Psychoanalysis, Mysticism and the Problem of Epistemology

Psychoanalysis, Mysticism and the Problem of Epistemology PDF

Author: Alice Bar Nes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1000435768

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This book presents key psychoanalytic theories from a fresh perspective: that of the mystical element. The author explores the depth-structure of central assumptions in psychoanalytic theory to uncover the mystical core of conventional analytic thinking. Exploring authors from Freud and Ferenczi, through Bion and Winnicott, to contemporary voices such as Ogden, Bollas and Eigen, the book shows that psychoanalysis has always operated on the assumption of psychic overlap, a "soul-to-soul" contact, between patient and analyst. Surprisingly, the book shows how this "magical" facet goes hand in hand with a pragmatic worldview that explores the epistemological complexities of psychoanalysis in search of a way to join the subjective, even the mystical, with the practical aim of serving as a validated mental health discipline. This is accomplished through an interdisciplinary and intertextual encounter between psychoanalysis and the innovative pairing of William James’ pragmatic philosophy and Martin Buber’s dialogic thought. The author's paradoxical stance surrounding the nature and role of psychoanalysis and its mystical facet resonate the great challenge embedded in Winnicott's insistence on tolerating paradox and Bion's demand to respect all parts of the (psychoanalytic) truth, in this case, the practical and mundane alongside the mystical and magical. The book’s broad, interdisciplinary outlook will captivate both psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic therapists as well as scholars of philosophy.

Psychoanalysis at the Limit

Psychoanalysis at the Limit PDF

Author: Jon Mills

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-07-12

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0791485218

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Psychoanalysis has long been charged as being a pseudoscience. This timely book explores and reexamines the nature of psychoanalysis within contemporary debates about science, epistemology, unconscious experience, and the philosophy of mind. Distinguished scholars and practitioners from diverse backgrounds in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and psychology offer both favorable and critical accounts of psychoanalytic theory and practice from Freud and Lacan through contemporary revisionist philosophical perspectives.

The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling

The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling PDF

Author: William B. Parsons

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1999-06-17

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0195354087

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This study examines the history of the psychoanalytic theory of mysticism, starting with the seminal correspondence between Freud and Romain Rolland concerning the concept of "oceanic feeling." Providing a corrective to current views which frame psychoanalysis as pathologizing mysticism, Parsons reveals the existence of three models entertained by Freud and Rolland: the classical reductive, ego-adaptive, and transformational (which allows for a transcendent dimension to mysticism). Then, reconstructing Rolland's personal mysticism (the "oceanic feeling") through texts and letters unavailable to Freud, Parsons argues that Freud misinterpreted the oceanic feeling. In offering a fresh interpretation of Rolland's mysticism, Parsons constructs a new dialogical approach for psychoanalytic theory of mysticism which integrates culture studies, developmental perspectives, and the deep epistemological and transcendent claims of the mystics.

Lacan and the Biblical Ethics of Psychoanalysis

Lacan and the Biblical Ethics of Psychoanalysis PDF

Author: Itzhak Benyamini

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2024-01-09

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 3031399692

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In this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Itzhak Benyamini uses discourse analysis to lay out the way Lacan constructed his own intellectual discourse informed by Judeo-Christianity. Offering an understanding of Lacan’s emergence and intellectual struggles with significant contemporary intellectuals, the author builds a panoramic view of the entire psychoanalytic discourse at the time of the foundational post-Freudian generation. By engaging in close reading of texts and seminars given by Lacan between the 1930s and 50s, Benyamini uncovers the coming-into-being of Lacan's key concepts: The Mirror Stage, the Imaginary, the Real, the Symbolic, the Name-of-the-Father, the Other, jouissance, and das Ding. The author argues that Lacan wished to regulate this process of conceptualization by connecting the concepts of the "Father" and the "Other" with themes from the Judeo-Christian tradition, especially the Biblical one, to create a clinical ethic, that does not reflect a worldview or ideology and is guided solely by the analyzand’s unconscious desire.

