Achilles
A Homeric hero enamoured with the absolute
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8972704 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicolas Evzonas (0000-0002-1658-4915, CRPMS (Centre de Recherche Psychanalyse; Médecine et Société) [Centre for Research on Psychoanalysis; Medicine and Society] 8; rue Albert Einstein 75013 Paris France, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1165-1185 |
| Publication date | 2018-06-20 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00207578.2018.1490483 |
| PMID | 28731199 |
| OpenAlex | W4242730965, W2736327483 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
This article explores through a psychoanalytical lens the character of Achilles in Homer's Iliad, the matrix behind the Western conception of heroism. The contribution reveals the psychological link binding the words and acts of the most valiant of warriors in Antiquity, which is situated in myth and termed "the Eros of the absolute." The paroxystic ideality underlying the aforementioned myth, which is rooted in the anthropological need to believe, is at the origin of Achilles' legendary μῆνις, that is, the flood of rage triggered by contests for supremacy, aggravated by the loss of his war comrade, aroused by the drama of aging and death, and then transfigured through song and memory. The main claim of the author is that Iliad, despite its seeming lack of attention to interiority, is launched by the archetypal emotion of wrath and owes its appeal to its hero's embrace of heroic idealism in an excessive, radical and absolute way that results in a captivating narcissism and sadomasochistic antithesis of ideality. This argument leads to the conclusion that Homer is the Father of the "primitive horde" of affects
Absolute (philosophy · Antithesis · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Drama · Epistemology · HERO · Literature · Mythology · Psychoanalysis · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Classical Antiquity Studies · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
The making of Homeric verse
The Best of the Achaeans
Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy
Mind, Body and Speech in Homer and Pindar
Status Warriors
Trump and the Paranoid-Schizoid Politics of Ideality
Childlike Achilles
Early Greek Myth
The Death and Afterlife of Achilles
Forms and Transformations of Narcissism
The Greeks and the Irrational
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |