Continental Psychoanalysis

This chapter combines the insights of Sigmund Freud and Theodor W. Adorno to explain some of the psychoanalytic mechanisms that contributed to a scenario where people voted for a leader who undermines their very existence. Trump successfully exploited feelings of failure of the millions of Americans who have not been able to live up to the liberal capitalist ideology of success. By replacing their ego ideal with that of their leader, Trump voters could get rid of the frustration and discontent (...) that are generated by such an ideology. The people “fell in love” with Trump, because he provided them with the illusion that they “can become great again”. Moreover, by lifting moral restrictions to being openly classist, racist and sexist, Trump generated a permanent festival where the American people can feel themselves as being better than classed, raced and gendered Others, and thus satisfied with themselves again. (shrink)

In this chapter I argue that the work of mourning of by those in (post)-crime generations for the victims of past crimes is the precondition to a) take responsibility for such crimes, b) show solidarity with the victims of crimes (such as the support of victims’ claims for reparations), and c) make sure that the crimes of the past are not repeated. Only if people engage in the painful work of mourning for the victims of past crimes can this change (...) in the level of consciousness be brought about. If mourning as a theoretical and practical concept is dismissed then people are in danger to repeat the horrors of the past. The core aim of this chapter is to get a better understanding of those factors that hinder individuals and collectives to accomplish the work of mourning. It shows that making past crimes a taboo topic interferes with the work of mourning, which is why political and social theorists must pay close attention to the connection between taboo and failures to mourn. I bring Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich in conversation with Theodor W. Adorno, Sigmund Freud, and Georgio Agamben, to defend my argument. The chapter is composed of four sections, including the introduction. (shrink)

This out-of-print, two-volume, photocopy packet, in the area of "Surrealism and the Politics of the Particular" includes readings on language, meaning, and surrealism from Adorno, Benjamin, McCumber, Breton, Heidegger, Freud, Kristeva, Ricouer, and Bataille.

In this paper, I investigate Freud’s study of infantile zoophobias. According to Freud, in nearly all cases of infantile animal phobias, the feared animal functions as a father figure. The feared animal takes on the prohibitive role as the father substitute. The substitutability of the animal and the father is crucial for Freud, as it anchors his theory regarding the familial, social, and religious structure of a patriarchal society. In light of this standard animal-father substitution, Freud’s biography of Leonardo da (...) Vinci stands out as a provocative exception. In this psychoanalytic biography, Freud examines da Vinci’s relationship with a vulture—only here the vulture is an androgynous creature that serves as a mother substitute. More significantly, unlike other accounts of infantile zoophobia, the vulture has an empowering rather than crippling effect on the infant da Vinci. With the story of the androgynous vulture, I argue that Freud’s interpretation of da Vinci opens up a new way to understand our relationships with animals—a way that not even Freud himself anticipated. In short, I analyze the significance of this deviant case of animal obsession in Freud’s corpus and its ramifications for reconceiving the human-animal relationship. (shrink)

A philosophical investigation of dealing with guilt and its impact on democracy. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt and Theodor W. Adorno, this book illustrates the relevance and applicability of a political discussion of guilt and democracy. It appropriates psychoanalytic theory to analyse court documents of Austrian Nazi perpetrators as well as recent public controversies surrounding Austria’s involvement in the Nazi atrocities and ponders how the former agents of Hitlerite crimes and contemporary Austrians have dealt with their guilt. Exposing (...) the defensive mechanisms that have been used to evade facing involvement in Nazi atrocities, Leeb considers the possibilities of breaking the cycle of negative consequences that result from the inability to deal with guilt. Leeb shows us that only by guilt can individuals and nations take responsibility for their past crimes, show solidarity with the victims of crimes, and prevent the emergence of new crimes. (shrink)

