he went back to live in his sister’s ranch, when the symptoms that led him to the Topeka hospital started (Devereux, 2013).

Founded in 1926 by Karl Menninger, the Menninger Clinic in Topeka received psychiatrists and psychoanalysts who fled the Nazism in Europe. It was an important research center, aggregating the war veteran hospital. In Topeka, everything should be measured and communicated, and Devereux’s texts obey these realistic principles, being one of the factors that explain the distance of the report style of the case Jimmy P. when compared to the romanced style of Freud’s clinical cases (Roudinesco, 2013).

The first time patient and analyst met, Devereux presented himself as hospital anthropologist and his first question to Jimmy was about his Indian name. In this first meeting, Devereux demonstrated his knowledge about Indigenous peoples and his sympathy for them. The patient, so far always quiet, started telling his history and was impressed with Devereux’s knowledge about the Indians of the United States plains. In a scene in the courtyard, Jimmy asks Devereux what an anthropologist does (Desplechin, 2013).

Jimmy- What does an anthropologist do?

Devereux - Well [...] We study all the aspects of the human beings. Language, knowledge, physiology […]

Jimmy-Is that why you know Indian words?

Devereux -Yes. I lived among the Mojaves for 2 years.

Jimmy- In the desert?

Devereux- Yes. I was able to learn their language and history.

In the movie it is possible to identify in several moments Devereux asking for the Indian denomination for people and situations. Devereux also exposes his knowledge about Indian cultures when he speaks of himself as ‘protector spirit’ (in the analysis of a dream), when he asks Jimmy if his mother and sister had a virile heart (which surprises the patient) and when he speaks of the meaning of dreams (foreseeing the future) in the patient’s culture.

The analyst-patient relationship

The relationship between analyst and patient, according to Devereux (2013), was excellent, what allowed him to take almost textual notes of the sessions, which was not recommended by Freud (2010). To Freud, taking notes during the sessions would interfere with the floating attention of the analyst, counterpart of the attitude of the patient of telling him everything that came to mind (free association). Floating attention consists of listening to the patient without worrying about remembering it afterwards (complete surrender to unconscious memory), i.e., avoiding deliberate attention and subjective perceptions (opinions and assumptions, for example), to avoid taking the risk of selecting the presented material, thus neglecting important facts. By focusing the attention to a determined element more than to others, highlights the author, the analyst is risking to discover nothing more than he already knows. To Freud, even considering a case study, in psychoanalysis the transcription during the session would be less useful than expected. Besides, it could cause a bad impression on the patient and latter make it tiresome for the reader.

Freud (2010) also recommended that the analyst did not speak of his personal life with the patient with the aim of establishing a relationship of equality and trust, because this would be suggestion and not psychoanalysis. “The doctor must be opaque for the patient and, such as a mirror, not show more than what is shown to him” (p. 159). Moreover, he recommended that the psychoanalyst took as a model the surgeon who leaves his affections and even his compassion for the human being outside and concentrates his energy in the surgery.

Devereux also contradicted this affirmation by Freud, since in several moments he related his life during the sessions. We also see in the movies several scenes where Jimmy and Devereux meet in other contexts outside the therapeutic setting. The analyst accompanies the patient to receive his pension check, invites him to car drives, and they are seen together in the movies and the barbershop. These attitudes by Devereux shown in the movie seem to be similar to those he had with other patients, as reported by Nathan (2013a):

He [Devereux] told us that at the end of a session, when the patient was particularly anguished, he used to suggest some talking. It was not rare for him to invite a patient to stay for dinner or to accompany them throughout the way home to calm down the intensity of the emotions evoked by the treatment (p. 2, authors’ translation)⁸.

Based on his own experience as analyst, Devereux (2013) criticized the ethnocentric posture of the analyst, saying that it imposes great difficulties to the treatment of the Indians of the plains. He also criticized a treatment that aimed at a passive adaptation of the patient to the society, since the question is broader and we must ask ourselves if the society will allow the re-adaptation of the patient and will reward them for it.

The interpretation of dreams and the Oedipus complex

Jimmy used to dream a lot and belonged to a tribe that valued the manifested content of the dream. The Indians of the plains considered dreams not only a supernatural fact, but also as an objective reality, reason why they interpreted dreams as successes or failures in life, prescribing conduct directions and taboos. The patient, in turn, considered their own dreams as something real, as an essay or preparation for their own powers or over their reality (Devereux, 2013).

