Freud avec DuBois. The »Soul« of Psychoanalysis

This lecture will look at Freud’s critique of the subject in his first three books on the unconscious (1900–1905) in conjunction and in tandem with DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk (1903) in order to articulate a critique of normative Wissenschaft and Bildung that emerges through a Freudo-DuBoisian lens. This is paired with exploring renewed insights from both thinkers around 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Darkwater, respectively. This talk will attempt to think together how Freud’s »unconscious« and DuBois’ »double consciousness« are not just psychological concepts, but methods of socio-cultural critique which try to displace normative assumptions of the ›human‹ and its concept of history (Walter Benjamin). While this lecture looks at the possible relation between Freud and DuBois, it will also question psychoanalysis’ relationship to relationality as such: for example, what is the nature of solidarity or analogy in psychoanalysis?