The enigma of the oceanic feeling: revisioning the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism

Abstract

This study examines the history of the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism, starting with the seminal correspondence between Freud and Romain Rolland concerning the concept of 'oceanic feeling'. Parsons argues that the history of psychology has misunderstood Freud's own views, and as a consequence has over-reduced mysticism to psychological regression or pathology.