Freud on sexuality. Psychoanalysis between Anthropology and Evolution

• Grant number: 23/15918-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: May 26, 2024
• End date: August 25, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Janaina Namba
• Grantee: Janaina Namba
• Host Investigator: Raluca Soreanu
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University Of Essex, England

Abstract

This project aims to examine the extent to which Freudian theory is massively based on the Darwinian theory of evolution. Through questioning about the prohibition of incest and exogamy, which is also based on observations made by Darwin, Freud relies on data provided by anthropological studies to formulate a genealogical theory of the psychic apparatus based on the repression of incestuous desires. We understand that the appropriation of these two disciplines, Darwin's theory of evolution and anthropology contemporary to Freud, occurs in different ways. If, on the one hand, Freud proposes an origin of the psychic apparatus, exposed in Totem and Taboo (1913), just as Darwin proposes a human genealogy in The Descent of man, and Selection in relation to Sex (1871), at the same time he questions himself regarding the methodological validity of his proposal, as it sometimes seems "fantastic". On the other hand, he believes that these uncertainties are inherent to the assumptions themselves and for this reason he makes sure that his theory is not a mere "fantasy" since the functioning of the repression of incest in the psychic apparatus can be deduced from the data presented. by anthropology regarding the social and universal prohibition of incest.