If we are to understand why psychoanalysis extends ordinary psychology in the precise ways that it does, we must take account of the existence of, and the interplay between, two distinct kinds of explanatory concern: functional and idiographic. The form and content of psychoanalytic explanation and its unusual methodology can, at least in part, be viewed as emerging out of Freud's attempt to reconcile these two types of explanatory concern. We must also acknowledge the role of the background theoretical context (...) that shapes Freud's functional thinking about the mind. A neglect of the role of the background theory in shaping the extension of ordinary psychology leaves us with puzzles about the nature and direction of the psychoanalytic extension and gives rise to an unbelievable history of psychoanalysis. (shrink)

If we are to understand why psychoanalysis extends ordinary psychology in the precise ways that it does, we must take account of the existence of, and the interplay between, two distinct kinds of explanatory concern: functional and idiographic. The form and content of psychoanalytic explanation and its unusual methodology can, at least in part, be viewed as emerging out of Freud's attempt to reconcile these two types of explanatory concern. We must also acknowledge the role of the background theoretical context (...) that shapes Freud's functional thinking about the mind. A neglect of the role of the background theory in shaping the extension of ordinary psychology leaves us with puzzles about the nature and direction of the psychoanalytic extension and gives rise to an unbelievable history of psychoanalysis. (shrink)

Literature is recognised as having significantly influenced the development of modern psychoanalytic thought. In recent years psychoanalysis has drawn increasingly on the literary and artistic traditions of western culture and moved away from its original medical–scientific context. Originally published in 1991 _The Chamber of Maiden Thought _ is an original and revealing exploration of the seminal role of literature in forming the modern psychoanalytic model of the mind. The crux of the 'post-Kleinian' psychoanalytic view of personality development lies in the (...) internal relations between the self and the mind's 'objects'. Meg Harris Williams and Margot Waddell show that these relations have their origins in the drama of identifications which we can see played out metaphorically and figuratively in literature, which presents the self-creative process in aesthetic terms. They argue that psychoanalysis is a true child of literature rather than merely the interpreter or explainer of literature, illustrating this with some examples from clinical experience, but drawing above all on close scrutiny of the dynamic mental processes presented in the work of Shakespeare, Milton, the Romantic poets, Emily Bronte and George Eliot. _The Chamber of Maiden Thought_ will encourage psychoanalytic workers to respond to the influence of literature in exploring symbolic mental processes. By bringing psychoanalysis into creative conjunction with the arts, it enables practitioners to tap a cultural potential whose insights into the human mind are of immense value. (shrink)

Literature is recognised as having significantly influenced the development of modern psychoanalytic thought. In recent years psychoanalysis has drawn increasingly on the literary and artistic traditions of western culture and moved away from its original medical–scientific context. Originally published in 1991 _The Chamber of Maiden Thought _ is an original and revealing exploration of the seminal role of literature in forming the modern psychoanalytic model of the mind. The crux of the 'post-Kleinian' psychoanalytic view of personality development lies in the (...) internal relations between the self and the mind's 'objects'. Meg Harris Williams and Margot Waddell show that these relations have their origins in the drama of identifications which we can see played out metaphorically and figuratively in literature, which presents the self-creative process in aesthetic terms. They argue that psychoanalysis is a true child of literature rather than merely the interpreter or explainer of literature, illustrating this with some examples from clinical experience, but drawing above all on close scrutiny of the dynamic mental processes presented in the work of Shakespeare, Milton, the Romantic poets, Emily Bronte and George Eliot. _The Chamber of Maiden Thought_ will encourage psychoanalytic workers to respond to the influence of literature in exploring symbolic mental processes. By bringing psychoanalysis into creative conjunction with the arts, it enables practitioners to tap a cultural potential whose insights into the human mind are of immense value. (shrink)

