Paper short abstract:

Our research asks the multicultural perceptions of somebody by a Freudian analysis : We ask how some concepts of cultural anthropology (myths, totemism) are appropriated today by an European who talks in front of a 16th century ethnographic mask from Gabon, from the Musée du Quai Branly.

Paper long abstract:

Our PhD's investigation combines the fields of anthropology and psychoanalysis.

We first present a theoretical part each one of the two disciplines in their foundations, and we ask the links between the two sciences : the theoretical links and the epistemological links, from a review of the scientific literature, which places the authors in dialogue.

We emphasize how the question of the mythology and the question of the totemism unite and separate the two sciences, through all the receptions of the Totem and Taboo (Freud, 1912) by the anthropologists since the 1910's.

Our methodological part is a clinical praxis, based on a Freudian method.

This methodology is asking the theory developed before, proposing the picture of an African mask in front of a person, a single patient. Our patient is the only one participant. As a psychoanalyst, we listen to the speech of the person who responds to the question « what could you tell me in front of this photography ? ». We record the speech, transcribe it, and analyse the contents.

Our results appear after the clinical interviews, and after their analysis. We make the observation of singular symptoms from the person. Because from his imaginative productions, appear some unconscious processes which are universals. His perceptions reveal symbols which cross the periods and the cultures.