Anthropology, Kleinian psychoanalysis, and the subject in culture

Journal/Book: Amer Anthropol. 1998; 100: 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640, Arlington, VA 22203. Amer Anthropological Assoc. 373.

Abstract: This essay uses the work of psychoanalyst Melanie Klein to reopen the dialogue between anthropology and psychoanalysis. It argues that Kleinian concepts enhance an anthropology that seeks out both intersubjective and intrasubjective difference and disjuncture, and it demonstrates the uses of major Kleinian concepts for addressing classic anthropological problems, including gender classification and the analysis of persecution in witchcraft and sorcery systems. Applying Kleinian concepts to the analysis of cultural-historical process, it shows how splitting and denial may be central to the reproduction and hegemony of dominant cultural systems through time and addresses the question of how to theorize the relationship among dominant cultural systems, social differentiation, and individual subjectivities.

Note: Article Born G, Univ Cambridge, Fac Social & Polit Sci, Cambridge CB2 1ST, ENGLAND

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