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Marco Gatto

 Università della Calabria (marco.gatto@unical.it)

Abstract: Re-reading Freud masterwork on Mass Psychology, the article explores the transformations of some analytical categories as “mass”, “individual”, “fetish object”, with an emphasis to the contemporary Italian context and, more generally, to the turning point of late capitalism. Fetishism is seen in relation to the Aestheticization of daily life and to the process of transitional agglomeration around a temporary ideological target.
Keywords: Freud; Adorno; Fetishism; Capitalism; Aestheticization.
 
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 Roberto Finelli

 Università degli Studi Roma Tre (roberto.finelli@uniroma3.it)

Abstract: The essay intends to critically examine the difficulties of the passage in Freudian thought from individual psychology to collective psychology. The basic thesis is that in the thought of the Viennese master there is too easy a projection of the first on the second. The thesis of the primitive horde and the dominant male configures, according to the author, a birth of the history and primitive socialization of human beings established on physical force alone. In this way, and in a paradoxical way for Freud’s own humanism, a magical-symbolic-cultural … Continua a leggere

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Jens De Vleminck

 KU Leuven – Institute of Philosophy (jens.devleminck@kuleuven.be)

Abstract: This article scrutinizes Sigmund Freud’s Why War? (1933) by taking it as the focal point to explore the Freudian conception of violence. According to Freud, violence is intrinsically connected with the constitution of right. What is at stake in Freud’s reflections is this very specific dynamic relation of violence and right, being equally important in his dispute with Albert Einstein. The debate between Freud and Einstein is problematized by confronting it with the legal philosophy of Hans Kelsen. Special attention is given to Kelsen’s critical review of … Continua a leggere

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Ana Meléndez

 Universidad de Valencia (ana.melendez@uv.es)

Abstract: This articles attempts to show how the discovery of the “death drive” is central to understand the Freudian conception of the human condition: to this drive can be attributed the source of destruction that threatens coexistence – when it goes outward – , as much as the possibility of it and a kind of pathological suffering – when it goes inward as a moral conscience. This will guide Freud not only towards a new understanding of trauma, but also towards a novel reinterpretation of social life. In his late work Freud … Continua a leggere

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Leonardo Diprima

 Ricercatore indipendente (leonardo.diprima96@gmail.com)

Abstract: This article provides an overview of Adorno’s adoption of Freudian group psychology in “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda” and other works – and the application of its tenets to fascism and fascist propaganda. Adorno conceives of the latter as the artificial, instrumental activation of collective psychology for political purposes. Fascist leaders employ rhetorical techniques that are devoid of programmatic content, but that are modeled after Freudian psychology. Adorno also revisits Freudian psychology: he sticks to its central theoretical tenets but applies them to fascism against the backdrop of a … Continua a leggere

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Marco Solinas

 Scuola Universitaria Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa (marco.solinas@santannapisa.it)

Abstract: The paper aims to give an account of the actuality of Neumann’s conception of the forms of psychological and political regression in relation to the thematization of populism. In particular, the paper aims to develop a conception of populism as regression starting form Neumann’s theoretical insights. The psychoanalytical sides of Neumann’s political theory is here analyzed starting from his essay Angst und Politik. Neumann’s conception of the forms of political anxiety in the contest of right radical political movements is developed looking at the current debate on … Continua a leggere

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Delia Popa & Iaan Reynolds

 Delia Popa: Villanova University (delia.popa@villanova.edu); 

Iaan Reynolds: Villanova University (christiaan.reynolds@villanova.edu) 

Abstract: Beginning with Freud’s treatment of identification as an ambivalent process, we explore identification’s polarization between narcissistic idealization and melancholic division. While narcissistic identification can be seen as a strategy adopted by the ego to avoid the educational development of its drives and to maintain itself either in whole or in part in an infantile state, melancholic identification activates a tension between the ego-ideal and the real ego at the expense of the latter. After discussing the ambivalence of identification, we review … Continua a leggere

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Luigi Verrengia

 Ricercatore indipendente (verrengia.luigi7@gmail.com) 

Abstract: The Primal Horde theory, first mentioned by Freud in Totem and Taboo, plays a fundamental role in his Massenpsychologie. Developed from Charles Darwin’s writings on The Descent of Man and influenced by the patriarchal theories of Atkinson and Lang, the image of the horde, regardless of its anthropological validity, can still be an excellent tool for investigating the contemporary masses. It should also be recognised, however, that Freud owes an important philosophical debt to Hobbesian philosophy: for both thinkers, society is founded on a negative ground, on the threat of … Continua a leggere

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Anna Sabatini Scalmati

 sabatiniscalmati@gmail.com 

Abstract: The subject of the article is the influence of social history on the history
of the private, from the ‘discontents’ voiced by Freud to the ‘malaise’ of Kaes. Acceleration of ‘doing’ without limits which, deaf to the interdependence which links the living, leaves in the psiche fears that go beyond the threshold of thought and obscures the sphere of affections. ‘Doing’ which forces human beings, while they are afraid of the faces of their neighbours, the critical thought, blame, troubles and pain, project international space stations and new nuclear bombs. Schism between … Continua a leggere