This thesis examines the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical” in the work of Jeffrey J. Kripal. I claim that Kripal presents a nondualistic understanding of the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical” that contests the conventional distinction between body and “soul.” In particular, Kripal’s two central concepts – “the erotic” and “the enlightenment of the body” – suggest that embodiment shapes our understanding of “the mystical.” By demonstrating the psychoanalytic, hermeneutical, and comparative significance of the relationship between human sexuality and “the mystical,” Kripal’s model calls attention to the crucial role that body, gender, and sexual orientation play in both the historical and contemporary study of mysticism. The point of my research is to show that Kripal’s approach signals a new way of studying “the mystical” in terms of “mystical humanism,” which draws on both Eastern and Western philosophies to construct a critical, non-reductive appreciation for the transformative and ultimately emancipatory potential of certain mystical states of consciousness.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the application of psychoanalysis to historical reconstructions; to explore the similarities between psychoanalysis and history; to illustrate how these similarities make plausible the claim the psychoanalytic theory could a valuable tool for historians; and to present and analyze certain methodological problems which arise in the use of psychoanalysis in history and to suggest ways in which these problems may be resolved. History and psychoanalysis are analogous in some important and interesting respects. Both disciplines attempt to understand and explain human affairs by an investigation into the reasons and underlying motivations of human conduct. Both depend upon the reconstruction the human past as part of their method and theory. Thus, the history-taking of the psychoanalyst is relevant to the history-taking of the biographer; that is to say, the historian-as-biographer is to his subject as the psychoanalyst-as-history-taler is to his patient. It is therefore plausible to claim that since psychoanalytic theory is concerned with the emotional life of the individual, it could be a valuable tool for historical biography. Beyond reconstruction, both historian and psychoanalyst, in various degrees, attempt to cure men of the domination of the past. The psychoanalyst tries to cure his patient of the present domination of unconscious memories. The historian, at least in one of his functions, tries to cure his reader of similar kinds of tyranny the past seems to hod over human societies. In this respect, the therapeutic aims of psychoanalysis are related to what may be characterized as social therapist is to his reader as psychoanalyst-as-individual - therapist is to his patient. Since psychoanalysis is characterized as biographical in nature, biography can serve as the paradigm case for the use psychoanalysis in history. Biography, however, is not the strongest case for psychoanalytic history. Most historian do not write biographies, and the argument for psychoanalytic biography becomes a weak argument for psychoanalytic history. Nevertheless, historian often is biographical even if they do not write biographies. Psychoanalysis is thus applicable to history which is at the intersection between biography and the reconstruction of historical events; namely, events in which individuals, about whom we do not need or want a biography, play roles; but individuals about whose motivations we do need of want an explanation. The use of psychoanalysis in history does present certain methodological problems: (1) To what extent is the data needed to make psychoanalytic interpretations available in history?; (2) How can a theory and technique meant to be used in live confrontation be used to help reconstruct and understand the past of an historical person?; (3) How is validation of psychoanalytic hypotheses possible if the immediateness of the clinical encounter is missing?; (4) To what extent is the proffered psychoanalytic explanation more useful than ordinary historical explanation? The historian can derive hypotheses of a psychoanalytic sort from the kind and amount of data which is available: diaries, memoirs of his own and others, recordings, photographs, movies, etc. He may learn to develop ways of reading his data so that he can indicate and interpret psychoanalytically relevant statements and validate these interpretations in terms of the recurrence of similar patterns of behavior, as the therapist does in his observation of transference patterns. There is good reason to suspect that just as the therapist ‘reads ’between the lines of his patient’s utterances and behavior to construct his diagnoses and interpretations, the historian with psychoanalytic knowledge can also ‘read’ between the lines of his evidence to construct an appraisal about his subject. The concepts used in the appraisal of live patients are applicable in the appraisal of historical figures as indices of sets of tendencies which should be looked for in the historical evidence. The historian must be careful about claims made concerning the internal experiences of a subject because he is unable to ask questions of the subject directly. He must make guesses. However, these guesses are suggested by the evidence. The plausibility of conclusions or explanatory hypotheses arrived at must be weighed in terms of the configuration of evidence which can be amassed their favor. To validate interpretations suggested by the evidence in one context, the historian can appeal to new historical materials from another context. Just as the therapist gets independent check as the analysis proceeds, the historian gets independent checks as the analysis proceeds, the historian gets independent checks as his historical research broadens and intensifies. A study of Sir Henry Clinton by Frederick Wyatt and William Willcox serves to show how these methodological problems can be handled and how psychoanalytic theory can be helpful. They indicate that the psychoanalytic assumption of the existence of unconscious processes provides a more illuminating explanation of Clinton’s behavior than the usual assumption of historians which says that people behave on the basis their intentions with self-consciousness. As Charles Pierce said, “it is the beliefs men betray and not what they parade which has to be studied.”

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This study represents an attempt to investigate the nature of depressive psychopathology within the context of psychoanalytic theory. It poses two major research questions: can depressed patients be differentiated on the basis of particular ego states according to Bibring's theory; and will such a classification system be useful clinically and theoretically?

