Sigmund Freud, Revised Edition

Religion, 1977

2012

Abstract This paper articulates Sigmund Freud‟ s conceptualization of the social world by surveying and critically examining four of his major sociological works: Civilized‟ Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (Freud, 1908/1991b), Totem and Taboo (Freud, 1913/1946), The Future of An Illusion (Freud, 1927/1991d), and Civilization and Its Discontents (Freud, 1930/1991a).

History of the Human Sciences, 2012

Acknowledging the power of the id-drives, Freud held on to the authority of reason as the ego’s best tool to control instinctual desire. He thereby placed analytic reason at the foundation of his own ambivalent social theory, which, on the one hand, held utopian promise based upon psychoanalytic insight, and, on the other hand, despaired of reason’s capacity to control the self-destructive elements of the psyche. Moving beyond the recourse of sublimation, post-Freudians attacked reason’s hegemony in quelling disruptive psycho-dynamics and, focusing upon the social domain, they sought strategies to counter the oppressive (repressive) social restrictions and conformist impositions impeding individual freedom that result from thwarted desire. Postmodern celebration of desire at the expense of reason and sublimation leaves the Enlightenment prospects altogether and moves psychoanalysis into a new terrain, where the very notion of rationality and an autonomous ego upon which much of Freu...

"Analyze any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation." Sigmund Freud.

The life and work of Sigmund Freud continue to fascinate general and professional readers alike. Joel Whitebook here presents the first major biography of Freud since the last century, taking into account recent developments in psychoanalytic theory and practice, gender studies, philosophy, cultural theory, and more. Offering a radically new portrait of the creator of psychoanalysis, this book explores the man in all his complexity alongside an interpretation of his theories that cuts through the stereotypes that surround him. The development of Freud's thinking is addressed not only in the context of his personal life, but also in that of society and culture at large, while the impact of his thinking on subsequent issues of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and social theory is fully examined. Whitebook demonstrates that declarations of Freud's obsolescence are premature, and, with his clear and engaging style, brings this vivid figure to life in compelling and readable fashion.

History of Psychiatry, 2011

In 1908, in his article '"Civilized" sexual morality and modern nervous illness', Freud presented neuroses as the consequence of a restrictive state of cultural development and its 'civilized morality'. He found the inspiration for this idea by expanding upon previous formulations in this area by his predecessors (notably Christian von Ehrenfels) that focused on a cultural process earlier introduced by Kant, while also integrating in his analysis the principles of Haeckel's evolutionism (history of development, recapitulation) which eventually redefined the psychoanalytic theory of neuroses. These new theoretical elements became the basis of psychoanalytic theory and thereby influenced subsequent thinking in the cultural process itself and in human sciences. This transformation of underlying theory provided a unique historical and analytical framework for psychoanalysis which allowed Freud to claim for it a pre-eminent position among the human sciences.

2015

This essay presents a balance that hopes to show that despite the impasse between dissimilar discourses, the Freudo-Marxist mission does allow us to salvage its philosophical and practical program so as to continue rethinking the postures that led to the difficult encounter between two discourses: psychoanalysis and Marxism, their theoretical principles and their political consequences. This approach demands the discussion of four moments: 1) the Freudo-Marxist pronouncement; 2) Wilheim Reich’s Sex-Pol mission; 3) Gérard Pommier’s Freudo-Marxism; and 4) its political legacy.

Constellations, 1999

Feminists have often turned to psychological knowledge in search of an adequate theory of gender, despite the ambiguous relationship psychology, in all its manifestations, has always had with politics. Mainstream psychology, with its theorizing of "individual differences" and popularizing of behavioral technologies, has long been a target of radical critique-which has made not the slightest blip in the steady growth of psychological "expertise" that, since 1945, has saturated Western culture with programs for individual change and development. Such programs have even played a part in encouraging collective political aspirations for subjective growth and renewal. Nonetheless, psychology's disciplinary project-one of treating all social conflict as amenable to individual solutions through the acquisition of skills and enlightenment-points more in the direction of its welldocumented role in producing agents of pacification than to practical help for personal liberation. 1 It has been precisely psychology's task in the modern world, as Derrida (glossing Foucault) has commented, to mask "a certain truth of madness … a certain truth of unreason." 2 As academic psychology's disdained yet closest rival, psychoanalysis has had a somewhat different cultural trajectory. Far richer in contradiction, far gloomier in social outlook, far more contentious in cultural debate, psychoanalysis (at least, in its classical form) promises not solutions to social conflicts, but a heightened awareness of their tragic inevitability. Traditionally, it has preferred to flaunt, rather than disavow, the conservative side of its reflections on the links between subjectivity and the "maladies" of modernity. Its pessimism of the intellect produces its own paralyses for those who wish to transform the links it describes (and helps reinscribe) between knowledge and power, sexed identity and social hierarchy. Certainly, feminism's relationship with psychoanalysis has always, and rightly, been troubled. Enthusiasm for and denunciations of Freud have preoccupied feminist agendas in almost equal measure. Such polarization is hardly surprising, if we try dispassionately to figure the contradictions-the seductions and the disappointments-of psychoanalytic narratives as they have been applied to our understanding of sexual difference. For that is the terrain, perhaps unfortunately, on which we so often encounter them today, and which I will be covering here. I say unfortunately, because it is here that psychoanalysis has moved farthest from what some of us see as its central strength: its potentially subversive individualism. The narratives grounding psychoanalytic theories of sexual difference have looked far from subversive to

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH, 2021

Sigmund Freud has affected generations not only in the field of psychology but also in social scenarios, home life and popular culture. His views and theories have shaped our current concepts ranging from development to therapy. His beliefs, in his time, not only inspired his contemporaries with theirs’ but they also sparked controversies with other intellectuals. Despite being subject to criticism, his ideas have been and are still relevant. The terms introduced by him like the ‘Freudian slip’ and ‘denial’, have been incorporated into the present dictionaries and everyday life. Massively influential, his ideas, theories and his school of thought, psychoanalysis, continue to have a strong impact on psychology as well as psychotherapy even today.