Freud An Intellectual Biography (original) (raw)

Sigmund Freud by Pamela Thursch

Sigmund Freud's impact on how we think, and how we think about how we think, has been enormous. Freud's psychoanalytical theory suggested new ways of understanding-amongst other things-love, hate, childhood, family relations, civilisation, religion, sexuality, fantasy and the conflicting emotions that make up our daily lives.Today we live in the shadow of Freud's innovative and controversial concepts. This short introduction to Freud's theories, contexts, influences and cultural effects is the ideal guide for readers interested in this thinker's continuing impact on contemporary culture and critical theory. The perfect companion to Freud's own work, this volume examines key ideas and key texts alongside the contexts from which they emerged. As well as offering a critical reading of Freud, the author highlights Freud's genius as a critical reader-of dreams, symptoms, slips of the tongue, myth, desire and culture. What emerges from this approach is a lucid examination of Freud's influence on contemporary literary and cultural theory.

Freud and Idealisation: Review essay on J. Whitebook: Freud: an intellectual biography

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 2022

Abstract. Idealisation, both of individuals and of aspects of theory and clinical practice, has been a pervasive theme in psychoanalytic history. This paper makes use of Joel Whitebook's Freud: an intellectual biography (2017) to examine the impact of idealisation on Freud's own history, looking especially at three areas: his relations with women, his understanding of science, and his attitudes toward Jewishness and issues to do with ethical values and religion. It suggests that this has left a heritage of idealisation within the psychoanalytic profession that is now counter-productive, and that it is time for psychoanalytic thinking to enter further into dialogue with philosophy and other disciplines on a basis of mutual respect.

The Relevance of Freud in the Modern World

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH, 2021

Sigmund Freud has affected generations not only in the field of psychology but also in social scenarios, home life and popular culture. His views and theories have shaped our current concepts ranging from development to therapy. His beliefs, in his time, not only inspired his contemporaries with theirs’ but they also sparked controversies with other intellectuals. Despite being subject to criticism, his ideas have been and are still relevant. The terms introduced by him like the ‘Freudian slip’ and ‘denial’, have been incorporated into the present dictionaries and everyday life. Massively influential, his ideas, theories and his school of thought, psychoanalysis, continue to have a strong impact on psychology as well as psychotherapy even today.

The Possible in the Life and Works of Sigmund Freud

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible, 2022

Indubitably, Sigmund Freud was one of last century's thinkers who contributed the most to redefining the scope of what is possible in the domain of human phenomena. He soundly charged at the picture that the western culture had formed of the human being, installing a field of inquiry and action whose potency stays current to this day. It is not an overstatement to say that psychoanalysis represented one of the most important epistemic torsions in the history of humankind, one whose implications have yet to be fully assimilated. The objective of this brief entry, concisely addressing a few key conceptual and methodological notions, is to show how the possibleimpossible axis built a bridge that enabled the Freudian foray into mind and culture, disrupting thus modern representations of what we have been, are and can become, as human beings.

A Synopsis of Freud and His Discontents; an aetiology of psychoanalysis

Freud and his Discontents; an aetiology of psychoanalysis, 2021

The book, ‘Freud and his Discontents; an aetiology of psychoanalysis’ (ISBN 978-87-4303-717-0) is published, available in Denmark and Germany, and will be promoted in Britain, America, and Canada. A synopsis of the book is contained in the pdf along with text samples from the book. The book runs from the records of the Freud family in Pribor, the Jewish Enlightenment from a center not too far of in Tysmenitz which, influenced Freud’s parents and his early years. His first three years were actually spent with a Catholic nanny which left him relatively positive to the Catholic faith but his family's beliefs in Judaism were strongly rejected. This, plus his reports of some sexualization in Freud records, leaves him with early sexual attachments to his mother and anger against his father - his response to his family was therefore rooted in Oedipal dynamics. Sexual theories of the time, including Havelock Ellis, von Krafft-Ebbing, and Albert Moll also play a part in his theory of libido. He also seems to hold to such templates where two mothers are present and with birth confusion, he records two possible fathers. Freud’s Oedipal theory established at age three, occur simultaneously when Freud significantly lost his nanny and returned to his mother. These factors become evident in his works up to and including his last work, Moses and Monotheism. A significant amount of Freud’s works are discussed including, the psychosexual stages, Leonardo da Vinci, Totem and taboo, and the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In this last section, there are brief entries describing the main ideas of those who met with Freud in Vienna on Wednesdays. These are the ‘discontents’ where despite stormy meetings, some remained as Freudians, and some, like CG Jung and Alfred Adler, go their own way. We then have a ‘diaspora’ of psychologists which, gives rise to the modern world of psychology and its disciplines as we find it.