The Phenomenon of Odors in Psychoanalytic Theory & Practice

Student: Natalia Briginskaya

Educational Programme: Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Business Consulting (Master)

Final Grade: 10

Year of Graduation: 2024

This article examines the aspect of the influence of smells on the formation of the subject's mental apparatus from birth. Examples from the practice of Sigmund Freud show that the significance of smells during the fixation of traumatic experiences is of great importance for the further functioning of the subject, and possibly even the transmission of smells in the transgenerational history of the family. Thus, it is proposed to pay attention to the undeservedly overshadowed sense of smell, which is equally or sometimes even more important for both the mental and physical health of a person.

Full text (added May 26, 2024)

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses