The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the history of the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism, starting with the seminal correspondence between Freud and Romain Rolland concerning the concept of “oceanic feeling.” Providing a corrective to current views which frame psychoanalysis as pathologizing mysticism, Parsons reveals the existence of three models entertained by Freud and Rolland: the classical reductive, ego-adaptive, and transformational (which allows for a transcendent dimension to mysticism). Then, reconstructing Rolland’s personal mysticism (the “oceanic feeling”) through texts and letters unavailable to Freud, Parsons argues that Freud misinterpreted the oceanic feeling. In offering a fresh interpretation of Rolland’s mysticism, Parsons constructs a new dialogical approach for psychoanalytic theory of mysticism which integrates culture studies, developmental perspectives, and the deep epistemological and transcendent claims of the mystics.