Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Forms of the Sacred

Forms of the Sacred The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 57, No. 4, 1997 Leonard Corte This paper has developed out of my belief that it is possible to identify aspects of clinical psychoanalysis that derive from mythical scenarios other than that of Oedipus. Freud's (1912-1913) effort to illuminate the psycho- logical influences of myth in ancient and modern cultures as a foundation of psychoanalytic metapsychology has been deemphasized in our need to become acceptable as a subspecialty of modern medicine. As a conse- quence we have privileged concepts of empirical validation and linear causality over myth and magic and historicity over mythical time. Notwith- standing a growing valuation of concepts such as soul, demons, chimera, ghosts as well as "undead" presences (Grotstein, 1997), a logical-positivis- tic understanding of mental life predominates in psychoanalytic meta- psychology. This paper began to coalesce around my work with a man suffering from a depression of many years. Two themes emerged early in the course of his treatment. The first involved an unconscious creation in which he would offer himself as a eucharistic sacrifice to be consumed by others. The sec- ond was a sense that both his work and his analysis represented a return to an http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

Forms of the Sacred

Corte, Leonard
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 57 (4) – Sep 19, 2004
Download PDF
22 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/forms-of-the-sacred-8ARC27YFF1

References (20)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
Subject
Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1023/A:1022419523800
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 57, No. 4, 1997 Leonard Corte This paper has developed out of my belief that it is possible to identify aspects of clinical psychoanalysis that derive from mythical scenarios other than that of Oedipus. Freud's (1912-1913) effort to illuminate the psycho- logical influences of myth in ancient and modern cultures as a foundation of psychoanalytic metapsychology has been deemphasized in our need to become acceptable as a subspecialty of modern medicine. As a conse- quence we have privileged concepts of empirical validation and linear causality over myth and magic and historicity over mythical time. Notwith- standing a growing valuation of concepts such as soul, demons, chimera, ghosts as well as "undead" presences (Grotstein, 1997), a logical-positivis- tic understanding of mental life predominates in psychoanalytic meta- psychology. This paper began to coalesce around my work with a man suffering from a depression of many years. Two themes emerged early in the course of his treatment. The first involved an unconscious creation in which he would offer himself as a eucharistic sacrifice to be consumed by others. The sec- ond was a sense that both his work and his analysis represented a return to an

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Sep 19, 2004

There are no references for this article.