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"Van Haute's exegesis of Lacan's essay is as lucid as it is cogent--an admirable (and very illuminating) achievement." -William Richardson
The different psychopathologic syndromes show in an exaggerated and caricatural manner the basic structures of human existence. These structures not only characterize psychopathology, but they also determine the highest forms of culture. This is the credo of Freud's anthropology. This anthropology implies that humans are beings of the in-between. The human being is essentially tied up between pathology and culture, and 'normativity' cannot be defined in a theoretically convincing manner. The authors of this book call this Freudian anthropology a patho-analysis of existence or a clinical anthropology. This anthropology gives a new meaning to the Nietzschean dictum that the human being is a 's...
Confusion of Tongues describes the genesis of Freud's clinical anthropology. A careful reading of Freud's early texts and letters to Fliess illustrates how Freud abandons his seduction theory of the neuroses in favor of a sexual biology. The meaning and the implications of this 'biological turn' are made clear through an analysis of Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, first published in 1905. This 'biological turn' leads to three mutually dependent claims that are fundamental to Freud's project of a clinical anthropology: the primacy of (infantile) sexuality, the discontinuity between the world of the adult and the world of the child, and the continuity between 'normality' (psyc...
Deconstructing Normativity? brings together a unique collection of chapters in which an international selection of contributors reflect on the fundamental and often very radical ideas present in Freud’s original 1905 edition of the Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. The book has three aims: the contextualization of the text, the reconstruction of its central ideas and the further philosophical reflection of the contemporary relevance and critical potential of the 1905 edition. The authors challenge mainstream interpretations of the Three Essays, generally based on readings of the final 1924 edition of the text, and of the development of Freudian thought: including, most importantly, ...
Sigmund Freud’s 1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a founding text of psychoanalysis and yet it remains to a large extent an "unknown" text. In this book Freud’s 1905 theory of sexuality is reconstructed in its historical context, its systematic outline, and its actual relevance. This reconstruction reveals a non-oedipal theory of sexuality defined in terms of autoerotic, non-objectal, physical-pleasurable activities originating from the "drive" and the excitability of erogenous zones. This book, consequently, not only calls for a reconsideration of the development of Freudian thinking and of the status of the Oedipus complex in psychoanalysis but also has a strong potential...
A deep dive into the influences of Hegelian thought on the work of revolutionary and postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon Hegel is most often mentioned – and not without good reason – as one of the paradigmatic exponents of Eurocentrism and racism in Western philosophy. But his thought also played a crucial and formative role in the work of one of the iconic thinkers of the ‘decolonial turn’, Frantz Fanon. This would be inexplicable if it were not for the much-quoted ‘lord-bondsman’ dialectic – frequently referred to as the ‘master-slave dialectic’ – described in Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit. Fanon takes up this dialectic negatively in contexts of violence-riven (post-)slavery and colonialism; yet in works such as Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth he upholds a Hegelian-inspired vision of freedom. The essays in this collection offer close readings of Hegel’s text, and of responses to it in the work of twentieth-century philosophers, that highlight the entangled history of the translations, transpositions and transformations of Hegel in the work of Fanon, and more generally in colonial, postcolonial and decolonial contexts.
The relationship between sexuality and psychoanalysis can be described in terms of an old and stormy love affair. The same can be said about the relationship between psychoanalysis and philosophy. It is precisely this fascinating 'love triangle' that the present volume of essays aims to explore. A diverse group of philosophers and psychoanalysts reflected on the concept of sexuality in Freudo-Lacanian psychoanalysis. The result is a stimulating collection of essays where the role of sexuality in psychoanalysis is scrutinized from a philosophical point of view.
Sigmund Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle stands as a foundational text in psychoanalysis, delving into profound questions about life, death, pleasure and pain. Through a combination of contextualising and philosophical contributions, this critical edition and commentary sheds new light on Freud’s text. In a series of contributions spanning approaches from historical exegesis to philosophical reflections on key concepts and ideas presented in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the evolution and inconsistencies found in the various versions of the text are highlighted. Particular emphasis is placed on the conceptualisation of trauma and drive theory. These commentaries also provide contex...
Figures of the Unconscious 7In Origins and Ends of the Mind, a collection of theoretical essays by philosophers and psychoanalysts, encounters are arranged between Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis on the one hand and attachment theory, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy of mind on the other. Psychoanalysts claim that states of mind are inexorably structured by children's relationships with their parents. But the theory of attachment, evolutionary psychology, and contemporary philosophy of mind have all recently reintroduced the claim that mental development and pathology are to a large degree determined by innate factors. Today, Lacanian psychoanalysis most vigorously defends psychoanalytic theory and practice from the encroachment of the biomedical and cognitive sciences. However, classical psychoanalytic theories--the Oedipus complex, primary and secondary repression, sexual difference, and the role of symbols--are being dismantled and reintegrated into a new synthesis of biological and psychological theories.
This book makes clear that the problem of seduction and suggestion raises major psychoanalytic, and more generally philosophical problems that are still of great importance for the self-understanding of contemporary humankind.