Freud as philosopher : metapsychology after Lacan / Richard Boothby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boothby, Richard, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychoanalysis and philosophy.

Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.

Freud, Sigmund.

Lacan, Jacques, 1901-1981.

Lacan, Jacques.

Physical Description:

xix, 330 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2001.

Summary:

Using Jacques Lacan's work as a key, this groundbreaking work reassesses the philosophical significance of Freud's most ambitious general theory of mental functioning: metapsychology. Richard Boothby forcefully argues that this theory has been misunderstood, and consequently, Freud's impact on philosophy has been unjustly muted. Freud as Philosopher illuminates in a fresh and newly accessible way the central points of Freud's metapsychology -- including the guiding metaphor of psychical energy and the final, enigmatic theory of the twin drives of life and death -- through the three cardinal Lacanian categories of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. This exciting and brilliant book will have a definitive impact on how psychoanalysis is conceived in relation to philosophy.

Contents:

List of Bibliographical Abbreviations Used in the Text xvii

Introduction: Returning to Metapsychology 1

To Recall Freud's Witch 2

The Lacanian Return to Freud 9

Chapter 1 Toward the Unthought Ground of Thought 17

Monet's Pursuit of the "Enveloppe" 18

The World of the Water Lilies 21

The Class of 1890: James, Bergson, and Nietzsche 26

Gestalt Psychology and Phenomenology 37

Heidegger: The Disposition of Being 43

The Gestaltist Ontology of Merleau-Ponty 54

The Unthought Ground of Thought in the Freudian Unconscious 61

Chapter 2 Between the Image and the Word 71

In the Shadow of the Image 72

The Unconscious Play of the Signifier 78

From Image to Sign 86

The Ratman's Phantasy 94

The Specimen Dream of Psychoanalysis 99

In the Navel of the Dream 105

The Dream's Solution 114

Circulation in the Psychical Apparatus 119

The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles 124

Chapter 3 The Freudian Dialectic 133

The Formative Power of the Image 134

Imaginary Alienation 141

Aggressivity and the Death Drive 150

The Agency of Death in the Signifier 154

Language Acquisition and the Oedipus Complex 163

Psychoanalysis and the Theory of Sacrifice 175

Toward a Lacanian Theory of Sacrifice 183

Chapter 4 The Freudian Thing 191

A Love Triangle 193

The Thing about the Other 198

Thing or No-thing 209

Speaking of the Thing 216

Freud avec Jakobson 224

Chapter 5 Figurations of the Objet a 241

The Object-Cause of Desire 242

"You don't love me ... you just don't give a shit." 248

Between the Look and the Gaze 252

Why One and One Make Four 261

How the Real World Became a Phantasy 271.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-321) and index.

ISBN:

0415925894

0415925908

OCLC:

45620889