A Brief Apocalyptic History of Psychoanalysis: Erasing Trauma (The History of Psychoanalysis Series) - Softcover

Bonomi, Carlo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032404337 ISBN 13: 9781032404332

Publisher: Routledge, 2023

Synopsis

A Brief Apocalyptic History of Psychoanalysis returns us to the birth of psychoanalysis and the trauma of castration that is its umbilicus.

The story told in this book centers on the genital mutilation endured in her childhood by Emma Eckstein, Freud’s most important patient in his abandonment of the “seduction theory.” For both cultural and personal reasons, Freud could not recognize the traumatic nature of this “Beschneidung” (circumcision), which nevertheless aroused in him deep anguish, conflating his own circumcision, the echoes of a violently anti-Semitic environment, and conflicts with his father. Taking Freud’s countertransference to Eckstein’s trauma into account leads to a radically different understanding of the origins of psychoanalysis from the one based on the solipsistic perspective of his self-analysis. Carlo Bonomi argues that the unacknowledged trauma of circumcision was inscribed in Freud’s system of thinking as an amputated legacy from which the dreams and fantasies of his closest disciples would germinate and bloom. In particular, Sándor Ferenczi, Freud’s pupil and confidant, would help to restore this wounded body, thereby laying a new foundation for psychoanalytic theory and practice.

Bonomi’s “apocalyptic” narrative will expand the conceptual horizons of psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, historians of psychoanalysis, and scholars of both gender studies and Jewish studies.

The French edition was awarded the Nicholas Abraham & Maria Torok Award 2024.

About this title

About the Author

Carlo Bonomi, Ph.D., is a training and supervising analyst of the Società Italiana di Psicoanalisi Sándor Ferenczi, president of the International Sándor Ferenczi Network (ISFN), co-editor-in-chief of The Wise Baby/Il poppante saggio, and associate editor of the International Forum of Psychoanalysis.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032404337
• ISBN 13: 9781032404332
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 286