Before and after science: esoteric traces in the formation of the Freudian psychoanalytic subject

Boyle, John

Before and after science: esoteric traces in the formation of the Freudian psychoanalytic subject

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Published Version

Date

2019

Authors

Boyle, John

Publisher

ISASR in association with the Study of Religions, University College Cork

Abstract

This paper argues that traces of the Western esoteric traditions can be found within Freudian psychoanalysis and proposes that the significance of such traces for the development of a specifically psychoanalytic understanding of the human subject has thus far been largely neglected. A critical-realist hauntology is proposed to act as the transmissive milieu for the persistence of such traces. The paper then provides a brief introduction to Western esotericism as an academic discipline prior to turning its attention to the conceptual metaphor of 'trace' as a means of articulating relations between esotericism and psychoanalysis at the latter's inception. The paper goes on to adumbrate a complex conceptual matrix conjoining Freudian psychoanalysis to fin de siècle occultism, psychical research, telepathy and the Jewish Kabbalah. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the persistence of esoteric traces in contemporary psychoanalysis and reflects on the synergistic potential of psychoanalytic ideas for the academic study of Western esotericism.

Description

Joint JISASR-JBASR Special Issue

Keywords

Freud , Psychoanalysis , Western esotericism , Occultism , Telepathy , Kabbalah

Citation

Boyle, J. (2019) 'Before and after science: esoteric traces in the formation of the Freudian psychoanalytic subject', Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions, 7, pp. 59-103.