In his latest work, Force-Pulsion-Désir, Rudolf Bernet seeks to clarify one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, that of “drive.” He engages such authorsas Aristotle, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Freud, Husserl, Nietzsche and Lacan to better elucidate philosophically the sense of the concept of drive. The work’s argument thushighlights a kind of destiny of drive: the first moment concerns the dynamic aspect of the drive, that of force; the second is that of drive taken in its essence and truth;the third is that (...) of desire which prolongs and sublimates the drive. The path followed in this book thus goes from the non-human to the human or, if one prefers, fromnature to subject, and interrogates their interpenetration. In contrast to naturalism and historicism, Rudolf Bernet chooses to read Freud in a resolutely philosophical way, in a way that at the same time challenges our perception of the relation between philosophy and psychoanalysis. The epistemic stakes are high. Without claiming to address every implication, we briefly retrace here the overall trajectory. (shrink)

Nous envisagerons dans cet article la possibilité d'un abord pratique de la relation entre linguistique et psychanalyse : la modélisation linguistique des données mises au jour par la psychanalyse à partir de corpus tirés du discours courant. La validation de tels modèles d'après les critères requis par l'« approche logiciste » de J.-C. Gardin et J. Molino sera examinée sur un exemple précis que nous exposerons en détail : l'Analyse des Logiques Subjectives, modèle développé, publié et enseigné par nous depuis (...) près de vingt ans. (shrink)

(English then french abstract) -/- This article, which can be read by non-psychoanalysts, intends to browse in four stages through the issue offered to our thinking : two (odd-numbered) stages analyzing the argument that provides its context, and two (even-numbered) of propositions presenting our views on what could be the content of the analytic discourse in the coming years. After this introduction, a first reading will point by point but informally review the argument of J.-P. Journet by showing that each (...) of its clauses may generate a “bifurcated” comment able to serve or go against the analytic discourse. Hence the interest of the “differential diagnosis” mentioned in our title, which makes glimpse the traps that the homonymy may set to this speech. Then, to prepare a second scan which sticks neither to the analytical doxa, nor to the even authoritative opinions of our tenors and seniors, it will be proposed two attempts at redefinitions (“apophatic” and “recursive”) of what psychoanalysis is, as well as methodological tools operating downstream from these redefinitions to thwart the obstacles of “external” and “internal” homonymy (starting from a syllogism which can make consensus).The third stage will precisely be made of our second scan of the issue, whose elements will be reviewed and analyzed more methodically :“external differential diagnosis” between the analytic discourse and psychology, philosophy, sociology, and modern science, and “internal differential diagnosis” on the entanglement between theoretical advances of psychoanalysts and the repeated survival of fantasmatic elements...Finally, a fourth part will present propositions and perspectives resulting from these analysis (principle of economy as to the source of psychoanalytical theorizations; dialogue with the other fields, but without compromising; specific relations with the discourse of science), all this leading to an invitation, beyond disputes, to renew the content of the analytic discourse on some points... -/- --------------------------------------------------------------------- -/- Cet article, qui se veut lisible aux non-analystes, se propose de parcourir en quatre temps la problématique offerte à notre réflexion : deux temps (de rang impair) d'analyse de l'argument qui en fournit le contexte, et deux (de rang pair) de propositions présentant nos vues sur ce que pourrait être la teneur du discours analytique dans les prochaines années. Après cette introduction, un premier parcours réexaminera point par point mais informellement l'argument de J.-P. Journet en montrant que chacune de ses propositions peut donner lieu à un commentaire “bifide” à même de servir ou de desservir le discours analytique. D'où l'intérêt du “diagnostic différentiel” évoqué dans notre titre, qui fait entrevoir les pièges que l'homonymie peut tendre à ce discours.Puis, pour préparer un second balayage qui ne s'en tienne ni à la doxa analytique, ni aux opinions même autorisées de nos ténors et seniors, il sera proposé deux tentatives de redéfinitions (“apophatique” et “récursive”) de ce qu'est l'analyse, ainsi que des outils méthodologiques fonctionnant en aval de ces redéfinitions pour déjouer les embûches de l'homonymie “externe” et “interne” (à partir d'un syllogisme pouvant faire consensus). Le troisième temps sera fait justement de ce second balayage de la problématique, dont les éléments seront reconsidérés et analysés plus méthodiquement : “diagnostic différentiel externe” entre le discours analytique et les discours psychologique, philosophique, sociologique et celui de la science moderne ; et “diagnostic différentiel interne” portant sur l'intrication entre avancées théoriques des analystes et survivance à répétition d'éléments fantasmatiques...Enfin une quatrième partie exposera propositions et perspectives résultant de ces analyses (principe d'économie quant à la source des théorisations analytiques ; dialogue avec les autres champs, mais sans compromissions ; relations spécifiques avec le discours de la science), l'ensemble débouchant sur une invitation, au delà des différends, à renouveler sur certains points la teneur du discours analytique... (shrink)

