Psychoanalysis and Civilizational Analysis: Preliminaries to a Debate
In: Thesis eleven: critical theory and historical sociology, Heft 71, S. 71-92
ISSN: 0725-5136
Explores areas of compatibility between psychoanalysis & civilizational theory through a survey of case studies. Freud's contribution to the connection of cultural pluralism & civilization in the singular is analyzed with a discussion of metapsychological deviations. The work of Franz Borkenau is examined for connections to Freud's theories, namely of the unconscious, & additional psychoanalytical influence that may have impacted civilizational theorists is posited. The notion of a hermeneutical perspective, Castoriadis's theory of sublimation, is discussed as a point of convergence for the two fields of study. 22 References.