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Kenneth Li

Euro Hist.
3-28-08
Period 6th
Ch. 29 pg. 817-821

A. Birth of Psychoanalysis
1) Determination to problem beneath surface on public appearances united
major figures in late 19th century science, art, and philosophy.
i) As result of theories and discoveries, articulate educated Europeans
could never again view surface of life with smugness.
ii) No single intellectual development more clearly and stunningly
exemplified this trend than emergence of psychoanalysis through
work of Sigmund Freud.
2) In 1886 Freud opened his medical practice in Vienna, where continued to
live until driven out by Nazis.
i) In late 1885 he had studied for few months in Paris with Jean-Martin
Charcot.
3) Mid-1890s Freud changed his technique.
i) Abandoned hypnosis and allowed patients to talk freely and
spontaneously about themselves.
ii) By 1897 formulated a theory of infantile sexuality according to which
sexual drives and energy exist in infants.
iii) Human beings are creatures of sexuality from birth through adulthood.
4) Freud also examined psychic phenomena of dreams.
i) Examination led him to reconsider general nature of human mind:
Concluded that during dreams, unconscious wishes, desires and
drives.
ii) During waking hours the mind repressed or censored those wishes,
which were as important to one’s psychological makeup as
conscious thought.
5) Later books and essays, Freud continued to argue for significance of human
unconscious.
i) According to model, the mind is an arena for struggle and conflict
among 3 entities: the id, the ego, and superego.
ii) Id consists of amoral, irrational, driving instincts for sexual gratification
iii) Superego embodies external moral imperatives and expectations
imposed on personality.
iv) Ego is mediator between impulses of id and asceticism of superego.
6) Freud was son of Enlightenment.
i) He saw personalities of human beings as determined by finite physical
and mental forces.
ii) However, more fully than those predecessors, he understood immense
sacrifice of instinctual drives.
7) By 1910 had gathered around him small but highly able group of disciples.
i) Most important of these dissenters was Carl Jung, Swiss whom for
many years Freud regarded as most distinguished and promising
student.
ii) However, despite its impact on European thought and upon thinking in
U.S.
IV. Transformation in Political and Social Thought
A. Retreat from Rationalism in Politics
1) Both 19th century liberals and 19th century socialists agreed that society and
politics could be guided.
i) Improvement of society and human condition was possible through
education.
ii) Political scientists and sociologists painted politics as frequently
irrational.
2) During this period one major social theorist remained profoundly impressed
by role of reason in human society.
i) According to this view rationalization displayed itself in both
development of scientific knowledge.
ii) Bureaucrization involved extreme division of labor, requiring
individuals to fit themselves into particular small role.
iii) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber traced much
of rational character of capitalist enterprise to ascetic religious
doctrines of Puritanism.
3) In emphasizing individual and dominant role of rationality, Weber differed
from many contemporary social scientists.
i) Believed crowds abandoned rational behavior.
ii) Durkheim and Wallas became deeply interested in necessity of shared
values and activities.
iii) Besides playing down function of reason of society, these theorists
emphasized role of collective groups.
B. Racial Theory
1) Same tendencies to question or even deny constructive activity of reason in
human affairs.
i) Since at least 18th century, biologists and anthropologists had classified
human beings according to color of skin, language, and style of
civilizations.
ii) During Romantic period, writers called different cultures ofEurope
“races.”
2) Arthur de Gobineau, a reactionary French diplomat, enunciated first
important theory of race as major determinant of human history.
i) It had unwisely intermarried with inferior yellow and black races, thus
diluting greatness and ability that originally existed in blood.
3) Gobineau’s essay remained relatively obscure for years.
i) The recognition of the animal nature of humankind made racial idea all
the more persuasive.
ii) Houston Stewart Chamberlain championed concept of biological
determinism through race, but was somewhat more optimistic than
Gobineau.
iii) He pointed to Jews as major enemy of European racial regeneration.
C. Anti-Semitism and the Birth of Zionism
1) Political and racial anti-Semitism, which cast dark shadows across 20th
century.
i) Since French Revolution western European Jews had gradually gained
entry into civil life of Britain, France, and Germany.
ii) In Vienna Mayor Karl Lueger used this kind of anti-Semitism as major
attraction to successful Christian Socialist Party.
2) Racial thought contributed belief that no matter to what extent Jews
assimilated themselves.
i) Problem of race wasn’t in character but in blood of Jew.
ii) The conviction in 1895 as mayor of Vienna convinced him that liberal
politics and institutions of liberal state could not protect Jews in
Europe or ensure that they would be treated justly.
iii) Original call to Zionism thus combined a rejection of anti-Semitism of
