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Reading fiction and the psychoanalytic experience: Proust on reading and on reading Proust
1Wspmd@erols.com
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
|January 10, 2004
Abstract:
Reading can at times engage one emotionally and entail inner psychological experiences in ways akin to those in clinical psychoanalysis. In that light, after a general introduction regarding the import of reading, attention is turned to Proust, Freud's literary complement, as an exemplary instance to illustrate those similarities. Ideas of Proust on reading are followed by thoughts on reading Proust, with the ending of Proust's masterpiece used to illustrate a parallel to termination in clinical psychoanalytic experience.
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