E-Journal of Philosophy of Education:
International Yearbook of the Philosophy of Education Society of Japan, Vol. 6, 2021

Beyond the Trauma Principle in Education:
Does Freud’s Concept of Nachträglichkeit Imply the Possibility ofRetroactive Education?
Akira GESHI
Chuo University

Introduction: Beyond the Trauma Principle?
From their birth to the present day, Freudian theory and psychoanalysis have been
the subject of both intense praise and criticism. Sigmund Freud’s conceptualization of theunconscious mind has had a profound impact on various fields of the humanities andsocial sciences, in addition to psychiatry and clinical psychology. For example, the“trauma theory” originally proposed by Freud, which holds that psychic trauma that
occurs between infancy and childhood can have serious consequences, is widely
accepted, shared, and understood in our society. However, despite its significant influence,
Freudian theory has been severely criticized for its lack of rigor and consistency, while
Freudian psychoanalysis has been questioned for its low reproducibility and failure tosatisfy scientific requirements.
This study focuses on Freudian theory because it has the potential to transcend these
criticisms. In particular, Freud’s concept of Nachträglichkeit is still open toreconsideration in the context of educational theory; thus, this study applies the concept
of Nachträglichkeit to educational theory and presents a new model of education, called“retroactive education.” In their excellent dictionary of psychoanalytic terms, The
Language of Psychoanalysis, Jean Laplanche and J.B. Pontalis explain Nachträglichkeit(après-coup or deferred action) as follows: “[This] term [is] frequently used by Freud inconnection with his view of psychical temporality and causality: experiences,
impressions and memory-traces may be revised at a later date to fit in with fresh
experiences or with the attainment of a new stage of development. They may in that event
be endowed not only with a new, meaning but also with psychical effectiveness”(Laplanche and Pontalis 1973: 111). Since Nachträglichkeit is often described in relation
Correspondence:
Akira GESHI, Chuo University. Email: geshiakira.chuo.u＠gmail.com

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to etiology, it is generally considered to have negative implications; however, I proposethat it may be possible to apply Freud’s Nachträglichkeit theory to education and humanformation (Bildung in German) theory in a positive manner.
At the outset, I would like to raise two questions regarding the foundations ofmodern educational theories. The first relates to the model of causality in educational
theory. The model of causality discussed in this paper means the influence that a particularcause contributes to the production of a particular result. In general, in the social sciences,
it is thought that there are complex factors and processes involved in the cause-effectrelationship. However, a number of educational programs and policies in Japan continue
to be based on the simple model of causality. In addition, there are many examples ofsuch policies and programs in which the distinction between causality and correlation is
unclear. One of the most famous illustrations of this confusion in recent years is
exemplified by the national campaign, “Hayane, Hayaoki, Asagohan” (“Early to Bed,
Early to Rise, and Don’t Forget Your Breakfast”), promoted by the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). 1 Moreover, in recent
years, the successful operation of the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, based on thecausality theory of learning, is assumed to be the primary proof of excellent education.
For instance, in “The Second Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education” (provisionaltranslation), MEXT clearly states: “In preschool, compulsory (elementary and lower
secondary), and upper secondary school education, the government aims to develop in
all children a definite zest for life by promoting collaboration and cooperation among
schools, families, and communities and by completing the PDCA cycle in order toexamine and improve educational contents and methods, educational environments, andthe educational system, based on objective data” (MEXT 2013).
The other question relates to gradual learning theory, which is based on
1

This campaign has been implemented by MEXT in cooperation with a private organization called “Hayane,
Hayaoki, Aasagohan Zenkoku Kyougi-Kai” (National Council for the Promotion of “Early to Bed, Early to Rise,and Don’t Forget Your Breakfast”), which was established in 2006. While there may be a correlation between ahealthy lifestyle and academic achievement, this cannot be explained by simple causality; numerous studies
indicate that children’s academic achievement is determined by complex factors such as economic power, socialand cultural capital of families, and parents’ interest in their children (Kariya et al. 2004). Nevertheless, in several
brochures and websites, MEXT repeatedly appeals to students to follow these three habits, especially eating
breakfast, implying that doing so will surely lead to an improvement in academic achievement. For instance, see
the two official brochures published by MEXT for elementary school students, “‘Hayane, hayaoki, Asagohan’ te
Shitteru kana?” (“Do you know ‘Early to Bed, Early to Rise, and Don’t Forget Your Breakfast’?”) (available
online: https://www.mext.go.jp/kids/find/kyoiku/mext_0020.html), and “Dekiru Kotokara Hajimetemiyou ‘Hayane,
hayaoki, Asagohan’” (“Let’s start with what you can do, ‘Early to Bed, Early to Rise, and Don’t Forget YourBreakfast’”) (available on https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/shougai/asagohan/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2020/1324879_1.pdf).

