The enigma of the oceanic feeling

by Parsons, William Barclay

"This book examines the history of the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism, starting with the seminal correspondence between Sigmund Freud and Romain Rolland concerning the concept of the "oceanic feeling." Providing a corrective to current views that frame psychoanalysis as pathologizing mysticism, Parsons reveals the existence of three models entertained by Freud and Rolland: the classical-reductive, ego-adaptive, and transformational (which allows for a transcendent dimension to mysticism). Then, reconstructing Rolland's personal mysticism (the "oceanic feeling") through texts and letters unavailable to Freud, Parsons argues that Freud misinterpreted the oceanic feeling."--BOOK JACKET.