Ab-reactive Ethics: The (Un)faithful's Psychic Constellation in The Protestant Ethic

Abstract:This article seeks to understand how four concepts introduced by Max Weber to the second edition of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism are employed to identify and describe what can be called the psychic constellation of the ideal-typical Reformed Protestant. As will be demonstrated, two of these concepts, taken in their rigorous sense, were first developed by Freudian psychoanalysis (ab-reaction and anxiety), while the other two (disenchantment of the world and psychological premiums) are originally Weberian. The aim is both to propose an alternative understanding of Weber's thesis (different from today's predominant Kantian interpretation of it) and to investigate the still poorly explored affinity between Weberian sociology and Freudian psychoanalysis.