Psychoanalysis in George Tarabishi’s Arab Intellectuals and Heritage: The psychanalysis of a Collective Neurosis

Abstract

The study analyzes George Tarabishi's deployment of psychoanalytic concepts (collective neurosis, regression, psychosis) in "Arab Intellectuals and Heritage" to deconstruct post-1967 Arab intelligentsia discourse.

It employs a critical-analytical methodology, comparing Freudian /Jungian frameworks with their Arab applications, while identifying issues of overgeneralization and conceptual conflation.

Central questions probe the accuracy of "collective neurosis" versus Jung's "collective unconscious," and the suitability of "regression" for describing Nahda discourse.

It also examines distinctions between neurosis (id repression) and psychosis (reality withdrawal) in Tarabishi's readings of thinkers like Qasim Amin and Hassan Hanafi.