The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism

ISBN-13: 9780195115086 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 264 str.

Jr. William B. Parsons

Opis

This study examines the history of the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism, starting with the seminal correspondence between Freud and Romain Rolland concerning the concept of "oceanic feeling." Providing a corrective to current views which frame psychoanalysis as pathologizing mysticism, Parsons reveals the existence of three models entertained by Freud and Rolland: the classical reductive, ego-adaptive, and transformational (which allows for a transcendent dimension to mysticism). Then, reconstructing Rolland's personal mysticism (the "oceanic feeling") through texts and letters unavailable to Freud, Parsons argues that Freud misinterpreted the oceanic feeling. In offering a fresh interpretation of Rolland's mysticism, Parsons constructs a new dialogical approach for psychoanalytic theory of mysticism which integrates culture studies, developmental perspectives, and the deep epistemological and transcendent claims of the mystics.

Recenzje

user-friendly ... particularly excellent in the way it highlights Freud's knowledge of Eastern religious concepts and texts, as well as in the way it deconstructs the common view of Freud's engagement with mysticism. ... For those interested in psycho-analytic approaches to religion, this will be an essential book to read for some time to come.