Pathologies of desire and duty: freud, ricoeur, and castoriadis on transforming religious culture.
This article emphasizes an underappreciated aspect of Freud's critique of religion taken up in the writings of Ricoeur and Castoriadis: the degree to which pathologies of desire and duty imbue our relation to shared cultural forms, i.e., narratives, ideals, and values. Both thinkers find in Freud's anti-religious polemic a valuable attempt to address the intransigence, fanaticism, and violence that can result from an unreflected affirmation of Tradition. Alongside developing a respect and acceptance of other cultures, they argue for the need to establish a critical relation to 'sacred'meaning structures, one that mirrors interpretive strategies within the psychoanalytic process. Ricoeur and Castoriadis critique Freud's accentuation of neurosis while extending his thinking into personal-philosophical and social-political contexts.
Wahl
William H
WH
Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. wm.wahl@utoronto.ca
D003469:Culture; D004989:Ethics; D005619:Freudian Theory; D011572:Psychoanalysis; D012069:Religion and Psychology