Intoxication, Modernity, and Colonialism - Freud''s Industrial Unconscious, Benjamin''s Hashish Mimesis

This book depicts how Freud's cocaine and Benjamin's hashish illustrate two critiques of modernity and two messianic emancipations through the pleasures of intoxicating discourse. Freud discovered the "libido" and "unconscious" in the industrial mimetic scheme of cocaine, whereas Benjamin found an inspiration for his critique of phantasmagoria and its variant psychoanalysis in hashish's mimesis. In addition, as part of the history of colonialism, both drugs generated two distinct colonial discourses and, consequently, two different understandings of the emancipatory powers of pleasure, the unconscious, and dreams. After all, great ideas don't liberate; they intoxicate.

List of contents

Introduction.- 1. On Cocaine's radical ambiguity.- 2. Freud's 'Cocaine Episode'.- 3. From Colonial to Sexual Conversion: Freud as 'Woman'.- 4. Freud as 'Conquistador' of the Underworld and as 'Bosnian Turk'.- 5. Freud on the Acropolis: Between Oedipus and 'Little Moor' Conclusion.

About the author

Dušan I. Bjelić is Professor at University of Southern Maine USA. He obtained his PhD in Sociology from Boston University, USA. He is the author of
Galileo's Pendulum
(2003) and
Normalizing the Balkans
(2011) and the co-editor (with Obrad Savić) of
Balkan as Metaphor
(2002).

Summary

This book depicts how Freud’s cocaine and Benjamin’s hashish illustrate two critiques of modernity and two messianic emancipations through the pleasures of intoxicating discourse. Freud discovered the “libido” and “unconscious” in the industrial mimetic scheme of cocaine, whereas Benjamin found an inspiration for his critique of phantasmagoria and its variant psychoanalysis in hashish’s mimesis. In addition, as part of the history of colonialism, both drugs generated two distinct colonial discourses and, consequently, two different understandings of the emancipatory powers of pleasure, the unconscious, and dreams. After all, great ideas don't liberate; they intoxicate.

Product details

• Authors: Du¿an I. Bjeli¿, Dusan Bjelic, Dusan I Bjelic, Dusan I. Bjelic, Professor Dusan I. Bjelic, Dušan I. Bjelić
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 07.12.2016
• EAN: 9781349950720
• ISBN: 978-1-349-95072-0
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Springer Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); B, Cultural History, Psychoanalysis, Culture, Sociology of Culture, Social & cultural history, Psychology: the self, ego, identity, personality, Self, Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology, Analytical & Jungian psychology, Social groups: religious groups & communities, Civilization—History, Self and Identity, Identity (Psychology), Psychoanalytical & Freudian psychology, Critical Psychology