Cultural History and Psychoanalysis

Abstract

There is a congruence of hermeneutic method between cultural history and psychoanalysis which includes a recognition of the subjectivity and self-reflexivity of interpretation and of the centrality of emotions in the structuring of historical motivation and action. Psychoanalysis is a humanistic discipline that offers tentative multi-causal conclusions, combining in its method both self-reflection and empiricism, but basing itself on a unique process of inquiry different from either the natural or the cultural sciences. Distinguished shapers of the historian's craft, including Dilthey, Collingwood, and Bloch, used the self as an instrument of research and insight. Freud was a cultural pessimist, as was Burckhardt whom he admired. Leading contemporary American historians, such as Williamson, foreground self-reflection as an acknowledged tool of historical discovery and cognition. The "Bauhaus," 1919-1939, is presented as a case study of creative group process utilizing Winnicott's concepts of transitional space.