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NiclasJohansson
etratinginterpretationofSophocles)sdramaintheTraumdeutung(1900).Te
Oedipustheme,moreover,remainsquiteliterallyalivethroughoutFreud)scareer,
andretainsitsnarrativityanditsliteraryallusions.Tetermnarcissismwasnot
coinedbyFreud,butappropriatedbyhimasanalreadyexistingconcept.Fur-
thermore,FreudmakesveryfewallusionstotheNarcissustheme,andthecon-
ceptthatnarcissismturnsintoismuchmoreabstractandlacksalltraceofnar-
rativity.
AsopposedtoNarcissus,then,Oedipusretainssomeofhismythicquali-
tiesthroughouttheprocessofpsychoanalytictheorizing.Asregardstherelation
betweentheNarcissusthemeandtheconceptofnarcissisminpsychoanalysis,
Ithinkitispossibletospeakofademythologizingmoment,chronologicallycul-
minatinginthemetapsychologicalpapersof1915,wherethemythisturnedinto
ahardconceptofthetheoryofinstincts,andthen,especiallyaroundJenseitsdes
Lustprinzipsin1920,aremythologizingmomentwherethetheoryofinstincts
itselfisexposedtoamythologization.ItisforthisintuitionthatIamtryingto
findthefittingconceptualform,todescribeitandtoverifyitsvalidity.Inthis
paperIwillonlydiscussthefirstmoment,thatofdemythologization.
Tobeabletocopewiththetransitionsbetweensodińerentformsofexpres-
sionasliteratureandpsychoanalysis,Ithinkitisnecessarytoapplyaperspective
whichtakesaholisticviewofculturewhilealsoappreciatingthediscrepanciesin
thedińerentsignifyingstructuresofliteraryandpsychoanalyticdiscourse.One
perspectivewhichfulfillstheseconditionsis,Ibelieve,thatoftheculturalsemi-
oticsofJuriLotman.
TebasicideaofLotman)sculturalsemioticsisthateverysignifyingactivity
necessarilytakesplacewithinasemioticspace,orasemiosphere.Tesemiosphere
isasystemoflanguages,orcodes,whichareorganizedandcorrelatedinamore
orlesshierarchicalfashion.Twoimportantfeaturesofthesemiospherewhichwill
bepertinentinthiscontextarethatithasacentreandthatithasborders.
Tecentreholdsthedominantsemioticsystemsandisalsotheplacewhere
culturearrivesatthelevelofregulativeself-description.Atthecentre,thesemio-
sphereishighlyorganized;attheperiphery,itistoalargedegreeirregular.4Te
centrepromotestheunityofthesystemandworksasaconservativeforceinthe
dynamicsofthesemiosphere.Attheperiphery,contactswiththeoutsideand
distancefromtheconservativeforcesthatupholdthehierarchicalorganization
betweenlanguagesacceleratesemioticprocessesandbreakuptheorganization.
Teforcesfromcentreandperiphery,thoseofunityanddiversity,hierarchyand
anarchy,togetherdeterminethedynamicsofthesemiosphere.
Tebordershouldbethoughtofasamembranewhichmediatesbetweenthe
semioticandtheextra-semiotic.Lotmanwritesthat
4JuriLotman,“OntheSemiosphere,”SignSystemsStudies33(2005):205-29,trans.Wilma
Clark,214.