Psychoanalysis and the Sciences

Psychoanalysis and the Sciences PDF

Author: André Haynal

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780520082991

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The relationship existing between science and psychoanalysis has long been tense, critical, even hostile. Andr Haynal addresses this relationship by examining three questions: how is psychoanalytic "knowledge" established? what methodology and epistemology underlie psychoanalytic theory? and what are the historical circumstances that have shaped psychoanalysis? Haynal is familiar with the full spectrum of analytic thought and begins with a systematic discussion of analytic theory. The second part of the book covers a series of historical topics and includes discussions of Freud and his relations with his followers. A chapter on Freud and his "favorite disciple," Sandor Ferenczi, is an engrossing account of the complex intellectual and personal connection the two men shared. The relationship existing between science and psychoanalysis has long been tense, critical, even hostile. Andr Haynal addresses this relationship by examining three questions: how is psychoanalytic "knowledge" established? what methodology and epistemology underlie psychoanalytic theory? and what are the historical circumstances that have shaped psychoanalysis? Haynal is familiar with the full spectrum of analytic thought and begins with a systematic discussion of analytic theory. The second part of the book covers a series of historical topics and includes discussions of Freud and his relations with his followers. A chapter on Freud and his "favorite disciple," Sandor Ferenczi, is an engrossing account of the complex intellectual and personal connection the two men shared.

Does God Doubt? R. Gershon Henoch Leiner’s Thought in Its Contexts

Does God Doubt? R. Gershon Henoch Leiner’s Thought in Its Contexts PDF

Author: Jonathan Garb

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-03-04

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9004694234

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Does God Doubt? shows that Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin considered God to be revealed as doubt. Thus, according to this profound and important nineteenth-century Hasidic leader, doubt is an essential aspect of the human condition, and especially of religious life. His position is shown to be remarkably bold and unique compared to kabbalistic writing, and especially to the Hasidic worlds to which he belonged. At the same time, the roots of his thought are located in earlier discussions of doubt as one of the highest parts of the divine world. Doubt about, in, and of God is part of the Hasidic contribution to modernity.

Explorations of the Psychoanalytic Mystics

Explorations of the Psychoanalytic Mystics PDF

Author: Daniel Merkur

Publisher: Brill Rodopi

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 9789042028593

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Little discussed by psychoanalysts and almost unknown outside the profession, a small but distinguished group of psychoanalysts were or are mystics: Otto Rank, Erich Fromm, Marion Milner, D.W. Winnicott, Heinz Kohut, Hans W. Loewald, Wilfred R. Bion, James S. Grotstein, Neville Symington, and Michael Eigen. All favoured an extrovertive mysticism that perceives unity throughout physical reality. Several saw creativity as an application of mystical consciousness to the physical material of artwork, artefact, or, more generally, culture. Contemporary Psychoanalytic Studies (CPS) is an international scholarly book series devoted to all aspects of psychoanalytic inquiry in theoretical, philosophical, applied, and clinical psychoanalysis. Its aims are broadly academic, interdisciplinary, and pluralistic, emphasizing secularism and tolerance across the psychoanalytic domain. CPS aims to promote open and inclusive dialogue among the humanities and the social-behavioral sciences including such disciplines as philosophy, anthropology, history, literature, religion, cultural studies, sociology, feminism, gender studies, political thought, moral psychology, art, drama, and film, biography, law, economics, biology, and cognitive-neuroscience.

Truth Matters: Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis

Truth Matters: Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis PDF

Author: Shlomit Yadlin-Gadot

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2016-03-21

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 9004314997

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In Truth Matters: Theory and Practice in Psychoanalysis , Shlomit Yadlin-Gadot draws philosophical investigations of truth into psychoanalysis with wide ranging implications for both theory and clinical practice. Her ‘truth axes’ offer a powerful tool for understanding the mental world as well as for improving psychotherapy.

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