04/11/2019
From a book for people who appreciate insight and ideas, "The Best Chronicles of Rubem Alves":
Psychoanalysis is an eye with which we see a world different from the others. It wasn’t psychoanalysis that discovered these worlds. It had already been seen by mystics, poets, and artists since time immemorial. They saw it and turned it sensible through painting, sculpture, music, poems, songs, cathedrals, cuisine, and literary works. The genius of psychoanalysis is that it discovered that the works of art are more than works of art: They are entries into the world of the soul. A dream—the prototype of all the works of art!..
Psychoanalysis sees the body as a work of art. A work of art incarnate. Paraphrasing scripture, which says “The Word is made Flesh,” I say, “Beauty is made Body.”…But its relationship with this incarnate Beauty is the same relationship that exists between rational criticism and emotional experience. Psychoanalysis, as theory, is a rational exercise that investigates the “reasons,” the human meaning that is found in the roots of this incarnate work of art. But the emotions are in another place.
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You can "look inside" this book at amazon. And if you get the paperback, you can have the Kindle edition for free.
A collection of short essays by Brazil's most renowned philosopher, theologian, psychoanalyst, writer and professor, Rubem Alves, who died in 2014. The foreword is by his daughter, Raquel Alves, and the Introduction is by Brazilian culture critic Ana Lessa-Schmidt.