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developmental stage theory, and relies on the assumption that education should be
provided according to a child’s developmental stage and the readiness of the learner. This
schema, in general, is said to have been discovered by Jean-Jacques Rousseau anddeveloped by Jean Piaget, and is the foundation of the “Courses of Study” (the school
curriculum criteria) in primary and secondary education in Japan.2 Furthermore, therecent university reform movement in Japan has also advocated for a gradual andstandardized curriculum that will enable the “quality assurance” of university education.3
Here, I question this assumption and argue that some knowledge and experiences which
are far beyond the learner’s development stage and understanding can sometimes haveimportant implications for them later in life, and question whether such a view of
education deprives learners of the opportunity to break their own framework ofunderstanding, thereby robbing them of the great opportunity of learning.
To this end, this paper will reexamine trauma theories and present a new concept oflearning called “retrospective education.” In accordance with the principle of causality,
trauma theories postulate that trauma (i.e., the cause) leads to disease (i.e., the result). In
response to this assumption, the concept of “retrospective education” presented in thispaper criticizes the causal scheme in which the implementation of a particular educational
practice at particular developmental stage is believed to lead to a particular result.
Thereafter, I propose a model in which a present or newer stimulus (new experience)
activates a cause (old or preceding experience) that occurred in the past to retroactively
produce education in the present. Moreover, unlike developmentally appropriate practice(DAP) in educational theory, this model demonstrates the possibility that experiences
beyond the learner’s understanding can be retroactively (ex post facto) processed, andthese experiences can also be characterized as educational.
It may become possible to reconsider the theoretical premise of modern educational
theories, and to re-examine the common understanding of education with the affirmationof two aforementioned hypotheses. I believe that it is one of the missions of thephilosophy of education to challenge the assumptions of our own educational theories
just as Freud’s psychoanalysis highlighted the limitations of conventional psychology.
2

