The Linguist

16 The Linguist Vol/62 No/4 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES Anlehnungstypus. For instance, when Freud describes non-narcissists' idealisation of their love objects: "For those of the dependent type, falling in love occurs when the infantile conditions of love are fulfilled." Where he contrasts normal love with narcissism: "We are not concluding that people fall into two sharply divided groups, depending on whether they are attachment types or narcissistic types." Freud mentions substitution (the imitative element) when describing a child's budding love for their mother, but only in the sense that the mother is not always the child's caregiver: "leaning (Anlehnung) emerges in that the people involved in the feeding, care, and protection of the child become their first sexual objects, that is the mother or her substitute." However, imitation is certainly meant when the next (cringeworthy) sentence contrasts homosexuals, 'perverts' and narcissists with those healthy imitative types who "choose their later love object on the model of their mother". At least three features can be ascribed to Freud's concept of Anlehnungstypus: 'normal' folks experience libido in the form of their ego's demands on others, that is, they experience 'attachment'; in looking outside of themselves for love, they are vulnerable to rejection and in that sense 'dependent'; and the presence of loving caregivers in infancy and childhood is the basis for their libido's outward-looking orientation, which means that their choice of adult love objects 'imitates', or draws on, their experience of loving their caregivers in childhood. 'Attachment' aptly names the context; the words 'dependence' and 'imitation' are the first and second dictionary definitions of Anlehnung; and 'anaclitic' accomplishes the key rhetorical goal of early 20th-century Freud translation: sounding rigorously scientific. Let's not forget the direct calque, 'leaning-on-type', which provides a vivid metaphor for dependence. If differential translation were more acceptable for published translations of theoretical works, then it would be easier for translators to convey the semantic range of such immensely creative concepts. At the cost of making the term harder to trace, a differential translation of Anlehnungstypus would help show the variety of features involved in the concept. Differential translation uncovers a complexity in Freud's concept of normal love that makes it almost as fascinating as the narcissistic aberration. In this case, a nuanced translation could help people theorise personality disorder without feeling morally superior. If translation norms change radically enough, readers may one day be ready for differential translation to complicate more familiar terms, including 'narcissism' itself. This article is based on Spencer Hawkins' German Philosophy in English Translation published by Routledge in 2023. Notes 1 Laplanche, J and Pontalis, JB (1973) The Language of Psycho-Analysis, trans. D Nicholson-Smith, International Psycho-Analytical Library, London, Hogarth Press, 94, 111-12 2 An Interview with Jean Laplanche by Cathy Caruth (2001); cutt.ly/twm9SHiv 3 Freud, S (2003) The Wolfman and Other Cases, trans. LA Huish, New York, Penguin Classics 4 Phillips, A (2007) 'After Strachey: Translating Freud'. In London Review of Books, 4/10/07 5 Freud, S (1925) 'On Narcissism: An introduction'. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, XIV, London, Hogarth Press, 67-102 6 Freud, S (2003) Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings, trans. J Reddick, Penguin, xxiv 7 Ibid. 11 8 Woods, M (2013) Kafka Translated: How translators have shaped our reading of Kafka, New York, Bloomsbury Academic COMPLEX CONCEPTS Waxwork of Freud at Madame Tussauds Berlin © SHUTTERSTOCK

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