Rhetoric Society Quarterly Apr 2008

Identification: Burke and Freud on Who You Are

Diane Davis The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Kenneth Burke bases his theory of identification on Freud's; however, whereas Burke insists that identification is a symbolic act that therefore remains available for conscious critique and reasoned adjustment, Freud reflects on an affective identification that precedes the distinction between “self” and “other.” This nonrepresentational identification—Freud sometimes calls it “primary identification”—remains stubbornly on the motion side of the action/motion loci, impervious to symbolic intervention. This article argues that Freud's scattered insights on primary identification undercut any theory of relationality grounded in representation, and therefore any hope of securing a crucial distance between self and other through conscious critique. It further argues that Freud's theory on identification presents rhetorical studies with a distinctly unBurkean challenge: to begin exploring the sorts of rhetorical analyses that become possible only when identification is no longer presumed to be compensatory to division.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2008-04-15
DOI
10.1080/02773940701779785
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Topics
modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (19)

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  2. Olson (2019)
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  9. Reeves (2014)
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  10. Kraemer (2013)
    Between Motion and Action: The Dialectical Role of Affective Identification in …
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  11. Reeves (2013)
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  12. Borrowman et al. (2011)
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CrossRef global citation count: 30 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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