International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2019/2020 | Page 39

International Journal on Criminology
The Distinctiveness of Psychological Analysis
Charcot sought all his life to distinguish human psychology from the animal
physiology to which the scientism of his day wanted to reduce it, and perceived
that there are different sorts of distinctively human traumas—lack
of self-confidence, for instance, which Alfred Adler later named the inferiority
complex. This is true, at least, if one extends its application, which overprivileges
the anatomical element, in Adler’s case the size of the penis. The whole of the will
cannot be reduced to such anatomy—a will which already asserts itself as a synthetic
affirmation of the desire to be, implying that the sexual act is an expenditure
of pleasure but cannot be reduced to it, especially since the desire to be “evolves”:
If, by the word “evolution,” we mean that a living being is continually
changing to adapt to new circumstances, constantly developing
and perfecting itself, then neuroses are disorders or stoppages in
the evolution of functions. 64
Janetian psychology diagnoses that a neurosis designates a problem in the
constitution of action, which leads to a loss of confidence in one’s own abilities to
construct (oneself), which may lead one to take refuge in diversions whose cumulative
effects may be dissociative.
Janet as a Forerunner
As we can see, Janet’s approach can explain the emergence of the act, its
constitution, its regulation, and its disorders. All this explains the heuristic
satisfaction we find in seeing his work being reintroduced into scientific
research, which it has always informed. Janet is a forerunner, whereas “they”
thought he had disappeared.
64 Pierre Janet, Les névroses (Paris: Flammarion, 1909), part 2, 4, “Les névroses, maladies et l’évolution
des fonctions,” 323.
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