(English, then french abstract) : -/- Fantasy, Discourse, Ideology – Transmission Beyond Propaganda. -/- Propaganda is everywhere, not only in commercials or politics. It is aimed at faraway strangers as well as nearby friends and relations. Propaganda in fact relies on a certain type of psychic structure, one that is tuned to receive it and disseminate it. This structure is a result of an unconscious subjective identification which is therefore not open to change through either cognition, argumentation or reasoning. Propaganda’s (...) form and content are best explained by an unconscious subjectivity rather than by Pavlov’s theory. The social dimension of this subjectivity may be defined by what we refer to as our ‘Analysis of Subjective Logics’ (a legacy of Lacan’s theory of the Four Discourses, which is deficient in some respects). We will first explore the various facets of the ‘Fantasy to Propagate’ by means of a word by word analysis, and will then go on to describe the connexions between Fantasy, Discourse and Ideology. We will show how a clever manipulator triggers an echo in the psyche of his victims, knitting together different and sometimes even contradictory fantasies in an unsteady synthesis he manages to maintain through patient repetition. As for psychoanalysis, it is not only possible but also highly desirable to practise it in the absence of all propaganda : among analysts, on condition that the precept of authority be outwitted, and within each analysis, by undoing the analysand’s sensitivity to suggestion. Psychoanalysis indeed does not only address the individual’s symptoms and their unravelling, but also, more ambitiously, aims to heal civilization of its discontents. This would entitle us to speak in terms of a genuine form of ‘propaganda prevention.’ -/- ---------------------- -/- Fantasme, Discours, Idéologie - D’une transmission qui ne serait pas propagande -/- La propagande se rencontre partout, pas seulement en publicité ou en politique. Avant d’être verticale et adressée aux lointains inconnus, elle est horizontale et s’adresse aux connaissances proches. C’est qu’elle repose en fait sur une structure psychique apte à la recevoir et à la répercuter, structure qui résulte de l’identification subjective, inconsciente donc non modifiable par la cognition, l’argumentation, la raison. Plutôt que par Pavlov, la forme et le contenu de la propagande s’expliquent par la subjectivité inconsciente. Celle-ci se laisse décrire dans le champ social par notre « Analyse des Logiques Subjectives » (héritière critique de la théorie des Quatre Discours de Lacan, insuffisante à maints égards). Nous passerons de l’analyse des facettes du « fantasme de propager » (par le détail des expressions qui en constituent les réalisations) à la description des rapports entre Fantasme, Discours et Idéologie : comment les habiles suscitent un écho dans le psychisme de leurs victimes en fédérant des fantasmes divers –voire opposés– dans une synthèse instable, mais que sa patiente répétition a pour effet de maintenir. En psychanalyse, transmettre sans propagande est non seulement possible mais souhaitable : horizontalement chez les analystes, à condition d’y déjouer l’argument d’autorité, et verticalement dans chaque analyse, en défaisant chez l’analysant les réseaux de suggestibilité. Car la psychanalyse, loin de se borner à la simple disparition des symptômes individuels, a pour vocation plus ambitieuse de contribuer à déconstruire le « malaise dans la civilisation ». On serait alors en droit de parler d’un authentique « prévention de la propagande ». (shrink)

