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Dr. Benveniste has taken on a daunting task with elan and intellectual energy, examining Sigmund Freud's cultural contributions to the discipline he created in the late 19th century through a 21st century lens that is informed by anthropology; biological evolution; scientific interest in the natural world; world cultures; art, literature, mythos; over a century of developments in the field of psychoanalysis, and more. He is a true polymath, with broad interests and the ability to synthesize encyclopedic knowledge with focus and exuberance. A spirit of delight prevails in his scholarly writing and his informed, rigorous theorizing.
He offers a major thesis regarding Freud's contributions that rests on the poetic aspect of mind that turns to analogy, the trope of ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, and also reverses it, that psychological development reflects cultural evolution, and psychological development creates culture. He acknowledges Freud's vast interest in the archaic world, in ancient history and myth. In the introduction, he also acknowledges that contemporary clinicians and scholars recognize that Freud's speculations in Totem and Taboo were based on misinformation. “Freud built his prehistoric reconstruction on 19th-century assumptions that were outdated even at the time that he wrote them, but he wrote them with conviction and maintained them to the end of his days” (p. xxix).
Benveniste's introduction shows him to be an excellent tour guide. He outlines the intellectual construct of his original thinking and his detailed exploration of the relationship between psychological development and the vast riches of cultural manifestations worldwide.
Cultural evolution is found in analogy and metaphor, representing our sense of self and reality. We discover that where Id was, Ego shall be, and where Chaos was, Cosmos shall be, and where Wilderness was, Culture shall be.
As Benveniste traces in detail potential equivalences between individual development and historica