"Salomé on Life, Religion, Self-Development, and Psychoanalysis: The Spinozistic Background", In Spinoza in Germany: Political and Religious Thought across the Long Nineteenth Century, edited by Jason M. Yonover and Kristin Gjesdal., 296-320

By Katharina T. Kraus

Abstract:

This chapter explores the influence of Spinoza’s philosophy both on Salomé’s early philosophy of life, before her encounter with psychoanalysis, and on her later work in psychoanalysis. It highlights how the Spinozistic elements of her thought mark a continuity throughout her work, despite shifts in terminology. After a brief biographical sketch of her early encounter with Spinoza’s philosophy and her later turn to psychoanalysis, the chapter examines three Spinozistic themes in Salomé’s thought: first, her conception of the primordial ground (Urgrund) of life as the all-unity (All-Einheit), which is compared with Spinoza’s divine substance and the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious; second, her psychosomatic parallelism as two ways of representing life, which can be seen as building upon Spinoza’s account of mind and body; and third, her account of the ethical dimension of human life, which echoes Spinoza’s theory of the affects and perfection.

Published:
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024

DOI:
doi.org/10.1093/9780191953903.003.0016

Online available:
academic.oup.com

PDF:
Kraus K – Lou Salome – Spinozistic Background – uncorr proof (435.12 KB)