Na prvi pogled se psihoanaliza in fenomenologija precej razlikujeta, kolikor zadnja nima nikakršnega koncepta nezavednega, četudi je v svojem opisovanju zavesti analogno strukturirana. Pri tem področje transcendentalne zavesti v fenomenološkem opisovanju korelira s področjem nezavednega, že zato, ker sta obe področji predmet »radikalnega« gibanja razsvetljenstva. Področje uporabe se sicer razlikuje , faktično pa, če se ozremo nazaj, sta služili obe vsakič drugemu cilju: s strukturalizmom vstopa psihoanaliza v neko novo paradigmo konstrukcije racionalnosti, fenomenološka metoda pa je v eksistencialni analizi postala (...) individualni instrument analize.At a first glance, psychoanalysis and phenomenology seem to differ largely, insofar as the latter possesses no concept of the unconscious, although it is analogously structured in its description of the unconscious. The sphere transcendental consciousness in phenomenological description correlates to the sphere of the unconscious primarily because both spheres are those of a “radical” movement of the Enlightenment. The fields of application do indeed differ ; factically, however, and retrospectively, they serve two different purposes: with structuralism, psychoanalysis enters a new paradigm of the construction of reality, whereas the phenomenological method with its existential analysis became an individual instrument of analysis. (shrink)

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;The first chapter considers the early twentieth century theories of meaning of Frege, Russell, Husserl and Wittgenstein. It argues that Frege's philosophy, particularly in the distinction between Sinn and Bedeutung is flawed by contradiction, and that the greater sophistication afforded by Husserl's phenomenology accounts for various categories of meaning which other theories must condemn as "nonsense." ;Chapter 2 discusses Husserl's distinction between "expression" and "indication" . It considers the discrepancy between his (...) contention that meaning is essentially expressive, in that it is capable of functioning in the absence of an object, and his belief that meaning requires indicativity as a guarantee of such an expressive function. This leads to a discussion of the semantic function of the work "I," which is shown to coincide with its meaning, rather than be, as Husserl thought, a product of that meaning. ;This special status in meaning which the word "I" has is taken up in Chapter 3 from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is shown that the contradiction which "devastated" Frege is positively endorsed by Lacan as a description of the structure of the subject which "I" reveals. Lacan's topologies are considered, concluding that there is irreducible undecidability between his notions of "reality" and "the real." ;The fourth chapter examines the concept of negation in Frege's later philosophy, and argues that Jespersen's linguistics accounts for nuances of meaning which logic must exclude. It is argued that Freudian negation is open to a charge of reductiveness, and that Lacan, whilst overcoming this in situating truth in what he calls "the Other" , does so by promoting a specifically analytic conception of truth. ;In conclusion it is suggested that analytic philosophy and psychoanalysis depend upon an implicit faith in truth-in-language: that language itself is always true, even if what it says is false. (shrink)

This work demonstrates and develops the systematic coherence of Jean-Paul Sartre's theory of existential psychoanalysis as formulated in Being and Nothingness and in his existential psychoanalytic study, Saint Genet. ;A major problem in Being and Nothingness, which obscures the coherence of the theory of existential psychoanalysis, is Sartre's "Cartesian Legacy." His view of Consciousness as separate from the body and nature, and his view of the Self as existing in isolation from other persons, obscures his vision of man as a (...) unified totality. This work attempts to reestablish Sartre's vision of man's being-in-the-world as a unity of consciousness and the body, of Being and Action, of Self and Other, expressed as a fundamental project of working through issues in one's primary relationships with other persons. ;The work proceeds to clarify Sartre's unique conceptual framework for an existential psychoanalysis, addressing such issues as the interpersonal basis of the Self, the meaning of the individual's fundamental project, and the interpersonal dynamics of good and bad faith. Sartre's conceptual framework is related to Freudian theory, especially on the issues of repression and the unconscious, and to contemporary psychoanalytic interpretations of the Self and the issue of narcissism. These psychoanalytic views are integrated within an existential perspective, including references to Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Hegel and Husserl. ;This work emphasizes the therapeutic implications of Sartre's work. I explore Sartre's therapeutic metaphor of "recovering the child within us" as a project of the recovery of Being, and examine such issues as the integration of consciousness and the body, and the importance of empathy, intuition, and play in the therapeutic relationship. ;Clinical examples from my therapy practice at the Human Effectiveness Institute, of Chicago, are included to illustrate Sartrean themes and issues. (shrink)

