Les blessures symboliques

by Bruno Bettelheim, Claude Monod (Translator)

Les "blessures symboliques" sont ici les rites d'initiation dont l'auteur recherche la signification par rapport aux explications anthropologiques et psychanalytiques, notamment celles présentées par Freud dans Totem et Tabou. "Les hypothèses de la horde primitive et de la circoncision en tant que castration symbolique ont été considérées comme des faits, en raison, je pense, de l'application d'un modèle biologique figé et peu convaincant, qui a d'ailleurs conduit à d'autres errements la pensée psychanalytique." B. Bettelheim.

Genres: Psychology, Anthropology

266 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990) was an Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer. He gained an international reputation for his views on autism and for his claimed success in treating emotionally disturbed children.

Reviews

[Bram · Rating 3 out of 5]

The verdict: lots and lots of conjecture and Freudian nonsense, though the author also has plenty to say against the father of psychoanalysis. Keeping in mind that this book was written sixty years ago, I found it informative where the description of puberty rites and myths of especially Australian aboriginal cultures was concerned, and entertaining where attempts were made to apply Freudian concepts to preliterate rituals (which leads to some rather farfetched analogies, though some of the interpretations did not necessarily sound like nonsense).
I learned quite a few things about circumcision and subincision (the latter being something I had to look up; I recommend not to look at the pictures when following my example).

Two quotes that sum it all up: 'Interpreting rituals on the basis of their possible symbolic meaning is hazardous, especially if the interpretation is based on experience in an alien culture' (p. 222), and 'All complex psychological phenomena are consequences of combinations of many psychological mechanisms. Assigning one main motive or cause to a phenomenon such as initiation rites might satisfy our intellectual narcissism, but it would be in all other respects valueless.' (p. 206)

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books makes an excellent read for anyone interested in the foundations of psychoanalysis as it relates to symbolism and gender identity. It provides us an anthropological study of the puberty rights of a tribal aboriginal culture in Australia. The work provides us case examples of schizophrenia in children as well as schizoid children. It also provides us the creative solution of the envious males who tries to appropriate for themselves the life giving force of female reproductive rights by performing penile subincision on pubertal male children in this aboriginal tribal culture. The book relates the disturbed aspects of gender related identity as it relates to the belief that the anal opening is consistent with a vaginal opening and relates to Freudian theory and the "passing of gifts"; the anal stage. Reading this book one can relate the disturbed aspect of male related gender identity with the desire to fully castrate the themselves to make oneself female. Again, for so many reasons this book makes an excellent contribution to any student of psychoanalysis, gender-related identity, and personality library.

[Karen Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penile subincision is the surgical procedure of cutting into the underside of a circumcised penis in order to expose the urethra partially. In the aboriginal tribes known as the Kunapipi or Gunabibi, we have seen this procedure as primarily a fertility rite and occurs in areas where both circumcision and subincision are practiced. The original meaning of the name is not clear but the name translates to the “Mother” or “Old Woman.” The aboriginal tribe’s use of the term “Old Woman” is used to denote status rather than chronological age. It has also been said that Kunapipi has other meanings including, “whistle-cock,” meaning subincision wound, and “the uterus of the mother.” Even people who practice only circumcision and not subincision use the same name for both Kunapipi rite and subincision. Certain aspects of this ritual described below indicate that the incised penis symbolizes a mythical snake and that its incisure again represents the uterus. It has been concluded that both the female and the male organs, essential in the process of fructification. (Fructification as meaning possessing both the male and female organs like an angiosperm.) These rites seem to present one of the most characteristic examples of a ritualization of men’s desire to play a greater role in procreation.

“Discusssing the origin of the Kunapipi, the aboriginals’ convection that all sacred objects and ceremonies originally belonged to women. One of the many myths tells how originally the men “had nothing: no sacred objects, no sacred ceremonies, the women had everything.” So, one day the men stole the women’s “sacred objects” (reproductive organs making the women vaginaless) and took them back to their own camp. The mythical sisters, on finding that their sacred objects had disappeared, decided that perhaps it was just as well that the men had taken them, since the men could now carry out most of the ritual fro them while they busied themselves chiefly with raising families and collecting food. In this way, their true function as fertility mothers became established, though women continued to play an important part in sacred rites, including the Kunapipi.

The men know that the objects of the sacred rituals (ie: fertility and everything connected with it) belonged to women not only in the mythical dream times but, according to the distribution of tasks in procreation, belongs to them even nowadays. An aboriginal tribe members discusses the ritual stating, “But really we have been stealing what belongs to them (the women), for it is mostly all woman’s business; and since it concerns them it belongs to them. Men have nothing to do really, except to copulate and donate sperm cells. It belongs to the women All that belonging to those Wawilak, the baby, the blood, and yelling, their dancing, all that concerns the women; but every time we have to trick them. Women can’t see what men are doing, although it really is their own business, but we can see their side…..in the beginning we had nothing, because men had been doing nothing; we took these things from the women.” This latter is … reiterated in the Djanggawul Myth cycle, which stresses peculiarly female attainments: the power of reproduction, and the phenomenon of menstruation.” When the men quip themselves with tremendous bark penes their act might be interpreted as a consequence of, or an effort to cover up or deny, their feelings of inferiority.” ~Symbolic Wounds

[Andrea Bertaccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voto: 9/10

[Véronique]

Les rituels de passage.... pffffffff