| Synopsis: |
Freud's influence upon many aspects of our cultures, our ways of thinking and our writings is enormous and pervasive. This book is a collection of essays, written by eminent scholars in the field of the philosophy of psychoanalysis, which present cutting-edge thinking on the nature of psychoanalytic knowledge. The book begins by looking at the influence of Kantian philosophical ideas on the formation of psychoanalytic knowledge and the general relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis. What follows is an examination of the nature of psychoanalytic knowledge in terms of literature on the philosophy of mind. The possiblity of changing oneself through psychoanalytic knowledge undergoes philosophical scrutiny, as does the relationship between religion and psychoanalysis and how psychoanalytic knowledge is relevant to a variety of disciplines including evolutionary science, social/developmental psychology and neuroscience. Attention then shifts to the post-Freudian psychoanalytic knowledge (primarliy object relations theiry and self-psychology), and to methodological issues within psychoanalysis.The arguments put forward are original, engaging and rigorous, and likely to provoke quality debate in the area of the philosophy of psychoanalysis. |