Ella Freeman Sharpe
Encyclopedia
Ella Freeman Sharpe was 'a pioneer of British psychoanalysis and one of the few natives of the United Kingdom among its leaders'. In 1947 she was 'said by Sylvia Payne
[to have undertaken more training analyses than any other analyst in England'. Among other texts, she wrote papers on "Sublimation and Delusion", and on "The Technique of Psychoanalysis".
's brother James, before undergoing a second analysis with Hanns Sachs
after the war. She 'became a full member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1923. 'Her 1937 sequel to Freud's dream-book, Dream Analysis: A Practical Handbook for Psycho-Analysts ' has been praised 'both for taking on the grammatical legacy of Freud...and for anticipating Lacan
'. Sharpe 'brings Dream Analysis to a close with an eloquent and moving "last dream"...[that] represents Sharpe's own dream of the psyche as matrix'.
Lacanians have suggested that 'this cultured erudite analyst, who is attentive to the virtues of the symbolic...would seem to prefigure Lacan's developments'; and Lacan certainly paid tribute in Ecrits to 'Ella Sharpe and her very relevant remarks...She is far from ordinary in the extent to which she requires the analyst to be familiar with all branches of human knowledge'.
He also drew on her Dream Analysis and on 'the Papers on Hamlet, which Ella Sharpe unfortunately left unfinished' for material in his Seminar VI. Arguably however, 'Sharpe troubles a strictly Lacanian account of the language of the unconscious' because of her emphasis on the body and the material: 'For her, the language of poetry and dreams is always concrete and corporeal'.
was undermining the development of early analysis as pioneered by the experienced clinician Melanie Klein
'; and there is a 'Kleinian subtext of Sharpe's thinking during the late 1920s and early 1930s'.
By the time of the controversial discussions
, however, Sharpe had taken a more nuanced attitude to Kleinianism, which saw her increasingly aligned with the Middle Group of British psychoanalysts. 'At stake for Sharpe in the Klein wars was the phantasy of embodiment which, she strongly implies, is the pathology of Kleinianism'.
Sylvia Payne
Sylvia Payne was one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Born as Sylvia May Moore in Marylebone, London, the daughter of Rev. Edward William Moore and his wife Letitia. Her father was incumbent of Brunswick Chapel and an adherent of the Higher Life movement, being...
[to have undertaken more training analyses than any other analyst in England'. Among other texts, she wrote papers on "Sublimation and Delusion", and on "The Technique of Psychoanalysis".
Life
'Sharpe was co-head teacher at the Hucknall Pupil Teachers Training College...where she taught from 1904 until 1916'. In 1917 she moved to London and entered analysis with Edward GloverEdward Glover (psychoanalyst)
Edward George Glover was a British psychoanalyst. He first studied medicine and surgery, and it was his elder brother, James Glover who attracted him towards psychoanalysis...
's brother James, before undergoing a second analysis with Hanns Sachs
Hanns Sachs
Hanns Sachs was a psychoanalyst. In 1939, he founded American Imago with Sigmund Freud.- References :*...
after the war. She 'became a full member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society in 1923. 'Her 1937 sequel to Freud's dream-book, Dream Analysis: A Practical Handbook for Psycho-Analysts ' has been praised 'both for taking on the grammatical legacy of Freud...and for anticipating Lacan
Lacan
Lacan is surname of:* Jacques Lacan , French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist** The Seminars of Jacques Lacan** From Bakunin to Lacan: Anti-Authoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power, a book on political philosophy by Saul Newman** Lacan at the Scene* Judith Miller, née Lacan...
'. Sharpe 'brings Dream Analysis to a close with an eloquent and moving "last dream"...[that] represents Sharpe's own dream of the psyche as matrix'.
Lacan, the symbolic, and sublimation
Sharpe argued in her papers on sublimation that there is 'no sharp borderline between penance symptoms and creative sublimations performed as counteractions against infantile sadistic strivings'. Investigating her own 'fascination with phallic performance...she also explores the problematic aspects of the performer's identification with, and phantasied incorporation of, the phallic signifier'.Lacanians have suggested that 'this cultured erudite analyst, who is attentive to the virtues of the symbolic...would seem to prefigure Lacan's developments'; and Lacan certainly paid tribute in Ecrits to 'Ella Sharpe and her very relevant remarks...She is far from ordinary in the extent to which she requires the analyst to be familiar with all branches of human knowledge'.
He also drew on her Dream Analysis and on 'the Papers on Hamlet, which Ella Sharpe unfortunately left unfinished' for material in his Seminar VI. Arguably however, 'Sharpe troubles a strictly Lacanian account of the language of the unconscious' because of her emphasis on the body and the material: 'For her, the language of poetry and dreams is always concrete and corporeal'.
Sharpe and Klein
Sharpe was among the London analysts who in the twenties 'were unanimous that the relative novice Anna FreudAnna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
was undermining the development of early analysis as pioneered by the experienced clinician Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
'; and there is a 'Kleinian subtext of Sharpe's thinking during the late 1920s and early 1930s'.
By the time of the controversial discussions
Controversial discussions
The Controversial discussions were a protracted series of 'Scientific Meetings' of the British Psychoanalytical Society which took place between October 1942 and February 1944 between the Viennese school and the supporters of Melanie Klein...
, however, Sharpe had taken a more nuanced attitude to Kleinianism, which saw her increasingly aligned with the Middle Group of British psychoanalysts. 'At stake for Sharpe in the Klein wars was the phantasy of embodiment which, she strongly implies, is the pathology of Kleinianism'.
Criticism
Her 'attunement to the nuances of her analysands' communicative styles distinguished Sharpe as a practitioner' for many: 'for a less sympathetic view, see Margaret Little's account of her disastrous analysis with Sharpe...in Psychotic Anxieties and Containment '.Further reading
- Ella Sharpe, Collected Papers (London 1950)
- Carol Netzer, "Annals of Psychoanalysis: Ella Freeman Sharpe", Psychooanalytic Review, 69 (1982), 207-19
- Maurice Whelan ed., Mistress of Her Own Thoughts: Ella Freeman Sharpe and the Practice of Psychoanalysis (London 2000)