This book examines the nature of Freud's relationship to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche regarded himself, among other things, as a psychologist. His psychological explorations included an understanding of the meaning and function of dreams, the unconscious, sublimation of drives, drives turned inward upon the self, unconscious guilt, unconscious envy, unconscious resistance, and much more that anticipated some of Freud's fundamental psychoanalytic concepts. Although Freud wrote of Nietzsche having anticipated psychoanalytic concepts, he denied that Nietzsche had any influence on his thought.
Examines images of horror in Victorian fiction, criticism, and philosophy. Focusing on the recurring metaphor of Medusas head, The Medusa Effect examines images of horror in texts by Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and a series of Victorian artists and critics writing about aesthetics. Through nuanced and innovative readings of canonical works by Freud, Nietzsche, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walter Pater, A. C. Swinburne, and George Eliot, Thomas Albrecht demonstrates the twofold nature of these writers images of horror. On the one hand, the analysis illuminates how the representation of something seen as horrifyingfor instance, a disturbing work of art, an existential insight, or a recognition of the fundamental inaccessibility of another persons consciousnesscan serve a protective purpose, to defend the writer in some way against the horror he or she encounters. On the other hand, the representations themselves can be a potential threatepistemologically unreliable, for instance, or illusory, deceptive, fundamentally unstable, and potentially dangerous to the writers. Through a psychoanalytically informed literary analysis, The Medusa Effect explores crucial ethical and epistemological questions of Victorian aesthetics, as well as underexamined complexities of the mechanisms of Victorian literary representation. an elegant study in rhetorical analysis. Victorian Studies Thomas Albrecht brings a radically different approach to aestheticspsychoanalytic and poststructuralist rather than historicistin The Medusa Effect. Studies in English Literature
Exploring the connections between Nietzsche's thought and depth psychology, this book sheds new light on the relation between psychology and philosophy. It examines the status and function of Nietzsche's psychological insights within the framework of his thought; explores the formative impact of Nietzsche's "new psychology" on Freud, Adler, Jung, and other major psychoanalysts; and adopts Nietzsche's original psychological insights on the figure and biography of Nietzsche himself. Contributors include Claude Barbre; Eric Blondel; James P. Cadello; Daniel Chapelle; Daniel W. Conway; Claudia Crawford; Jacob Golomb; Deborah Hayden; Robert C. Holub; Ronald Lehrer; Rochelle L. Millen; George Moraitis; Graham Parkes; Carl Pletsch; Weaver Santaniello; Ofelia Schutte; and Robert C. Solomon.
Many of the leading Freudian analysts, including in the early days, Jung, Adler, Reich and Rank, attempted to link the writings of Nietzsche with the clinical work of Freud. But what was Nietzsche to Freud--an intuitive anticipation, a precursor, a rival psychologist? Assoun moves beyond the seduction of these attractive analogues to a deeper analysis of the relation between these two figures.
Widely acclaimed for giving "an understanding of the connection between Nietzsche’s personal experience and his most famous ideas" (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times) in her biography of Nietzsche, Nietzsche in Turin, Chamberlain now renders a similar service to readers of Freud. In this book, part biography, part literary criticism, she takes the reader into the mind of Freud, toward a better understanding of the thinker, his work, and art itself. The very idea of the subconcious as a constant, active presence in our daily lives was Freud’s greatest contribution and has allowed generations of people to experience their lives more deeply. His rigorous exploration of the dynamism and structures of the subconscious, Chamberlain argues, was in itself an important work of art. Using Freud’s own writing on art and the aesthetic theories of thinkers ranging from Nietzsche to Lionel Trilling, Chamberlain examines Freud’s art and shows how his imaginative creations have revolutionized not only mental health, but our thinking about art in general, by opening up the individual subconscious as a subject. In elegant, accessible prose she describes how "Freud split the aesthetic atom, releasing a vast energy for individual creativity."
This work looks at the contribution made by various sages and philosophers to political debate. The originality of the book lies in its inclusion not just of philosophers and political theorists, but also of psychoanalysts, as a way of establishing how rich a contribution psychoanalysis can make to political theory. The work of many diverse thinkers is explored here: John Stuart Mill, Nietzche, Dostoevsky, Freud, Erich Fromm, Bruno Bettelheim and Erik H Erikson, and the author is keen to present them as people just as much as thinkers.
The contributors featured in this work engage the reader in a stimulating exchange and dialogue about the post-modern turn in psychoanalysis. They advocate, critique, or simply observe this contemporary phenomenon.
A companion volume to his Critique of Religion and Philosophy, this book offers Walter Kaufmann's critical interpretations of some of the great minds in Western philosophy, religion, and literature.
Appearing between two historical touchstones--the alleged end of communism and the 100th anniversary of Nietzsche's death--this book offers a provocative hypothesis about the philosopher's afterlife and the fate of leftist thought and culture. At issue is the relation of the dead Nietzsche (corpse) and his written work (corpus) to subsequent living Nietzscheanism across the political spectrum, but primarily among a leftist corps that has been programmed and manipulated by concealed dimensions of the philosopher's thought. If anyone is responsible for what Geoff Waite maintains is the illusory death of communism, it is Nietzsche, the man and concept. Waite advances his argument by bringing Marxist--especially Gramscian and Althusserian--theories to bear on the concept of Nietzsche/anism. But he also goes beyond ideological convictions to explore the vast Nietzschean influence that proliferates throughout the marketplace of contemporary philosophy, political and literary theory, and cultural and technocultural criticism. In light of a philological reconstruction of Nietzsche's published and unpublished texts, Nietzsche's Corps/e shuttles between philosophy and everyday popular culture and shows them to be equally significant in their having been influenced by Nietzsche--in however distorted a form and in a way that compromises all of our best interests. Controversial in its "decelebration" of Nietzsche, this remarkable study asks whether the postcontemporary age already upon us will continue to be dominated and oriented by the haunting spectre of Nietzsche's corps/e. Philosophers, intellectual historians, literary theorists, and those interested in western Marxism, popular culture, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the intersection of French and German thought will find this book both appealing and challenging.
NEW YORK TIMES Editors’ Choice • THE TIMES BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE A groundbreaking new biography of philosophy’s greatest iconoclast Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most enigmatic figures in philosophy, and his concepts—the Übermensch, the will to power, slave morality—have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the human condition. But what do most people really know of Nietzsche—beyond the mustache, the scowl, and the lingering association with nihilism and fascism? Where do we place a thinker who was equally beloved by Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Martin Buber, and Adolf Hitler? Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing—overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father—through his teaching career, lonely philosophizing on high mountains, and heart-breaking descent into madness, Prideaux documents Nietzsche’s intellectual and emotional life with a novelist’s insight and sensitivity. She also produces unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé, the femme fatale who broke his heart; and his sister Elizabeth, a rabid German nationalist and anti-Semite who manipulated his texts and turned the Nietzsche archive into a destination for Nazi ideologues. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
