Use of Psychoanalysis in the Study of the Classics

Freud, on different occasions, 8, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 suggested that psychoanalytic theory could be used as a tool by scholars not directly concerned with the study of abnormal behavior. Among the areas of inquiry mentioned by Freud were religion, mythology, language, and literature. Freud, himself, was steeped in the knowledge of literature, history and the classics. 10 He has pointed out that his investigations in these areas helped him in the development of psychoanalytic theory. The knowledge gained from the study of these disciplines helped him develop hypotheses concerning the known behavior of his patients. New discoveries were also made concerning behavior theretofore unknown or considered unimportant in the development of human personality. Since the development of psychoanalysis depended somewhat on certain other disciplines, it was logical for Freud to conclude that perhaps psychoanalytic theory could itself be used in the study of these same disciplines.

The classicist Norman O. Brown, in an article concerning psychoanalysis and the classics 1 says that the main use of the study of the past is to understand the present. The study of the classics, he feels, is especially important in this regard. Side by side there exists primitive behavior, such as orgiastic dancing and animistic thinking, with a highly advanced civilization that has greatly influenced the development of law, religion, philosophy, and politics in our own Western culture. Brown regards psychoanalysis as a tool to be used by classicists to achieve a better understanding of some aspects of classical civilization.

This view of the use of psychoanalysis to study the past, is echoed by Langer 11 in a presidential address given to the American