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Author: Joel Whitebook
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262731171
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
In this sweeping challenge to the postmodern critiques of psychoanalysis, Joel Whitebook argues for a reintegration of Freud's uncompromising investigation of the unconscious with the political and philosophical insights of critical theory. Perversion and Utopia follows in the tradition of Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization and Paul Ricoeur's Freud and Philosophy. It expands on these books, however, because of the author's remarkable grasp not only of psychoanalytic studies but also of the contemporary critical climate; Whitebook, a philosopher and a psychoanalyst, writes with equal facility on both Habermas and Freud. A central thesis of Perversion and Utopia is that there is an essential affinity between the utopian impulse and the perverse impulse, in that both reflect a desire to bypass the reality principle that Freud claimed to define the human condition. The book explores the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between these impulses, which are ubiquitous features of human life, and the requirements of civilized social existence. Whitebook steers a course between orthodox psychoanalytic conservatism, which seeks simply to repress the perverse-utopian impulse in the name of social continuity and cohesion, and those forms of Freudo-Marxism, postmodernism, and psychoanalytic feminism that advocate its direct and full expression in the name of emancipation. While he demonstrates the limitations of the current textual approaches to Freud, especially those influenced by Lacan, Whitebook also enlists the lessons of psychoanalysis to counteract the excessive rationalism of the Habermasian brand of critical theory, thus making a substantial contribution to current discussions within critical theory itself. His analysis and interpretation of perversion, narcissism, sublimation, and ego bring new insight to these central and thorny issues in Freud, and his discussions of Adorno, Marcuse, Castoriadis, Habermas, Ricoeur, Lacan, and others are equally penetrating.
Author: Joel Whitebook
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262731171
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Get Book
Book Description
In this sweeping challenge to the postmodern critiques of psychoanalysis, Joel Whitebook argues for a reintegration of Freud's uncompromising investigation of the unconscious with the political and philosophical insights of critical theory. Perversion and Utopia follows in the tradition of Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization and Paul Ricoeur's Freud and Philosophy. It expands on these books, however, because of the author's remarkable grasp not only of psychoanalytic studies but also of the contemporary critical climate; Whitebook, a philosopher and a psychoanalyst, writes with equal facility on both Habermas and Freud. A central thesis of Perversion and Utopia is that there is an essential affinity between the utopian impulse and the perverse impulse, in that both reflect a desire to bypass the reality principle that Freud claimed to define the human condition. The book explores the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between these impulses, which are ubiquitous features of human life, and the requirements of civilized social existence. Whitebook steers a course between orthodox psychoanalytic conservatism, which seeks simply to repress the perverse-utopian impulse in the name of social continuity and cohesion, and those forms of Freudo-Marxism, postmodernism, and psychoanalytic feminism that advocate its direct and full expression in the name of emancipation. While he demonstrates the limitations of the current textual approaches to Freud, especially those influenced by Lacan, Whitebook also enlists the lessons of psychoanalysis to counteract the excessive rationalism of the Habermasian brand of critical theory, thus making a substantial contribution to current discussions within critical theory itself. His analysis and interpretation of perversion, narcissism, sublimation, and ego bring new insight to these central and thorny issues in Freud, and his discussions of Adorno, Marcuse, Castoriadis, Habermas, Ricoeur, Lacan, and others are equally penetrating.
Author: James Penney
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791481670
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
An original critique of queer theory, from a psychoanalytic perspective.
Author: Simon Jarvis
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415920575
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 314
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Book Description
This new introduction offers a comprehensive and accessible account of Adorno's work. Jarvis discusses the intellectual and institutional contexts for Adorno's thought and, in a broad-ranging study, examines his contributions to social theory, cultural theory, aesthetics, and philosophy. He shows how a re-examination of Adorno's work from the perspective of classical German philosophy allows us to see him from a new and illuminating angle, and ultimately to achieve a fuller understanding of all his thought.
Author: Alan Greenhalgh
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1906801703
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142
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Book Description
This book critically examines the relationship between man and society in Utopian systems. In order to do this, the author reviews a selection of Utopian and dystopian literature. There are excerpts from fiction, philosophy, social and political history, and an appraisal of the relevant issues. Various topics relating to Utopia such as harmony, freedom and its expression, conflict, machines and thought, homosexual rights to marriage, the future of world languages, the function of religion and God, social control and democracy are explored with a view to investigating man's conflict with himself and society. Many of these issues are relevant not only to today but to the 22nd century too. This book provides a thought-provoking addition to the body of literature on the subject.
Author: Susan Best
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472525752
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
By offering a new way of thinking about the role of politically engaged art, Susan Best opens up a new aesthetic field: reparative aesthetics. The book identifies an innovative aesthetic on the part of women photographers from the southern hemisphere, who against the dominant modes of criticality in political art, look at how cultural production can be reparative. The winner of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand best book award in 2017, Reparative Aesthetics contributes an entirely new theory to the interdisciplinary fields of aesthetics, affect studies, feminist theory, politics and photography. Conceptually innovative and fiercely original this book will move us beyond old political and cultural stalemates and into new terrain for analysis and reflection.
