More impressionistic reflections on diss project
The Talking Cure
If the so-called "talking cure" is a key feature, for some even the fundamental practice, of psychoanalysis, then a retrospective reading of 19th Century Literature via psychoanalytic lens must take into account approximate versions of what could be considered the "talking cure." In this regard, Catholic confession (a central cultural practice, especially in the Irish and Mexican contexts) is a key ritual. Of course, the differences in the proximity and spatial arrangements of the 19th century "analyst" and "patient" to that of the Freudian conception should be explicated in terms of culture and ideology. What kinds of effects are produced when the analyst is an agent of God, rather than of the Unconscious, in a situation where, instead of laying on the couch, the patient sits and confesses their innermost fears and cultural/religious transgressions? In both cases, however, the analyst sits hidden from view--what does this veiling of presence of the authoritative figure do to the patient and what kind of psychic dynamics are activated by it? How do prescribed verbal formulas informing the utterances of 19th c analyst and patient, in contrast to the more loose-form, open-ended verbal exchanges of the 20th century analyst-patient sessions, transform the outcomes of the cure? What role does the bodily positioning of both play in the encounter? Related to this, one could ask: what kinds of transferences and counter-transferences occur between clerics and layperson? Keeping this mind, it is important to find texts in which Catholic confession is a recurrent and/or central encounter. (But what of Protestant forms of "confession", especially in the British context?)
Another way to apprehend the talking cure in the 19th century would be to examine how autobiographical genres--the autobiography, memoirs, secret histories, first-person narratives--can be read as proto-versions of the talking cure. Important to keep in mind in this regard and in terms literary representations of Catholic confession is the role of the reader as a direct addressee (a truly detached analysts whose interpretations will never be known by the narrator and characters) and as patient who is learning how/she may also engage the cure via their voyeuristic consumption of its representation.
Lastly (for now, at least) would be to consider how literary, antiquarian, and political societies that formed to discuss matters of national import enact features of the talking cure and then objectify their discussions by having these transcribed and printed for public circulation.
For next time: primal scenes and the ways they are re-created as a way to deal with trauma. Important here is the invention, re-invention, and distortion of the past. Here, historical novels would seem to be important.
Peace out.
If the so-called "talking cure" is a key feature, for some even the fundamental practice, of psychoanalysis, then a retrospective reading of 19th Century Literature via psychoanalytic lens must take into account approximate versions of what could be considered the "talking cure." In this regard, Catholic confession (a central cultural practice, especially in the Irish and Mexican contexts) is a key ritual. Of course, the differences in the proximity and spatial arrangements of the 19th century "analyst" and "patient" to that of the Freudian conception should be explicated in terms of culture and ideology. What kinds of effects are produced when the analyst is an agent of God, rather than of the Unconscious, in a situation where, instead of laying on the couch, the patient sits and confesses their innermost fears and cultural/religious transgressions? In both cases, however, the analyst sits hidden from view--what does this veiling of presence of the authoritative figure do to the patient and what kind of psychic dynamics are activated by it? How do prescribed verbal formulas informing the utterances of 19th c analyst and patient, in contrast to the more loose-form, open-ended verbal exchanges of the 20th century analyst-patient sessions, transform the outcomes of the cure? What role does the bodily positioning of both play in the encounter? Related to this, one could ask: what kinds of transferences and counter-transferences occur between clerics and layperson? Keeping this mind, it is important to find texts in which Catholic confession is a recurrent and/or central encounter. (But what of Protestant forms of "confession", especially in the British context?)
Another way to apprehend the talking cure in the 19th century would be to examine how autobiographical genres--the autobiography, memoirs, secret histories, first-person narratives--can be read as proto-versions of the talking cure. Important to keep in mind in this regard and in terms literary representations of Catholic confession is the role of the reader as a direct addressee (a truly detached analysts whose interpretations will never be known by the narrator and characters) and as patient who is learning how/she may also engage the cure via their voyeuristic consumption of its representation.
Lastly (for now, at least) would be to consider how literary, antiquarian, and political societies that formed to discuss matters of national import enact features of the talking cure and then objectify their discussions by having these transcribed and printed for public circulation.
For next time: primal scenes and the ways they are re-created as a way to deal with trauma. Important here is the invention, re-invention, and distortion of the past. Here, historical novels would seem to be important.
Peace out.