ZARETSKY ELI - MISTERI DELLAN

by Eli Zaretsky

La psicoanalisi ha modificato in maniera permanente il modo in cui in tutto il mondo gli uomini e le donne interpretano se stessi e gli altri. Una storia della psicoanalisi non può accontentarsi della biografia di Freud o della storia della psichiatria o della cultura viennese, ma deve spiegare, innanzitutto, l'intensità dell'attrazione esercitata e l'ampiezza della sua influenza. Zaretsky indaga gli effetti della psicoanalisi sui modi di concepirsi degli individui che le si rivolgono o ne intercettano gli strumenti o, ancora, ne accolgono e ne ricavano, in un'eco magari lontana, un certo "stile" di approccio a se stessi e al mondo. La psicoanalisi è "la prima grande teoria e pratica della vita personale": un'esperienza di singolarità e di interiorità collocabile in uno specifico momento storico e fondata nei moderni processi di industrializzazione e urbanizzazione, oltre che nella storia della famiglia. Zaretsky non manca di interrogarsi sul "dopo", sul destino della psicoanalisi oggi e ancor più sul destino di quelle forme di esistenza individuale che essa aveva accompagnato, talvolta creato.

Genres: Psychology, History, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published May 18, 2004

Reviews

[Shane Avery · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. Zaretsky is an abject failure as a writer and scholar. Because of its hopelessly unfocused nature, the book borders on incoherent. Neither the individual chapters, nor the individual sections into which he divides the book, have clear points of focus. Zaretsky himself is an obscurantist, demanding of the reader constant backtracking. Close and careful reading do little to ameliorate the fact that Zaretsky’s very subject is obfuscated by the lack of clarity in his writing and by his failure to apprehend or properly synthesize the admittedly difficult psychoanalytic theory he treats. I suspect that even the most initiated in the field will experience tremendous difficulty navigating this turgid terrain.

I think what Zaretsky's trying to do is show the relationship between psychoanalysis and cultural changes in the West after 1880. Psychoanalysis began to emerge as a force after the second Industrial Revolution. The Revolution had a great impact on the structure of the family, which ceased functioning as a unit of economic production. This changed the very essence of individuality, or what Zaretsky calls "personal autonomy." Enlightenment thinkers understood the individual subject as a "locus of reason" capable of discerning universal truth. Kant's dictum "dare to know" exhorted the individual to think for himself: "Thus, from the Kantian point of view, one's race, gender, and social situations, to say nothing of the particularities of one's personal life, were irrelevant." (163) In the nineteenth century autonomy and individuality came to "be understood as a new, inward relation to one-self." (164) Mass consumerism and advertising encouraged personal choice. The rise of psychoanalysis coincided with the development of a new corporate socioeconomic structure. The discovery of the unconscious affected this corporate machine. It also influenced new mediums of art and film such as surrealism, which explored the psychedelic origins of sex and dreams, and challenged the legitimacy of an oppressive social fabric.

These seem like interesting points of departure, but Zaretsky only devotes a few pages to the effects of psychoanalysis on culture. Instead, he attempts to connect psychoanalysis to the rise of "Fordism." Unfortunately, nothing he says makes sense. Take the following passage as an example:

"The ambivalence of flappers and homosexuals reflected the fundamental antinomies of the Fordist epoch. Psychoanalysis was bisexual in a way that homosexuality was not: it stood for identifications and object relations with both sexes. Yet psychoanalysis as a profession was not itself fully "bixsexual"; although far more progressive than most other professions, it was male-dominated and did not accept homosexuals. As a result, women and homosexuals would remain conflicted about this new myth of the noble savage." (154)

One can only shake his head.

In his introduction, Zaretsky claims that psychoanalysis helped give rise to a new range of personal experience and gave expression to the possibilities of individuality. The rise of the corporation and of mass consumerism had a paradoxical effect on these new possibilities, creating a dialectic of absorption and marginality. This seems like a wonderful topic, too, but each chapter takes us further away from these interesting beginnings.

He claims further that Freudian thought challenged the patriarchal order and the notion of the inferiority of women, a most dubious claim to say the least. Psychoanalysis also fuelled the rise of the counter-culture movement in the 60s, a movement which rejected conformity, and emphasised the value of particular experience. While that may have been the upshot of Freudian thought, it certainly was not the purpose Freud himself had in mind for psychoanalysis. Zaretsky ignores the fact that Freud celebrated Victorian culture, including the subordinate status of women.


There's a reason this book is out of print only three years after its publication -- a book published by Knopf, no less! A more civil reviewer might claim Zaretsky got bogged down by a difficult body of psychoanalytic theory, and lost sight of his original aim. But I feel like being more scathing after investing a great deal of intellectual energy into a book which gave me almost nothing in return.

[Pavlo Shved · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книжка ок, але було б краще, якби автор менше вдавався в усілякі соціологічні пояснення і більше зосередився на історії самого психоаналізу.

[Burcu]

This is a good all around "history of psychoanalysis." I like the connections it makes and perspectives it provides. The idea of first and second modernity helped me define what I had already fuzzily established in my own approach. Good read.

[savanna jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

secrets of the soul slays

[Dylan]

Enormous. Important. Took me almost two months to read. Glad I put in the time.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

The word "ambitious" pops up in most reviews of Secrets of the Soul. Beyond that, there's little consensus about how successfully the author examines the impact of Freud's thinking on 20th-century life and culture. Some hail the book as a valuable addition to scholarship on psychoanalysis. Others consider it an important effort to examine Freud's work in a cultural and historical context. A few, notably a Los Angeles Times reviewer whose dismissive commentary prompted a scathing public exchange of letters with the author, criticize it as containing too many tangents, generalizations, or unsupported assertions. And, for the Freud novice, reading will be challenging at times. Ultimately, all but the harshest reviews conclude that Secrets of the Soul is a comprehensive, richly detailed resource for anyone interested in Freud's legacy.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Mr_wormwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Its a bit dense at parts, and it felt like a long haul at times, but in the end it was well worth the undertaking. I found particularly interesting the account of how important World War II and especially the emergence of 'shell shock' was to opening up a more psychological perspective in psychiatry.

[Sara Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a few years to finally read this cover to cover. It's incredibly dry. Informative I suppose,

[James Dobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zaretsky historizes psychoanalysis with a focus on Freud and Klein. Read a chapter with a reading group at Dartmouth and discussed with Zaretsky.

[Laura Anderson (Hollingsworth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. I learned so much more about the history behind the development of psychoanalysis than I ever learned in classes.