An interface between the self-body in Freudian psychoanalysis and the body itself in the phenomenology of the body

Abstract

This paper aims to show, since Freudian psychoanalysis, a possible path that leads it to meet the philosophy of phenomenological orientation. In 1923’s The ego and the id, Sigmund Freud employs a new notion that is little explored in psychoanalytic literature: the self-body (Körper-ich). The scope of our analysis is limited to the interpretation and explicitation of the notion of self-body as presented by Freud, confronting it with the phenomenology in Merleau-Ponty and Michel Henry. Therefore, we propose a four-stroke
analysis. Initially, we will highlight Freud’s understanding of the model of psychology originated in Brentano, which has as one of its developments phenomenology. Then we will show how the conception of the id, according to Freud’s own text, was decisive for him to formulate a revision of the first topic and to incorporate it into a second topic. Finally, in the last two parts, we will examine the treatment given by Merleau-Ponty and Michel Henry to the matter of the body. We conclude that the encounter between psychoanalysis and phenomenology is possible via the notion of Freudian self-body; However, such conduct will imply reformulations in central theses of psychoanalysis.