[lbo-talk] Capitalism & Psychoanalysis

[R]

erikson was a very talented guy, and interesting in his own right.  his
stages of psychological development focused attention on a much improved,
different way of viewing typology and human development although his roots
were post freudian.  his book on Luther was entertaining, too.  but for my
tastes, they just don't make it.  i'd rather read history without the psych,
partly because the psych is always theoretical. that's my subjective
opinion.

i'm not familiar with sartre's book.

freud always struck me as heavily dependent on the greeks for his ideas; and
on insightful yiddish concepts of human nature -- a fact which doesn't get a
lot of play in psychoanalytic circles.  he's the great purveyor of notions
like polymorphous perversion, penis envy, oedipal complexes, hysteria,
castration anxiety, and that marvel of human personality, the phallic
character.  his ideas are quite primitive.  his infatuation with repressed
sexuality is a testimonial to viennese victorianism of his day.  it's my
understanding he never met Little Hans although writing copiously about him;
rather typical of psych biographies, histories, lit criticism and radio pop
psych of today.

what he did accomplish that stands out is to focus attention on the concept
of the unconscious.  in this, his movement was truly a revolution in
contemporary thought of his day, and changed all of our lives.  according to
bruno bettelheim, his writing in german is poetic and compelling; the
translations into english are relatively barren and political, although
approved by his daughter, anna, for american consumption. her desire for his
work to be accepted in the US -- where the money was -- was truly a consumer
culture oriented decision.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis Redmond" <dredmond at efn.org>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Capitalism & Psychoanalysis


: > i haven't found any psych based
: > literary criticism to have merit.  same with psych based historical
: > biographies.
:
: Both Erikson's "Gandhi's Truth" and Sartre's "The Family Idiot" do a fine
: job of historicizing psychological concepts in fascinating and productive
: ways.
:
: I've often thought of Freud as the first great theorist of the consumer
: culture.
:
: -- DRR
:
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