The Courses of Study, first formulated in 1947, which regulate the educational goals and content of elementaryand secondary schools in Japan, are based on Piaget’s developmental stage theory (Geshi 2013). Even in recent
years, developmental stage theory has continued to form the basis for the Courses of Study. The Curriculum
Division of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department of MEXT has provided an appendix documentwith the Courses of Study in 2021 that states “supporting students’ development” is one of the most important
aspects of education, and requires each school to “enhance instruction based on the developmental stages” (MEXT
2021: 23-28).
3
See https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo4/houkoku/attach/1302346.htm (Japanese language)
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I. Beyond the Model of Causality and Learning Stage Theory
1. Revisiting the Model of Causality
First, I would like to reconsider the model of causality according to which our sharedunderstanding of education assumes that certain causes lead to certain results. As a typicalexample of causality, we will examine the “trauma theory” which evolved under the
influence of Freudian psychoanalytic theories. It might be argued that the trauma theory,
which posits that childhood trauma can lead to the development of mental diseases anddisorders, has had more of an impact on education than any other psychoanalytic theory.
For instance, Alexander Sutherland Neill’s Summerhill School, which allows children agreat deal of freedom with the aim of avoiding trauma and repression among students,
could be considered a clear application of trauma theory (Neil 1972). A more extreme
example is the work of Alice Miller who, after criticizing “poisonous pedagogy,” rejectededucation in all its forms, deeming it inherently traumatic for children (Miller 1983).
These two examples present variations within the trauma theory model. It should also be
noted that the trauma theory of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) was formally
included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition(DSM-III) published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, and has continued
to appear as such, even in the updated DSM-V, published in 2013.
As is well known, some scholars consider Freud’s early “seduction theory”(Verführungstheorie) to be a precursor of PTSD as it was defined in the DSM-III. Freudinitially believed that sexual seduction (which would be regarded as sexual assault andabuse by today’s standards) was the cause of neurosis. However, from the autumn of1897 onward, Freud began to change his thinking by indicating that seductive scenes thatwere narrated contained phantasies and, therefore, began focusing on the psychic reality
itself. In 1950 (English translation 1954), Ernst Kris coined this development as the“abandonment of the seduction hypothesis” (Verzichts auf die Verführungshypothese)and hailed it as a great step in the birth of psychoanalysis (Kris 1950: 36; 1954: 29).
However, toward the end of the 1970s, in response to trends such as anti-psychiatry
and anti-pedagogy, many observers began to criticize Freud’s transition strongly. AliceMiller, for example, criticizes Freud’s psychoanalytic theory for masking real sexual
abuse by understanding the patient’s traumatic memories as an expression of the Oedipus
complex (Miller 1984). Similarly, Judith Lewis Herman, who popularized the concept of
psychological trauma, also strongly criticized Freud’s abandonment of the seduction
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hypothesis, stating that it regularly led to the assessment of actual abuse as a patient’s
phantasies, which also resulted in the concealment of criminal acts (Herman 1992).4
Nonetheless, while some researchers contend that Freud’s seduction theory was theforerunner of trauma theory or PTSD, I insist that it could never be categorized as asimple trauma theory. The variations of trauma theory by Neill, Miller, and Herman
described above were all based on the concept of causality, according to which the pastdefines the present. However, it is not commonly known among non-specialists that there
are aspects of Freud’s theory of trauma, which extend beyond simple causality. As
mentioned above, from the autumn of 1897 onward, Freud abandoned his belief that the
seduction scenes which his patients mentioned were correct memories or accurate
reflections of real events, and began to emphasize “psychical reality” as distinct fromexternal reality: “fundamentally what is involved here is unconscious desire and its
associated phantasies,” as Laplanche and Pontalis explain (Laplanche and Pontalis 1973:363). Thereafter, advancing from the naive theory of trauma, Freud developed his
psychoanalytic theory and the concept of Nachträglichkeit.
The idea of “retroactive education” presented here, based on Freud’s concept ofNachträglichkeit, might open the possibility of the theory of education and humandevelopment that extends beyond the model of causality based on linear temporality,
even if that model can explain some educational practices. The first question posed in thispaper is: Can the entire practice of education be understood within the reductionist
framework of a cause-effect paradigm or the model of causality?
2. Revisiting Learning Stage Theory
The second question I would like to pose relates to learning stage theory. It is
commonly believed that there are different stages of children’s learning, and modern
educational theory assumes that education should be based on children’s developmental
stages. Freud asserted that childhood sexual experiences tend to manifest as trauma laterin life, as sex cannot be understood before puberty. In “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”(1920), he compared the psychic apparatus to a “living vesicle” with a “receptive corticallayer” that protects the subject from external stimuli (Freud 1920, S.E. 18: 27; G.W. 13:
26). When a strong stimulus breaks through this protective surface and invades theinterior, it causes “traumatic neurosis” (Freud 1920, S.E. 18: 31; G.W. 13: 31). This
4

How Freud reached his abandonment of seduction theory, as well as the issues pertaining to the formulation of theabandonment of seduction theory, is summarized in Geshi (2006).

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protective shield is reminiscent of the “pedagogical barrier” described by German
pedagogical theorist Klaus Mollenhauer. According to Mollenhauer, education does not
simply “present” but rather “represents” the reality in which adults live, as it is, to protect
children from real, visceral violence by adding a “filter” to the world and reconstructingit (Mollenhauer 1983).
The second question, then, is will an experience that ignores one’s developmental
stage and readiness, breaks through Freud’s so-called “protective shield” andMollenhauer’s “filter,” and goes beyond one’s comprehension only have negative
consequences? In other words, can there be so-called “positive traumatic” experiences
or any positive impact associated with trauma?5

II. The First Formulation of Nachträglichkeit: The Case of Emma
1. Nachträglichkeit and the Model of Causality
Freud discussed deferred action in relation to etiology; however, Nachträglichkeit
is not a simple causal theory. Laplanche and Pontalis describe the significance andadvantages of Nachträglichkeit in the following manner:
The first thing the introduction of the notion does is to rule out the summaryinterpretation which reduces the psycho-analytic view of the subject’s history to alinear determinism envisaging nothing but the action of the past upon the present(Laplanche and Pontalis 1973:111-112).
However, the English translation does not fully reflect the nuance ofNachträglichkeit. In the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of
Sigmund Freud (S.E.), edited by James Strachey, the translation of Nachträglichkeit is“deferred action.” Helmut Thomä and Neil Cheshire insist this choice of terminology
may lead to a reading of Freud’s concept of Nachträglichkeit as a simple direction of
causality (Thomä et al. 1991). As a starting point in the search for the traumatic event,Freud assessed the result of the disease or disorder and then sought the cause in the past.

