Psychoanalysis Politics And The Postmodern University

Critical theory draws on Marxism, psychoanalysis, postmodern and poststructuralist theorists. Marxism and psychoanalysis are rooted in the Enlightenment project, while postmodernism and poststructuralism are more indebted to Nietzsche, whose philosophy is rooted in anti-Enlightenment ideas and ideals. Marxism and psychoanalysis contributed mightily to our understanding of fascism and authoritarianism, but were distorted and disfigured by authoritarian tendencies and practices in turn. This book, written for clinicians and social scientists, explores these overarching themes, focusing on the reception of Freud in America, the authoritarian personality and American politics, Lacan’s “return to Freud,” Jordan Peterson and the Crisis of the Liberal Arts, and the anti-psychiatry movement.

Psychoanalysis has had a profound influence on twentieth-century thought in a wide variety of areas, from psychology and psychiatry to sociology, literature, feminism and politics. Most importantly, it offers insights into the relationship between individual subjectivity and social relations, making it a key discipline for understanding the links between social phenomena and personal experience. Since its first publication in 1987, The Politics of Psychoanalysis has been widely recognised as one of the best introductions to psychoanalytic theory from the point of view of its relevance for social relations. As well as describing Freud's work, it examines the basic assumptions and social implications of a broad spectrum of post-Freudian psychoanalytic thought, especially object relations, Kleinian and Lacanian theory. Feminist and critical psychoanalytic approaches are explored, along with questions of psychoanalytic practice andd its implications for social and personal change. For this second edition, the book has been thoroughly revised, with updated accounts of the theories covered in the first edition, plus new material on contemporary feminist psychoanalytic work and on the engagement of psychoanalysis with postmodernism. The result is a book that combines a lucid introduction to theory with a radical examination of the value of psychoanalysis for therapeutic and social practice.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

Incorporating autobiography as well as reflections on relations between mothers and daughters, psychoanalysis, feminist theorizing, race, and modernist political theories and philosophies, renowned feminist theorist Jane Flax brings together eight of her most recent essays in Disputed Subjects. 'Indisputably required reading ... Lively, sophisticated, and challenging discussions at the crucial intersection of feminist, psychoanalytic, and political ideas. Jane Flax allows her own multiple and conflicting identities into open dialogue, and the result is a promontory on the postmodern landscape.' - Kenneth J. Gergen 'Jane Flax is one of the most challenging women writing today ... It is the well-informed voice of sanity, balance and courage.' - Phyllis Grosskurth 'Jane Flax's bold new book challenges orthodoxies in feminism, psychoanalysis, and postmodernism. By questioning the questions that have been taken to define these fields, she demonstrates once again the originality of her thinking.' - Alison M. Jaggar

Has psychoanalysis become postmodern? How are the various schools of psychoanalysis being altered by postmodernism? What role does psychoanalysis have to play in the cultural debate in postmodern times? Originally published in 2000, Psychoanalysis at its Limits offers a stimulating account of the complex and contradictory nature of psychoanalysis in the postmodern age. It presents a history and critique of the concept of postmodernism throughout contemporary psychoanalytic thought. As such it is a critical survey of the complex relations between desire, selfhood and culture.

Critical theory has traditionally been interested in engaging classical psychoanalysis rather than addressing postclassical thought. For the first time, this volume brings critical theory into proper dialogue with modern developments in the psychoanalytic movement and covers a broad range of topics in contemporary society that revisit the Frankfurt School and its contributions to psychoanalytic social critique. Theoretical, clinical, and applied investigations in social pathology are explored in relation to new directions in critical cultural discourse from a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives. In this volume, internationally acclaimed social political theorists, philosophers, psychoanalysts, cultural critics, and scholars of humanities examine contemporary issues in social critique that address a myriad of topics. Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis will be of interest to philosophers, psychoanalysts, political scientists, cultural theorists, sociologists, psychologists, religious studies, academe, and those generally interested in the humanities and social sciences.

According to the author, psychoanalytic theory and practice – which discloses ‘the interminable falsity of the human subject’s belief in the mastery of its own mental life’ – is in part responsible for the coming of the postmodern era. In this title, originally published in 1993, Barratt examines the role of psychoanalysis in what he sees as the crisis of modernism, shows why the modernist position – what he calls the ‘modern episteme’ – is failing, and proposes that psychoanalysis should redefine itself as a postmodern method. In Barratt’s innovative account of psychoanalysis, which focuses on the significance of the free-associative process, Freud’s discovery of the repressed unconscious leads to a claim that is basic to postmodern ideas: ‘that all thinking and speaking, the production and reproduction of psychic reality, is inherently dynamic, polysemous, and contradictorious .’ He argues that subsequent attempts to ‘normalize and systematize’ psychoanalysis are reactionary and antipsychoanalytic efforts to salvage the modern episteme that psychoanalysis itself calls into question.