Europe with desire to establish some of ideals of both liberalism
and socialism in state outside Europe.
D. Late-Century Nationalism
1) Racial thinking and revived anti-Semitism were part of wider late century
aggressive nationalism.
i) Liberal nationalists hoped to redraw map of Europe to reflect ethnic
boundaries.
ii) Various national groups of Habsburg Empire had also sought
emancipation from Austrian domination.
2) From 1870s onward, nationalism became movement with mass support,
well-financed organizations, and political parties.
i) New nationalism opposed the internationalism of both liberalism and
socialism.
ii) It sometimes became secular religion in hands of state school teachers,
who were replacing clergy as instructors of youth.
V. Women and Modern Thought
1) Despite often radically new ideas about the world and society that shook
European thought after 1850, views of women and roles in society
remain unchanged.
A. Antifeminism in Late-Century Thought
1) Much of biological thought that challenged religious ideas and received
wisdom in science actually reinforced traditional view of women as
creatures weaker and less able than men.
i) Whatever social changes were to be wrought through science,
significant changes in organization of home.
2) Conservative and hostile understanding of women manifested itself in many
ways within scientific community.
i) T.H. Huxley, great defender of Darwin took lead in exclusion as he had
in previous exclusion of women from meetings of Geological
Society.
ii) Karl Vogt held views of finding evidence of women being inferior to
men.
iii) Darwin would repeat ideas of both Huxley and Vogt in his Descent of
Man.
3) Position of women in Freud’s thought always been controversial.
i) Saw natural destiny of women as motherhood and greatest fulfillment
as rearing of sons.
ii) Distinguished women psychoanalysts would later sharply challenge
Freud’s views on women.
iii) Since psychology would increasingly influence child-rearing practices
and domestic relations law in 20th century.
4) Social sciences of era similarly reinforced traditional gender roles.
i) Auguste Comte portrayed women as biologically and intellectually
inferior to men.
ii) Max Weber favored improvements in social condition of women but
didn’t really support significant changes.
B. New Directions in Feminism
1) Feminists of turn of century demanded a rethinking of gender roles.
i) Set forth much of feminist agenda for 20th century.
C. Sexual Morality and the Family
1) Middle-class women began to challenge double standard of sexual morality
and traditional male-dominated family.
2) Between 1864 and 1886 English prostitutes subject to Contagious Diseases
Acts.
i) Police would require identification of any women suspected as prostitute
ii) Can find out if they have venereal diseases and can lock them up in
women’s hospital.
3) Laws angered English middle-class women who believed that working
conditions and poverty imposed on many working-class women were
true causes of prostitution.
i) Saw poor women being made victims of same kind of discrimination
that prevented themselves from entering universities and
professions.
ii) Laws literally took women’s bodies from own control and put them
under control of male customers, medical men, and police.
4) By 1869 Ladies’ National Association for Repeal of Contagious Diseases
Acts, distinctly middle-class organization led by Josephine Butler.
i) In Vienna during 1890s General Austrian Women’s Association
combated introduction of legally regulated prostitution.
5) Feminist groups that demanded abolition of laws that punished prostitutes
without questioning behavior of customers were challenging double
standard and traditional relationship of men and women in marriage.
i) In Germany, Mothers’ Protection League contended that both married
and unmarried mothers required help of state.
ii) In Sweden, Ellen Key maintained that motherhood was one of women’s
chief roles and was crucial to society that the government, rather than
husbands, should support mothers and children.
6) Virtually all turn-of-the-century feminists in one way or another supported
wider sexual freedom for women.
i) Hoped that limiting number of children would allow more healthy and
intelligent children to survive.
D. Women Defining Their Own Lives
1) For Josephine Butler and Auguste Ficke achieving legal and social equality
for women would be one step toward transforming Europe from male-
dominated society to one in which both men and women could
control own destinies.
i) Increasingly, feminists would concentrate on freeing and developing
women’s personalities through better education.
2) Some women also became active within socialist circles.
i) Socialist parties usually had all-male leadership.
ii) Nonetheless, socialist writings began to include calls for improving
economic situation of women that were compatible with more
advanced feminist ideals.
3) It was within literary circles, however, that feminist writers often clearly
articulated problems that they now understood themselves to face.
i) Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own became one of fundamental texts of
20th century feminist literature.
ii) Woolf was concerned with more than asserting right of women to
participate in intellectual life.
iii) As she had challenged some of literary conventions of traditional novel
in her fiction.

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