5

It has been claimed that positive personality transformation can occur after experiencing psychological trauma(Jayawickreme et al. 2014); however, this concept differs from that of the “retroactive education” that I present inthis paper.

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A. GESHIIn this way, the causality of Freudian psychoanalysis can be considered the “backwardcausation” that Japanese philosopher Masaki Ichinose presented after examining thediscussion of causality in Western philosophy. According to Ichinose, “Our causal inquiry
begins with the recognition of the result as an extraordinary event, and then the cause thatis considered to have caused the result is revealed” (Ichinose 2001: 130–132, 173,translation by the author).
Gregory Bistoen et al. also suggested that the English translation of “deferred action”
does not adequately capture the retrospective connotation of the German
Nachträglichkeit. “Deferred action suggests that something is deposited in the individual
at T1 that suddenly detonates, like a time bomb, at T2” (Bistoen et al. 2014:674). The
authors then examined Freud’s Nachträglichkeit theory in one of his earliest works,“Project for a Scientific Psychology” (Freud 1950, written in 1895). “Emma,” a case thatappears in this unpublished work by Freud, has a compulsion that prevents her fromgoing to the shops alone. When she was eight years old, a shopkeeper had touched hergenitals through her clothes (T1), although she did not understand the implications of thisact at the time. However, upon reaching sexual maturity at the age of twelve, an event
during which two shop assistants in another store laughed at her (T2) caused her memoryof the previous experience (T1) to resurface, thereby activating a trauma response. Such
activation is known as “deferred action.” It should be noted that the modern-day diagnosis
of PTSD only focuses on the second traumatic experience (T2) while often failing to take
into account the first trauma (T1) (Bistoen et al. 2014: 674).
2. Retrospective Construction of Traumatic Scenes
Though we have already seen that Freud’s method of exploring etiology is a formof “backwards causality,” his Nachträglichkeit theory is somewhat more complex in its
temporal nature. Freud described Emma’s case as “typical of repression in hysteria” andas “a memory [that] is repressed that has only become a trauma by deferred action[Nachträglichkeit].” In Freud’s words, “Now this case is typical of repression in hysteria.
We invariably find that a memory is repressed which has only become a trauma bydeferred action [Nachträglichkeit]. The cause of this state of things is the retardation ofpuberty as compared with the rest of the individual’s development” (Freud 1950[1895],
S.E.1:356; G.W.nb:448).
However, when we read “Project for a Scientific Psychology,” we find that thedescriptions of the events that Emma is said to have experienced are arranged in an
opposite order to the arrangement presented by Bistoen et al. (2014). These authors
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described the trauma that Emma sustained at the age of eight as “T1,” and her trauma at
the age of twelve as “T2” on the time axis, whereas Freud described Emma’s trauma at
twelve years of age as “Scene I” and at eight years of age as “Scene II,” according to theorder of recall in the analysis (Freud 1950 [1895], S.E.1: 353–354; G.W.nb: 445–446).
The question of where to place the starting point becomes important in thedevelopment of Nachträglichkeit theory. The trauma that Emma sustained at the age ofeight was believed to have actually occurred. However, as described above, Freudoverturned his position in 1897 that traumatic memories reflect reality. Freud’s so-called“abandonment of the seduction theory” led to the development of the view that childhood
memories are not necessarily a reflection of reality, but rather a mixture of both phantasy
and reality. In “Screen Memories” (1899), he observed that the scene of trauma does not“emerge” but is “formed” at the time of recall:
Our childhood memories show us our earliest years not as they were but as they
appeared at the later periods when the memories were aroused. In these periods ofarousal, the childhood memories did not, as people are accustomed to say, emerge;
they were formed at that time. And a number of motives, with no concern forhistorical accuracy, had a part in forming them, as well as in the selection of thememories themselves (Freud 1899, S.E.3:322; G.W.1:553-554).
However, even if the scene of trauma could be reconstructed through analysis, Freudclaimed the trauma itself existed before the analysis and became a disorder after thesecond event. This Nachträglichkeit theory was further refined in the case of the “Wolf
Man.”

