The Sovereign Psyche

The Sovereign Psyche is not just the title of the book. More importantly The Sovereign Psyche is the motivating consciousness, intellect, and willpower that is necessary to materialize what the book defines as "Self-Authentic Freedom" as opposed to "Chattel Freedom." Chattel freedom is when the value of a people is predicated upon the extent to which they serve the interests and institutions of others. As such, this work asserts that there is no such thing as intellectual or institutional equality, and that Black/African people have been unknowingly thrusted into an intellectual and institutional war, where second-place finishers either experience varying degrees of chattel freedom or they could end-up dead. Regardless of the issue, genuine solutions entail what we as Black/African people intellectually and institutionally do for ourselves. If "Black Lives Matter" we must channel the end-uses of our intellect and the resources of our institutions to not only prove and enforce it, but also leverage powers to penalize and/or repudiate violators. Although this work centers upon Black/African people, the sovereign functions and frameworks herein are universal in application, being that todays world rotates upon systems of sovereignty and power, not beliefs in democracy or equality. In this context, the sovereign concepts and criteria presented are far more rational than radical. The central question is, to what extent will Black/African people harness the willpower and employ the intellect of The Sovereign Psyche to actualize our own systems and institutions of self-authentic freedom, government, and development, without apology or permission? This work offers the ideological apparatus to make this possible, just as others are doing all around the globe.

Contributions by Taharka Adé, Molefi Kete Asante, Alonge O. Clarkson, John P. Craig, Ifetayo M. Flannery, Kofi Kubatanna, Lehasa Moloi, M. Ndiika Mutere, and Aaron X. Smith In the twenty-first century, AfroFuturism—a historical and philosophical concept of the future imagined through a Black cultural lens—has been interpreted through a myriad of writers, artists, scientists, and other visionary creatives. In Afrocentricity in AfroFuturism: Toward Afrocentric Futurism, editor Aaron X. Smith curates a collection of interdisciplinary essays that critiques existing scholarship on Black futurity. In contrast to much previous work, these essays ground their explorations in African agency, centering the African within historical and cultural reality. Situating Afrocentricity as the field’s foundational root and springboard for an expansive future, contributors detail potential new modes of existence and expression for African people throughout the diaspora. Divided into two parts—Representations and Transformations—this book examines the tensions created by historical and cultural dislocation of African peoples and consciousness. Contributors cover varied topics such as the intersections of culture and design; techno culture; neuroscience; and the multiplicity of African cultural influences in aesthetics, oratory, visual art, hip hop, and more. Essays range from theoretical analyses to close readings of history and popular culture, from the Haitian Revolution to Sun Ra, Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, and Black Panther. Afrocentricity in AfroFuturism offers an expansive vision of AfroFuturism and its ranging significance to contemporary culture and discourse.

Can queer theory be erotophobic? This book proceeds from the perplexing observation that for all of its political agita, rhetorical virtuosity, and intellectual restlessness, queer theory conforms to a model of erotic life that is psychologically conservative and narrow. Even after several decades of combative, dazzling, irreverent queer critical thought, the field remains far from grasping that sexuality’s radical potential lies in its being understood as “exogenous, intersubjective and intrusive” (Laplanche). In particular, and despite the pervasiveness and popularity of recent calls to deconstruct the ideological foundations of contemporary queer thought, no study has as yet considered or in any way investigated the singular role of psychology in shaping the field’s conceptual impasses and politico-ethical limitations. Through close readings of key thinkers in queer theoretical thought—Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Leo Bersani, Lee Edelman, Judith Butler, Lauren Berlant, and Jane Gallop—Homo Psyche introduces metapsychology as a new dimension of analysis vis-à-vis the theories of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, who insisted on “new foundations for psychoanalysis” that radically departed from existing Freudian and Lacanian models of the mind. Staging this intervention, Ashtor deepens current debates about the future of queer studies by demonstrating how the field’s systematic neglect of metapsychology as a necessary and independent realm of ideology ultimately enforces the complicity of queer studies with psychological conventions that are fundamentally erotophobic and therefore inimical to queer theory’s radical and ethical project.

