1st Edition

Formulated Experiences Hidden Realities and Emergent Meanings from Shakespeare to Fromm

By Peter L. Rudnytsky Copyright 2019
    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    In Formulated Experiences, Peter L. Rudnytsky continues his quest for a "re-vision" of psychoanalysis by coupling his revival of the unjustly neglected figure of Erich Fromm with his latest groundbreaking research on Ferenczi and Groddeck.

    Committed at once to a humanistic and to a literary psychoanalysis, Rudnytsky explores the subjective roots of creativity and critiques the authoritarianism that has been a tragic aspect of Freud’s legacy. Through his clinically informed interpretations he brings out both "hidden realities" and "emergent meanings" of the texts and authors he examines, including Shakespeare’s Othello and Macbeth, as well as Milton’s Paradise Lost.

    A preeminent scholar of the history and theory of psychoanalysis, Rudnytsky displays an interdisciplinary expertise that makes Formulated Experiences truly sui generis and unlike any existing book. Bridging the artificial divide between the academic and clinical worlds, his eloquent championing of the interpersonal and relational traditions will captivate contemporary psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, while his insightful close readings provide a model for psychoanalytic literary critics.

    Introduction: "One Man Cannot Be the Same as Many": Glimpsing New Paradigms through Old Keyholes Part I: Discovering Fromm 1 Freud as Milton’s God: Mapping the Patriarchal Cosmos of Psychoanalysis and Paradise Lost 2: The Indispensability of Erich Fromm: The Rehabilitation of a "Forgotten" Psychoanalyst 3: Freud, Ferenczi, Fromm: The Authoritarian Character as Magic Helper Part II Ferenczian Inflections 4: The Other Side of the Story: Severn on Ferenczi and Mutual Analysis 5: Trauma and Dissociation: Ferenczi between Freud and Severn 6: Groddeck’s Lessons Part III: Basic Faults 7: Othello and Macbeth: Complementary Borderline Pathologies at the Basic Fault 8: "I Am Not What I Am": Iago and Negative Transcendence 9: Did Freud Masturbate?: The Folly of Élisabeth Roudinesco

    Biography

    Peter L. Rudnytsky is Professor of English at the University of Florida and Head of the Department of Academic and Professional Affairs of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in Gainesville.

    "Peter Rudnytsky has long been in the forefront of Ferenczi scholarship. By bringing Ferenczi together with Fromm, and through his compelling readings of Shakespeare and Milton, he opens new vistas on the history of psychoanalysis and shows what it means to be resolutely independent in theory and genuinely interdisciplinary in practice."-Franco Borgogno, Training and Supervising Analyst, Italian Psychoanalytic Society; author of The Girl Who Committed Hara-Kiri and Other Clinical and Historical Essays

    "Formulated Experiences brings Erich Fromm back to public awareness as well as to the attention of the psychoanalytic community. Peter Rudnytsky's excellent and original essays invite a new generation of readers to discover why Fromm’s social psychoanalysis is more urgently needed today than ever."-Rainer Funk, literary executor of Erich Fromm, author of Life Itself Is an Art: The Life and Work of Erich Fromm