The Influence of Sigmund Freud’s Clark Lectures on American Concepts of the Self

dc.bibliographicCitation.firstPage21en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.lastPage32en_US
dc.bibliographicCitation.volume1en_US
dc.contributor.authorFreifrau von Falkenhausen, Judith
dc.contributor.editorCarmody, Heather
dc.contributor.editorGlauser, Michelle
dc.contributor.editorHerrmann, Sebastian M.
dc.contributor.editorPitzing, Alexandra
dc.contributor.editorSchönmeier, Lisa Sylvia
dc.contributor.editorWeise, Lars
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-29T07:46:15Z
dc.date.available2022-09-29T07:46:15Z
dc.date.issued2008en_US
dc.description.abstractThe following paper assesses the impact of the five lectures given by Sigmund Freud during his brief stay in America in 1909. I will argue that the talks he presented mark a distinct shift in American self-understanding: American approaches to mental illness had been based on the so-called somatic style, which held a purely mechanistic view of the human mind and body, thus treating only the symptoms of apparent psychological ailments. Acknowledging the psyche as a factor in its own right, psychoanalysis greatly challenged American ideas, and Freud’s theories about infantile sexuality undermined the contemporary American emphasis on Civilized Morality. After his departure, a heated controversy ensued among professionals in the US. However, in the wake of Freud’s lectures, American psychiatrist James J. Putnam turned his back on the somatic style he had previously practiced. In the winter of 1909-10, Putnam set out to defend the concept of psychoanalysis among his American colleagues and thus prepared the ground for its acceptance into the mainstream of US psychology. Simultaneously, Freud’s theories underwent a significant Americanization and, in turn, freed American society from the constraints of a Puritan morality and gave the nation a new sense of self-awareness.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.54465/aspeers.01-04
dc.identifier.urihttp://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?fidaac-11858/2367
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.relation.issn18658768en_US
dc.relation.journalaspeersen_US
dc.relation.journalaltemerging voices in american studiesen_US
dc.rightsL::CC BY 3.0en_US
dc.subject.ddcddc:970en_US
dc.subject.fieldamericanstudiesen_US
dc.subject.fieldculturalstudiesen_US
dc.titleThe Influence of Sigmund Freud’s Clark Lectures on American Concepts of the Selfen_US
dc.typearticleen_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dspace.entity.typePublication
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
aspeers_01-2008_04_Falkenhausen.pdf
Size:
137.59 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
2.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: