ENGLISH

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

Book information

Year
1999
ISBN
0195115082, 9780195115086, 9780195354089
LCC
BF175.4.R44 P37 1999
Open Library ID
OL672170M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
14 MB (15087219 bytes)
Pages
264\265
Topic
Psychology
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

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.

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