According to Rodinesco (2013, p. 24), Devereux used with Jimmy the “[…] appropriate technique of classic Freudianism […]”, as the interpretation of dreams, with special attention to sexuality, but beyond Freudianism, in the sense he knew how the culture of the Indian in treatment can stimulate the relationship of transference so that the analyst came to occupy the place of ‘protector spirit’. However, Devereux (2013, p. 224, authors’ translation)⁹ considered his technique:

[...] much more limited than that of the classic analysis of dreams. Because even if its therapeutic effectiveness is understood in terms of psychoanalytical theory, it is an altered or summarized psychoanalysis - it is only a psychoanalysis of expression and support.

An additional difference between the interpretation of dreams presented by Devereux (2013) regarding the classic interpretation of psychoanalysis, which aims at the latent content behind the manifested one, resides in the fact that he worked on the manifested content and selected what to interpret, excluding some important parts of the dreams in order to avoid certain risks as traumatic insights. Besides, knowing the culture of the patient was fundamental to know the dosage of insight and to identify the opportunity of interpretation.

Devereux (2013) discusses his technique, presenting six points on which the contents must be interpreted in the dream and how its handling must be managed. First, the ego-syntonic material, the pleasurable content of the dream, the good experiences and beautiful images. Second, the positive behavior that shows successes, acts of generosity, since what is shown in dreams is understood by the patient as an essay for well-succeeded actions in real life. Third, the character interpretations that consist of highlighting the typical characters of the patient that appear in the dream and that are also characteristic of his conduct, because it was easier for the patient to accept interpretations of their behavior in dreams than in their behavior in real life. Fourth, the defense mechanisms, helping the patient to become aware of which were useful and which were useless or self-destructive. Fifth, the content concerning the external reality, in relation to which Devereux stimulated the patient to face their problems according to the traditional model of their culture, since he understood that dreams in the patient’s culture are essays for action and resolution of conflicts. And last, but not least, the interpretation of transfer considering the traditional model of interpersonal relationships of the patient, aiming at demystifying their tendency to represent the analyst as omniscient and omnipotent.

In the first session shown in the movie, after presenting a diagnosis to the hospital team that Jimmy was not insane and receiving authorization to treat him, Devereux asks Jimmy if he had dreamt and he reports these two dreams. In the first, he stripped an ox and in another one, he fought a man who attacked him with a knife. During the interventions, Devereux questions him (for example, about the race of the ox, about the appearance of the man, his clothing, what was common to both dreams), searches the patient’s associations and asks him about how his Blackfoot ancestors would interpret the dream. Since Jimmy was not able to answer, Devereux himself comments that for the Blackfoot the dreams predict the future, he understands they are related to the past.

Another session shown in the movie (Desplechin, 2013), Jimmy again relates two dreams, this time involving Devereux:

Jimmy -We were out hunting. I had a rifle. But you didn’t. And suddenly […] I saw a bear. My rifle stuck. The bear started to pursue us. I kept pulling the trigger, but nothing happened. Then […] you told me to put one bullet at the time. I did it. Then I jumped to another dream. Now we were hunting foxes. I had a 22 caliber and you had nothing again. I killed a fox. I took it from the ground. I was talking to you, when I looked again and noticed that I was holding a baby by the legs. The fox transformed into a baby.

Devereux- And then […] Was the baby alive?

Jimmy- It was dead, or sleeping. Then I woke up, sweating.

Devereux- In your dream, I am like an amulet made of animal heads of the ancestors. Its protection gives you courage.

Jimmy- The ancestors used to say that they dreamt with a beaver. The beaver gave them advices and its blessing. That is why they prayed for the beaver.

Devereux- Have you noticed why you started talking to me about religion? Dreaming about me was like dreaming about a protector spirit. Were you afraid when the rifle stuck?

Jimmy- No, I wasn’t afraid.

Devereux- In the dreams, we try to tell something to ourselves. What are you trying to say? You cannot kill a bear, but you can kill a fox in your dream. Maybe the dream is telling you to start with your smaller concerns.

Jimmy- This is a good interpretation.

In this passage of the movie, we see Devereux’s interpretation about the manifested content of the dream, considering the sense of the dream in the patient’s culture, as an essay for the reality. Devereux highlights the positive aspects of this person who cannot kill a bear, but can kill a fox and stimulates him to start by the smaller concerns. The same also happens with the management of transfer, according to what we commented above, where Devereux applies elements of the patient’s culture, in this case the ‘protector spirit’, to emphasize his role as someone who supports the patient.

