The Religious and Romantic Origins of Psychoanalysis: Individuation and Integration in Post-Freudian Theory

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Cambridge University Press, Feb 23, 1996 - Psychology - 240 pages
In this book, Suzanne Kirschner traces the origins of contemporary psychoanalysis back to the foundations of Judaeo-Christian culture, and challenges the prevailing view that modern theories of the self mark a radical break with religious and cultural tradition. Instead, she argues, they offer an account of human development which has its beginnings in biblical theology and neoplatonic mysticism. Drawing on a wide range of religious, literary, philosophical and anthropological sources, Dr Kirschner demonstrates that current Anglo-American psychoanalytic theories are but the latest version of a narrative that has been progressively secularized over the course of nearly two millennia. She displays a deep understanding of psychoanalytic theories, while at the same time raising provocative questions about their status as knowledge and as science.

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Contents

Introduction
1
Towards a cultural genealogy of psychoanalytic developmental psychology
3
The assenting echo AngloAmerican values in contemporary psychoanalytic development psychology
33
The developmental narrative The design of psychological history
63
Theological sources of the idea of development
95
The Christian mystical narrative Neoplatonism and Christian mysticism
115
Jacob Boehme Towards worldly mysticism
130
Romantic thought From worldly mysticism to natural supernaturalism
149
Personal supernaturalism The cultural genealogy of the psychoanalytic developmental narrative
179
Conclusion
193
Bibliography
210
Index
233
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