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Force, Drive, Desire: A Philosophy of Psychoanalysis
In Force, Drive, Desire , Rudolf Bernet develops a philosophical foundation of psychoanalysis focusing on human drives. Rather than simply drawing up a list of Freud’s borrowings from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, or Lacan’s from Hegel and Sartre, Bernet orchestrates a dialogue between philosophy and psychoanalysis that goes far beyond what these eminent psychoanalysts knew about philosophy. By relating the writings of Freud, Lacan, and other psychoanalysts to those of Aristotle, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, and, more tacitly, Bergson and Deleuze, Bernet brings to light how psychoanalysis both prolongs and breaks with the history of Western metaphysics and philosophy of nature. Rereading the long history of metaphysics (or at least a few of its key moments) in light of psychoanalytic inquiries into the nature and function of drive and desire also allows for a rewriting of the history of philosophy. Specifically, it allows Bernet to bring to light a different history of metaphysics, one centered less on Aristotelian substance ( ousia ) and more on the concept of dunamis —a power or potentiality for a realization toward which it strives with all its might. Relating human drives to metaphysical forces also bears fruit for a renewed philosophy of life and subjectivity.
- GenresPsychoanalysis
440 pages, Hardcover
Published February 15, 2020
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August 1, 2022
"Desire is the actual essence of man, in so far as it is conceived, as determined to a particular activity by some given modification of itself." Spinoza - Ethica
This is a creative work on psychoanalysis in a philosophical tradition. Explicitly not an exegesis of Freuds and Lacans philosophical influences - this had been done many times - but a lively and productive conversation of two traditions on a very same topic.
Rudolf Bernet argues that the discipline of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic subject emerge from a whole tradition of western metaphysics oriented around drives, desires, and forces.
The tradition of subjectivity, anthropology, and even ethics starts off from a physical and metaphysical notion of force.
In part 1 of this book Bernet explores how three main figures in the history of thought bring a dynamic idea of force to the fore. These are Aristotle with his concept of Dynamis, Leibniz with his Vis Activa, and Schopenhauer with his idea of Will. These ideas have their influence on thinking the human as desiring subject, and can be revealed in the origin of psychoanalysis.
With these figures in mind, conesquently, Bernet will give a genealogy of Freuds notion of Drive (Trieb) through its development. Freud worked around this concept for years, through the "Three theories on sexuality", "Drives and their vicissitudes" and in the most intricate form in "Beyond
the pleasure principle". Also Lacans subversion of this notion of drive is discussed, as put out in seminars 7 and 11. .
In part 2 the focus is shifted from a historical point of view of the drive to a conceptual point of view on human subjectivity. What does it mean to be a desiring subject and how does this result in a view of man on the world and on himself? Husserls notion of subjectivity is put together with Freuds ideas on the topic. The climax of the book is how the drive-based subject encounters art in an aesthetic experience.
Being a Phenomenologist Bernet will use Husserls eidetics, this is an essential framework of analysis of phenomena, to examine drive and desire in psychoanalysis. Notions of causality, embodiment, sexuality and aggressivity are discussed. Highly original Bernet only uses primary sources to give his own interpretation of the history of philosophy and psychoanalysis. This way he puts Freud and Lacan in an exciting and essential tradition, broadening an understanding of man as a desiring being in general.
This is a creative work on psychoanalysis in a philosophical tradition. Explicitly not an exegesis of Freuds and Lacans philosophical influences - this had been done many times - but a lively and productive conversation of two traditions on a very same topic.
Rudolf Bernet argues that the discipline of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic subject emerge from a whole tradition of western metaphysics oriented around drives, desires, and forces.
The tradition of subjectivity, anthropology, and even ethics starts off from a physical and metaphysical notion of force.
In part 1 of this book Bernet explores how three main figures in the history of thought bring a dynamic idea of force to the fore. These are Aristotle with his concept of Dynamis, Leibniz with his Vis Activa, and Schopenhauer with his idea of Will. These ideas have their influence on thinking the human as desiring subject, and can be revealed in the origin of psychoanalysis.
With these figures in mind, conesquently, Bernet will give a genealogy of Freuds notion of Drive (Trieb) through its development. Freud worked around this concept for years, through the "Three theories on sexuality", "Drives and their vicissitudes" and in the most intricate form in "Beyond
the pleasure principle". Also Lacans subversion of this notion of drive is discussed, as put out in seminars 7 and 11. .
In part 2 the focus is shifted from a historical point of view of the drive to a conceptual point of view on human subjectivity. What does it mean to be a desiring subject and how does this result in a view of man on the world and on himself? Husserls notion of subjectivity is put together with Freuds ideas on the topic. The climax of the book is how the drive-based subject encounters art in an aesthetic experience.
Being a Phenomenologist Bernet will use Husserls eidetics, this is an essential framework of analysis of phenomena, to examine drive and desire in psychoanalysis. Notions of causality, embodiment, sexuality and aggressivity are discussed. Highly original Bernet only uses primary sources to give his own interpretation of the history of philosophy and psychoanalysis. This way he puts Freud and Lacan in an exciting and essential tradition, broadening an understanding of man as a desiring being in general.
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