From the Oceanic Sensation to the Feeling of Being Alive

In shedding light on the unconscious laws which govern human desire and sexuality, psychoanalysis has obscured another means of knowledge of oneself. The discussion between Romain Rolland and Freud about the «oceanic feeling» shows the fundamental relationship a person can have with nature and the elements surrounding us: with the universal. This relationship is dominated by a feeling of participation, of immediacy of contact with the infinite, the all-encompassing one-ness described in religious experience, even in the absence of a defined object. Using various examples, the author insists on how much this experience is an integral part of our lives, and is vital to our mental health.