Part 4 will investigate Stein´s position, also false in RT's eyes.
Robert Stein
Robert Stein's book | peri On Stein's work |
Google books: "This book explores Eros and incest for a new version of therapy that tries to heal the love/sex split." Amazon Brazil: “Healing the conflict between spirit and flesh will not be possible as long as our animal-instinctive nature is considered inferior to the mind and psyche,” says Robert Stein, a Jungian physician and analyst with years of experience. His book explores the incest taboo, seeking a new vision of therapy that can heal the dichotomy between love and sex. The chapters on Eros and its transformation, on the phallus in male and female psychologies, and on the wound of incest in the archetypal family situation collectively provide an uncompromising and sincere challenge to conventional ego psychology, Jungian conservatism, Freudian reductionism and to all methods that depart from the animal level of the human soul. Online review by Nadia: I'm a psychiatrist and psychotherapist (...) Robert Stein appears to be a psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst practicing in the 60s and 70s who after a time found Jungian psychoanalysis limiting and came up with his own theories on how to improve it. Basically, he believes that the Incest Taboo is at the core of our psychological development - specifically, that we develop the ability to have an inner world through the forbidden. It's an interesting, well-written book, that is easier to follow & read than you might think given the content. It's also not about incest, the horrific act of violation, but incest as a psychoanalytic concept, and indeed he spends an entire long chapter on the Greek myth of Oedipus. Definitely worth the read if you are a psychotherapist and remotely interested in psychodynamic or psychoanalytic theory. I'm surprised it isn't more read, although perhaps that's the editor's fault naming it something so unappealing. | “Stein discusses the wound and splitting of the child's psyche, caused by incest in western civilization. Stein emphasizes that the taboo of incest exists as a primary instinct in the human psyche as well as the urge to commit incest. Nevertheless, it still takes a great deal of awareness and strength of character to resist the temptation. He maintains that in primitive civilizations, rituals and customs existed that in an integrative and natural manner, protected the adolescent psyche from being carried away by incest. He points to an anthropological study of Melanesian tribes, performed by Malinowski (1955) which suggests that the offspring do not belong to the husband, but rather to the woman's family. The woman's brother is the one responsible for taking care and raising them. Moreover, they are defined by their uncle's status in the tribe rather than by the father's. The father's role is companionship rather than authority. The brother is in charge of the spiritual development of his sister's children, but must not harbor sexual desires towards her, thus preventing her from marrying another. As a rule, in primitive civilizations, sexual freedom exists, but maternal brothers and sisters are separated at a young age and play with other children of the same age group. On the one hand they are close, and love each other; on the other they are forbidden from any personal or intimate communication. They are not even allowed to look at each other or share their feelings and thoughts. The taboo increases as they grow up. Despite the taboo, these tribes do not suppress their sexual attraction towards family members. They may talk about it to their siblings, knowing clearly that they cannot act upon it. Thus the psyche is prevented from being torn between sexual attraction and human love. Rather than by repression, taking control of incestuous relations is performed by social and ritualistic rules helping the adolescent boy and girl overcome them. According to Stein, the taboo of incest sanctifies the family relationships and promotes human caring, warmth, devotion and sharing the same fate, which are above instinctual approach. He argues that in modern civilization, the adolescent is forced to deal with his incestuous feelings by himself, unaided by any social rule or ritual. In order to overcome, he must suppress feelings he might carry towards a family member, causing a split between love and sexuality. This split enhances the affinity between the repressed incestuous inclination and the ambition for a grandiose success and hubris. The ambition to succeed and the Ego inflation might serve to compensate for the suppressed incestuous desire, and indirectly win a mother's love and admiration.” [Nethaniel Peri, in The Relationships between Incest and Hubris in Dreams, Myths and Folk Tales] |