III. The Second Formulation of Nachträglichkeit: The Case of the “Wolf Man”
1. The most famous example of Nachträglichkeit
There are two main periods in which Nachträglichkeit (or nachträglich) appears
frequently in Freud’s writings. The first is in the work he published during the period of
his initial contemplation, which lasted until 1902. The second is in “From the History ofan Infantile Neurosis” (1918), which is also known as the case of the “Wolf Man”
(Thomä et al. 1991: 408-409).
As Freud himself recognized, he needed to rethink the concept of Nachträglichkeit
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A. GESHIin the “Wolf Man” in order to clarify the theoretical differences to his former colleagues,
Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung, who broke away from Freud between 1911 and 1913.
Both Adler and Jung regarded trauma as a reflection of a patient’s current conflict, andnot as a real event in the past. James Strachey, the editor and principal translator of theStandard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (S.E.), notes“The primary significance of the case history in Freud’s eyes at the time of its publication
was clearly the support it provided for his criticisms of Adler and more especially of Jung”(Strachey 1955, S.E.17:5), who asserted that early childhood memories were merely areflection of a patient’s current situation:
The greater part of the psychoanalytic school is still under the spell of the conceptionthat infantile sexuality is the sine qua non of neurosis. It is not only the theorist,
delving into childhood simply from scientific interest, but the practicing analyst also,
who believes that he has to turn the history of infancy inside out in order to find thefantasies conditioning the neurosis. A fruitless enterprise! In the meantime the mostimportant factor escapes him, namely, the conflict and its demands in the present. In
the case we have been describing, we should not understand any of the motives
which produced the hysterical attacks if we looked for them in earliest childhood.
Those reminiscences determine only the form, but the dynamic element springs
from the present, and insight into the significance of the actual moment alone gives
real understanding (Jung 1913, C.W.4:167).
In opposition to Adler and Jung, Freud emphasized the significance of the pastexperience in etiology, describing the points of the dispute between them as “thesignificance of the infantile factor.” For Freud, the “Wolf Man” was a clear case thatproved “the influence of childhood” as an etiology:
I am of opinion that the influence of childhood makes itself felt already in thesituation at the beginning of the formation of a neurosis, since it plays a decisivepart in determining whether and at what point the individual shall fail to master thereal problems of life.
What is in dispute, therefore, is the significance of the infantile factor. The problem
is to find a case which can establish that significance beyond any doubt. Such,however, is the case [Wolf Man] which is being dealt with so exhaustively in thesepages and which is distinguished by the characteristic that the neurosis in later life
was preceded by a neurosis in early childhood (Freud 1918, S.E.17:54; G.W.12:83).
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The “Wolf Man” was a Russian man whom Freud began analyzing when the subject
was twenty-three years old. This man had developed an infantile neurosis just before his
fourth birthday, which lasted up until approximately the age of ten. He had also suffereda breakdown at the age of seventeen, triggered by gonorrhea (Freud 1918, S.E.17: 121;
G.W.12:157). The analysis revealed that the cause of his symptoms was not an external
trauma, but rather an anxiety dream of a wolf (Freud 1918, S.E.17: 28; G.W.12:53).6 The
Wolf Man recalled:
I dreamt that it was night and that I was lying in my bed. (My bed stood with its foottowards the window; in front of the window there was a row of old walnut trees. I
know it was winter when I had the dream, and night-time.) Suddenly the window
opened of its own accord, and I was terrified to see that some white wolves weresitting on the big walnut tree in front of the window. There were six or seven of them.
The wolves were quite white, and looked more like foxes or sheep-dogs, for they had
big tails like foxes and they had their ears pricked like dogs when they pay attention
to something. In great terror, evidently of being eaten up by the wolves, I screamed
and woke up (Freud 1918, S.E.17:29; G.W.12:54).
This dream occurred immediately before his fourth birthday, which was on
Christmas Day. Thereafter, Freud supposed that before the anxiety dream of the wolf took
place, there must have been an original element, i.e., the primary scene, that was distorted
and represented as the dream. The scene was that of his parents copulating, which the“Wolf Man” had witnessed at the age of eighteen months:
If, however, the effects of a scene of this sort appear in the child’s fourth or fifth year,
then he must have witnessed the scene at an age even earlier than that (Freud 1918,
S.E.17:56; G.W.12:85).
What sprang into activity that night out of the chaos of the dreamer’s unconscious
memory-traces was the picture of copulation between his parents, copulation incircumstances which were not entirely usual and were especially favourable for6

In the Wolf Man’s case, the threat of castration by his babysitter and the seduction of his older sister can berecognized between the primal scene and the anxiety wolf-dream. Although these events may have formed partof the etiology, they are not considered in this paper.

