Freud's Refutation of Degenerationism: A Contribution to Humanism

Spiegel, Rose

doi:10.1080/00107530.1986.10746111

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This perfect people did never exist, thus the term degenerate must not be used to describe either oneself or others (cf. Spiegel, 1986). Furthermore, this preoccupation with the Jewish question, even under a scientific pretense, might exile psychoanalysis to the fringe of the intellectual and scientific discourse of the time, and Freud's followers were often warned not to transform psychoanalysis into a national Jewish issue.…”

Section: Freudian Man and The New Man Of The Zionist Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis in Israel: New Beginnings, Old Trajectories

Rolnik¹

2015

J. Psychoanal.

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The arrival of psychoanalysis in pre-state Israel in the early 20th century presents a unique chapter in the history of psychoanalysis. The paper explores the encounter between psychoanalytic expertise, Judaism, Modern Hebrew culture and the Zionist revolution. It offers a look at the relationship between psychoanalysis and a wider community, and follows the life and work of Jewish psychoanalysts during World War II. The coming of psychoanalysis to pre-state Israel, where it rapidly penetrated the discourse of pedagogy, literature, medicine, and politics, becoming a popular therapeutic to establish its identity in the face of its manifold European pasts and discipline, is regarded as an integral part of a Jewish immigrant society’s struggle with its conflict-ridden Middle Eastern present.

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Section: Freudian Man and The New Man Of The Zionist Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychoanalysis in Israel: New Beginnings, Old Trajectories

Rolnik¹

2015

J. Psychoanal.

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“…Spiegel 1986). With the completion of Studies on Hysteria in 1895, explicit rejection of hereditary conceptions of neuroses had become a regular feature in Freud's writings.…”

Section: Freudian Man and The "New Man" Of The Zionist Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This “perfect people” never existed, thus the term “degenerate”must not be used to describe either oneself or others (cf. Spiegel 1986). Furthermore, this preoccupation with the Jewish question, even under a scientific pretense, might exile psychoanalysis to the fringe of the intellectual and scientific discourse of the time, and Freud's followers were often warned not to transform psychoanalysis into a “national Jewish issue.” 2…”

Section: Freudian Man and The “New Man” Of The Zionist Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Therapy and Ideology: Psychoanalysis and Its Vicissitudes in Pre-state Israel (Including Some Hitherto Unpublished Letters by Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein)

Rolnik

2010

Sci Context

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ArgumentFew chapters in the historiography of psychoanalysis are as densely packed with trans-cultural, ideological, institutional, and moral issues as the coming of psychoanalysis to Jewish Palestinea geopolitical space which bears some of the deepest scars of twentieth-century European, and in particular German, history. From the historical as well as the critical perspective, this article reconstructs the intricate connections between migration, separation and loss, continuity and new beginning which resonate in the formative years of psychoanalysis in pre-state Israel.

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“…In other authors the idea of degeneration played a much heavier role, merging with the extension of the theory of natural selection to the organic, social and intellectual development of peoples, which was also called ‘racial hygiene’. Today it is difficult not only to understand how deeply the theory of degeneration influenced medicine, psychiatry, and the cultural life at the turn of the century, but also how “Freud’s introduction of psychoanalysis was intimately involved with a refutation of Degenerationism” (Spiegel, 1986, p. 8). Freud, in fact, on the one side embraced the psychological turn, but on the other side did not accept certain aspects of the emphasis on the brain, such as the stress on heredity, as is apparent in his criticism of Charcot (Freud, 1893).…”

Section: The Psychological Turnmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relevance of castration and circumcision to the origins of psychoanalysis: 1. The medical context

Bonomi

2009

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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In this paper the author outlines and discusses the origins and the decline of castration and circumcision as a cure for the nervous and psychic disturbances in women and little girls between 1875 and 1905. The author argues that the opposition to this medical practice affected the conception of hysteria, promoting a distinction between sexuality and the genital organs, and the emergence of an enlarged notion of sexuality, during the period from Freud's medical education to the publication of the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The hypothesis is put forward that Freud came directly in contact with the genital theory of the neurosis at the time of his training on the nervous disturbances in children with the paediatrician, Adolf Baginsky, in Berlin, in March 1886. It is hypothesized that this experience provoked in Freud an abhorrence of circumcision 'as a cure or punishment for masturbation', prompting an inner confrontation which resulted in a radical reorganization of the way of thinking about sexuality. It is also suggested that this contributed to Freud developing a capacity to stay with contradictions, something which would become a central quality of the psychoanalytic attitude.

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Freud's Refutation of Degenerationism: A Contribution to Humanism

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Psychoanalysis in Israel: New Beginnings, Old Trajectories

Psychoanalysis in Israel: New Beginnings, Old Trajectories

Therapy and Ideology: Psychoanalysis and Its Vicissitudes in Pre-state Israel (Including Some Hitherto Unpublished Letters by Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein)

The relevance of castration and circumcision to the origins of psychoanalysis: 1. The medical context

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