Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic. For more, see the Wikipedia entry.
Notes
- A critic of psychoanalysis's superficial conception of mind. Suggested that the discipline had to correct and deepen their conception by taking into account mystical experiences, both East and West. [1]
- Call for a new "science of mind" root in ancient Indian spiritual systems (yoga). Such a science would incorporate the valuable aspect of modern psychology (psychoanalysis) without succumbing to reductionist frameworks. [2]
- "According to Rolland, psychoanalysts have tended to ‘depreciate’ the mystical experiences of saints because the psychoanalysts themselves lack the ‘inner sense’ necessary to have mystical experiences in the first place." [3]
- "At various points in the Appendix, Rolland makes the provocative suggestion that the psychoanalytic denigration of mystical experience stems from an abnormally extroverted tendency among psychoanalysts themselves."[4]
- Rolland accuses psychoanalysis of having unconscious 'prejudice' that prevents them from seen the truths of mystical experience.
- Defends the notion of mystical experience against charges that it is an infantile, regressive state.
- Accuses Freud's rejection of oceanic experiences and religion as shallow and normative
- Felt a Yogic "science of mind was superior to Freud's psychoanalytic science
- Takes a "adaptive/transformative" approach to understanding Connection Experience[5]
Mysticism
In a letter to Freud dated December 5, 1927, Rolland defines mysticism as "the basic experiential matrix that gave rise to scripture, dogma, religious institutions, and theologies."[6] He states the Oceanic Feeling it "totally independent of all dogma, all credo, all Church organization. . . . the true subterranean source of religious energy which . . . has been collected, canalized and dried up by the Churches to the extent that one could say that it is inside the Churches."" [7]
Works
Wikipedia maintains a bibliographic list of Romain's works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Rolland#Bibliography
Footnotes
- ↑ Maharaj, Ayon. “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland’s Mystical Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a ‘New Science of the Mind’.” History of European Ideas 43, no. 5 (July 2017): 474–93.
- ↑ Maharaj, Ayon. “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland’s Mystical Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a ‘New Science of the Mind’.” History of European Ideas 43, no. 5 (July 2017): 474–93.
- ↑ Maharaj, Ayon. “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland’s Mystical Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a ‘New Science of the Mind’.” History of European Ideas 43, no. 5 (July 2017): 474–93. p. 478,
- ↑ Maharaj, Ayon. “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland’s Mystical Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a ‘New Science of the Mind’.” History of European Ideas 43, no. 5 (July 2017): 474–93. p. 478,
- ↑ Maharaj, Ayon. “The Challenge of the Oceanic Feeling: Romain Rolland’s Mystical Critique of Psychoanalysis and His Call for a ‘New Science of the Mind’.” History of European Ideas 43, no. 5 (July 2017): 474–93.
- ↑ Parsons, William B. The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 9. https://amzn.to/2Tq1qsl.
- ↑ Romain Rolland quoted in Parsons, William B. The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press, 1999.p. 9.
