The Psychoanalytical Method and the Disaster of Totalitarianism: Borderline States as the Psychical Equivalent of the Discontent in Civilization?

François Villa (1, 2, 3)

1 CRPMS (EA_3522) - Centre de Recherches Psychanalyse, Médecine et Société
2 USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité
3 UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

We are not only in possession of [our freedom] but have the urge to defend it. 1 This essay would like firstly to return to the concept of the discontent in civilization in order to discuss the disaster of totalitarianism and secondly to look at the connections between this discontent and disaster and borderline personality disorders. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud quotes from one of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Ballads (" little children do not like it ") to refer to the " the inborn human inclination to 'badness', to aggressiveness and destructiveness, and so to cruelty as well. " 2 Although this inclination is indisputably something we find very difficult to admit and think about, the disaster of totalitarian regimes, which blend together technological progress with barbarism, forces us to do so. We have not yet fully understood these tragedies and the very real feelings of disillusionment and disappointment they have provoked—yes, humans really are capable of that— leaving behind a layer of despair at the very core of our civilization as a kind of signature.

Mots clés: Disasters; Death; Humans; Totalitarianism; Psyche; Illusion; Jewish peoples; Pleasure principle; Reality; Truth

Domaines: Psychologie

François Villa. The Psychoanalytical Method and the Disaster of Totalitarianism: Borderline States as the Psychical Equivalent of the Discontent in Civilization?. Critical Inquiry, 2014, 40 (6), pp.267 - 287. ⟨10.1086/674115⟩. ⟨hal-01494568⟩