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Este trabalho trata das discussões que envolvem a Psicanálise Aplicada. Nesse sentido são apresentados a questão do nome e os limites para o analisável, assim como os chamados e lembretes que estão presentes nas falas de psicanalistas na atualidade. Diante dessas questões, recorremos à história da psicanálise. Acompanhamos com Freud as nuances desse fazer psicanalítico, evidenciando o papel central que ocupa em sua teoria, afastando a possibilidade de uma dicotomia entre psicanálise clínica e psicanálise aplicada. Além disso, é possível notar que Freud, dentre outros objetivos, busca com a psicanálise aplicada transmitir a psicanálise na cultura. O psicanalista ora coloca-se como um colonizador de territórios alheios, ora como um estrangeiro que, na fronteira com outra área do conhecimento, produz inflexões em ambas, sem recorrer ao educativo, mas fazendo descobrir. Em seguida, com a ida a Lacan, observam-se as novas formulações do autor e em que medida ele se diferencia da proposição de Freud acerca da psicanálise aplicada, propondo uma visão original. Sua proposta ocorre em meio às mudanças da Psicanálise no cenário francês, contexto que influi diretamente na sua construção teórica e posição institucional. E, por fim, em busca de outros sentidos possíveis para a questão da psicanálise aplicada, apresentamos as considerações de autores da atualidade a propósito do tema. Concluímos, então, que o que parece estar em questão, tendo como sintoma os vários nomes ou os chamados e lembretes, é a transmissão da psicanálise / The following study has as its focus the discussions surrounding Applied Psychoanalysis. Towards this end, the issue of name and the limits of the analyzable will be presented, as will the calls and reminders present in the discourse of modern-day psychoanalysts. In seeking an understanding of these issues, we turn towards the history of psychoanalysis. Following in Freud the nuances of this psychoanalytical practice and highlighting the central role it plays in his theory, in which the possibility of a dichotomy between clinical and applied psychoanalysis is put aside. Furthermore, one may notice that Freud, amongst other goals, seeks with Applied Psychoanalysis to transmit psychoanalysis throughout culture. The psychoanalyst is positioned now as a colonizer of foreign territories, now as a foreigner who, on the border with another area of knowledge, produces inflections in both, without resorting to the educational, instead promoting discovery. Next, passing on to Lacan, the authors new formulations will be observed, as will the extent to which he differs from Freuds proposal regarding applied psychoanalysis, putting forward his own original view. His proposition occurs in the midst of changes in the French psychoanalytical landscape, context which directly influences his theoretical construction and institutional positioning. Finally, in search of other possible meanings for the question of applied psychoanalysis, we present the considerations of current authors on the subject. Then we conclude that what appears to be concerned with the various symptom or called names and reminders is the transmission of psychoanalysis

Este trabalho é composto por três ensaios que buscam investigar, por meio de textos literários, elementos sobre a transmissão de um saber-fazer-com o impossível, na interface entre educação e psicanálise. Os ensaios decantam das experiências com o Armazém de Histórias Ambulantes e o Setor de Cuidados Paliativos do Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceição em Porto Alegre (RS). O primeiro ensaio aborda os livros que compõem o projeto O Bairro, de Gonçalo M. Tavares, e traz a noção de errância para estabelecer uma proposição metodológica. O segundo ensaio retoma a obra de Herman Melville, Bartleby, o escrevente: uma história de Wall Street, articulando a ideia de paragem como um espaço que suspende um tempo e uma urgência no fazer, interrompendo a consequência antecipada e deixando surgir o que é contingente. Já o terceiro ensaio atualiza elementos da obra A desumanização, do escritor português Valter Hugo Mãe, e tem a alteridade como chave de leitura, alteridade que imanta um campo onde emerge a possibilidade de inventar um saber-fazer-com. Esses ensaios operam como um laboratório de experiências em que a ficção, o ato e a criação seguem na direção de pensar a literatura como um modo de transmissão de um saber- -fazer-com diante do impossível. / This work consists of three essays that seek to investigate, through literary texts, elements that can transmit a know-how-with the impossible, at the interface between education and psychoanalysis. The essays enhance from experiences with the Itinerant Stories Warehouse and the palliative care sector of Hospital Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Porto Alegre – RS. The first essay explores the books that compose the project The Neighborhood, by Gonçalo M Tavares, and explores the notion of wandering to establish a methodological proposition. The second incorporates the work of Herman Melville, Bartleby, the scribe: a story of Wall Street, to articulate the idea of stopping time as a space-time that suspends the time and the urgency in doing, interrupting the early consequence and letting arise what is contingent. The third explores elements in Valter Hugo´s The dehumanization, and suggests the otherness as a key reading; otherness that connects to the field where emerges the possibility of inventing a know-how-with. These essays operate as a laboratory of experiments in which the fiction, the act and creation, follow in the direction of thinking about the literature as a way of transmitting a know-how-with towards the impossible.