The Ability to Mourn: Disillusionment and the Social Origins of PsychoanalysisPeter Homans offers a new understanding of the origins of psychoanalysis and relates the psychoanalytic project as a whole to the sweep of Western culture, past and present. He argues that Freud's fundamental goal was the interpretation of culture and that, therefore, psychoanalysis is fundamentally a humanistic social science. To establish this claim, Homans looks back at Freud's self-analysis in light of the crucial years from 1906 to 1914 when the psychoanalytic movement was formed and shows how these experiences culminated in Freud's cultural texts. By exploring the "culture of psychoanalysis," Homans seeks a better understanding of what a "psychoanalysis of culture" might be. Psychoanalysis, Homans shows, originated as a creative response to the withering away of traditional communities and their symbols in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. The loss of these attachments played a crucial role in the lives of the founders of psychoanalysis, especially Sigmund Freud but also Karl Abraham, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, and Ernest Jones. The personal, political, and religious losses that these figures experienced, the introspection that followed, and the psychological discovery that resulted are what Homans calls "the ability to mourn." Homans expands this historical analysis to construct a general model of psychological discovery: the loss of shared ideals and symbols can produce a deeper sense of self (psychological structure-building, or individuation) and can then lead to the creation of new forms of meaning and self-understanding. He shows how Freud, Jung, and other psychoanalysts began to extend their introspection outward, reinterpreting the meanings of Western art, history, and religion. In conclusion, Homans evaluates Freud's theory of culture and discusses the role that psychoanalysis might play in social and cultural criticism. Throughout the book, Homans makes use of the many histories, biographies, and psychobiographies that have been written about the origins of psychoanalysis, drawing them into a comprehensive sociocultural model. Rich in insights and highly original in approach, this work will interest psychoanalysts and students of Freud, sociologists concerned with modernity and psychoanalysis, and cultural critics in the fields of religion, anthropology, political science, and social history. |
Contents
Disillusionment and the Ability to Mourn as | 13 |
DeIdealization in Freuds Life and Thought | 29 |
Romain Rolland | 82 |
Freuds Mother His Death Anxiety and the Problem | 96 |
Why Think Sociologically about | 109 |
The Sociology of Freuds SelfAnalysis and | 129 |
Disenchantment | 143 |
Psychoanalysis Science | 209 |
The Sociological Mechanism Underlying | 250 |
Framing the Argument with Freuds Little Discourse | 261 |
The Fate of the Ego in Primitive and Civilized | 283 |
The Plight of the Modern Ego Cut Off from Its Christian | 297 |
The Conflict between Religious Absolutism and Curiosity | 313 |
Mourning | 326 |
at the End of The Tempest as a Model | 344 |
369 | |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham analysis analytic access artist attachment called capacity central Christian common culture concept consciousness context Count Thun created creation of meaning creative cultural texts culture of fantasy de-idealization death disillusionment dream essay experience fantasy fantasy activity Fliess forces formulation Freud Freud's theory Gedo gradually historical human ideal-type ideals ideas illusion individuation infantile inner world intellectual interpretation introspective issues Jewish Jews Jones Jones's Jung Jung's Lévi-Strauss loss ment mental merger metapsychology mind mnemic monuments Moses Moses and Monotheism mother mourning narcissism narcissistic neurosis Nietzsche objects oedipal origins of psychoanalysis past philosophical Pleasure Principle political primitive psycho psychoanalytic movement psychological Rank Rank's reality reflection relation relationship religion religious role Rolland Romain Rolland Rome Schorske scientific secularization self-analysis self-understanding sense shared social world society sociological superego symbolic theory of culture thought tion tradition transitional turn uncon unconscious understanding understood Weber Western culture Winnicott