Who was Freud’s Secret Mystic Friend? Exploring Freud’s relationship with a mystic and the chapter in Freud’s best-selling Civilization and Its Discontents, in which he attempts to answer this mysterious mystic.
In collaboration with Dr. Justin Sledge @ESOTERICA Watch his episode here: https://youtu.be/zuHwws5aXBE
Check out our convo with Justin: Is Mysticism Rational? LOGIC and MYSTICISM with Esoterica’s Justin Sledge
https://youtu.be/CaLDtvUJI_A
00:00 Freud and the Mystic
01:20 Freud and Rolland, fanboying
04:56 Freud and Rolland, the beef
13:20 Civilization and Its Discontents
20:51 Psychoanalytic Explanation
31:25 Objections to Unity
32:34 Longing for Oneness
36:42 Science/Sex vs Mysticism/Religion
Sources and Further Readings:
• Ayon Maharaj, “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling,’” in History of European Ideas, 2017
• Charles P. Heriot-Maitland, Mysticism and Madness: Different aspects of the same human experience?, 2008, 11(3), 303
• Christine Downing, “Sigmund Freud and Jewish Mysticism: An Exploration,” In Cattoi, Thomas; Odorisio, David M. (2018). Depth Psychology and Mysticism, p. 151-166
• Dufresne, Todd (2017). “Mysticism, War, Love, and Religion: Civilization and Its Discontents, Reality, and Romain Rolland,” in The Late Sigmund Freud
• Letters of Sigmund Freud, edited by Ernst Freud, London: Hogarth Press, 1970
• Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930
• Vermorel & Vermorel, Sigmund Freud et Romain Rolland, 1993
• William Parsons, The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling 1999
• William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 357-60
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In collaboration with Esoterica. Watch Dr. Sledge's episode: https://youtu.be/zuHwws5aXBE
Check out our convo with Justin: Is Mysticism Rational? LOGIC and MYSTICISM with Esoterica's Justin Sledge
https://youtu.be/CaLDtvUJI_A
For a second I thought you were going to talk about the Rebbe Rashab.
"god" is what primitive peoples believe in outside of the church/state..
I believe that rome adopted Catholicism as a way to mitigate between the germanic sky father in preserving the state.. this worked up until the enlightenment
Awesome video, thank you!
Loved this! Can’t wait for part 2 👍
thank you for this great video! although i don't agree with Freud, i can see how someone can arrive at the 'limitless narcissism' from a material-first perspective, and i find it fascinating 🙂 i'm looking forward to part 2 😀
Thanks for another great topic and discussion. Yacher koach
Always absolutely outstanding.
Here from Esoterica. Thanks for making such great content.
I can relate to Freud's need for a father figure as males are generally more analytically inclined which is linked to the left side of the brain. (I am left handed). Also patriarchal societies tend to use tests in education with the purpose of testing listening and trust by means of which they choose and form the hierarchies. Steve Taylor is writing a book with a new understanding of human behavior.
Freud analytical approach seems to resemble Buddhist analytical meditation. He seems to dive toward the primal instinct of man which he sees as part of Nature, like Kundalini Shakti, which is benevolent, much like Buddha's insight on our True Nature.
His insights on the basic primal instincts are correct. The sex center and hara which is the death center are close by.
I started reading Haim Shapira's book "The wisdom of King's Solomon". Interesting you mentioned William James. I found a book of Kabbalah written by Brian Lancaster and William James was mentioned in a review but I didn't knew who he was.
I find it interesting that Freud’s view of oceanic unity is that the person is experiencing the whole of the universe as a part of their ego.
I’m not sure if there’s a subjective way of determining whether one is being subsumed into the universe or whether the universe is being subsumed into them.
Thanks Zevi, i never knew about Rolland and his long correspondence with Freud… "get a room guys" cracked me up but, jokes aside, great content as usual.
I am glad this is in parts. For one thing, the philosophies presented require detailed introspection. Furthermore, a presentation in parts means we are not ‘short-changed’ on all the concepts. Zevi’s discussions are genuinely thoughtful and reflect lots of scholarship on his part. Freud certainly had good ideas on why people are “religious.” Sometimes it is hard for people to examine their motivations. But regardless of your ideas on the subject. It is still helpful to understand those around you and be respectful of others. After all, we are seeking unity.
Great video, thank you.
If I want to learn to drive a car, then I would find someone who has direct experience with driving cars, plus teaching driving. Freud I feel was a fraud obviously because he is inflated with so much verbalism about something he has no direct experience with.
You can go to any prison and find hundreds of people who will speak with confidence about things they no nothing about, so with that fraud is clearly struggling with his inability to understand that he doesn't understand and therefore fills the space with as much verbal garbage he can gather, this then acts to con those who do not know better, and again reinforcing his fraudian position.
Ok, yes, I have experience the Oceanic feeling, and I can say from direct experience, it is in no way a backward step, but frauds ego would not allow him to admit he couldn't understand.
I look forward to next week’s conclusion!! Loved the first part!! ❤
Aren't we all imaginary friends?
excellent – one of your best so far, i think – freud was an interesting and profound synthesiser hiding a great deal of himself in his writings and also plainly fraudulent in much of his purported methodology – yet holding with conflicted fear to key insights that he drapes in 'scientific' language but are not in themselves scientific (little of interest in science is truly 'scientific'…)
Well done, thank you!
Thanks!
As an atheist and sceptic myself who is trying to learn more about religion and mysticism, I have to agree with Roland that Freud's criticisms are just the same stereotypes that many atheists throw against fundamentalists.
Perhaps it's worth pointing out that the childish narcissism of the mystical experience is not that of Narcissus himself, it just carries that name. Infantile narcissism is, i think, more like a limitless self.
Quite a man Monsieur Rolland: vegetarian and pacifist yet, oddly, a friend of Stalin. Mystic yet friend of Freud. Hesse dedicated his Siddhartha to Romain Rolland. Thank you for this presentation ,Zevi.
I was just reading about these two last week! thanks Zevi
In terms of being first Freud’s importance to history is undeniable. In terms of expanse of thought, extreme genius, and a better understanding of how consciousness works Carl Jung obviously was the more important thinker. He was also far more interested in spirituality and mysticism. I actually agree with much of what Freud thought but his view of dreams, symbols, the unconscious is simplistic, let’s be honest. Jung really had a greater recognition of these things in their totality.