Psychoanalysis, Folklore, and Processes of Socialization

The format of this panel derived from its cross-cultural and interdisciplinary nature. L. Bryce Boyer provided background by reviewing early interdisciplinary efforts in applied psychoanalysis and the evolution of the psychoanalytic approach to the understanding of folklore. Ruth M. Boyer then presented and discussed a group of Apache myths, which served as the focus for the panelists' contributions.

Bryce Boyer reviewed the collaborative efforts of psychoanalysts, anthropologists, and folklorists. Early attempts at applied psychoanalysis sought to understand expressive culture through the use of Freud's new insights concerning the Unconscious, but found intense disapprobation from social scientists of other disciplines. Some few anthropologists and folklorists were grateful that Freud, Abraham, Rank, and others made the psychological aspects of folklore and religion understandable in terms of the language of the dream. However, even those who granted that there were psychological aspects to expressive culture were affronted by a prevalent circular reasoning. When their thinking was dominated by the topographical viewpoint, many analysts sought to use the study of folklore to demonstrate the validity of their recently acquired knowledge concerning unconscious mechanisms. The topographical hypothesis facilitated arbitrary symbolic interpretations, which early analysts employed to define new latent meanings and to reinterpret myths. They