Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson

Author:Marilynne Robinson [Robinson, Marilynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-300-16647-7
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2007-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

THREE

The Freudian Self

Toward the end of his life, Carl Jung, remembering his association and his differences with Sigmund Freud, says, “Above all, Freud’s attitude toward the spirit seemed to me highly questionable. Wherever, in a person or in a work of art, an expression of spirituality (in the intellectual, not the supernatural sense) came to light, he suspected it, and insinuated that it was repressed sexuality. Anything that could not be directly interpreted as sexuality he referred to as ‘psychosexuality.’ I protested that this hypothesis, carried to its logical conclusion, would lead to an annihilating judgment upon culture. Culture would then appear as a mere farce, the morbid consequence of repressed sexuality. ‘Yes,’ he assented, ‘so it is, and that is just a curse of fate against which we are powerless to contend.’”1

In the context of the time, Freud’s aversion to what is here called “spirituality” is wholly understandable. He asked Jung “never to abandon the sexual theory,” telling him, “You see, we must make a dogma of it, an unshakeable bulwark.” When Jung asked, “A bulwark—against what?” Freud replied, “Against the black tide of mud … of occultism.”2 Though Jung does not share my interpretation of Freud’s meaning, which he finds mysterious, I would suggest that these words support an interpretation of the intention behind his metapsychological writing as a whole, which rests so heavily on this theory. Jung reports another conversation with Freud about “precognition and parapsychology in general,” which Freud rejected as nonsense. Jung says,

While Freud was going on in this way, I had a curious sensation. It was as if my diaphragm were made of iron and were becoming red-hot—a glowing vault. And at that moment there was such a loud report in the bookcase … that we both started up in alarm, fearing the thing was going to topple over on us. I said to Freud: “There, that is an example of a so-called catalytic exteriorization phenomenon.”

“Oh, come,’ he exclaimed. ‘That is sheer bosh.’”3

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