This dissertation employs a thematic hermeneutic method to critique and revise psychoanalytic theory on countertransference. Psychoanalytic theory is criticized for its reliance on subject/object epistemology. The subject/object assumption is initially found in the early orthodox views that were committed to the idea of the neutral analyst, and then located in the supposed second tier of countertransference theory that described its constructive possibilities. The subject/object assumption is also detected within contemporary psychoanalytic intersubjectivity theory, which has been a partially successful attempt to (...) resolve the epistemological dilemma. Intersubjectivity theory's incomplete resolution rests against a philosophical backdrop composed of the works of Sartre, Husserl, and Heidegger. In this context, it is suggested that intersubjectivity theory has been successful in resolving only one-half of the Cartesian dilemma, but neglects the inherent mind/body split by failing to elucidate the nature of embodiment. Thus, implicitly at least, intersubjectivity theory perpetuates subject/object epistemology. ;A proposed resolution is drawn out of Merleau-Ponty's latter phenomenological work on the notion of flesh. Merleau-Ponty refers to perceptually extended flesh as composed of partially visible and partially invisible dimensions. Flesh is constituted by an intertwining of sensory modalities with the elements of the perceptual field. An elucidation of psychoanalytic epistemology and ontology free of the subject/object assumption is undertaken while drawing on the notion of flesh. Yet limitations are found in the use of the notion of flesh, for it does not contain the activity of human motility and thus does not fully capture the embodied phenomenological experience of analytic encounter. ;Romanyshyn's work on the gestural field is discussed in terms of adding motility to Merleau-Ponty's flesh. But limitations are addressed in that the notion of gesture neither fully amplifies, nor fully animates, flesh. ;The final hermeneutic turn is toward pantomime, which inhabits flesh in the fullest, most animate, sense. It contains not only the motility of gesture but also the dialectical elements of persona and character. The work on pantomime, then, in conjunction with reverie, clears the ground for a fuller resolution of subject/object dichotomy within countertransference theory. (shrink)

Qu’est-ce qui, chez l’homme, retient ou empêche la fuite en avant d’une pulsion spécifique? Une autre pulsion complémentaire ou antagoniste? L’instance subjective d’un moi se pliant aux commandements du surmoi? L’ordre du corps vivant, de la raison ou du signifiant? Ou est-il pensable qu’une pulsion humaine se gouverne elle-même en canalisant son énergie excessive et en veillant à sa transformation ou à sa sublimation plutôt que de se livrer à l’ivresse d’une répétition stérile?Ce livre aborde ces questions en envisageant les (...) pulsions humaines, en amont, depuis leur ancrage dans les forces de la nature ou les instincts animaux et, en aval, en vue de leur prolongement en désirs symboliquement structurés. Dans une telle perspective, le questionnement psychanalytique de Freud et de Lacan rencontre tout naturellement les interrogations d’une philosophie de la nature, de la vie et de la culture. Inversement, une réhabilitation de l’énergétique psychanalytique favorise la redécouverte d’une pensée philosophique, pour laquelle la dynamique des forces virtuelles prime sur la présence de substances statiques, et pour laquelle aucun acte effectif n’efface sa dette vis-à-vis d’un pouvoir-être retenu ou d’un manque d’être. De cette métaphysique dont le livre suit le cheminement d’Aristote à Husserl en passant par Leibniz et Schopenhauer, Nietzsche et la psychanalyse marquent aussi les limites, en projetant sur elle l’ombre du nihilisme des pulsions de mort. Au croisement des deux approches de la pulsion se dresse, à nouveau mais autrement, la question de la subjectivité. (shrink)

