Uomo diventa lupo. Un'interpretazione antropologica di sadismo, masochismo e licantropia

by Robert Eisler, Raul Montanari (Translator), David K. Henderson (Foreword)

Robert Eisler è stato il più misconosciuto fra i grandi visionari eruditi del Novecento. Studioso geniale e atipico, sempre ai margini del mondo accademico, ha lasciato un'opera multiforme e inclassificabile. E questo libro ne rappresenta l'estremo, grandioso epilogo. Influenzato da Jung e dalla sua teoria degli archetipi, si presenta come un'indagine socio-antropologica sulla crudeltà e l'aggressività umane, che ha l'audacia di suggerire una derivazione storica, o meglio preistorica, per ogni crimine e ogni violenza, «dall'attacco alla singola vita noto con il nome di assassinio o omicidio a quella forma di uccisione collettiva organizzata che chiamiamo guerra». La tesi di Eisler non potrebbe essere più concisa: se l'uomo moderno è sul piano biologico «la più spaventosa di tutte le bestie da preda» - secondo la definizione di William James -, e se al contrario il suo antenato era un primate frugivoro, a un certo stadio dell'evoluzione deve essersi verificata in lui una mutazione irrevocabile «dalle conseguenze disastrose e permanenti». È questa la «Caduta» che si cela dietro al misterioso fenomeno psichico denominato «licantropia», nonché ad altre manifestazioni patologiche. Sono poche, densissime pagine sorrette da una documentazione impressionante, una foresta di note dove proliferano miti, riti e leggende dei luoghi più disparati del pianeta - e che fanno di questo libro uno dei viaggi più inquietanti nei recessi di quella che ancora oggi ci ostiniamo a chiamare «natura umana».

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Werewolves, BDSM

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[Velvetink · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where is the archaeological evidence?
Mostly unsubstantiated collection of myths and old wives tales cobbled together.

[Hannibal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was an interesting read. It was actually only 31 pages with a ton of notes/bibliography stuff. In general tho, it was interesting.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me what felt like forever and a day to finish.

I would have given this three stars, and happily, were it not for the format in which the book was published. The content of the book was, while at times outdated, enjoyable and thought-provoking. The subject of the book was also extremely interesting, and what drew me to it in the first place. While I was expecting an anthropological study of sadism, masochism, and lycanthropy (it was the thought of an anthropological study of lycanthropy that drew me to the book in the first place) what I got instead was really a study of violence in human society. Other reviewers have noted this, and though I was a bit disappointed, the content still made for an interesting enough read.

The format of the book was what killed it all for me. I can understand the author's wish to delve into more detail than the original essay went into (due to the fact the essay itself, a scant 53 pages, was originally a speech he delivered) but I felt that the manner in which he did this was poorly done. Robert Eisler would have done better to have put the content of the notes into the speech itself and thus create a full book with footnotes allowed for the linguistic oddities the notes seem to ramble on for ages. This would have made for easier reading, and altogether, a more comprehensive experience.

By placing the 200+ pages worth of notes at the back, the avid reader is stuck flipping between the essay and the notes far too many times. It disrupts the flow of the essay itself and is altogether quite a confusing experience. Some pages have 20+ notes on them, and the notes themselves take up over 30 pages at a time for the most part. While Robert Eisler's enthusiasm for his topic is admirable, a certain amount of synthesis would do this publication good.

To be clear: I don't regret reading this book. Although outdated in portions, and a difficult text to get through for the formatting, it is one that offers up some interesting insights into the field of comparative mythologies before Joseph Campbell arrived on the scene.. it also just raises up some interesting notions for any time period, and would serve a writer well for inspiration in general horror fiction if they are among the anthropologically inclined.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the posthumous publication of the reconstruction of a speech given to the Psychiatric section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1948, complete with 200+ pages of notes and appendices, most of which consist of classical and mythological references filtered through a thick Jungian lens to justify and explain sadism, masochism and lycanthropy as evolutionary outcomes of a division of early man into a peaceful tribe and a more warlike tribe.

Pretty much everything (myth, legend, philosophy, archeology, anthropology) that comes the author's way is subsumed into his theories around early evolutionary deviation and the subsequent development of the lycanthropic myth, but there's no actual science, the thinking is maddeningly circular and the unceasing references are pretty dull.

It's worth reading but chiefly as a historical document - with context, it's fairly entertaining.

[Mlhoward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the best work of non-fiction that I have ever read. This book, by a survivor of the Nazi death camps is a fascinating treatise investigating the cruelty of man against man. While somewhat dry at points... it is nonetheless full of interesting tidbits and accounts of horror dating back centuries.

[Eugene Plawiuk]

A ground breaking work for the time which was immediately after WWII. Deals with psychopathology of vampirism and werewolf phenomena, linking it to Sadism and Masochism, for the first time, early identification of a phenomena that we would later link to the outbreak of serial killers and psychopathic mass murderers.'
Another earlier work that compliments this is Human Animals by Frank Hamel.

[Giovanni Busà]

Datato per certi veri, forse pedante in alcuni punti, ma estremamente interessante alla fine: possiede una mole di dati antropologici parecchio interessanti. La versione Adelphi, recentemente pubblicata, riporta alla luce la parabola biografica di un uomo poliedrico, disprezzato e incompreso che me lo ha fatto apprezzare di più.

[Joe Laughon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely outdated evolutionary science and anthropology but interesting from a historical perspective.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very creative theorizing from lore and dated "science".

[Tash Bredhauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a wild ride. Very outdated but interesting- particularly from a historical/mythological/Jungian lens

[Wolf Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shouldn't really be called "...Interpretation of Sadism, Masochism..." because the touching bases of those two topics are indeed just that, touching base; which he does twice for Sadism, in the beginning and end, and once for Masochism (in the beginning, but he seems rather uninterested in mans' inclination toward punishment/pain). It would rather, more appropriately, be called "An Interpretation on the History of Human Violence through Anthropological Hypothesis Involving the Origins of Lycanthropic Folklore."

I found his thoughts on the history of lycanthropy interesting, as having read up numerous writings on the legends from all over the world of strange mystical beasts, and found also interesting his idea of where the Genesis story of the Garden works in to a non-biblical belief in human development. I, however, don't believe mass-psychology can produce something inherently in a man or woman, so disagreed with much of it, though. If this isn't an issue for you, then you'll find it something to mull over.

All in all, he had a few little gems of things I wish he had actually thought to talk about, but I think he lost his way in the Jungian archetypes of dreams (which seemed to me to prove nothing but that one may interpret one mans dreams for ones own needs), and the anthropological explanation as to why some tribes of people seek violence against others, and some don't. No real evidence or even theory as to Sadism or Masochism, or how we might, indeed, find a way to prevent war, or stave off our blood lust, was introduced; but I think we should give him points for discussing a subject that was quite out there to discuss during the time period it was presented.

An amusing anecdote (I found) was the poor homosexual man who was encouraged by his doctor to pursue the "normal" life of seeing a girl that fancied him, and his dream of hurting her... Sigh... No, it doesn't mean we are archetypes of werewolves, Mr. Eisler, and no, I don't think that he means to harm her. I think he's just a poor frustrated guy. Give him a break (after all, he's probably dead now, too).

[Gianni Sambu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spettacolare, ma io sono un fan della licantropia. Qualsiasi cosa voglia dire... 😐