Philosophical Essays on Freud

Philosophers are increasingly coming to recognize the importance of Freudian theory for the understanding of the mind.

Richard Wollheim (Edited by), James Hopkins (Edited by)

9780521284257, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 November 1982

364 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

Philosophers are increasingly coming to recognize the importance of Freudian theory for the understanding of the mind. The picture Freud presents of the mind's growth and organization holds implications not just for such perennial questions as the relation of mind and body, the nature of memory and personal identity, the interplay of cognitive and affective processes in reasoning and acting, but also for the very way in which these questions are conceived and an interpretation of the mind is sought. This volume of essays, by some of today's leading philosophers, explores all these topics, as well as the methods, results and status of the theory itself, while two 'classical' discussions by Wittgenstein and Sartre are also included. A number of the contributions – those by Donald Davidson, W. D. Hart, Jim Hopkins, Adam Morton, David Pears and Richard Wollheim – have not been published before, and a very useful bibliography is provided. It is an anthology that will be vital to anyone interested in Freudian theory and, more generally, in philosophical psychology.

Introduction: philosophy and psycho-analysis James Hopkins
1. Conversations on Freud - excerpt from 1932–3 lectures Ludwig Wittgenstein
2. Freud, Kepler and the clinical evidence Clark Glymour
3. Critical empiricism criticized: the case of Freud B. R. Cosin, C. F. Freeman and N. H. Freeman
4. Freudian common-sense Adam Morton
5. Disposition and memory Stuart Hampshire
6. On Freud's doctrine of emotions David Sachs
7. The id and the thinking process Brian O'Shaughnessy
8. The bodily ego Richard Wollheim
9. Norms and the normal Ronald De Sousa
10. On the generation and classification of defence mechanisms Patrick Suppes and Hermine Warren
11. Models of repression W. D. Hart
12. Mauvaise foi and the unconscious Jean-Paul Sartre
13. Self-deception and the 'splitting of the ego' Herbert Fingarette
14. Freud's anthropomorphism Thomas Nagel
15 Freud's anatomies of the self Irving Thalberg
16. Motivated irrationality, Freudian theory and cognitive dissonance David Pears
17. Paradoxes of irrationality Donald Davidson
Works of Freud cited
Select bibliography.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]