Irrationality and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis

Sebastian Gardner argues that psychoanalytic theory provides the most satisfactory philosophical explanation of irrationality.

Sebastian Gardner (Author)

9780521033879, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 February 2007

320 pages, 5 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15 x 2.1 cm, 0.481 kg

'It has been a commonplace for many decades that Freud changed our conception of the human mind. Few writers and very few philosophers have tried to to tell us what this change amounts to. Sebastian Gardner's book is the most remarkable attempt I know to put this right.' Richard Wollheim

In a reconstruction of the theories of Freud and Klein, Sebastian Gardner asks: what causes irrationality, what must the mind be like for it to be irrational, to what extent does irrationality involve self-awareness, and what is the point of irrationality? Arguing that psychoanalytic theory provides the most penetrating answers to these questions, he rejects the widespread view of the unconscious as a 'second mind', in favour of a view of it as a source of inherently irrational desires seeking expression through wish-fulfilment and phantasy. He meets scepticism about psychoanalytic explanation by exhibiting its continuity with everyday psychology.

Acknowledgements
Note on the text
Introduction
Part I: Dividing Persons: 1. Ordinary irrationality
2. Persons in parts
3. Persons and sub-systems
Part II: Psychoanalytic Concepts: 4. Unconscious motives and Freudian concepts
5. Wish
6. Phantasy and Kleinian explanation
Part III: Psychoanalytic Conception of Mind: 7. Metapsychology and psychoanalytic personality
8. Consciousness, theory and epistemology
Appendices
Notes
Works of Freud cited
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]