The Military Influence Upon Freud's Dynamic Psychiatry
LARY R. BERKOWER M.D.1
1 Instructor in psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and staff psychiatrist, Detroit Psychiatric Institute, private practice at 103 Northland Medical Bldg., Southfield, Mich. 48075
A previously disregarded but consequential influence upon the conceptual model of dynamic psychiatry as evolved by Freud is that of military science. Thus many fundamental terms bear obvious military connotations, including conflict, defense, repression, alliances, and resistance. Freud repeatedly exploited the rich metaphorical possibilities of the military analogy as he depicted psychology in terms of conflicts of forces, emphasizing the onslaught of instinctual impulses and the defensive operations of the ego to ward them off.
