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In a 1927 letter to
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
,
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
coined the phrase "oceanic feeling" to refer to "a sensation of '
eternity
Eternity, in common parlance, means Infinity, infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas ...
, a feeling of "
being one with the external world as a whole", inspired by the example of
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...
, among other mystics.
According to Rolland, this feeling is the source of all the religious energy that permeates in various religious systems, and one may justifiably call oneself religious on the basis of this oceanic feeling alone, even if one renounces every belief and every illusion. Freud discusses the feeling in his ''
Future of an Illusion'' (1927) and ''
Civilization and Its Discontents
''Civilization and Its Discontents'' is a book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It was written in 1929 and first published in German in 1930 as ''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'' ("The Uneasiness in Civilization"). Exploring what Fre ...
'' (1929). There he deems it a fragmentary vestige of a kind of consciousness possessed by an infant who has not yet differentiated themself from other people and things.
[Freud, Sigmund. '']Civilization and Its Discontents
''Civilization and Its Discontents'' is a book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It was written in 1929 and first published in German in 1930 as ''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'' ("The Uneasiness in Civilization"). Exploring what Fre ...
''
pp. 11–13
History
On December 5, 1927,
Rolland
Rolland is a surname and masculine given name which may refer to:
Surname
* Alain Rolland (born 1966), former Irish rugby union footballer and current international referee
* Andy Rolland (born 1943), Scottish former footballer
* Antonin Rolland ...
coined the phrase in a
letter to Freud, writing that he should consider spiritual experiences, or "the oceanic feeling", in his psychological works:
In strict translation:
Rolland based his description on the example of Ramakrishna who had his first spiritual ecstasy at the age of six. From his 10th or 11th year of school on, the
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
s became common, and by the final years of his life,
Ramakrishna's ''samādhi'' periods occurred almost daily.
Rolland described the trances and
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
states experienced by
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Paramahansa ( bn, রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; , 18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886),——— — also spelled Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya,, was an In ...
and other mystics as an oceanic' sentiment", one which Rolland had also experienced. As described by Rolland, it is "a sensation of 'eternity', a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded", a "feeling of an indissoluble bond, of being one with the external world as a whole".
[ Rolland believed that the universal human religious emotion resembled this "oceanic sense". In his 1929 book ''La vie de Ramakrishna'', Rolland distinguished between the feelings of unity and eternity which Ramakrishna experienced in his mystical states, and Ramakrishna's interpretation of those feelings as the goddess ]Kali
Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hinduism, Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In t ...
.
Freud ends ''The Future of an Illusion
''The Future of an Illusion'' (german: Die Zukunft einer Illusion) is a 1927 work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which Freud discusses religion's origins, development, and its future. He provides a psychoanalysis of religion, ...
'' with a discussion of the concept, and picks up the discussion at the beginning of ''Civilization and Its Discontents
''Civilization and Its Discontents'' is a book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. It was written in 1929 and first published in German in 1930 as ''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'' ("The Uneasiness in Civilization"). Exploring what Fre ...
'', 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 the ego and exists up until the mother ceases breastfeeding. Prior to this, the infant is regularly breastfed in response to its crying and has no concept that the breast does not belong to it. Therefore, the infant has no concept of a "self
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...
" or, rather, considers the breast to be part of itself. Freud argues that those experiencing an oceanic feeling as an adult are actually experiencing a preserved primitive ego-feeling. The ego, in contrast, comes into existence when the breast is taken away, and involves the infant's recognition that it is separate from the mother's breast, and therefore, that other people exist. Freud argues that it would not necessarily contradict psychoanalytical theory for this primary ego-feeling to coexist along with the ego in some people. The main argument for this is that psychoanalytical theory holds that all thoughts are preserved in a conservation of psychic energy. Therefore, the "oceanic feeling" described as a oneness with the world or a limitlessness is simply a description of the feeling the infant has before it learns there are other persons in the world.
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. Neurotheology, on the other hand, investigates the neurological basis of religious experience
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defens ...
s, such as oneness with the universe and ecstatic trance.
Early on, Ramakrishna's spontaneous experiences have been interpreted as epileptic seizures
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
, an interpretation which was rejected by Ramakrishna himself. According to Anil D. Desai, Ramakrishna suffered from psychomotor epilepsy, also called temporal lobe epilepsy
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic disorder of the nervous system which is characterized by recurrent, unprovoked focal seizures that originate in the temporal lobe of the brain and last about one or two minutes. TLE is the most common f ...
.
These experiences can also be intentionally induced. Andrew B. Newberg
Andrew Newberg is an American neuroscientist who is a professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences and the director of research at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University Hospita ...
, Eugene G. d'Aquili
Eugene G. d'Aquili (1940-1998) was a research psychiatrist who specialized in studying members of religious communities (e.g., brain image scans).
Works
*''Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief'' (2001) with Andrew Newber ...
, and Vince Rause found that "intensely focused spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in the activity of the brain that leads one to perceive transcendent religious experiences as solid, tangible reality. In other words, the sensation that Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
call ''oneness
Oneness may refer to:
Economy
* Law of one price (LoP), an economic concept which posits that "a good must sell for the same price in all locations".
Religious philosophy
* Oneness Pentecostalism, a movement of nontrinitarian denominations
* Nond ...
with the universe''".
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. More recently black studies scholar and poet Jackie Wang
Jackie Wang is an American poet and scholar of the political economy of prisons and surveillance. In 2021 she was a National Book Award finalist in poetry for her book ''The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void''.
Biography
Jackie Wan ...
wrote about the notion of oceanic feeling in the article "Oceanic Feeling and Communist Affect," outlining its historic development through the work of Rolland
Rolland is a surname and masculine given name which may refer to:
Surname
* Alain Rolland (born 1966), former Irish rugby union footballer and current international referee
* Andy Rolland (born 1943), Scottish former footballer
* Antonin Rolland ...
and his relation to Spinoza
Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
, Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
, Kristeva, finally relating it to blackness and the trauma of the Middle Passage as discussed by Fred Moten
Fred Moten (born 1962) is an American cultural theorist, poet, and scholar whose work explores critical theory, black studies, and performance studies. Moten is Professor of Performance Studies at New York University and Distinguished Professor ...
.
See also
Explanatory notes
Citations
General and cited sources
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* ; (Macmillan Publishers edition). ; (St. Martin's Press edition)
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*
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* {{Citation , last1=Zaleski , first1=Philip , author-link1=Philip Zaleski , last2=Zaleski , first2=Carol , author-link2=Carol Zaleski , title=Prayer. A History , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DHvMpwEzMIC , year=2005 , chapter=Chapter 6 - The Ecstatic (pp. 158ff.) , chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DHvMpwEzMIC&q=%22Chapter+6+The+Ecstatic%22&pg=PA158 , publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Financial Dist ...
, location=Boston , isbn=978-0-618-15288-9
1920s neologisms
Concepts in aesthetics
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Concepts in the philosophy of mind
Criticism of religion
History of philosophy
Metaphysical theories
Metaphysics of mind
Ontology
Philosophical concepts
Philosophical theories
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of psychology
Psychoanalytic terminology
Psychological concepts
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