Elias Canetti and psychoanalysis

This paper, based on Raquel Kleinman's Elias Canetti: Lights and Shadows, attempts to clarify the curious relationships between Canetti and Freud. In his works, Canetti does not miss any opportunity to attack Freud or his movement. At the same time, however, Canetti's thought flows parallel to fundamental psychoanalytic principles. The cited work examines the relationship with Freud as a `counter-model' from a psychoanalytic perspective: Canetti's early loss of his father and the resulting deficiency he developed in later relationships with paternal figures. Examples include positive tutors and models such as Kraus, Broch and Sonne. This article presents results of a comparative study between the theories of Freud and Canetti on human nature and the mental apparatus. The many similarities between Canetti and the psychoanalytic thought indicate that contrary to what his frequent attacks against it might suggest, Canetti is far from being an enemy of the discipline. There are "small differences", which include not avowed similarities by Canetti, but also "large differences" where Canetti's thought separates from Freud's, though less from his followers', Klein and Bion, with whom Canetti shares many basic ideas.