THE FORGETTING OF CASTELVETRANO, REVISITED

ZIMMERMAN Daniel

The forgetting of the name Castelvetrano, which was added by Freud to the fourth edition of "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life" allows us to verify in a privileged way how the "metabolism" of the signifier constitutes the mechanism governing the formations of the unconscious.

Freud presents it as an illustration of the way "how a personal complex which is dominating someone at the time may cause a name to be forgotten in some very remote connection". Freud does not mention that it refers to an autobiographical example. Nevertheless, and as he himself pointed out as of the dreams, any event is above all a retold one. It is the story itself the one which makes up the text. And what a text does not mention can be precisely what it has to say.

THE TEXTURE OF THE "COMPLEX"

Even though he remembers several details of the stay in Castelvetrano, Freud can not remember the name of the place. Freud tries with those which come to his imagination spontaneously, yet recognizing that they are mere substitutes of the forgotten name: Caltanisetta (a pet name for a young woman), Castrogiovanni, which refers so expressively to youth as the forgotten name to eld.

Castelvetrano has been withdrawn from the intentional speech and attracted to the unconscious. Literally it has undergone a division into two pieces, the name has been treated as in a picture puzzle. A substitution which is carried out as a riddle in images, a rebus: there where the Italian location of Castelvetrano was drawn, the presence of a veteran that introduces the threatening shadow of eld can be read.

The first half Castel, as Freud highlights, appears, "although somehow misshapen", in the substitute Caltanisetta. Lets observe that it does too in Catalafimi, this one a perfect anagram for the previous one (Catal-Calta). And if we say that Catal is reproduced in Calta, which will derive in Castel, the appearance of Castro at the beginning of Castrogiovanni could be objected. Nevertheless, its determination is equally demonstrated. Castel is the shortened form for Castellum (fort, redoubt) to integrate the name of the place. And, on the other hand, Castellum is nothing less than the diminutive of Castro (from Latin Castrum: fortified camp). A constellation which is organized by the successive rotation of its elements; a cascade of exchanges that can also be recognized in the other half of the forgotten term. We can trace the end of Catalafimi, in Caltanisetta, that afterwards is shortened in the substitute Enna; finally we recognize it included in Castrogiovanni, immediate antecedent of the forgotten Castelvetrano.

The terms at work collide, reassemble and create a new sense. A signifier element is disarranged and finds its place, is implanted into a new signifier sequence which becomes intercrossed with that one in which it was previously hold. The disintegration gets to the extent of a sort of spelling (the one which suggested to Freud the comparison with a "chemistry of words" and to Lacan with the mechanism of a slot machine).

THE HORROR FOR DEATH

The Freudian cause establishes the scenery of the unconscious. It will be renewed when rediscovered. "I know I don’t much like to think about growing old, and I have strange reactions when I’m reminded of it". This is the explanation that for Freud solves the motive of his forgetting. Castelvetrano is similar to the word veteran and revives, thus, his special dislike about the issue of age and of aging. The "broken point of the sword of memory" goes through Freud and invites us to question about the enigma of his desire.

Previously published under the title "A Contribution to the Forgetting of Proper Names" in the Zentralblatt fúr Psychoanalyse in 1911. In a letter to Jung from the last days of April, Freud announces him about the publication and anticipates him the results of his investigation. Freud says:

Thus, it deals with my "growing old complex" whose erotic base you already know. It is also the source for an example of the forgetting of a proper name which will appear in the Zentralblatt.

It refers to his "growing old complex". He is harassed by the phantom of old age and he is frightened by any possible limitation of his intellectual capacity. In another letter to Jung, dated three months later, Freud makes reference again to his article. This time from a different perspective. On June 21^st. Freud writes:

In the number 9 of the Zentralblatt you will find the forgetting of a name which took place between Ferenczi and myself, and whose explanation will have for you, for sure, a special meaning that for others would have no importance (Giovane – Veteran). It is the old mythological subject: the elderly god wants to be sacrificed and to be brought back to life renewed in the new one.

We now deal with a more intimate confession, which is no longer of interest to the public in general. He confesses to Jung the autobiographical nature of the episode and invites him to share a special meaning: Jung, in German, is "young". The previous reference to his aging complex leaves place for the issue of sacrifice and resurrection.

Two explanations of a different shade separated only by three months in their mail: Do we have perhaps to take sides for one or for the other? On the contrary. Beginning and end in a temporality that has little to do with what is chronological, we will believe both versions so to clear away the results of their confrontation.

Freud wants to recall the name of Castelvetrano, unsuccessfully. Whereas, another scene comes up, which is on the side of the oblivion, and that answers in its place. But it does not give a finished answer; it only offers some rests, several "ruins" as substitution: Caltanisetta, Castrogiovanni. And it is in that substitution where one can be able to read a certain effect of sense: the veteran, Freud is substituted by the young man, who is personified in Ferenczi and that can be translated by Jung.

The older god comes to life in the new one, renewed. Under the mode of sacrifice what is feared of and unknown is present, the majesty of death. Eld with its sequels and the splendid youth slip out from their biological root to fit in Freud’s worry about the uncertain future of psychoanalysis. Caught in the nets of the letter, they tear Freud in his existence opening him to something different: his worry to ensure the transmission of his doctrine.

Freud looks for a guarantee to keep alive his legacy. But this worry has only one way to be solved; that is to say: the hope to outlast renewed in his followers. The conveyance of the father’s business to his descendants, with the intention of ensuring its absolute preservation, it is really a roundabout, a stratagem to conceal death. It is death the one that supports the existence; the world that was not – Joyce writes – comes to pass.

In his longing for resurrection Freud precisely ignores that he lives of being subject to death, as anyone else.

Daniel Zimmerman

Austria 2272 7º B (1425)

Buenos Aires - Argentina

E-mail : danzimm@hotmail.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Freud, Sigmund, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, Vol. VI. London: The Hogarth Press; 1975.

Joyce, James Ecce Puer The Essential James Joyce, Triad/Grafton Books, London, 1989.