Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History
Encyclopedia
Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History is a work by Norman O. Brown
, first published in 1959. A radical analysis and critique of the work of Sigmund Freud
, it has been compared to works by Herbert Marcuse
(Eros and Civilization
) and Michel Foucault
(Madness and Civilization
), as well as to Erik Erikson
's Young Man Luther
and Lionel Trilling
's Freud and the Crisis of Our Culture. Made famous when Norman Podhoretz
recommended it to Lionel Trilling, it has been called "one of the great nonfiction works of the 20th century", though some critics have found it of lesser weight than Marcuse's work.
and Erich Fromm
had done, that the master's theories had been valid only, or mainly, for the particular kind of society in which he himself had lived. Disdaining the cheap relativism of such tactics, Brown set out to show that Freud's pessimistic sense of human possibility did not necessarily follow from his analysis of human nature, an analysis Brown accepted as sound in all essential respects. The brilliance of Life Against Death lay in the amazingly convincing case Brown was able to build for the consistency of that analysis with his own vision of a life of 'polymorphous perversity
', a life of play and of complete instinctual and sexual freedom."
writes that, like Erik Erikson
's portrait of Luther, Life Against Death points to "numerous similarities between Luther's view of the human condition and that found in psychoanalysis." In his view, "The resemblances which Brown and Erikson found between Lutheran Protestantism and classical psychoanalysis can scarcely be disputed." Joel Kovel
writes that Life Against Death deals extensively with the theme of how "Luther achieved some of his spiritual breakthroughs while defecating
."
Kovel similarly finds Life Against Death comparable to, but less successful than, Eros and Civilization.
identifies Life Against Death as an influence on her work Sexual Personae
. Paglia calls Life Against Death "one of the great nonfiction works of the 20th century", saying that, "It is what Michel Foucault longed to achieve but never did." Brown's work affected Foucault's reception in the United States; American reviewers of Foucault's Madness and Civilization were quick to note that it shared a "kinship in mood if not in tone or method" with Life Against Death. Kovel calls Life Against Death, along with Eros and Civilization, "ancestors" of his work History and Spirit, writing that they, "drew psychoanalysis away from the clinic because Marcuse (from the Frankfurt School
perspective of Hegelian Marxism) and Brown (from a background of religious Puritanism) saw an emancipatory potential in Freud's discoveries."
Norman O. Brown
Norman Oliver Brown was an American classicist.-Life:Brown's father was an Anglo-Irish mining engineer. His mother was a Cuban of Alsatian and Cuban origin...
, first published in 1959. A radical analysis and critique of the work of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, it has been compared to works by Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
(Eros and Civilization
Eros and Civilization
Eros and Civilization is one of German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse's best known works. Written in 1955, it is a synthesis of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Its title alludes to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents...
) and Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
(Madness and Civilization
Madness and Civilization
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault, is the English edition of Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, a 1964 abridged edition of the 1961 Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique. An English translation of the complete 1961...
), as well as to Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
's Young Man Luther
Young Man Luther
Young Man Luther, a 1958 book by psychologist Erik Erikson, was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson was founder of today's accepted depiction of the growth and evolution of the psyche throughout the lifelong cycle, and whom coined the term "identity...
and Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...
's Freud and the Crisis of Our Culture. Made famous when Norman Podhoretz
Norman Podhoretz
Norman B. Podhoretz is an American neoconservative pundit and writer for Commentary magazine.-Early life:The son of Julius and Helen Podhoretz, Jewish immigrants from the Central European region of Galicia, Podhoretz was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn...
recommended it to Lionel Trilling, it has been called "one of the great nonfiction works of the 20th century", though some critics have found it of lesser weight than Marcuse's work.
Background
The book's fame grew when Norman Podhoretz recommended it to Lionel Trilling. After reading Life Against Death on Podhoretz's urging, Trilling "produced a favorable review of this central text of the nascent cultural radicalism toward which he was in general antagonistic." According to Podhoretz, "...Brown issued a powerful challenge to Freud's doctrine that human possibilities were inherently and insurmountably limited. But he did so not by arguing, as earlier critics like Karen HorneyKaren Horney
Karen Horney born Danielsen was a German-American psychoanalyst. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology...
and Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm was a Jewish German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.-Life:Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at Frankfurt am...
had done, that the master's theories had been valid only, or mainly, for the particular kind of society in which he himself had lived. Disdaining the cheap relativism of such tactics, Brown set out to show that Freud's pessimistic sense of human possibility did not necessarily follow from his analysis of human nature, an analysis Brown accepted as sound in all essential respects. The brilliance of Life Against Death lay in the amazingly convincing case Brown was able to build for the consistency of that analysis with his own vision of a life of 'polymorphous perversity
Polymorphous perversity
Polymorphous perversity is a psychoanalytic term for human ability to gain sexual gratification outside socially normative sexual behaviors. Sigmund Freud used this term to describe the normal sexual disposition of humans from infancy to about age five....