Most readers of Sartre focus only on the works written at the peak of his influence as a public intellectual in the 1940s, notably "Being and Nothingness". "Jean-Paul Sartre: Key Concepts" aims to reassess Sartre and to introduce readers to the full breadth of his philosophy. Bringing together leading international scholars, the book examines concepts from across Sartre's career, from his initial views on the "inner life" of conscious experience, to his later conceptions of hope as the binding agent for (...) a common humanity. The book will be invaluable to readers looking for a comprehensive assessment of Sartre's thinking - from his early influences to the development of his key concepts, to his legacy. (shrink)

This paper addresses the emergence of the ‘death drive’ in Sigmund Freud’s later work, and thesignificance of this development for his psychoanalytic theory as a whole. In particular, the paper arguesthat the ‘death drive’ is a pivotal concept, articulating a connection between what are commonlyunderstood as the ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ functions of the psyche. Moreover, the death drive is pivotal in asecond sense, in that it articulates a turn away from the strictly empirical realm of science, to a dark andobscure (...) field indicated , but not comprehended, by observable phenomena. Finally, thepaper suggests that as Freud’s departure from his scientific methodology into the wilderness of speculation,the death drive represents his most valuable contribution to psychoanalysis. With the death drive, Freud isable to engender a new perspective of human being: one that is not already encompassed by themechanistic neurological viewpoint from which his researches first issued. (shrink)

This paper describes the contemporary phenomenological understanding of subjectivity as non dual awareness.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of desire and fixation.

This paper describes subjectivity as the manifestation of the primordial awareness field.

This paper focuses on deathlessness awareness.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of healing within the awareness field.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of timeless awareness.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of the experiential awareness field.

This paper relates Merleau Ponty's understanding of primordial subjectivity and the field of Being within beings.

This paper focuses on Merleau Ponty understanding that the body is the medium of the field of awareness.

This paper focuses on the views and formulations of eastern philosophy the negate humanism and personalism.

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of whoness.

This paper focuses on empty mind, transitional space and the dissolving of the self object function.

This paper focuses on the realm of omnipotence from a Lacanian viewpoint.

Adrian Johnston is well known for his work at the intersection of Lacanian psychoanalysis, German idealism, contemporary French philosophy and most recently cognitive neuroscience. In the context of the current issue, Johnston represents the most complete development of a contemporary theory of Transcendental Materialism. In the following interview we explore both the implications of Johnston’s previous work, as well as the directions his most recent projects are taking.

Sigmund Freud’s five long case histories have been the focus of seemingly endless fascination and criticism. This article examines how the long case-history genre developed and its impact on the professionalization of psychoanalysis. It argues that the long case histories, using a distinctive form that highlighted the peculiarities of psychoanalytic theory, served as exemplars in the discipline. In doing so, the article extends John Forrester’s work on ‘thinking in cases’ to show the practical implications of that style of reasoning. The (...) article illustrates how the form disappeared once the theoretical basis of the movement was set. The genre never became institutionalized, although the content of the five long case histories did, because of Freud’s accepted role as theoretician of psychoanalysis. (shrink)

This paper examines the origin of phenomenology, and delineates several of its significant developments and refractions, in order to arrive at a renewed conception of phenomenological theory and practice: a future phenomenology that can, it is argued, articulate productively with certain grounds opened up by psychoanalysis. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology , Volume 8, Edition 1 May 2008.

In this article I seek to relate the psychology of Carl Jung to sociological theory, specifically Weber. I first present an outline of Jungian psychology. I then seek to relate this as psychology to Weber’s interpretivism. I point to basic methodological compatibilities within a Kantian frame, from which emerge central concerns with the factors limiting rationality. These generate the conceptual frameworks for parallel enquiries into the development and fate of rationality in cultural history. Religion is a major theme here: contrasts (...) of eastern and western religion; the rise of prophetic religion and the disenchantment of modernity. Weber’s categories ‘ascetic’ and ‘mystic’ seem applicable to his own and Jung’s approaches and indeed temperaments, while a shared ironic view of rationality leads to similar visions of the disenchanted modern world. I conclude that Jung is sociologically coherent, but in an entirely different sense from Freud: rather than a constellation of family, socialization, ideology, social continuity, there is an analysis of cultural history against a background of adult normal psychology. I conclude that sociology should acknowledge Jung, but not in terms of over-arching theory. Rather Jungian insights might be used to orient new enquiries, and for reflexive analysis of sociology’s methodological debates. (shrink)

