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Wittgenstein reads Freud : the myth of the unconscious

Bouveresse, Jacques

Wittgenstein reads Freud : the myth of the unconscious - Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press 1995 - xx, 143 pages ; 23 cm - New French Thought Series .

9780691029047 Includes bibliographical references and index. Did Freud present a scientific hypothesis about the unconscious, as he always maintained and as many of his disciples keep repeating? This question has long prompted debates concerning the legitimacy and usefulness of psychoanalysis, and it is of utmost importance to Lacanian analysts, whose main project has been to stress Freud's scientific grounding. Here Jacques Bouveresse, a noted authority on Ludwig Wittgenstein, contributes to the debate by turning to this Austrian-born philosopher and contemporary of Freud for a candid assessment of the early issues surrounding psychoanalysis. Wittgenstein, who himself had delivered a devastating critique of traditional philosophy, sympathetically pondered Freud's claim to have produced a scientific theory in proposing a new model of the human psyche. What Wittgenstein recognized - and what Bouveresse so eloquently stresses for today's reader - is that psychoanalysis does not aim to produce a change limited to the intellect but rather seeks to provoke an authentic change of human attitudes. The beauty behind the theory of the unconscious for Wittgenstein is that it breaks away from scientific, causal explanations to offer new forms of thinking and speaking, or rather, a new mythology.

0691029040


Psychoanalysis and philosophy
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951--Views on psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939--Influence
Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939

150.1952

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