Culture, subject, psyche: dialogues in psychoanalysis and anthropology

Abstract

The 20th century was marked by two profoundly different insights into the nature of humanity: one views each person as the product of unconscious desires, while the other sees the individual as the product of language and culture. While many still believe these two insights to be irreconcilable, there are a growing number of scholars attempting to integrate the psychoanalytic subject into their culturally-bound research. In this groundbreaking new work, Anthony Molino has collected in-depth interviews with seven renowned anthropologists and social theorists: MARC AUGE, VINCENT CRAPANZANO, KATHERINE EWING, GANANATH OBEYESEKERE, MICHAEL RUSTIN, KATHLEEN STEWART, and PAUL WILLIAMS. These dialogues, alongside essays by Molino, anthropologists WESLEY SHUMAR and WAUD KRACKE, and psychoanalyst LUCIA VILLELA, update the prevailing conceptions of psychoanalysis within anthropology. They explore possible psychoanalytic contributions to ethnographic theory and practice on matters concerning the self, narrative, identity, the unconscious, and fieldwork and power relations.