Freud, a cultura e a psicanálise: fundamentos e implicações de um exercício de pensamento

Abstract

This research explored Freud's view on culture—understood by him as equivalent to civilization—and its influence on the construction of psychoanalysis. By understanding psychoanalysis as an investigative process, treatment technique, and theoretical discipline, the study examined how Freud thought about culture, his methodology, and how these are integrated into the constitution of psychoanalysis. Specifically, through research combining history and theory, the main social works of Freud—Totem and Taboo, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, The Future of an Illusion, and Civilization and Its Discontents—were analyzed to understand how Freud’s methodology applied extra-clinically helped shape psychoanalysis in its three domains. The research focused exclusively on Freud, extracting concepts and ideas with the support of commentators, without involving post-Freudian schools, which allowed for an understanding of the interactions between subject and society. This highlighted the relevance of a historical perspective for the practice and dissemination of psychoanalysis, challenging and reevaluating practices and concepts for a more critical and inclusive psychoanalysis. In sum, the research aimed to understand psychoanalysis not only as a clinical method but also within its historical and cultural context, revealing the influence of cultural processes on Freudian thought and psychoanalytic practice