In the transcription of the book Psychoterapie d’ indien des plaines, there is a footnote saying that when the Cheyennes express themselves in English they call the sexual ejaculation a rifle shot. In the analysis of the session, Devereux (2013) intervenes and considers the analyst in the dream as someone who does not have a rifle, but gives advice. In other words, the analyst was being taken as a parental substitute indulgent to sexuality, and the stuck rifle anticipates the contents that will later appear in the sessions, as the patient’s partial sexual impairment and the sadomasochist components regarding the parental sexual act. These elements, present in the analysis, were not interpreted to the patient.

Returning to Rodinesco (2013), it is possible to say that Devereux approaches Freud in the importance he gives to sexuality. In the case of dreams, he always sought associations of the patient, as Freud did; however, as mentioned above, his work does not aim at the latent content of the dream, but at the manifest content. Regarding sexuality, Devereux agreed with the universality of the Oedipus complex, but highlighted some specificities of this complex experienced by the indigenous peoples of the plains.

According to Bastide (2015), men belonging to tribes of the plains direct their hostility to the mother who frustrates them. Hostility among men is institutionalized and expressed in competitions, originated from the hatred towards the father. However, this hatred would be, in turn, subordinated to the original hostility towards the mother, which configures an inverted Oedipus complex (negative).About the costumes of these peoples, Devereux (2013) highlighted that one of them is the demand that brothers, husband and mother in law, wife and father in law, avoid contact, which characterizes a reactive formation against incestuous desires and hostility. The warrior rivalry (among men) would also be a reactive formation against homosexual feelings, dependency and masochism.

About the Oedipus complex, Freud (2011, p. 40) said that, in its simple and positive form in the boy, it is characterized by the ambivalent “[…] posture before the father and the objectifying relation, exclusively tender, towards the mother [...]”. However, Freud highlighted that the simple Oedipus complex is not the most frequent; it is a mere schematization with practical goals. The most frequent is the complete Oedipus complex, in which the mother, as the father, is the object of an ambivalent posture, i.e. at the same time they are the object of love, they are also rivals who causes jealous and hostility. It is the complete Oedipus complex, with ambivalent postures regarding both parental figures, that we find in the description of the costumes of Indians of the plains, with the specificity that in the culture there is an institutionalized and collective way of expression of hostility concerning the father figure.

Continuing the description of the session mentioned above, we see how the hostility appears regarding women (Desplechin, 2013):

Devereux- The baby was naked. Was it a boy or a girl?

Jimmy- It wasn’t hurt, there was no hole in it.

Devereux- Try to guess.

Jimmy- A girl, maybe.

Devereux- Who was that girl?

Jimmy- At the beginning, it was a fox. And when I looked at the ground, it was a baby girl.

Devereux- Foxes are furry. When a baby is born, does it have fur anywhere?

Jimmy- When it comes out of a woman?

Devereux- What happens next?

Jimmy- I failed her.

Devereux- Why, failed?

Jimmy- I act wrongly.

Devereux- You could not do anything, you were young, and there were pressures. If you failed your daughter, there was no other way. Think about it, you were 17, did not have anything. Nowadays, you help your daughter. You are kind to her. That is what matters.

In the movie, Devereux comments that the dream represents the patient’s denial that the baby was dead, since the expression ‘there was no hole in it’ would represent his tendency to represent women (humans with holes) as blind or dead and his anguish of castration. In another session shown in the movie, when Jimmy talks about his infancy, Devereux asks him if he had already spied adults when he was a child, and he reports the episode when he saw his mother in bed with another man, which made him leave his mother’s home and go live with his older sister. In the movie, this episode is represented by the scene in which Devereux presents the case to the doctors (Desplechin, 2013) and says:

By nature, a boy sees himself substituting the missing fatherin the parents’ bed. What adisappointment when he discovers his mother in the arms of another man. That place was mine! The boy sees the lover’s penis, cannot avoid the fascination. I do not believe he desires that penis. He is Hamlet, he desires the place of the lover!

Final considerations

From the movie Jimmy P. (Desplechin, 2013) we aimed at presenting an introductory discussion to Devereux’s ethnopsychoanalysis, trying to identify some of his approximations and innovations concerning psychoanalysis, in particular the Freudian. Regarding the approximations between Devereux and Freud, we observed in the movie that Devereux incorporated to his technique the interpretation of dreams (although his work aims at the manifested content of the dream), the free association, and he brought references to the Freudian theory during treatment, such as the Oedipus complex and transfer. One of the greatest innovations of Devereux seems to be the introduction of elements from the culture of the patient in the interpretation of their dreams and the rescue of their memories, which would characterize, according to Devereux’s (1978) own definition, an intercultural psychotherapy.

