In this Book
- Euripides, Freud, and the Romance of Belonging
- Book
- 2007
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
summary
Freud's interpretation of the ancient legend of Oedipus—as formulated in Sophocles' tragic drama—is among the most widely known concepts of psychoanalysis. Euripides' Ion, however, presents a more complex version of the development of personal identity. Here, the discovery of family origins is a process in which parent and child both take part as distinct agents driven by their own impulses of violence and desire.Euripides, Freud, and the Romance of Belonging studies the construction of identity and the origins of the primal trauma in two texts, the Ion and Freud’s case history of the Wolf Man. Victoria Pedrick challenges the conventional psychoanalytic theory of the development of the individual within the family, presenting instead a richer and more complex economy of exchange between the parent and the child. She provides a new perspective on Freud's appropriation of ancient texts and moves beyond the familiar reunion in Oedipus to the more nuanced scene of abandonment present in Ion. Her parallel investigation of these texts suggests that contemporary culture remains preoccupied by the problems of the past in the determination of identity.Pedrick's fresh perspectives on both texts as well as on their relationship to each other shed new light on two foundational moments in the intellectual development of the West: Greek tragedy and Freudian psychoanalysis.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-9
- 2. Competing Accounts
- pp. 55-101
- 3. Profit and Loss in Belonging
- pp. 102-151
- 4. Recognition: Embracing a Deadly Flame
- pp. 152-183
- Conclusion
- pp. 184-190
- Works Cited
- pp. 239-250
Additional Information
ISBN
9780801893346
Related ISBN(s)
9780801885945
MARC Record
OCLC
647867810
Pages
272
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No