From shutting up to letting talk. Freudian Reflections on Science and Democracy

Abstract

In this work we present a psychoanalytical and philosophical reflection on democracy, based mainly on Sigmund Freud’s legacy. In the first section, we try to fundament why psychoanalysis is incompatible with fascism and, conversely, why this discipline only works in the environment of the Rule of Law. Simultaneously, the democratic core of psychoanalysis reveals its coherence with the scientific will manifested by its maker, even while testing canonical representations and demolishing some idealistic illusions about “democracy” and “science”. In the second part, we aim at extracting from psychoanalysis, and from some philosophy related to it, some clues to re-think contemporary democratic culture. Freudian developments lead to a radicalization of the basic idea of freedom of speech, disclosing some threats that may turn it into a narcotic declaration of principles which would be exhausted in itself.