Geistigkeit: A Problematic Concept

Abstract

This paper interrogates the concept of Geistigkeit, which tends to occupy an honorific position in the psychoanalytic canon. Indeed, some authors have viewed it as the ur-value of Freud’s entire project. While the author does not deny important achievements that were entailed by the “Advance in Geistigkeit,” he also examines its negative aspects that have often been ignored, especially those pertaining to its patriarchal and misogynist biases.