Political Freud : a history / Eli Zaretsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zaretsky, Eli, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939.

Freud, Sigmund.

Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939--Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (243 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this masterful history, Eli Zaretsky reveals the power of Freudian thought to illuminate the great political conflicts of the twentieth century. Developing an original concept of "political Freudianism," he shows how twentieth-century radicals, activists, and intellectuals used psychoanalytic ideas to probe consumer capitalism, racial violence, anti-Semitism, and patriarchy. He also underscores the continuing influence and critical potential of those ideas in the transformed landscape of the present. Zaretsky's conception of political Freudianism unites the two overarching themes of the last century-totalitarianism and consumerism-in a single framework. He finds that theories of mass psychology and the unconscious were central to the study of fascism and the Holocaust; to African American radical thought, particularly the struggle to overcome the legacy of slavery; to the rebellions of the 1960's; and to the feminism and gay liberation movements of the 1970's. Nor did the influence of political Freud end when the era of Freud bashing began. Rather, Zaretsky proves that political Freudianism is alive today in cultural studies, the study of memory, theories of trauma, postcolonial thought, film, media and computer studies, evolutionary theory and even economics.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction-Political Freud

1. Psychoanalysis and the Spirit of Capitalism

2. Beyond the Blues

3. In the Shadow of the Holocaust

4. The Ego at War

5. From the Maturity Ethic to the Psychology of Power

Afterword-Freud in the Twenty-First Century

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231540148

0231540140

OCLC:

922528355