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observation (Freud 1918, S.E.17:36; G.W.12:63).
This primal scene that the Wolf Man had witnessed at the age of one and a half years
finally became understandable at the age of four as a result of his maturing. During thistime, as with any trauma and/or seduction, the event gained an etiological significancedue to “deferred operation [nachträgliche Wirkung]”:
We have now carried our account down to about the time of the boy’s fourth birthday,
and it was at that point that the dream brought into deferred operation [nachträgliche
Wirkung] his observation of intercourse at the age of one and a half. It is not possible
for us completely to grasp or adequately to describe what now ensued. The
activation of the picture, which, thanks to the advance in his intellectual
development, he was now able to understand, operated not only like a fresh event,but like a new trauma, like an interference from outside analogous to the seduction(Freud 1918, S.E.17:109; G.W.12:144).
However, Freud avoided casting judgment on the reality of the primal scene at thisstage of the analysis since determining whether the primal scene was an actual experienceor a phantasy would not yield significant results:
I should myself be glad to know whether the primal scene in my present patient’s
case was a phantasy or a real experience; but, taking other similar cases into account,
I must admit that the answer to this question is not in fact a matter of very great
importance. These scenes of observing parental intercourse, of being seduced inchildhood, and of being threatened with castration are unquestionably an inheritedendowment, a phylogenetic heritage, but they may just as easily be acquired bypersonal experience. [....]All that we find in the prehistory of neuroses is that a child catches hold of this
phylogenetic experience where his own experience fails him. I fully agree with Jungin recognizing the existence of this phylogenetic heritage; but I regard it as amethodological error to seize on a phylogenetic explanation before the ontogenetic
possibilities have been exhausted (Freud 1918, S.E.17:97; G.W.12:131).
At first glance, it appears as if the position Freud is describing here is similar to thatof Adler and Jung, who saw memory as a reflection of the present. However, Freud
maintained that even if a trauma scene is reconstructed through analysis, or the scene
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itself is a phantasy, it is still a trigger from the past that operates after the event took place.7
2. The second example of Nachträglichkeit
It should be noted that in the case of the “Wolf Man,” Freud is discussing “anotherinstance of deferred action.” Going back in time, according to the analysis process, it ispossible to recall the anxiety dreams (S2) of a four-year-old in the analysis of a twentyfive-year-old (S1), with the primal scene witnessed by a one-and-a-half-year-old (S3)forming the basis of such dreams. When the Wolf Man becomes conscious of the primal
scene (S3) that he witnessed at the age of one and a half (S1) and understands it during
the course of the analysis, he returns to his “self” at the age of four (S2). In other words,
the time between S3 and S2 disappears, and the infantile neurosis is resolved.
We must forget the actual situation which lies behind the abbreviated description
given in the text: the patient under analysis, at an age of over twenty-five years, wasputting the impressions and impulses of his fourth year into words which he would
never have found at that time. If we fail to notice this, it may easily seem comic andincredible that a child of four should be capable of such technical judgements andlearned notions. This is simply another instance of deferred action[Nachträglichkeit]. At the age of one and a half the child receives an impression towhich he is unable to react adequately; he is only able to understand it and to be
moved by it when the impression is revived in him at the age of four; and only
twenty years later, during the analysis, is he able to grasp with his conscious mental
processes what was then going on in him. The patient justifiably disregards the three
periods of time, and puts his present ego into the situation which is so long past
(Freud 1918, S.E.7:45; G.W.12:72).
The sequence of the recollection and timeline of events, based on Freud’s
description, are presented in Figure 1 below. If we were to elaborate on Freud’s
description, there would be two Nachträglichkeit.

7

The discussion between Freud and Jung on the possibility of the primal scene originating from phylogenetic
heritage is discussed in Geshi (2006: I-3).

