'Before and After Science': Esoteric Traces in the Formation of Psychoanalysis

The originality of this thesis lies in the evidence it adduces for the presence of esoteric ‘traces’ in psychoanalysis, which it conceptualises under the rubric of an ‘Orphic trajectory’ active within psychoanalysis. It proposes that these ‘traces’ were ‘encrypted’ in psychoanalytic metapsychology under the guise of ‘theory.’ The origins of this trans-generationally transmitted ‘trauma’ is attributed to Sigmund Freud’s ambivalence concerning the ‘occult’ in psychoanalysis enacted in the form of an ‘Orphic fragmentation’ that contributed to the dissolution of his relations with C.G. Jung and Sándor Ferenczi. In order to facilitate an analysis of the materials, some preliminary methodological considerations concerning discourse analysis, spectrality, ‘trace,’ ‘enigmatic signification’ and ‘encryption’ are discussed. A brief introduction to the academic study of the Western esoteric ‘traditions’ is also provided. Three formative esoteric ‘precursors’ to psychoanalysis are foregrounded—Jacob Boehme, F.W.J. Schelling and G.W.F. Hegel, whose respective speculations concerning the significance of ‘esoteric somnambulism’ as a medium for accessing the ‘Nightside’ of German Romantic psychology are then discussed. The genealogical diremption that exemplified relations between ‘magnetic gnosis’ and a ‘disenchanted’ hypnotic trance is then illustrated and its ensuing effects upon psychoanalytic theory discussed. After reviewing the contributions made by psychical research and Kabbalistic hermeneutics in the development of Freudian psychoanalysis, the thesis considers the role played by the Hungarian School in the development of an ‘Orphic trajectory’ in psychoanalysis as exemplified in the writings of Sándor Ferenczi, Elizabeth Severn and Nandor Fodor. It subsequently considers the respective roles of ‘mystical gnosis,’ ‘esoteric technē,’ the Kabbalah and theurgy in the writings of W.R. Bion. By way of conclusion, James Grotstein’s Who is the Dreamer Who Dreams The Dream? A Study of Psychic presences is proposed as an exemplary illustration of the persistence—and importance—of the ‘Orphic trajectory’ in the formation of post-Bionian psychoanalysis.