Métapsychologie du mal. Paul Verlaine : entre alcool et religion
A Metapsychology of Evil. Paul Verlaine: Between Alcohol and Religion

Summary/Abstract: The scope of this article is to shed psychoanalytic light on the question of evil, viewed as an interpsychic site, and its consideration on the metapsychological plane. Based on the poet Paul Verlaine, we will see how a man can make an attempt to cure the evil inside of him through alcohol and religion. We proceed by examining psychoanalytical perspectives on evil, especially when it turns into sublimation. We will then demonstrate that the question of evil can be explained from the Freudian metapsychological perspective. This concerns the Ego and his relationship to the feeling of guilt and the death drive. Paul Verlaine has tried to solve psychic pain and the feeling of evil inside him by resorting to alcohol and the call of God that helped him to confess. But we will demonstrate why those two attempts of self-cure have failed.

• Details
• Contents