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A. GESHI【Figure 1: The sequence of recollection and timeline of events in the “Wolf Man” case】
Timeline
Effect
S1

Recollection
Psychoanalysis(Twenty-five years old: Linguistic understanding of the etiology)= The second Nachträglichkeit (return to a four-year-old boy)

S2

The Wolf-dream(Four years old: symbolic understanding of the trace and disease onset)= The first Nachträglichkeit (infantile neurosis)

S3

The primal scene (the original cause of disease)(One and a half years old: The trace that forms an etiology later)

Ⅳ. Application: The Pedagogical Turn of Freud’s Nachträglichkeit
1. An Educational Theory of Nachträglichkeit
Based on these examples, this study presents an educational theory that re-envisions
the Freudian concept of Nachträglichkeit in the form of a theory of “retroactive
education.” First, this educational theory of Nachträglichkeit assumes the occurrence ofan extreme experience that breaks through “protective shield” identified by Freud, or“filter” to borrow the term used by Mollenhauer, to block out the harsh (extreme) reality,
and the experience leaves only a memory trace as a result of its going beyond the realmof an individual’s understanding at the time (S1). Nevertheless, it acts a posteriori,
through later experience (S2). Second, in this theory, the original traumatic experience(S1) operates after the later traumatic event (S2), and these experiences are not limited tothe sexual domain, as in Freud’s theory. As Freud observed, the reason a sexual
experience in childhood can become a posttraumatic event is that sexual maturity has not
yet been reached. Similarly, events or experiences that are beyond the understanding of achild or an individual in an immature state can also be processed retroactively, and thiscan lead to retroactive learning. Furthermore, as Britzman (2010) indicated, there is an
unconscious drive behind learning and education; thus, besides the narrowly defined
sexual experiences of Freud’s theory, other non-sexual experiences can also come to have
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retroactive and educational value after the fact. Third, such “retroactive education” does
not necessarily require psychoanalytical therapy. Freud understood his early childhood
through his own self-analysis, which he described in letters to Wilhelm Fließ (Freud
1985; 1986). Even if one does not conduct a thorough self-analysis like Freud’s, it ispossible that deferred understanding and transformation can still be brought about
through introspection, dialogue with others, and new experiences.
In summary, past experiences of which individuals are unaware because theseexperiences were, at one point, beyond the realm of their comprehension, can eventually
be understood through the occurrence of similar experiences after puberty. In this way,
responses to past events are activated afterward and bring about changes in the self. The
self is then reconstructed by linking and understanding the two separate experiences that
occurred, after the point at which these experiences took place. However, it is impossible
to predict in advance what kind of experience will be activated at a later time.
Thus, it is necessary to explore the kinds of experiences that are recognized as“educational” upon later reflection. The work of Jacques Lacan is relevant in this regard.
While the training standards of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)
require “a training analysis” that differs from “a therapeutic analysis,” Lacan criticized
this institutional distinction. “For Lacan, there is only one form of analytic process,” asDylan Evans (1996: 210) observed. Lacan established his own school (the École
Freudienne de Paris) and created new training criteria called “the pass” (le passant).
However, in the Lacanian system, there are no pre-established criteria for deciding
whether to admit a candidate as an analyst: “The jury then decides… whether to award
the pass to the candidate. There were no pre-established criteria to guide the jury, since
the pass was based on the principle that each person’s analysis is unique” (Evans
1996:135). Lacan states that whether an analysis is considered a training analysis or not
can only be determined after it is complete. As the Japanese psychoanalyst Kosuke Tsuiki
observed, the Lacanian “pass” is, thus, not merely a certification system forpsychoanalysts; rather, certifying an individual as an analyst must be also an affirmationof the psychoanalytic process (Tsuiki 2008: 348–349). However, institutional stability inpsychoanalysis cannot be guaranteed if the nature of psychoanalysis itself is re-examined
every time an analyst is born, and such issues may be at the root of the long-standing
dispute between Lacanian groups as to the definition of psychoanalysis.
2. Examples of “Retroactive Education”
At this point, I would like to provide some examples in relation to the theory of
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A. GESHI“retroactive education” described above. I believe that many of those who study
philosophy and the philosophy of education have experienced “retroactive education.”
Such experiences might involve the reading of complex documents, including classicaltexts, which often require a re-reading. The experience of re-reading is a good example
of deferred learning. For instance, a book that was impossible to understand at first canbe retroactively understood by the act of re-reading, or a reader might sometimes
understand the meaning of a text only after they have matured. If the meaning of the text
is restructured by a later (re-)re-reading, the event of the first reading will still function as
the determining factor that leads to changes in the present self after the event.
Encountering the unknown – in the example above, a text that is not understood at thetime of reading it – has important implications for the future.
Going on the Grand Tour (traveling abroad), which John Amos Comenius (1967[1633–1638]: Chap.31) and John Locke (1989 [1693]: Chap.23) recommended as thefinishing touch of education, might be another example of retroactive education. The
main purpose of traveling abroad during the Middle Ages in Europe was to go on apilgrimage; however, this practice gradually came to be understood as an important
activity for broadening an individual’s knowledge in general. Such journeys could be
unpredictable and beset by danger (Chard 1999; Black 2011). However, that is exactly
why they were thought to hold significance in helping individuals understand the world,
as they forced the traveler to go beyond the existing realm of their own understanding.
An encounter with a different part of the world can also make it possible to (better)interpret an impression of a former experience that one might have had in the past, which
could not be understood at that point in time, thereby reconstructing the self. Furthermore,recalling a past journey may have the effect of reconstructing the self retroactively.
In addition, when we read essays on school life, we often come across episodes
detailing how the authors were shocked by people and/or texts they could not seem tounderstand. One such example is an essay by the famous Japanese writer Morio Kita, inwhich he reflects on his life in the old high school system that was equivalent to the liberalarts program of today’s universities and abolished in 1950. In his essay, Kita recalls his
admiration for the seniors and their intellectual knowledge, and his amazement at theircasual use of academic terms he could not understand at all: “It[intellectual awakening]
first appeared to me in the form of senior students. How great they seemed to us! They
seemed to have been taught directly by people like Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard, whosenames I only knew, and they seemed to be friends with Shakespeare, Goethe, andDostoevsky. They spoke bewildering words like Gemeinschacht, Aufheben, Logos,
Pathos, and so on… We admired them and wished we could be like them. Good or bad,
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this is what we call the tradition of high school under the old system of education” (Kita
2000: 36, translation by the author).
These accounts then explain that while the authors were unable to deduce themeaning of something that they could not understand at the time of the encounter, they
were able to understand its significance later. In other words, the experiences that they
could not understand in the past were later understood, given meaning to, and contributed
towards the formation of a sense of “self.”

