Freud's speculations in ethnology’

A reflection on anthropology's encounter with psychoanalysis

Bibliographic Data

ID8971197
AuthorsPatrick S Rivera (Anthropology, University of Maryland, 1111 Woods Hall, 4302 Chapel Lane, College Park, MD, 20742, USA, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume98
Issue3
Pages755-778
Publication date2017-03-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1745-8315.12616
PMID28261796
OpenAlexW2593727706
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited36

In the early 20th century, many analysts - Freud and Ernest Jones in particular - were confident that cultural anthropologists would demonstrate the universal nature of the Oedipus complex and other unconscious phenomena. Collaboration between the two disciplines, however, was undermined by a series of controversies surrounding the relationship between psychology and culture. This paper re-examines the three episodes that framed anthropology's early encounter with psychoanalysis, emphasizing the important works and their critical reception. Freud's Totem and Taboo began the interdisciplinary dialogue, but it was Bronislaw Malinowski's embrace of psychoanalysis - a development anticipated through a close reading of his personal diaries - that marked a turning point in relations between the two disciplines. Malinowski argued that an avuncular (rather than an Oedipal) complex existed in the Trobriand Islands. Ernest Jones' critical dismissal of this theory alienated Malinowski from psychoanalysis and ended ethnographers' serious exploration of Freudian thought. A subsequent ethnographic movement, 'culture and personality,' was erroneously seen by many anthropologists as a product of Freudian theory. When 'culture and personality' was abandoned, anthropologists believed that psychoanalysis had been discredited as well - a narrative that still informs the historiography of the discipline and its rejection of psychoanalytical theory

Ethnography · Freudian slip · Narrative · Oedipus complex · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Sociology · Totem · Unconscious mind · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society

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