In a message dated 97-07-17 15:28:47 EDT, Willis Johnson writes:
> I think the main difficulty with any psychoanalytic interpretation of
> medieval people and texts is that we know very, very little about the
people
> and their writings. We know far less about (let us say) C13 Paris than we
> do about C19 Vienna. Also, most of us accept some kind of modified social
> constructivist account of gender and sexuality in medieval cultures.
Since
> the psycho-sexual is at the roots of the psycho-social it is problematic
to
> apply a model derived from the experiences of C19 european urbanites to
> people who grew up (for example) in muslim Spain. What would a modern
> psychoanalytic theorist say about the pedophilic poetry of Peter of Blois
&
> Yehuda ha-Levi, both of whom were also major religious thinkers? What
does
> it mean when Caesarius of Heisterbach condemns Jews for usury but praises
> them for their beauty?
>
I'm no fan of psychoanalysis when applied to the assessment of art and
literature, and I think Freud made a <big> mistake dabbling in those areas.
Freud also, of course, made many important contributions, including the
concept of neurosis--which, as Willis Johnson points out, is something that
occurs in individuals rather than in societies.
That said, it's amazing to me how closely some aspects of anti-semitism
follow the picture of a classical neurosis. Many people, for example, won't
talk about the subject of anti-semitism, much as the neurotic "blocks" and
won't discuss whatever it is that's really bothering him. or they project
the problem onto someone else ("It's a Jewish problem") or they disclaim
responsibility (I have no obligation to concern myself with anti-Semitism,
because my grandfather wasn't a guard at Auschwititz).
A person like Gilman, who's actually a psychoanalyst, could probably do a lot
by starting with the thesis that anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, etc. should
be regarded as sort of neuroses in society, and should be handled in about
the same way psychoanalysts handle neuroses. Get the subject out in the
open, talk about it, find out what's really going on under the surface, etc.
pat sloane
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