Myth, Religion and Mother Right. Bachofen's Influence on Psychoanalytic Theory

  • The trends, convictions, and intellectual influences shared by a variety of psychoanalytic dissidents are elucidated through their individual and collective responses to Sigmund Freud's psychology of religion. This psychology as epitomized in Totem and Taboo (1913) constitutes an Oedipal monism, in which the stages between totemism and Christianity represent increasingly complex derivates of unconscious parricidal fantasies. In The Future of an Illusion (1922), Freud argued that animism represents a defensive measure to minimize anxiety in the face of overpowering and incomprehensible natural forces. Carl Jung, O. Rank, Erich FROMM, and I. Suttie all rejected this reductive strategy of interpretation, arguing that religious beliefs and aspirations may have profound developmental significance. Significantly, they were all influenced, directly or indirectly, by J. J. Bachofen, the Swiss jurist and mythographer, and author of Das Mutterrecht (The Mother Right, 1861). Jung, Rank, FROMM, and Suttie emphasized the role of cultural and historical factors in shaping the individual psyche. Apart from Bachofen's pervasive influence, one way of accounting for their differences with Freud is to see Freudian theory as a psychology that emphasizes biology and treats the contents of consciousness as the surface of a sexual or aggressive character. In contrast, Jung, Rank, FROMM, and Suttie were skeptical about the contents of consciousness, and acknowledged the role of unconscious motivation and conflict in clinical psychopathology and social behavior. At the same time, however, they attempted to rejoin the older, pre-Darwinian philosophical anthropology, in which social, religious, and ethical needs are integral dimensions to a deeper understanding of the human animal.

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Metadaten
Author:Daniel Burston
Parent Title (English):Contemporary Psychoanalysis, New York (William Alanson White Institute), Vol. 22 (No. 4, 1986), pp. 666-687.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1986
Release Date:2012/12/13
Format:PDF-scan upon request / PDF-Scan auf Anfrage
IdNo:Burston_D_1986b
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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