Abandonment, Religion, and Male Melancholia: A Psychoanalytic Study of Archpriest Avvakum's Religious Autobiography

The present study is a psychoanalytic reading of Archpriest Avvakum's autobiography and takes its cue from some observations made by Russian and Ukrainian historian Edward Keenan, who offered a tentative diagnosis of manic-depression to describe Avvakum's personality. In my view, Donald Ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Carlin, Nathan Steven (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2003]
In: Journal of religion and health
Year: 2003, Volume: 42, Issue: 3, Pages: 231-249
Further subjects:B Male Melancholia
B Psychoanalysis
B Transference
B Abandonment
B Displacement
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:The present study is a psychoanalytic reading of Archpriest Avvakum's autobiography and takes its cue from some observations made by Russian and Ukrainian historian Edward Keenan, who offered a tentative diagnosis of manic-depression to describe Avvakum's personality. In my view, Donald Capps's analysis of "religious male melancholia" supports Keenan's observations, and I argue that Avvakum carried his childhood experiences and conflicts over into his later religious life. His religious life manifested a series of transferences and displacements, with Mary the Mother of God, God the Father, and the Church functioning as his loving or positive relationships with his family; and Patriarch Nikon and his followers embodying everything he feared and resented about his own childhood—change and abandonment.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1024891618734