Author: David Greenham
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739110621
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
The first book-length study of Norman O. Brown, The Resurrection of the Body brings an order beyond "Western Culture" to the subjects that make up Brown's field of engagement, subjects as diverse as Classical Studies, Philosophy, Philology, Psychoanalysis, Theology, Literature, History, and Marxism. For Brown, each of these subjects is in a very real sense an emanation of the body; that is, Western Culture is the body's attempt to resurrect itself. Examining Brown's works from Hermes the Thief to Closing Time, David Greenham illuminates Brown's fascinating signature style of collage, quotation, and comment. This book also seeks to redress the balance between Brown and his more celebrated contemporary Herbert Marcuse. The Resurrection of the Body is essential reading for any Norman O. Brown scholar.
Author: Pauline Johnson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134209274
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
If we are to believe what many sociologists are telling us, the public sphere is in a near terminal state. Our ability to build solidarities with strangers and to agree on the general significance of needs and problems seems to be collapsing. These cultural potentials appear endangered by a newly aggressive attempt to universalize and extend the norms of the market. For four decades Habermas has been trying to bring the claims of a modern public sphere before us. His vast oeuvre has investigated its historical, sociological and theoretical preconditions, has explored its relevance and meaning as well as diagnosing its on-going crises. In the contemporary climate, a systematic look at Habermas’ lifelong project of rescuing the modern public sphere seems an urgent task. This study reconstructs major developments in Habermas’ thinking about the public sphere, and is a contribution to the current vigorous debate over its plight. It marshals the significance of Habermas’ lifetime of work on this topic to illuminate what is at stake in a contemporary interest in rescuing an embattled modern public sphere. Habermas’ project of rescuing the neglected potentials of Enlightenment legacies has been deeply controversial. For many, it is too lacking in radical commitments to warrant its claim to a contemporary place within a critical theory tradition. Against this developing consensus, Pauline Johnson describes Habermas’ project as one that is still informed by utopian energies, even though his own construction of emancipatory hopes itself proves to be too narrow and one-sided.
Author: Jan Borowicz
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003833454
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217
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Book Description
Perverse Memory and the Holocaust presents a new theoretical approach to the study of Polish memory bystanders of the Holocaust. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, it examines representations of the Holocaust in order to explore the perverse mechanisms of memory at work, in which surface a series of phenomena difficult to remember: the pleasure derived from witnessing scenes of violence, identification with the German perpetrators of violence, the powerful fear of revenge at the hands of Jewish victims, and the adoption of the position of genocide victims. Moving away from the focus of previous psychoanalytic studies of memory on questions of mourning, melancholy, repressed memory, and loss, this volume considers the transformation of the collective identity of those who remained in the space of past Holocaust events: bystanders, who partook in the events and benefited from the extermination of the Jews. A critique of ‘perverse memory’ that hampers attempts to work through what is remembered, this book will be of interest to scholars across the social sciences working in the fields of Holocaust studies, memory studies, psychoanalytic studies, and cultural studies.
Author: Peter M.R. Stirk
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441117784
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
From the launch of the Journal of Social Research in 1932 to the recent work of Jurgen Habermas on law and democracy, the Frankfurt School has produced some of the most ambitious and influential theories of the past century. This new introduction to the critical theory of the School provides a thorough, concise and up-to-date assessment of thinkers including Pollock, Marcuse, Horkheimer, Adorno, Neumann, Lowenthal, Fromm, Kirchheimer and Habermas. Peter Stirk's lively account places the formative work of the School within the context of the Weimar Republic and of Nazi Germany. He contrasts this environment with the very different background of 1950s Germany in which Habermas embarked on his academic career. Stirk goes on to discuss the enduring relevance of political theory to the contemporary political agenda. In particular, he illustrates the continuing validity of the Frankfurt School's criticism of positivist, metaphysical and more recently postmodernist views, and its members' attempts to incorporate psychological perspectives into broader theories of social dynamics. He assesses their contribution to key areas of contemporary debate, including morality, interest, individual and collective identity and the analysis of authoritarian and democratic states. Specifically focused on the interests and needs of social scientists, philosophers and historians of ideas, Critical Theory, Politics and Society is an essential book both for students and for all those who wish to grasp the contours of critical theory and to understand its enduring relevance.
Author: William S. Allen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501393871
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
Adorno's aesthetics are one of the most important philosophical analyses of the 20th century, but their development remains unclear. Adorno, Aesthetics, Dissonance is the first book to provide a detailed study of how Adorno's thinking of aesthetics developed and to show the different dimensions that came together to make it uniquely powerful. Principal among these dimensions are his intense interest in music and his historical and materialist approach. In addition, by studying how Adorno's aesthetics arose through interactions with different thinkers, particularly Kracauer, Horkheimer, and Schoenberg, it becomes clear that his thought changes in its relation to dialectics. As a result, Adorno's thinking comes to broaden the understanding of aesthetics to include the sphere of sensuality, and in doing so transforms both aesthetics and dialectics through a notion of dissonance, which in turn has substantial implications for the relation of his thinking to praxis.