Even from the theoretical and technical bases established by Freud, considering the cultural scheme of the patient during the analysis lead them to naturally introducing these innovations, as seen in the technique of the interpretation of dreams (by considering the sense of the dreams in the patient’s culture) and in the induction of the process of transference (psychoanalyst as a protective spirit).The theoretical assumption that sustains this practice is of the non-separation between psyche and culture, in which the latter is conceived as a lived experience, constitutive of it; psyche, in its turn, is expressed from the elements of the culture.

Even though further and broader studies are necessary to better understand the sense and reach of Devereux’s enterprise, especially about the epistemological fundaments of psychoanalysis, as affirmed by Bastide (2015), the discussion presented here seems to enunciate the potentiality inscribed in the proposal of a transcultural psychoanalytical practice, still lacking further studies in Brazil.

Referências

• Araújo, A. R. A. (2016) Trinta e cinco anos no limbo e outros tantos mais: uma apreciação do legado epistemológico e metodológico de Georges Devereux (Dissertação de Mestrado), Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa. Recuperado de: https://repositorio.iscteiul.pt/bitstream/10071/12860/1/2016_ECSH_DA_Dissertacao_Ana%20Rita%20Assuncao%20Araujo.pdf
  » https://repositorio.iscteiul.pt/bitstream/10071/12860/1/2016_ECSH_DA_Dissertacao_Ana%20Rita%20Assuncao%20Araujo.pdf
• Barros, M., L., & Bairrão, J. F. M. H. (2010) Etnopsicanálise: embasamento crítico sobre teoria e prática terapêutica. Revista da SPAGESP, 11(1), 45-54. Recuperado de: http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/rspagesp/v11n1/v11n1a06.pdf
  » http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/rspagesp/v11n1/v11n1a06.pdf
• Bastide, R. (2015). Préface. In G. Devereux. Essais d’ ethnopsychiatrie générale (p. VII-XIX). Paris, FR: Gallimard. Original publicado em 1970.
• Bloch, G. (2000). Les origines culturelles de Georges Devereux et la naissance de l’ethnopsychiatrie Recuperado de: http://www.ethnopsychiatrie.net/
  » http://www.ethnopsychiatrie.net/
• Desplechin, A. (Diretor) (2013). Jimmy P [Filme-DVD]. Paris, FR: Why Not Productions. 1 DVD, 117 min. color. legendado.
• Devereux, G. (2012). De l’angoisse à la méthode dans las sciences du comportament Paris, FR: Champs Essais. Trabalho original publicado em 1967.
• Devereux, G. (1978). Ethnopsychiatrie Recuperado de: http://geza.roheim.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/iatrica.htm
  » http://geza.roheim.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/iatrica.htm
• Devereux, G. (2015). Les facteurs culturels en thérapeutique psychanalytique. In Essais d’ethnopsychiatrie générale (p. 334-353) Paris, FR: Gallimard. Original publicado em 1970 .
• Devereux. G. (2013). Psychotérapie d’un indien des plaines: realité et rêve Paris, FR: Fayard. Original publicado em 1951.
• Freud, S. (2011). O eu e o id. In P. C. de Souza (Trad.), Obras completas de Sigmund Freud (Vol. 16, p. 14-74). São Paulo, SP: Companhia das Letras. Original publicado em 1923.
• Freud, S. (1996). Moises y la religión monoteísta. In L. Lopez-Ballesteros Y de Torres (Trad.), Obras completas Sigmund Freud(Vol. III, p. 3241-3320). Madrid, ES: Biblioteca Nueva. Original publicado em 1939.
• Freud, S. (2010). Recomendações ao médico que pratica a psicanálise. In P. C. de Souza (Trad.), Obras completas de Sigmund Freud (Vol. 10, p. 148-162). São Paulo, SP: Companhia das Letras . Original publicado em 1912.
• Freud, S. (2012). Totem e tabu. In P. C. de Souza(Trad.), Obras completas de Sigmund Freud (Vol. 11, p. 13-224). São Paulo, SP: Companhia das Letras . Original publicado em 1913.
• Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE]. (2012). Os indígenas no senso demográfico 2010: primeiras considerações com base no quesito cor ou raça Recuperado de:http://www.ibge.gov.br/indigenas/indigena_censo2010.pdf
  » http://www.ibge.gov.br/indigenas/indigena_censo2010.pdf
• Jimmy P. (2017). Psycothérapie d’un idien des plaines Recuperado de: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_P._(Psychoth%C3%A9rapie_d%27un_Indien_des_plaines)
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• Laplantine, F. (1998). Aprender etnopsiquiatria São Paulo, SP: Brasiliense.
• Moro, M. R. (2010). Psycothérapie trasnculturelle de l’ enfant et de l’ adolescent Paris, FR: Dunond.
• Nathan. T. (2013b). La folie des autres: traité d’ ethnopychiatrie clinique Paris, FR: Dunond .
• Nathan, T. (2013a). Le psyet le indien des plaines. Liberation Recuperado de: http://www.ethnopsychiatrie.net/
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• Roudinesco, E. (2013). Préface. In G. Devereux. Psychotérapie d’un indien des plaines (p. 07-28). Paris, FR: Fayard.
• Roudinesco, E., & Plon, M. (1998).Dicionário de psicanálise Rio De Janeiro: Zahar.
• Saglio-Yatzimirsky, M-C. (2015). Do relatório ao relato, da alienação ao sujeito: a experiência de uma prática clínica com refugiados em uma instituição de saúde.Psicologia USP,26(2), 175-185. Recuperado de: https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0103-6564D20140016
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• Strachey, J. (2008). Nota introductoria a Totem y tabu, de Freud. In J. L. Etcheverry (Trad.), Obras completas Sigmund Freud (Vol. 13, p. 04-06). Buenos Aires, AR: Amorrortu. Original publicado em 1950.

