Origins and ends of the mind : philosophical essays on psychoanalysis / edited by Christian Kerslake and Ray Brassier.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kerslake, Christian.

Brassier, Ray.

Series:

Figures of the unconscious ; 7.

Figures of the unconscious ; 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychoanalytic Theory.

Philosophy.

Psychoanalytic Therapy.

Sexual Behavior--psychology.

Psychoanalysis and philosophy.

Psychoanalysis.

Sex (Psychology).

Medical Subjects:

Psychoanalytic Theory.

Philosophy.

Psychoanalytic Therapy.

Sexual Behavior--psychology.

Physical Description:

viii, 218 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leuven, Belgium : Leuven University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Psychoanalysis claims that the individual human mind is structured by its childhood relationships with its parents. But the theory of attachment, evolutionary psychology and contemporary philosophy of mind have all recently re-introduced new dimensions of innateness into mental development and pathology. If attachment is an instinct, then what is the psychological status of the child's relation to the mother? If the mind is in part a product of evolution, then how far down do the inhibitory mechanisms of the mind go? If the mind of the child is shaped by their encounter with a set of prohibitions, how, in the light of contemporary 'cognitive science' and philosophy of mind, can the child be conceived as 'taking on' a rule? How is the construction of the mind related to the normative ends of cognitive experience?

Today, it is Lacanian psychoanalysis which most vigorously defends psychoanalytic theory and practice from the encroachment of the biological and 'cognitive' sciences. But a paradigm shift nevertheless appears to be underway, in which the classical psychoanalytic theories about the Oedipus complex, primary and secondary repression, sexual difference and psychosexuality, the role of symbols, etc, are being dismantled and reintegrated into a new synthesis of biological and psychological theories. In this collection of theoretical essays by philosophers and psychoanalysts, encounters are brought about between Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis on the one hand, and attachment theory, evolutionary psychology and philosophy of mind on the other. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Origin and End: Relations between Psychic Origins and Psychic Normativity 21

The Missing Link between Psychoanalysis and Attachment Theory: Michael Balint's New Beginning / Philippe van Haute 23

Quasi-beliefs and Crazy Beliefs: Subdoxastic States and the 'Special Characteristics' of the Unconscious / Brian Garvey 37

Paradoxes of Normativity in Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Or: Is Castration Necessary? / Christian Kerslake 59

Lacan and Ethics: The Ends of Analysis and the Production of the Subject / Philip Derbyshire 87

Part 2 Psychoanalysis and Evolution 101

The Ultimate Causes of Paranoia: A Cross-Pathological and Psychodynamic Approach / Andreas De Block 103

Reinterpreting Freud's Genealogy of Culture / Tinneke Beeckman 117

The Thanatosis of Enlightenment / Ray Brassier 135

Part 3 Philosophy and the Psychosexual Subject 149

Poetic Pleasure, Psychosis, and Perversion: Freud on Fore-pleasure / Tomas Geyskens 151

The Origins and Ends of 'Sex' / Stella Sandford 163

Love as Ontology: Psychoanalysis against Philosophy / Justin Clemens 185

Psychoanalysis: A Non-Ontology of the Human / Marc de Kesel 203.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9789058676177

905867617X

OCLC:

206100507

Publisher Number:

99939847349