On Transience
{{Short description|1916 essay by Sigmund Freud}}
"On Transience" ({{Langx|de|Vergänglichkeit}}) is a philosophical essay by Sigmund Freud. It consists of a dialogue between Freud and Rainer Maria Rilke in which they discuss the meaning of transience. It was written in November 1915 and published the next year.{{sfnm|1a1=Lear|1y=2021|2a1=Razinsky|2y=2015}}
Content
Freud frames the essay as a dialogue between him and Rainer Maria Rilke (referred to as "the poet" throughout).{{Sfn|Lear|2021}} He reflects upon a most likely fictitious walk the pair went on, reportedly in the summer of 1913.{{Sfnm|1a1=Lear|1y=2021|2a1=Lehmann|2y=1966}} Freud refers to a discussion they had (possibly in September of that year) on the matter of transience of which they had differing perceptions.{{Sfnm|1a1=Lear|1y=2021|2a1=Lehmann|2y=1966}} Rilke found the transience of life disheartening whereas Freud viewed it as engendering value and beauty.{{Sfn|Lehmann|1966}}
Interpretations
Written during the midst of World War I, Jonathan Lear interpreted the essay as a response to the war's upheaval, describing it as "the problem that haunts it from the beginning", as well as mediation upon "a phenomenon that marks the human condition"; Lear did consider Freud's psyche more salient to the essay's conception than the mediation itself, writing that "This is not a thoughtful engagement between two serious people about the meaning of transience in human life: it is a polarized stand-off between caricatured figures in Freud’s imagination", a by-product of recent disillusionment.{{Sfn|Lear|2021}} The psychoanalyst Matthew Von Unwerth described the essay as a "portrait in miniature of the world of [Freud]".{{sfn|Unwerth|2006|p=6}}
Frances Wilson observed that Rilke and Freud represent passion and reason respectively.{{sfn|Wilson|2006}}
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{Cite journal |last=Lear |first=Jonathan |date=2021 |title=Transience and hope: A return to Freud in a time of pandemic |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2021.1875836 |journal=The International Journal of Psychoanalysis |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=3–15 |doi=10.1080/00207578.2021.1875836 |issn=0020-7578 |pmid=33952008|s2cid=231878304 |url-access=subscription }}
- {{Cite journal |last=Lehmann |first=Herbert |date=1966 |title=A Conversation between Freud and Rilke |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/21674086.1966.11926399 |journal=The Psychoanalytic Quarterly |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=423–427 |doi=10.1080/21674086.1966.11926399 |pmid=5328702 |issn=0033-2828|url-access=subscription }}
- {{Cite journal |last=Razinsky |first=Liran |date=2015 |title=On Time, Transience and Literary Creation: Freud and Rilke a Century Ago |url=https://academic.oup.com/fmls/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fmls/cqv056 |journal=Forum for Modern Language Studies |language=en |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=464–479 |doi=10.1093/fmls/cqv056 |issn=0015-8518|url-access=subscription }}
- {{Cite book |last=Unwerth |first=Matthew von |title=Freud's Requiem: Mourning, Memory, and the Invisible History of a Summer Walk |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=9781441120274 }}
- {{Cite web |last=Wilson |first=Frances |date=2006-04-28 |title=Review: Freud's Requiem by Matthew von Unwerth |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/highereducation.biography |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}