Consolation and Psychoanalysis
Abstract
Psychoanalysis has seldom concerned itself with the notion of
consolation at the theoretical level. Consolation (or comfort or
solace) is not a psychoanalytic concept. Freud only uses the
word once in his general reflections on the human condition.
Freud saw religion as an effect of man’s infantile need for
consolation, and compared it with obsessional neuroses. His
reflections on the matter led Freud to the conclusion that religion
is an illusion. The more people who gain access to thinking
influenced by science, the more people will abandon their belief
in the religious message.
In Freud’s scientific-ideological attempt at turning psychoanalysis
into a scientific discipline, phenomena which are parts
of the religious and literary fields are lost. The human need for
consolation is such a phenomenon.
Donald W. Winnicott’s concept of the transitional object must
be considered in this context. According to Winnicott, the transitional
object is on the border between psychic, subjective
reality, and external, objective reality. It is usually used by the
child of the age of four to twelve months. The transitional object
is a compensation which has the function of consoling the
individual.
In Sweden, as in many other European countries, the psychodynamic
tradition that arose was to a greater extent concerned
with fulfilling man’s need for consolation, as compared with
pursuing an ideal that was influenced by the natural sciences.
The psychotherapists in this tradition attended to man’s need
for consolation, and the treatment was called pastoral cure.
Publisher
LIR. journal
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2015Author
Johansson, Per Magnus
Keywords
Psychoanalysis
Consolation
Religion
The Swedish Psychoanalytical Association
Sigmund Freud
St. Lukas
Publication type
article, peer reviewed scientific
Language
eng