Metapsychology on the unconscious power of the past

Abstract

In this essay I aim to show Walter Benjamin’s main arguments about the centrality of the past for the constitution of the historical phenomenon through the recognition of its unconscious nature. To this end, I particularly highlight the interpretations that Benjamin makes of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic work, as well as of Marcel Proust’s literature. I argue that Benjamin, drawing metapsychological lessons from Freud’s oeuvre, which define his philosophical reading of Proust, presents his own metapsychology, which translates concepts from the individual sphere to the collective scope of the experience. Finally, I demonstrate the usefulness of the Benjaminian thesis that affirms the relevance of the unconscious character of historical consciousness through the tools of metapsychology.