Society and the Unconscious : Cultural Psychological Insights

This book will interest anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of the psychological relationship between individual psychological dynamics, social structure and the unconscious collective paradigms. It focuses on an analysis of patriarchal culture, which is, as it were, the psychological enclosure in which all individual and collective processes take place. Starting from the genesis and current structure of this culture, the strong social changes of the last 50 years are examined: the change in relations between men and women social relations in terms of solidarity and desolidarisation the situation of social security the social and political power relations, and the economic dynamics. At the same time, collective fantasies are elaborated that emerge from the socio-structural changes. The basis of the study is psychoanalytical cultural theory in the form of a cultural-critical deconstruction of its fundamental assumptions. In 16 interesting chapters, essential questions of psychological cultural theory are answered and practical applications of this theory to current sociostructural processes are shown. The author Dr Dieter Sandner is a psychoanalyst and group analyst in private practice in Munich. He studied psychology, sociology and philosophy at the University of Munich and habilitated in 1995 at the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Klagenfurt in "Psychology with Special Reference to Psychoanalysis". His teaching focuses on group analysis, cultural psychology and clinical social psychology (depression and society, borderline personality disorder and society). Contents 5 1 Introduction: Society and the Unconscious 8 z A. Cultural Psychological Basics 9 z B. Cultural Psychological Analysis of Today’s Society 12 References 14 I A Cultural Psychoanalytical Fundamentals 15 2 The Significance of Freud’s Cultural Theory for the Theory and Practice of Psychoanalysis 16 2.1 Freud’s Theory of Culture 17 2.2 Freud’s Cultural Theory and the Classical Psychoanalytic Situation 19 2.3 The Design of Relationships among Psychoanalysts 21 2.4 Another Psychoanalytical Cultural Theory by Herbert Marcuse 23 References 25 3 The Psychological Housing of Our Culture 26 References 35 4 Psychoanalytic Considerations of the Primal Trauma of Our Culture 36 4.1 Outlook 44 References 45 5 Cultural Psychoanalytic Considerations of Freud’s Sexual Theory 46 5.1 The Origin of Freud’s Sexual Psychology 47 5.2 Freud’s Cultural Psychology as Sexual Psychology 49 5.3 Freud’s Developmental Psychology as a Sexual-Psychological Expression of his Cultural Psychology 51 5.4 Cultural-psychological Outlook 57 References 58 6 Sigmund Freud’s Contributions to the Psychology of Love Life 59 6.1 On a Certain Type of Object Choice by Men (1910) 60 6.2 On the General Humiliation of Love Life (1912) 64 6.3 The Taboo of Virginity (1917) 70 References 74 7 Cultural Psychoanalytic Considerations of the Libido Theory 75 References 83 8 The Founding of a Critical Psychoanalytic Cultural Psychology by Trigant Burrow in 1924 84 z Notes 91 References 92 9 The Psychological Foundations of the Collective Unconscious 94 9.1 S. Freud: Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse 95 9.2 T. Burrow: Psychoanalysis in Groups 96 9.3 C. G. Jung: The Collective Unconscious 98 9.4 W. Schindler’s Cultural Psychology: Mother Projections on Society, Father Projections on the State 99 9.5 W. R. Bion: Unconscious Basic Assumptions in Groups 101 9.6 Collective-Psychological Associations in Large Groups 103 References 104 II B Cultural Psychoanalytic Analyses of Contemporary Society 105 10 100 Years of Totem and Taboo—Psychoanalytic Cultural Theory Today 106 References 114 11 The Uncertain in Gender Relations 115 References 120 12 Why Love Hurts—Toward a Cultural Psychology of Gender Relations Today 121 References 128 13 The Discomfort in Society or: The Shift of the Socio-structural Boundaries 129 13.1 Changes in Social Conditions 130 13.2 Changed Social and Psychological Situation of the People 132 13.3 Changed Interpersonal Dynamics and Depressive Disorders 133 13.4 Changed Interpersonal Dynamics and Borderline Personality Disorders 134 13.5 Changed Psychic Situation of the Parents 137 13.6 Outlook 138 References 138 14 Socio-structural Foundations of the Collective Unconscious in Our Society 139 14.1 The Economization of Society in the Field of Production 141 14.2 The Change of the Reproduction Conditions 142 14.2.1 The Economized Reproduction Model 142 14.2.2 The Couple-Centered Reproduction Model 143 14.2.3 The Precarious Reproductive Model 143 14.2.4 The Subsistence-Oriented Reproductive Model 144 14.3 The Provision of People in Need of Care and in Old Age 145 14.4 The Social Security in Case of Unemployment, Illness and in Old Age 146 14.5 Hypotheses on the Collective Unconscious Based on Socio-Structural Changes 147 References 150 15 Cultural Psychoanalytic Considerations of the Financial Crisis of 2008 152 15.1 Freud’s Cultural Psychoanalytical Model 153 15.2 The Application of Freud’s Cultural Model to American Financial Capitalism 155 15.3 Further Developments of the Financial Capitalist Dynamics Since 2012 157 15.4 The Patriarchal Society Model—a Brothel Economy? 158 15.5 Outlook From a Cultural Psychological Perspective 160 References 161 16 The Risk Society—Strengthening of the Ego, Overburdening of the Self? 162 References 168 17 The Reproduction of Social Power Relations in the Theory and Technique of Group Analysis 169 References 179