Читать книгу Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893 - 1933 - Bernd Bocian - Страница 32

When one reads the autobiographical information Perls provides about himself or the recollections of Perls in the book by Gaines (1979), there are sufficient examples that would allow us to find him morally unacceptable with respect to his sexual behavior. Here, the self psychological perspective on sexuality – and this encompasses one’s relationship to oneself as well as to others – opens an understanding that goes beyond Perls’s offensive and provocative assessment of himself as a »dirty old man.« It would also be possible to present Perls within the framework of Balint’s object relationship-based typology as a kind of »philobatic hero.«⁴⁰ However, I prefer Kohut’s perspective because it allows us to see a person who was struggling for a sense of self-esteem and his fragile, constantly threatened inner coherence.

Perls wrote that in his opinion both Freud and Sullivan overlooked the connection between libido theory and the self-esteem system: »The similarity of the function of this system to the erection and detumescence of the genitals seems obvious to me. The erection of the total personality glowing with pride contrasts with the abject posture of the one who feels low« (Perls 1977, 4). He re-encountered this holistic perception of sexuality in Wilhelm Reich’s description of the »genital character« which for many years represented a kind of personality ideal for him.

Elsewhere Perls wrote:

Another need, another game

Emerges from a fertile void.

An appetite, a task, a hurt

Unheald, well pushed aside by sex,

Demands attention, cries for your ears. (ibid., 11)

If I additionally relate this self-disclosure to his lifelong interest in the phenomenon of emptiness (as a threat as well as a tolerable condition) I can speak (in this context) of »narcissistic lecherousness« in Perls, in a self psychological sense.⁴¹

Self psychological psychoanalyst Ernest Wolf is of the opinion that for some people orgasmic sexuality signifies a strengthening of the self and self-esteem, whereas for others it stimulates fear of fragmentation. For Perls, once the crises of adolescence had been overcome, sexuality evidently »served to strengthen the self« (Wolf 1992, 103). It did not pose any threat of fragmentation, but instead represented a moment in the constant stream of Gestalt formations that allowed him to experience a sense of wholeness. In the »lyrical« passage quoted above, Perls wrote:

Unthinking nature has its way: (…)

Surrender to a unison,

A deep withdrawing from the world

And closure of a strong gestalt (ibid., 10).

Later he writes, entirely in keeping with Wilhelm Reich:

Sameness with power that explodes

As animal the end gain shows. (ibid., 11)

I suspect that orgasmic sexuality also had this strengthening function for Reich, Perls’s teacher in Berlin, and that on this point both of them held a position that ran contrary to Freud’s experiences. In Wolf’s sense, Freud was probably very anxious about fragmentation in »animal« sexuality, which is indicated by his negative position on any kind of merging with an »oceanic feeling« and with respect to Reich’s ideas and books on »the function of the orgasm« and the »genital character.« It seems plausible to me that Perls would be particularly attracted to the positive valuation of lived sexuality, in addition to the other important innovations of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. The parallels between »final contact« (Perls/Goodman) in holistic sexual experiences that transcend the rational mind, and spiritual experiences or phases of artistic creativity have also been noted by Wolf (ibid., 103 f.).

Perls himself wrote about his »empty compulsive greed« (Perls 1977, 275), his »leching compulsion,« and »compulsive masturbation« (see ibid., 241). His greed in this respect always extends to sexuality as well as his craving for recognition. Seen through the glasses of Kohut, in a biographical sense it involves a lack of sufficiently positive reflection of a child’s self-assertive presence. As a result, what originally was thoroughly appropriate exhibitionism on the part of the child can abruptly turn into lascivious sexualization of parts of the subject’s own body⁴² and the sexualization of relationships. From my perspective, the opinion Kohut expresses in the following passage appears to explain some of Perls’s personality structure:

Sexual activity that ranges on the scale from certain masturbational acts in children who suffer from chronic narcissistic emptiness, to the need for unending, self-confirmation through sexual successes in certain Don Juan types, can also be directed at countering the feeling of the self-emptying, or used to escape from fragmentation of the self« (Kohut 1995, 144).

In his self-description, Perls also comes close to a self-psychological perspective when he draws on traditional diagnostic concepts and characterizes the fragmentation of self lurking behind his greed as his »»schizophrenic layer« (Perls 1977, 240). As a well-known and charismatic teacher, he had the courage at age 76 to mention that his work on his own difficulties was progressing well (see ibid., 284). As Perls wrote, his lecherousness diminished and he was able to stop his compulsive masturbating after he had »contacted a layer of fractionized, scattered bits and pieces, like tiny introjects, foreign material« (ibid., 241).

We must not forget that sexuality, which also encompasses the desire for another person, in Kohut’s sense also implies that contact with the (selfobject) environment is maintained and that sexually desired individuals represent images of the required confirming and mirroring selfobjects or individuals (see Wolf ibid., 114). For his entire life, Perls reacted in a positive way to people he described as gentle and warm, who gave him what he lacked and whom he respected because they respected him. Among the people who were his direct psychoanalytic trainers, this applied to Karen Horney and Karl Landauer. Concerning Ernest Jones he wrote: »He was gentle and liked me« (Perls 1977, 2), and he goes on to mention Clara Thompson, his Uncle Julius Rund in Frankfurt, various doctors who treated him and were »warm and human« (ibid., 166), and the »gentle people« in the Japanese city of Kyoto, »regarding each other, looking openly, with respect« (ibid., 109). Even when he was very old, there was one relative he had not forgotten, »Aunt Schindler. A huge fat woman with the warmest all-loving heart …« (ibid., 234). In Tokyo, he had a telling experience with an old woman on the street who had polished his shoes. He gave her a cigarette and »She turned her head towards me. Dark eyes melted and shone with love that made my knees weak. I still see those eyes occasionally« (ibid., 105). I think that it was this existential, nourishing quality of his encounters (although it was limited to the moment) that Perls was also able to generate in sexual moments with women, to their mutual advantage. During the sexual act itself it appears that satisfying the woman was an important condition for his satisfaction with himself. Natalie Mann’s recollection is typical for those compiled by Gaines in this area: »He made love like a virtuoso, like someone playing the violin. It was a beautiful experience« (in Gaines 1979, 225).