SIMILARITIES BETWEEN COPERNICUS AND FREUD

It is quite reasonable, in regard to several prospects, to examine the Renaissance in order to understand this 20th century science that is called Psychoanalysis. Several contemporary theoreticians do not hesitate to evoke the idea of a 'repetition, a 'Second Renaissance.'

If they are right, we can use our observation of Copernicus in order to understand Freud. It is indeed possible to compare their life and work, which show striking similarities - their theories also are alike. J.Lacan (beside Freud himself who alluded to the comparison) seems to be the first one who has suggested this coincidence; I have myself followed and developed this idea.

I shall thereby try to summarize and describe part of my conclusions:

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BEFORE Copernicus, human's reason 1) had an idea of Earth - 2) Within or on this 'earth', one's imagined human's existence - 3) Far in the distance there were celestial mechanisms.

WITH Copernicus 4) Earth began to be seen as a mobile - 3) Human thought detached and began to observe it. More precisely, the human perspective began to observe earth within a background system (solar system, later, galactic).

We can make a comparison

BEFORE Freud, human's reason 1) had an idea of Thinking - 2) Within thinking one's imagined human's subjectivity - 3) far in the distance there was the divine conditioning of concepts.

WITH Freud 4) thoughts began to be seen as mobile (Saussurian linguistic[NOTE:1]) - 3) and human subjectivity detached and began to observe it (one could say 'ego cogito' became 'ego orbito'). More precisely, the human perspective began to observe the ego within a background system (society and civilization).

One can superimpose the two above paragraphs about Copernicus and Freud - their coincidence may help to understand the place of Psychoanalysis in our century; and even more..: if it means or shows that there is something of a similar nature between cosmic space and the virtual space of psyche.

You may want to find a schema - Freud draw a graph for describing the dynamic that animates the group psychology. It represents an oscillation - that may be seen besides Copernicus' rotation.

http://www.akhnaton.net/psy/soli.htm

You will be able to see - on the left (white spots) the modern subjects - and their 'ego' (red spots) which stand more or less at distance of objectivity (left) and ideology (right) - meanwhile, these 'subjects' observe their 'ego' on a background which is ideology, civilization, history (the vertical dotted line on the right).

You may also recognize - on the left the astronomers (white spots) who observe their earth (red spot) on the cosmos background (dotted line.)

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It took more than two centuries for the Copernician system to be resolved and established (with Newton). It looks like Psychoanalysis follows at the same pace. We are approx at the middle of the disclosure of this new science (with similar steps and resistance).

My personal feeling is that this similarity (Copernicus/Freud) partakes in a same discovery - first as the external solar system, then as a more internal dimension of this system; and such combinations of the two equivalent spaces (cosmic and psychic) make a platform for an ecological model.

All this may be summarized in a simple meditation if we look at the repetition of a same idea regarding the exterior, then the interior. The topology of a glove is illustrative when one turns its outside inside - the external surface (cosmos) becomes internal (psyche) and reciprocally. A major fact in this operation is that the glove turns also to fit the opposite hand - it is a second type of inversion which can illustrate the change in the culture/society, reversed drives and ideologies, that accompany the process. In the new form, we may for instance see the reversal of nearly all families condition into other necessities driven by genetics (from father lineage patriarchy to code engineering industry).