Loewenberg Peter. Fantasy and Reality in History

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. — 248 p. — ISBN10: 0195067630; ISBN13: 978-0195067637In Fantasy and Reality in History, Peter Loewenberg, a historian, political psychologist, and psychoanalyst, brings what the discipline of psychoanalysis has learned about human conduct and the irrational to bear on the analysis and writing of history. The result is a remarkable series of studies on individual and social anxiety, racism and nationalism, and crisis management. The first section proposes psychohistorical theoretical and clinical perspectives on Freud, psychoanalysis, social structure, and culture. Loewenberg examines creative group process in early twentieth century Zurich and how the earliest practitioners of psychoanalysis - Freud, C.G. Jung, Karl Abraham, and others - established the discipline's understanding of the unconscious and how it functions. The second section explores the tensions in the lives and politics of modern political leaders. Loewenberg offers case studies including the pornographic sexual politics of the nineteenth-century British Liberal Prime Minister William E. Gladstone, interpretations of the self-sacrifice of the German-Jewish foreign minister Walther Rathenau, the ideas of Austrian President Karl Renner at resolving nationality conflicts, and the primitive psychic splitting of the contemporary Russian fascist demagogue Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The final section interprets manifestations of anxiety in history, and its expression in racism, anti-Judaism, Nazism, and nationalism. In each study, Loewenberg blends clinical and historical-political methods which not only produce new and exciting research, but also demonstrate how a psychoanalytic approach enriches our understanding of history, and how historical and social science perspectives mayinform the resolution of clinical conflicts.On Psychohistorical MethodPsychoanalysis, Social Structure, And CultureWhy Social Science Needs Psychoanalysis: From Weber to Freud
The Pagan Freud
Sigmund Freud's Psychosocial Identity
The Creation of a Scientific Community: The Burgholzli, 1902-1914Political Leadership And The IrrationalGladstone, Sin, and the Bulgarian Horrors
The Murder and Mythification of Walther Rathenau
Karl Renner and the Politics of Accommodation: Moderation versus Revenge
The Inner World of Vladimir Zhirinovsky: The Self-Presentation of a "Hero"Psychodynamics And The Social ProcessAnxiety in History
Racism in Comparative Historical Perspective
The Psychodynamics of Nationalism
Crisis Management: From Therapy to Government and from the Oval Office to the Couch