• 3
  “[...] la première théorie et le premier exemple concret de l’ utilisation de leviers culturels en psychothérapie”.
• 4
  According to Nathan (2013b), Devereux used the term ethnopsychiatry to designate the research field and clinical intervention, and ethnopsychoanalysis to designate the methodology, the complementarity. In this stud, we decided to use the term ethnopsychoanalysis also to include the field of research and clinical intervention, such as in the writings of Marie Rose Moro.
• 5
  De Darwin tomélahipótesis de que el hombre vivió originalmente en pequeñas hordas, cada una dominada brutalmente por un macho de ciertaedad, que se apropriaba todas las hembras y castigaba o mataba a todos los machos jóvenes, incluso a us propios hijos. De Atkinson procede la segunda parte de esta descripción: dicho sistema patriarcal tocó a sufinen una rebelión de los hijos, que se aliaron contra el padre, lo dominaron y devoraron su cuerpo en común. Siguiendo la teoría totémica de Robertson Smith, admmití que la horda paterna cedió luego el lugar al clan fraterno totemístico. Para poder vivir unidos en paz, los hermanos victoriosos renunciaron as mulheres, a las mismas por las cuales habían muerto al padre, y aceptaron someterse a exogamia. [...] En lugar del padre se erigió a determinado animal como totem, aceptándolo como antecesor coletivo y como genio tutelar: nadie podia dañarlo o matarlo; pero una vez en el año toda comunidad masculina se reúnia en un banquete, en el que el totem, hasta entonces reverenciado, era despedaçado y comido en común”.
• 6
  “L'ethnopsychiatrie, nécessairement conçue comme Ethnopsychanalyse. Elle semble être la plus compréhensive des sciences de l'Homme, tant puresqu'appliquées.Reconnue ou non comme telle, son problème de base est celui qui sous-tend toutes les sciences de l'Homme : le rapport de complémentarité entre la compréhension de l'individu et celle de la société et de sa culture”.
• 7
  “Le complémentarismes’oppose au comparatisme dans la mesure où les logiques culturelles sont explorées entant que telles, eles servente de support aux associations et au matériel clinique. L’ outil anthropologique permet de poser et d´explorer le cadre de la relation et de coconstruire avec le patient des sens culturels sur lesquels viendront s’arrimer des sens individuels”.
• 8
  “Il nous racontait qu’à l’issue d’une séance, où le patient avait été particulièrement angoissé, il lui proposait de bavarder un moment. Il n’était pas rare qu’il invite un patient à reste rdîner ou qu’il l’accompagne un bout de chemin pour apaise rl’intensité des emotions déclenchées par la cure”.
• 9
  “[...] est beaucoup plus limitée que celle de l’analyse classique du rêve. C’ est pourquoi, même si son efficacité thérapeutique est compréhensible em termes de théorie psychanalytique, il ne s’agit pas d’une psychanalyse ‘modifiée’ ou ‘abrégée’ -elle n’ est qu’ une psychothérapie d’ expression et soutien”.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  10 June 2019
• Date of issue
  2019

History

• Received
  24 July 2017
• Accepted
  08 Aug 2018