Some Observations on the Sense of Smell

Friedman, P. Kerim

doi:10.1080/21674086.1959.11926139

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Psychoanalysis has made little comment on the meaning of smell or odour as a symptom or form of communication (Brill, 1932;Friedman, 1959;Peto, 1973;Segal, 1997;Lemma, 2010;Birch, 2011). Whilst both 'self-neglect' and the behavioural reverse, compulsive washing, appear within the pages of psychiatric manuals (APA, 1994), only obsessional cleanliness has the status of an illness, related to a state of mind and personal history.…”

Section: Applying Psychoanalysis: Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychotherapy with people who smell

Brown¹

2015

Psychoanal Cult Soc

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This paper stems from psychotherapy work with patients who 'neglect personal hygiene' in homelessness and chronic mental health settings, and consultancy to staff groups tasked with patients' 'social inclusion'. Psychoanalytic theory has largely eschewed exploring internal psychic states communicated by odour and, equally, the meaning of marked societal hostility towards malodorous individuals. The paper looks at historical and anthropological notions of 'dirt' and the construction of the 'unwashed' as a social category in the formation of bourgeois society. Psychoanalytic ideas of unconscious bodily and psychic communication are described. Case examples explore how troubled relations between body and mind result from early abuse/neglect, where the internal world is suffocated by trauma and 'dread' which cannot be contained and processed. From a psychosocial perspective, taking up a role as 'unacceptable' is the paradoxical condition of belonging for many members of the social whole. The paper suggests that invasive smell confronts us with our repressed knowledge of that which is 'rotten' in the emotional and sociopolitical environment in which 'the unwashed' exist. An example from organisational consultancy traces profound disturbance in institutional dynamics that occurs when the malodorous individual seeks to claim shared social resources. The author questions the prevalent view that 'being smelly' is an attempt to withdraw from social and psychic contact, rather than a meaningful communication which is within the scope of psychoanalytic thought to understand.

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Section: Applying Psychoanalysis: Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychotherapy with people who smell

Brown¹

2015

Psychoanal Cult Soc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The position of Havelock Ellis, as summarized by them, is that "the sense of smell may be connected with the fact that their anatomical seat is in the most ancient part of the brain, as no other sense has so strong apower of suggestion and of calling up ancient memories. " According to Friedman (1959), Abraham, Ferenczi, Jones, Brill, and Fenichel wrote on smell also, and invariably saw it as closely related to sex and affective memory.…”

Section: University Of Southern Californiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested by earlier investigators, including Kenneth (1927), and more recently Friedman (1959) (from a psychoanalytic viewpoint) that odors might be used in therapy as a way of recovering the memory of important experiences. Friedman (1959) quotes Maudsley as saying, "There are certain smells which never fail to bring back to me instantly and visibly scenes of my boyhood." It would be interesting to interview persons in therapy regarding odors they can remember from childhood and to see if some of these might not be of value in eliciting important memories and, importantly, the affect associated with those memories.…”

Section: Sampie Of Responses Involvingmentioning

confidence: 99%