Sociological imagination of Sigmund Freud: An attempt to locate Freudian psychoanalysis in social theory

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2020-10
Taş, Berke
This thesis investigates the sociological imagination of Sigmund Freud and the historicity of its formation considering the ongoing importance of psychoanalysis for social theory. As a first step in this endeavor, a conceptual framework is developed out of detecting the prevalent themes in the arguments of C. Wright Mills. Then, these themes are transformed into a methodological structure in terms of operationalizing them in connection to psychoanalytic concepts of Freud. This methodological structure is composed of five dimensions which are the unconscious as a field of the most personal and impersonal; the connectedness of unconscious forces, individual symptoms, language, sexuality and history; historical specificity of the unconscious, repression and neurotic individuality; problematization of alienation from libidinal forces; and Freudian discovery as a constructive destruction. Based on them, Freud’s fundamental works are analyzed in the context of looking into linearities between the sociological imagination and psychoanalytic vision. Also, the historicity psychoanalytic discovery is reflected upon in relation to some conditions of its existence.

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Citation Formats
B. Taş, “Sociological imagination of Sigmund Freud: An attempt to locate Freudian psychoanalysis in social theory,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2020.