Language and logic are inextricably commingled in our everyday speech. What we say, particularly in the form of statements, tends not only to mirror our world, but mold it into our own image. This book looks at how much of our verbal communication can be considered “valid” from the point of view of the rules of logic. Are we saying what we mean to say? Is what we hear from the media, our peers, our leaders, and those who determine the narrative “story” of our lives meaningful, rational, and logical? Even more important than the answers to these questions is the answer to whether we are the governors and rulers of our own lives. Have we abdicated this sovereign rule to forces that may not have our best interests and wellbeing in mind? Using works of Continental and analytic philosophy ancient and modern, psychology, linguistics, religion, and literature, this book supports the thesis that we have surrendered the only thing we could ever possibly own – ourselves – for unprecedented access to consumer goods, credit, and the hope for medical immortality. Further, the argument is made that the prevailing discourse of global modern culture consists of statements which are invalid because their inner semantic structure is inherently contradictory. The argument is aimed at those who want to learn more about what makes our everyday discourse and thinking rational or irrational. At the same time, it indicts the individual of the modern industrialized state for the crime of the voluntary abdication of his sovereignty and for forcing others who have little control over their lives to do the same. This book is a call for introspection in the hope that the reader will see something of the situation described reflected not only in himself, but in the society he inhabits.

Jung and the Human Psyche: An Understandable Introduction presents a comprehensive introduction to Jungian theory, taking the reader through the major themes of Jung's work in a clear way, relating such concepts to individual experience. Drawing on her extensive experience in practicing and teaching Jungian psychology, Mary Ann Mattoon succeeds in making the fundamental insights of Jung's work accessible. The major topics of Jungian psychology are presented in a manner that is clear, emotionally engaging, well illustrated and non-dogmatic. Areas covered include: The visible psyche: ego, persona, typology. The hidden psyche: self, shadow, unconscious, archetypes, instincts. Becoming who we are: early development, gender. Obstacles and helps to growth: complexes, projection, psychopathology. Helps from the psyche: psychic energy, self-regulation/compensation, symbol, synchronicity, creativity. Jung and the Human Psyche provides an original and imaginative introduction to Jung's work, and will appeal to students of Jungian psychology, those considering training in Jungian analysis, and anyone interested in Jungian psychology.

The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche first appeared in the Collected Works in 1960. In this new edition bibliographical citations and entries have been revised in the light of subsequent publications in the Collected Works, and essential corrections have been made. The book traces an important line of development in Jung's thought from 1912 onwards. The earliest of the papers elaborates Freud's concept of sexual libido into that of psychic energy. In those that follow we see how, Jung, discarding one by one the traditional 'philosophical' hypotheses, gradually arrived at a concept which is even more controversial than psychic energy was in its day ^DDL namely, psychic reality. The book contains the first mention of the archetype in Jung's writings as well as his later views on its nature. There is also a valuable account of the therapeutic uses of 'active imagination' first described in an essay written in 1916.

The book applies an interdisciplinary analytical framework, based on social psychology theories of inclusion and exclusion, to a discussion of legal discourse and the development of legal frameworks in Europe concerning migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and European citizens. It adopts a psycho-historical perspective to discuss the evolution of international and European law with regard to the rights of citizens and asylum-seeking non-citizens, from the law’s inception following the Second World War up to present-day laws and policies. The book reveals the embracing of a European identity based on human rights as the common feature in European treaties and institutions, one that is focused on European citizens and has inclusionary objectives. However, a cognitive dissonance can also be found, as this common identity-making runs counter to national proclivities, as well as securitized, threat-perception-oriented perspectives that can produce exclusionary manifestations concerning persons seeking asylum. In particular, a view of inclusion and exclusion via legal categorizations of status, as well as distributions of social and economic rights, draws attention to the links between social psychology and international law. What emerges in the analysis: a process of creating value is present both at its psychological roots and the expressions of value in the law. Fundamentally speaking, the emergence of laws and policies that center on human beings and human dignity, when understood from a psychological and emotion-based perspective, has the potential to transcend the dissonances identified.

Peter Bornedal provides an interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole in the context of 19th century philosophy of mind and cognition. The study explains Nietzsche's notion of truth; his epistemology; his notions of the split and fragmented subject, of master, slave, and priest; furthermore, it offers a new interpretation of the enigmatic "eternal recurrence". It also suggests how important aspects of Nietzsche's thinking can be read as a sophisticated critique of ideology. From studies in Nietzsche's work as a whole, not least in his so-called Nachgelassene Fragmente, thebook reconstructs aspects of Nietzsche's thinking that have largely been under-described in especially the Anglo-Saxon Nietzsche-reception. The study makes the case that Nietzsche in his epistemology, his psychology, and his cognitive theory is responding to several scientific discoveries occuring during the 19th century. Read within the context of contemporary cognitive-psychological-evolutionary debates, Nietzsche's philosophy is seen as far more scientistic, and far less poetical-metaphysical, than it has in recent reception-history been received.