Career
Money-Kyrle was born inThe speeches were not particularly impressive. But the crowd was unforgettable. The people seemed gradually to lose their individuality and to become fused into a not very intelligent but immensely powerful monsterThe three notes described in his article "The Psychology of Propaganda" is a progression that was repeated at each rally. "Each listener felt a part of itshat was A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...under the complete control of the figure on the rostrum hoevoked or changed its passions as easily as if they had been notes of some gigantic organ.
For ten minutes we heard of the sufferings of Germany . . . since the war. The monster seemed to indulge in an orgy of self-pity. Then for the next ten minutes came the most terrific fulminations against Jews and Social-democrats as the sole authors of these sufferings. Self-pity gave place to hate; and the monster seemed on the point of becoming homicidal. But the note was changed once more; and this time we heard for ten minutes about the growth of the Nazi party, and how from small beginnings it had now become an overpowering force. The monster became self-conscious of its size, and intoxicated by the belief in its own omnipotence. . . . Hitler ended . . . on a passionate appeal for all Germans to unite.Returning to England he attended University College London and pursued his second PhD - in anthropology - under the direction of John Carl Flügel. His thesis entitled "The Meaning of Sacrifice", was presented and defended in 1929. On the basis of this first psychoanalytic work he was elected a fellow of the
Work
Basic Facts of Life
Roger Money-Kyrle is well-known for his concept of the ''basic facts of life'', which to him are three undeniable facts that characterize human existence. These are: # A person's initial dependence on the mother's breast -- "the breast as a supremely good object"; # The exclusion from the primal scene -- "the parents' intercourse as a supremely creative act"; # The inevitability of time's progression and death. Each of these are insults to the narcissistic constitution of the self, since they express dependency, exclusion, and reduction. As such they make for intense psychic obsessions. These facts are inter-related. If a person's relationship to the maternal breast had been a positive one, then it will be easier for that person to "''conceptualize his parents' intercourse as a supremely creative act ..because he will have had much less incentive to construct a misconception of intercourse as a by-product of fantasies of projective identification.''" The presence of a good-enough breast facilitates the mourning for the child-parent marriage that can never be. The first two facts of life are of particular analytic importance, since they arrive as pre-conceptions in our lives and their transformation into conceptions is subject to analytic treatment. If mourning of the loss of the maternal breast is successful, the child can move through the Oedipus complex, recognize the parents' intercourse as creative and internalize it as a template for a marriage of its own. Ultimately, the recognition of these three facts also delimits the self-analytic function of a person who was once an analysand. For the self-analytic function operates in an omnipotent way, as it gives rises to the "megalomanic delusion of parthenogenic creativity," rather, all one can do, "''is to allow your internal parents to come together and they will beget and conceive the child.''"Money-Kyrle, Roger (1971). "The Aims of Psychoanalysis". In Meltzer, Donald (ed.). The Collected Papers of Roger Money-Kyrle. p. 442.Publications
* 1929 ''The Meaning of Sacrifice'' * ** 1941 “The Psychology of Propaganda” ** 1968 “Cognitive Development” ** 1971 “The Aim of Psychoanalysis” * 1951 ''Psychoanalysis and Politics: a Contribution to the Psychology of Politics and Morals'', Duckworth, 1951. * 1961 ''Man's Picture of His World: A Psycho-analytic Study. International Universities Press, 1961Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Money-Kyrle, Roger British psychoanalysts Analysands of Sigmund Freud Analysands of Ernest Jones Analysands of Melanie Klein 20th-century psychologists People from Hertfordshire (before 1965) 1898 births 1980 deaths Royal Flying Corps soldiers Military personnel from Hertfordshire British Army personnel of World War I