Oedipal God

Oedipal God offers the most comprehensive account in any language of the prodigal deity Nezha. Celebrated for over a millennium, Nezha is among the most formidable and enigmatic of all Chinese gods. In this theoretically informed study Meir Shahar recounts Nezha’s riveting tale—which culminates in suicide and attempted patricide—and uncovers hidden tensions in the Chinese family system. In deploying the Freudian hypothesis, Shahar does not imply the Chinese legend’s identity with the Greek story of Oedipus. For one, in Nezha’s story the erotic attraction to the mother is not explicitly acknowledged. More generally, Chinese oedipal tales differ from Freud’s Greek prototype by the high degree of repression that is applied to them. Shahar argues that, despite a disastrous father-son relationship, Confucian ethics require that the oedipal drive masquerade as filial piety in Nezha’s story, dictating that the child-god kill himself before trying to avenge himself upon his father. Combining impeccable scholarship with an eminently readable style, the book covers a vast terrain: It surveys the image of the endearing child-god across varied genres from oral and written fiction, through theater, cinema, and television serials, to Japanese manga cartoons. It combines literary analysis with Shahar’s own anthropological field work, providing a thorough ethnography of Nezha’s flourishing cult. Crossing the boundaries between China’s diverse religious traditions, it tracks the rebellious infant in the many ways he has been venerated by Buddhist monks, Daoist priests, and possessed spirit mediums, whose dramatic performances have served to negotiate individual, familial, and collective tensions. Finally, the book offers a detailed history of the legend and the cult reaching back over two thousand years to its origins in India, where Nezha began as a mythological being named Nalakūbara, whose sexual misadventures were celebrated in the Sanskrit epics as early as the first centuries BCE. Here Shahar reveals the long-term impact that Indian mythology has exerted—through the medium of esoteric Buddhism—upon the Chinese imagination of divinity. A tour de force of literary analysis, ethnographic research, psychological insight, and cross-cultural investigation, Oedipal God is a must read for anyone interested in Chinese studies and the historical connection between India and China. Shahar’s broad reach and engaging approach will appeal to specialists and students in a variety of disciplines including Chinese religion, Chinese literature, anthropology, Buddhist studies, psychology, Indian studies, and cross-cultural history.

Radical Claims in Freudian Psychoanalysis: Point/Counterpoint, edited by M. Andrew Holowchak, features pro and con essays on some of the most extreme Freudian claims, including the Freudian unconscious and the Oedipus complex. The format of this volume allows for a close examination of the contentious issues in some of the most radical claims of Freud's psychoanalysis from different viewpoints.

All over the world, millions of people attend services every week, and most of them will hear sermons. What happens between the sermon and the listener? Does the sermon become meaningful to listeners? The present study in the fields of practical theology, homiletics, and psychology of religion combines quantitative and qualitative methods to offer an empirically-based approach to the study of preaching. Highlighting the psychological factors influencing how a sermon is heard, this study draws theoretical insight from the works of D.W. Winnicott, A.-M. Rizzuto and D. Bonhoeffer in its examination of the relationship between the meaning of the sermon and the hearer's God image, personality, and affective state.

Utilizing both clinical material based on the life histories of twenty patients and theoretical insights from the works of Freud, Erikson, Fairbairn, and Winnicott, Ana-Maria Rizzuto examines the origin, development, and use of our God images. Whereas Freud postulated that belief in God is based on a child's idea of his father, Rizzuto argues that the God representation draws from a variety of sources and is a major element in the fabric of one's view of self, others, and the world.

While the term midrash--from the Hebrew darash, searched or interpreted--can refer to both legal and extralegal scriptural exegesis, it most commonly refers to symbolic legends, stories, and parables used to make moral or ethical concepts accessible to the layman. As such, midrash encompasses an open-ended method of exposition that often allows for the coexistence of seemingly contradictory interpretations of holy writ in a kind of dialogue with each other. In Rewriting the Self, Mordechai Rotenberg illustrates how "midrashic" dialogue between a person's past and present may assist in the reorganization of ostensibly contrasting conditions or positions, so that by reinterpreting a failing past according to future aspirations, cognitive discord may be reduced and one may begin to rehabilitate and enhance one's life. Rotenberg argues that the foundations of what he calls a "dialogic" psychology of progress, as well as a pluralistic, free choice approach to psychotherapy, may be identified in Judaism's midrashic "metacode." From a practical, therapeutic perspective, a teacher or therapist would no longer be an elite interpreter of a student or client's past, authorized to give the only authentic analysis of that person's problems. Rather, he would be able to offer a variety of options, both rational and emotional. In Rewriting the Self, Rotenberg demonstrates his theory with several case studies of "rewriting" oneself from both the Midrash and Talmud. He contrasts this method with other psychotherapies. This volume is the third in a trilogy (the previous two, Damnation and Deviance and Hasidic Psychology, are also published by Transaction) that seeks to present a "dialogistic" psychology as an alternative framework to the perspective that predominates in Western social sciences. It is an original work that will be welcomed by psychotherapists, social scientists, and students of theology.

‘A major philosophical work by perhaps the most brilliant philosophical mind at work in France today.' Fredric Jameson Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII. He was a key figure in poststructuralism, and one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. Félix Guattari (1930-1992) was a psychoanalyst at the la Borde Clinic, as well as being a major social theorist and radical activist. Anti-Oedipus is part of Deleuze and Guattari's landmark philosophical project, Capitalism and Schizophrenia - a project that still sets the terms of contemporary philosophical debate. Anti-Oedipus is a radical philosophical analysis of desire that shows how we can combat the compulsion to dominate ourselves and others. As Michel Foucault says in his Preface it is an ‘Introduction to Non-Fascist Living'. Preface by Michel Foucault. Translated by Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane

While atheists such as Richard Dawkins have now become public figures, there is another and perhaps darker strain of religious rebellion that has remained out of sight--people who hate God. In this revealing book, Bernard Schweizer looks at men and women who do not question God's existence, but deny that He is merciful, competent, or good. Sifting through a wide range of literary and historical works, Schweizer finds that people hate God for a variety of reasons. Some are motivated by social injustice, human suffering, or natural catastrophes that God does not prevent. Some blame God for their personal tragedies. Schweizer concludes that, despite their blasphemous thoughts, these people tend to be creative and moral individuals, and include such literary lights as Friedrich Nietzsche, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Rebecca West, Elie Wiesel, and Philip Pullman. Schweizer shows that literature is a fertile ground for God haters. Many authors, who dare not voice their negative attitude to God openly, turn to fiction to give vent to it. Indeed, Schweizer provides many new and startling readings of literary masterpieces, highlighting the undercurrent of hatred for God. Moreover, by probing the deeper mainsprings that cause sensible, rational, and moral beings to turn against God, Schweizer offers answers to some of the most vexing questions that beset human relationships with the divine.

Presented in clear, comprehensible language, this study first explains the aspects of psychoanalytic theory relevant to the understanding of Greek myth, and then interprets, using psychoanalytic methodology, the Greek myth of origin and succession, particularly as stated in Hesiod's Theogony. Caldwell's provocative study will appeal to a wide range of classicists, teachers and students of mythology, and those interested in the application of psychoanalytic methods to literature.