', a life of play and of complete instinctual and sexual freedom."
Interpretation of Martin Luther
Richard WebsterRichard Webster (author)
Richard Webster was a British cultural historian, and the author of five published books, dealing with subjects such as the controversy over Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, and the investigation of sexual abuse in Britain...
writes that, like Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was a Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T...
's portrait of Luther, Life Against Death points to "numerous similarities between Luther's view of the human condition and that found in psychoanalysis." In his view, "The resemblances which Brown and Erikson found between Lutheran Protestantism and classical psychoanalysis can scarcely be disputed." Joel Kovel
Joel Kovel
Joel Kovel is an American politician, academic, writer, and eco-socialist. A practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst until the mid-1980s, he has lectured in psychiatry, anthropology, political science and communication studies. He has published many books on his work in psychiatry,...
writes that Life Against Death deals extensively with the theme of how "Luther achieved some of his spiritual breakthroughs while defecating
Defecation
Defecation is the final act of digestion by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. Waves of muscular contraction known as peristalsis in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum...
."
Evaluation
Paul Robinson describes Life Against Death as one of three books published in the 1950s that brought into question the prevailing interpretation of Freud, the others being Lionel Trilling's Freud and the Crisis of Our Culture and Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization. Robinson dismisses Trilling's work as lightweight in comparison to Brown's and Marcuse's, but writes that all three authors shared "the conviction that Freud's great accomplishment was to remind us of the high price we have paid for our civilization." In his view, they "were in agreement that the critical element in Freud was to be found in his late metahistorical forays, that is, precisely those works which the orthodox considered unscientific and which the neo-Freudians condemned as reactionary. Brown and Marcuse undertook a systematic analysis of psychoanalytic theory in order to reveal its critical, even revolutionary, implications. Both went far beyond Reich or Roheim in probing the dialetical subtleties of Freud's thought, and both reached conclusions which were more extreme, more 'utopian', than those to be found in either of Freud's earlier left-wing exegetes." Robinson initially considered Marcuse and Brown's work of equal importance, but became convinced that Marcuse was "the finer of the two theorists", and that his treatment of Freud in Eros and Civilization is more substantial than Brown's in Life Against Death.Kovel similarly finds Life Against Death comparable to, but less successful than, Eros and Civilization.
Influence
Camille PagliaCamille Paglia
Camille Anna Paglia , is an American author, teacher, and social critic. Paglia, a self-described dissident feminist, has been a Professor at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1984...
identifies Life Against Death as an influence on her work Sexual Personae
Sexual Personae
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is a groundbreaking and controversial survey of sexual decadence in Western literature and the visual arts written by scholar Camille Paglia.-Overview:...
. Paglia calls Life Against Death "one of the great nonfiction works of the 20th century", saying that, "It is what Michel Foucault longed to achieve but never did." Brown's work affected Foucault's reception in the United States; American reviewers of Foucault's Madness and Civilization were quick to note that it shared a "kinship in mood if not in tone or method" with Life Against Death. Kovel calls Life Against Death, along with Eros and Civilization, "ancestors" of his work History and Spirit, writing that they, "drew psychoanalysis away from the clinic because Marcuse (from the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
perspective of Hegelian Marxism) and Brown (from a background of religious Puritanism) saw an emancipatory potential in Freud's discoveries."
See also
- Géza RóheimGéza RóheimGéza Róheim was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and anthropologist. Originally based in Budapest, he is often credited with founding the field of psychoanalytic anthropology, since he was the first psychoanalytically trained anthropologist to do fieldwork...
- Martin LutherMartin LutherMartin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
- Neo-FreudianNeo-FreudianThe Neo-Freudian psychiatrists and psychologists were a group of loosely linked American theorists of the mid-twentieth century, who were all influenced by Sigmund Freud, but who extended his theories, often in social or cultural directions...
- Wilhelm ReichWilhelm ReichWilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
- Young Man LutherYoung Man LutherYoung Man Luther, a 1958 book by psychologist Erik Erikson, was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson was founder of today's accepted depiction of the growth and evolution of the psyche throughout the lifelong cycle, and whom coined the term "identity...