Original scientific paper

Psychoanalysis and New Age

Željka Matijašević

Abstract

The theme of this essay is the relation of certain psychoanalytic theories and contemporary new age theories, and it is implied that the all-pervasiveness of the new age techniques can be brought into the context of the diminishing power of psychoanalysis. The new age movement will be considered together with Jung’s heritage and the idea of the shattered ego which is a prerequisite for the birth of the self, which is linked to the demand of the new age – that of personal transformation through modified states of consciousness. Within the new age, Freud is generally considered as the apogee of Western rationality, as the apogee of rational thinking which in its enlightenment vein, strove to rationalize the last of all things- the unconscious. Freud, in difference from the new agers, relies on the reign of the conscious part of the personality, or firmnes of the ego as the foundation or guarantor of mental health, as well as keeping a sharp boundary between the conscious and the unconscious.

Keywords

psychoanalysis; New Age; Sigmund Freud; Carl Gustav Jung

Hrčak ID:

15736

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/15736

Publication date:

2.4.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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