Oceanic feeling
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In a 1927 letter to
History
On December 5, 1927, Rolland coined the phrase in a letter to Freud, writing that he should consider spiritual experiences, or "the oceanic feeling", in his psychological works:[5][6]
Mais j'aurais aimé à vous voir faire l'analyse du sentiment religieux spontané ou, plus exactement, de la sensation religieuse qui est...le fait simple et direct de la sensation de l'éternel (qui peut très bien n'être pas éternel, mais simplement sans bornes perceptibles, et comme océanique).[7]
In strict translation:
But I would have liked to see you doing an analysis of spontaneous religious sentiment or, more exactly, of religious feeling which is...the simple and direct fact of the feeling of the eternal (which can very well not be eternal, but simply without perceptible limits, and like oceanic).[8]
Rolland based his description on the example of Ramakrishna who had his first spiritual ecstasy at the age of six.[9][10] From his 10th or 11th year of school on, the trances became common, and by the final years of his life, Ramakrishna's samādhi periods occurred almost daily.[10]
Rolland described the trances and
Freud ends The Future of an Illusion with a discussion of the concept, and picks up the discussion at the beginning of Civilization and Its Discontents, answering Rolland's request. There he credits the concept to an anonymous friend.
Freud's explanation
Freud argues that the "oceanic feeling", if it exists, is the preserved "primitive ego-feeling" from infancy. The primitive ego-feeling precedes the creation of
Other explanations
The relevance of Romain's stance on the oceanic feeling has been recognized by scholars, who argue for a more encompassing understanding of religion and spirituality, offering a transformational model of psychology which validates the claims of mystics.
Early on, Ramakrishna's spontaneous experiences have been interpreted as epileptic seizures,[17][18][19][20] an interpretation which was rejected by Ramakrishna himself.[19] According to Anil D. Desai, Ramakrishna suffered from psychomotor epilepsy,[20] also called temporal lobe epilepsy.[21][note 1]
These experiences can also be intentionally induced.
Bulgarian-French philosopher Julia Kristeva writes about oceanic feeling in Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia. Her conception is similar to Freud's, relating the feeling to infantile regression.[23] More recently black studies scholar and poet Jackie Wang wrote about the notion of oceanic feeling in the article "Oceanic Feeling and Communist Affect," outlining its historic development through the work of Rolland and his relation to Spinoza, Freud, Kristeva, finally relating it to blackness and the trauma of the Middle Passage as discussed by Fred Moten.[24]
See also
Explanatory notes
- S2CID 22179745. for a description of characteristics of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, including increased religiosity as "a very striking feature". See also Geschwind syndrome, for descriptions of behavioral phenomena evident in some temporal lobe epilepsy patients, and Jess Hill, Finding God in a seizure: the link between temporal lobe epilepsy and mysticism, for some first-hand descriptions of epilepsy-induced "visions and trance-like states".
Citations
- ^ a b Roberts, Robert (18 November 2016). "Emotions in the Christian Tradition". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Masson 2012, p. 33.
- ^ The Ontology of Religiosity: The Oceanic Feeling and the Value of the Lived Experience
- ^ a b Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents, pp. 11–13.
- S2CID 21072291.
- ^ "Oceanic Feeling" by Henri Vermorel and Madeleline Vermoral in International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis.
- ^ Masson 2012, p. 34.
- ^ Parsons 1999, p. 36.
- ^ Zaleski & Zaleski 2005, pp. 162–163.
- ^ a b Bhawuk 2003.
- ^ Parsons 1999, p. 37.
- OCLC 445179421.
- ^ Parsons 1999, p. 114.
- ^ a b Ostow 2006, p. 3.
- ^ Parsons 1999.
- ^ Burton 2008.
- ^ Neevel 1976, p. 70.
- ^ Vivekananda 2005, p. 482.
- ^ a b Adiswarananda 2005, p. 65.
- ^ a b Katrak 2006.
- ^ Bennett 1962.
- ISBN 0-345-44034-X.
- ^ "Oceanic Feeling and Communist Affect". Giulia Tofana the Apothecary. December 2016. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ^ "Oceanic Feeling and Communist Affect". Giulia Tofana the Apothecary. December 2016. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
General and cited sources
- Adiswarananda, Swami (2005), The Spiritual Quest and the Way of Yoga. The Goal, the Journey and the Milestones, ISBN 978-1-594-73113-6
- PMID 13967457
- Bhawuk, Dharm P.S. (February 2003). "Culture's influence on creativity: the case of Indian spirituality". .
- ISBN 978-0-312-35920-1(St. Martin's Press edition)
- Katrak, Sarosh M. (2006). "An eulogy for Prof. Anil D. Desai". S2CID 70463133.
- ISBN 978-9-400-98969-6
- Neevel, Walter G. (1976), "The transformation of Sri Ramakrishna (pp. 53ff.)", in Smith, Bardwell L. (ed.), Hinduism. New Essays in the History of Religions, ISBN 978-9-004-04495-1
- Ostow, Mortimer (2006), Spirit, Mind, and Brain. A Psychoanalytic Examination of Spirituality and Religion, New York City: ISBN 978-0-231-51120-9
- Parsons, William B. (17 June 1999), The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling. Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism, ISBN 978-0-195-35408-9
- Vivekananda (2005), Prabuddha Bharata, vol. 110, Advaita Ashrama
- ISBN 978-0-618-15288-9