Before and after Science: Esoteric Traces in the Formation of the Freudian Psychoanalytic Subject

This paper argues that traces of the Western esoteric traditions can be found within Freudian psychoanalysis and proposes that the significance of such traces for the development of a specifically psychoanalytic understanding of the human subject has thus far been largely neglected. A critical-reali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions
Main Author: Boyle, John (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2019
In: Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions
Further subjects:B telepathy
B Psychoanalysis
B Western Esotericism
B Freud
B Kabbalah
B Occultism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper argues that traces of the Western esoteric traditions can be found within Freudian psychoanalysis and proposes that the significance of such traces for the development of a specifically psychoanalytic understanding of the human subject has thus far been largely neglected. A critical-realist hauntology is proposed to act as the transmissive milieu for the persistence of such traces. The paper then provides a brief introduction to Western esotericism as an academic discipline prior to turning its attention to the conceptual metaphor of 'trace' as a means of articulating relations between esotericism and psychoanalysis at the latter's inception. The paper goes on to adumbrate a complex conceptual matrix conjoining Freudian psychoanalysis to fin de siècle occultism, psychical research, telepathy and the Jewish Kabbalah. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the persistence of esoteric traces in contemporary psychoanalysis and reflects on the synergistic potential of psychoanalytic ideas for the academic study of Western esotericism.
ISSN:2009-7409
Contains:Enthalten in: Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions, Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions