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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 that therefore 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.
..."provides an extensive discussion of Freud's "Nachtraglichkeit, deferred action, whereby an event becomes meaningful or traumatic as a result of subsequent associations. Boothby explains Freud's theory by comparing it to the views of James, Bergson, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and of Gestalt psychology. This volume succeeds as an explication of Freud and Lacan...Large public collections and upper-division undergraduates through faculty. "Choice June 2002." "Many have tried to uncover the philosophical underpinnings of Freudian psychoanalysis, but none has succeeded so convincingly as does Richard Boothby in Freud as Philosopher. Boothby finds in the concept of the dispositional field--discovered and refined by such diverse figures as Monet, Husserl, and Merleau-Ponty--a way of redeeming Freudian energetics by placing it on a secure philosophical basis that is equally relevant to perception, image, and word. This remarkably insightful thesis is brilliantly and lucidly argued in a book that will make a permanent difference in all future readings of Freud and Lacan." -Edward Casey, State University of New York at Stony Brook "Richard Boothby's evident mastery of both the Freudian and Lacanian corpora is incredibly impressive. The weaving together of various published and unpublished texts by original as well as secondary sources with Boothby's own insights makes this an exciting, indeed brilliant work that will have a definitive impact on how psychoanalysis is conceived in relationship to philosophy." -Gail Weiss, author of "Body Images: Embodiment as Incorporeality "A book all those seriously interested in Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan were waiting for--rejecting the usual mixture of Cultural Studies pseudo-critical variations which lack the elementary conceptual stringency, Boothby reads Freud and Lacan through Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and other key modern philosophers, restoring the Freudian metapsychology to its philosophical dignity. It is in books like this that we should look for the renaissance of American thought! If the term 'classic' has any meaning today, Freud as Philosopher is it!." -Slavoj Zizek "Boothby does deserve credit for making Lacan more accessible and helping non-Lacanians to appreciate his philosophical contribution... Boothby's book will be useful for anyone who has interests in the intersection between philosophy and psychoanalysis." -Elliot Jurist, "Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May 7, 2002
| Acknowledgments | p. vii |
| Preface | p. xiii |
| List of Bibliographical Abbreviations Used in the Text | p. xvii |
| Introduction: Returning to Metapsychology | p. 1 |
| To Recall Freud's Witch | p. 2 |
| The Lacanian Return to Freud | p. 9 |
| Toward the Unthought Ground of Thought | p. 17 |
| Monet's Pursuit of the "Enveloppe" | p. 18 |
| The World of the Water Lilies | p. 21 |
| The Class of 1890: James, Bergson, and Nietzsche | p. 26 |
| Gestalt Psychology and Phenomenology | p. 37 |
| Heidegger: The Disposition of Being | p. 43 |
| The Gestaltist Ontology of Merleau-Ponty | p. 54 |
| The Unthought Ground of Thought in the Freudian Unconscious | p. 61 |
| Between the Image and the Word | p. 71 |
| In the Shadow of the Image | p. 72 |
| The Unconscious Play of the Signifier | p. 78 |
| From Image to Sign | p. 86 |
| The Ratman's Phantasy | p. 94 |
| The Specimen Dream of Psychoanalysis | p. 99 |
| In the Navel of the Dream | p. 105 |
| The Dream's Solution | p. 114 |
| Circulation in the Psychical Apparatus | p. 119 |
| The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles | p. 124 |
| The Freudian Dialectic | p. 133 |
| The Formative Power of the Image | p. 134 |
| Imaginary Alienation | p. 141 |
| Aggressivity and the Death Drive | p. 150 |
| The Agency of Death in the Signifier | p. 154 |
| Language Acquisition and the Oedipus Complex | p. 163 |
| Psychoanalysis and the Theory of Sacrifice | p. 175 |
| Toward a Lacanian Theory of Sacrifice | p. 183 |
| The Freudian Thing | p. 191 |
| A Love Triangle | p. 193 |
| The Thing about the Other | p. 198 |
| Thing or No-thing | p. 209 |
| Speaking of the Thing | p. 216 |
| Freud avec Jakobson | p. 224 |
| Figurations of the Objet a | p. 241 |
| The Object-Cause of Desire | p. 242 |
| "You don't love me ... you just don't give a shit." | p. 248 |
| Between the Look and the Gaze | p. 252 |
| Why One and One Make Four | p. 261 |
| How the Real World Became a Phantasy | p. 271 |
| Conclusion | p. 281 |
| Notes | p. 297 |
| Bibliography | p. 313 |
| Index | p. 323 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780415925907
ISBN-10: 0415925908
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 330
Published: 26th September 2001
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 22.86 x 15.24
x 1.91
Weight (kg): 0.48
Edition Number: 1
