The Freudian Orient: Early Psychoanalysis, Anti-Semitic Challenge, and the Vicissitudes of Orientalist Discourse

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This study consists of a twofold, interrelated enquiry: the Orientalism of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalysis of Orientalism – bringing into conversation Sigmund Freud and Edward Said and, thereby, the founding texts of psychoanalysis and postcolonial studies. The immediate object of this exploration is the “Freudian Orient” and we thus begin by tracing the strong Orientalist presence in Freud’s writings with examples from his early as well as later correspondence, his diaries, and his psychological works.

Following these examples of “manifest” Orientalism, we will pursue more “latent” meanings by engaging two of Freud’s favorite metaphors: archaeology and travel. Whereas the former soon uncovers a veritable porta Orientis, conducting to an external Orient, the latter reveals an internalised Orient traversed by Jewishness, anti-Semitism and the Bible.

Unveiling the figure of Moses shows how Freud’s strategy to resist anti-Semitic Orientalism by way of universalist reversal is only partially successful as he cannot extricate himself from the historical assumptions of that discourse. Nonetheless, it is the revolutionary concept of the unstable subject posited by Freudian psychoanalysis which enables a more nuanced understanding of the vicissitudes of Freud’s own Orientalist discourse.

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Orientalism by Edward W. Said

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For generations now, Edward W. Said's Orientalism has defined our understanding of colonialism and empire, and this Penguin Modern Classics edition contains a preface written by Said shortly before his death in 2003.

In this highly-acclaimed work, Edward Said surveys the history and nature of Western attitudes towards the East, considering orientalism as a powerful European ideological creation - a way for writers, philosophers and colonial administrators to deal with the 'otherness' of eastern culture, customs and beliefs. He traces this view through the writings of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling, whose imaginative depictions have greatly contributed to the West's romantic and exotic picture of the Orient. Drawing on his own experiences as an Arab Palestinian living in the West, Said examines how these ideas can be a reflection of European imperialism and racism.

Edward W. Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian-American cultural critic and author, born in Jerusalem and educated in Egypt and the United States. His other books include The Question of Palestine, Culture and Imperialism and Out of Place: A Memoir.
 

Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism

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In this 1998 book, Meyda Yegenoglu investigates the intersection between post-colonial and feminist criticism, focusing on the Western fascination with the veiled women of the Orient. She examines the veil as a site of fantasy and of nationalist ideologies and discourses of gender identity, analyzing travel literature, anthropological and literary texts to reveal the hegemonic, colonial identity of the desire to penetrate the veiled surface of 'otherness'. Representations of cultural difference and sexual difference are shown to be inextricably linked, and the figure of the Oriental woman to have functioned as the veiled interior of Western identity.

Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film

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Using Edward Said's framework - and developments in colonialist and post-colonialist studies - to investigate orientalism in the cinemas of France, England and America, the contributors draw upon feminist analysis, genre criticism, psychoanalytic interpretation and political history. Starting with a demonstration of how colonialist and patriarchal ideologies interrelate in orientalist narrative films, following chapters explore camp and orientalism in selected musicals: the "family romance of orientalism" in "Madame Butterfly" and "Indochine", and Disney's "Aladdin" as a mirror of America's shifting perceptions of the Muslim world. The contributors include Dudley Andrew, Matthew Bernstein, Phebe Chao and Mary Hamer.