Culture & Psychology
August 28, 2025
William B. Parsons
This essay examines Sudhir Kakar's contributions to psychoanalytic theories of mysticism and culture. It first defines the contested term "mysticism" and reviews Freud's analysis of the oceanic feeling. It then describes three psychoanalytic models of mysticism—classic, adaptive, and transformational—that developed from and after Freud. Kakar's specific advances and debates with other psychoanalysts are placed within this framework. Finally, the essay discusses Kakar's work and psychoanalysis more broadly in relation to contemporary academic study of mysticism.
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
The psychoanalytic theory of mysticism has a more complex history than previously recognized. The correspondence between Freud and Romain Rolland about the "oceanic feeling" reveals three distinct models: classical reductive, ego-adaptive, and transformational, the last allowing for a transcendent dimension. Rolland's personal mysticism, reconstructed through texts and letters unavailable to Freud, was misinterpreted by Freud. A new dialogical approach for psychoanalytic theory of mysticism integrates culture studies, developmental perspectives, and the epistemological and transcendent claims of mystics.
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
After Rolland sent Freud copies of his biographies of Hindu saints, their debate on the psychology of mysticism entered a new phase, marked by two key letters: Freud's from January 19, 1930, and Rolland's from May 3, 1931. Freud never directly responded to Rolland's letter but continued reflecting on mysticism in later works, including New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and an essay dedicated to Rolland. The article argues that Freud's late reflections largely respond to Rolland's arguments, focusing on psychoanalytic perspectives on mystical intuition in art and religion, particularly Rolland's concepts of "mitigated" and "unmitigated" mystical introversion, while maintaining a reserved posture toward institutional religion.
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
The author offers a fresh interpretation of Romain Rolland's mysticism, drawing on resources from the previous chapter. Rolland was an unchurched Western mystic, disconnected from traditional religious modes, who experienced unchurched mystical experiences and advocated for a "mystical psychoanalysis." Unlike tradition-bound mystics, his mysticism avoids difficult sociohistorical and comparativist problems. The author situates Rolland within what can loosely be called a tradition, focusing on "nature mysticism" and appropriating R. C. Zaehner's conception, which provides theoretical bridges to psychoanalytic studies. The chapter creates a dialogue between Rolland's mysticism, culture studies, psychoanalysis, and mystical epistemology.
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
The text argues that Freud's two interpretations of Rolland's mysticism—as regressive and defensive, or as therapeutic and adaptive—are insufficient and require expansion or replacement. New theoretical resources are needed to reinterpret Rolland's mysticism and to reconsider the broader relationship between psychoanalysis and the interdisciplinary study of mysticism.
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
This analysis deconstructs the common understanding of Freud's views on mysticism, showing them to be more subtle, complex, and interesting than typically acknowledged. It highlights the disjointed and unfinished character of the Freud-Rolland debate, arguing that the conversation raised new questions while dispelling misleading interpretations. The authors suggest the debate could have benefited from a mediator to clarify issues and adjudicate misunderstandings, but also note that this unresolved nature presents opportunities for revisionist scholarship.
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
Ernest Jones noted that religion, after sexuality, was the most discussed topic in Freud's work. Freud's definitive, pejorative view of religion, presented in The Future of an Illusion, defined religion as the final form taken by Christian civilization and sought to undermine religious tenets by interpreting them through childhood development and concepts like projection, repression, and the unconscious. This analysis sparked a long debate among psychoanalysts and between psychoanalysis and religious studies about religion's nature and function. However, the literature lacks sustained interdisciplinary dialogue on the origin and development of the relation between psychoanalysis and mysticism.