Underworlds: Philosophies of the Unconscious from Psychoanalysis to Metaphysics: Philosophies of the Unconscious from Psychoanalysis to Metaphysics

by Jon Mills

The first book of its kind to provide a detailed analysis of the history of the unconscious from the underworlds of Greek and Egyptian mythology to psychoanalysis and metaphysics, Jon Mills presents here a unique study of differing philosophies of the unconscious. Mills examines how three major philosophical systems on the nature of the unconscious emerge after modern philosophy, finding their most celebrated elaborations in Freud, Lacan and Jung. These three psychoanalytic traditions, quite separate from one another in terms of their emphasis and philosophical presuppositions, are scrutinised alongside contemporaneous movements in existential phenomenology, semiotics, epistemology, transcendental psychology and Western metaphysics in the texts of Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre and Whitehead. Underworlds provides a scholarly exegesis and critique of the main philosophies of the unconscious to have transpired in the history of ideas. Exploring the unconscious from its philosophical beginnings in antiquity to its systematic articulation brought about by the rise of psychoanalysis, Underworlds is ideal for practicing psychoanalysts, academics of Freud, Jung and Lacan, and scholars of psychology, philosophy and the humanities.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis

202 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Prof. Jon Mills, PsyD, PhD, ABPP is a Canadian philosopher, psychoanalyst, and retired clinical psychologist. He is Honorary Professor, Department of Psychosocial & Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK; Faculty in the Postgraduate Programs in Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy, Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, USA; Faculty & Supervising Analyst at the New School for Existential Psychoanalysis, USA; and is Emeritus Professor of Psychology & Psychoanalysis at Adler Graduate Professional School, Toronto, Canada where he taught for over 20 years. Recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship, he is the author and/or editor of over 30 books in philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, and cultural studies.

Dr. Mills is an internationally recognized scholar, teacher, and cultural critic, award winning author who maintains an active writing schedule, and lectures widely worldwide.

Reviews

[Ruben Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic book covering an in depth analysis on the emergent quality of the ego's instantiative capacity and role in our daily lives. Mills takes the reader on a dialectic journey of a most high calibre in understanding not only the psychoanalytic side but also the profound metaphysical truths implicate in his writing which remind me so strongly of tzimtzum and cosmic cyclicality of progressive arcs. Book deserves so much more attention than it has received!

[Jason]

p. 48; see note - bottom p. 15