Conclusion: Revisiting the Concept of Education from the Perspective of“Retroactive Education”
As mentioned in the introduction, traditional educational theories have comparededucation to the process of developing a seed into a plant by providing it with water andsunlight at the right time.
This assumption relies on the model of causality (stimulus-response) and the modelof developmentally appropriate teaching.
This study critiques these assumptions by examining Freud’s concept ofNachträglichkeit and attempting to apply it to educational theory, proposing a new model
called “retroactive education.” Experiences (sometimes “traumatic”) that go beyond therealm of understanding at the point of their occurrence can transform an individual’s
personality by becoming comprehensible later on. If such a transformation is a negative
one, then it becomes a disease or a disorder (e.g., PTSD); however, if the transformation
has a positive effect, such as Kita’s episode, it can be characterized as educational (i.e., a“positive” traumatic experience).
However, the reader might wonder whether “retroactive education,” should be
regarded as “education” at all. This is because education is generally considered to be aplanned practice, the outcome of which can be predicted to some extent. In other words,
education is an activity that is planned based on the prediction of learning outcomes basedon teaching strategies/practices/methods/methodologies.
On the other hand, “retroactive education” presented in this paper is entirely
unpredictable. No one can predict whether an experience that can only be understoodafter the event will have a positive effect, nor is it possible to determine which experience
will turn out to be positive in the first place. As mentioned earlier, Bistoen et al. compared“deferred action” to a “time bomb.” In keeping with this analogy, the concept of“retroactive education,” presented in this paper may be likened to a “land mine” – no one
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A. GESHI

knows where it might be and when it might explode, or in fact whether it exists at all.
In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, I believe that “retroactive education” is aform of education that has not received any attention. The concept of “retroactive
education,” enables us to better understand phenomena related to education and humanformation (Bildung) that we have not been able to make sense of within the frameworkof traditional educational theories. Let us be more ambitious and let our imaginations run
wild without hesitation. If we do so, we may find that many phenomena that have been
understood within the scope of “education” can in fact be classified as “retrospective
education,” but were analyzed in terms of traditional educational theories such as theories
of developmental stages and causality.

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