The following article is intended as a contribution to a reorientation of approaches to the treatment of the historical development of the concept of subjectivity. It argues for a fundamental continuity between German Idealist philosophy and Jungian psychoanalysis on certain fundamental aspects of selfhood. These continuities might seriously question certain key assumptions about the nature of 'modernity', notably as a period marked by exaggerated claims on self-identity and reflexivity. It is suggested that such claims are largely the result of the (...) Hegelian interpretation of the early Fichtean system, an interpretation that utilizes only one aspect of the intellectual resources made available by the early system of J. G. Fichte. Such an appropriation might be sub sumed under the rubric of 'Geist'. This article attempts to retrieve the other aspects of Fichte's system - the concepts of drive and primordial images; the emphasis on the 'subject' as a self-diremptive energy-flow; the aspect that points to Schopenhauer and beyond. (shrink)

This paper aims to show issues raised by lacanian psychoanalyses concerning the reasons of the phenomenon of aggressiveness, mainly due to the frequency of this phenomenon in education. In this paper, it was intended to highlight the philosophical dimension of the problem, since we are using basically the dissertative method. Lacan takes Hegelian and Marxist legacy to develop the thesis of aggressiveness as realization of a dynamic introduced from the gaze and that has its modus operandi in the movements of (...) alienation and non-alienation. The aggressiveness illustrated, for example, by the injuries suffered by teachers shows itself as a tentative to cause the fall of the Other, this fall is considered as the object a of which its appearance is regulated by the Oedipus Complex. Namely, both the way how the parental authority figures are inscribed in the significant chains that compose the individual and how this inscription shapes the existential possibilities of interaction with the opposite sex would be the key to foresee the extent the individual makes use of aggressiveness. In this way, the Oedipus complex, reinvested by the event of puberty would be responsible for the displacement of the libido one time to the ´Other´ and other time to the own subject. The Other, in the theoretical development of Lacan that follows the decade of 1960, comprehends the identifier choices and also what escapes from any identification. The Other, as a teacher, has the role of positioning itself to generate intuitively one process of identification and has the delicate function of sustain the dialectic that emerges in the moment where the Other falls, moment which usually comes after the identification and that happens with a joy capable of unveiling the object a. Although the role of education is not to maintain an auscultation to this object, the education can influence its nonexclusion and make this object be contoured with the advent of singularities. In this moment, the explicitness of the rules which education constitutes itself as well as the empathy from the educator can be a fundamental instrument in education like the subject to be taught. From the text, we can conclude that: we need to put the aggressiveness in our speech as via of achievement of the non-alienation process conjugated with the possibility to support the desire. (shrink)

Bergson argues in his Creative Evolution that life has to be defined as an élan vital, that is, as a driving force that presses forward incessantly, overcoming obstacles to its progress and exploding in a variety of directions at once. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud elaborates a critique of such a vitalistic notion of the drives. For him, the drives are not only sources of excitation, but also forces that resist change and that cause the body's movements and activities (...) to stagnate. Freud ascribes a remarkable name to these conservative and stubborn tendencies at work in the body, viz. the death drive. I argue that this drive is to be understood as a force in life that resists life and that, instead of following a course of progression and development, consists in a production of antiproductivity. I show how Freud is led to reconsider a vitalistic conception of the drives by means of a study of phenomena of repetition. One suggestion that Freud makes in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which I examine in detail, is that the ego-drives are the “myrmidons of death.” To clarify this claim, I consider a remark that he makes on the viscosity of the drives and melancholia in his short essay On Transience. (shrink)

This paper examines the recourse to mathematics as a “language of the real” in the literature of perversion and in the philosophical project of Alain Badiou.