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A Psychoanalysis for Our Time
Does psychoanalysis have a future?
Psychoanalysis is not a relic of a bygone era, argues Jeffrey B. Rubin in A Psychoanalysis for Our Time . Rather, it has profound relevance for our troubled time.
Steering a balanced course between Freud's virulent attackers and his loyalist defenders, Rubin discerns both blind spots and hidden strengths in psychoanalysis. He reveals its covert authoritarianism, Byzantine politics, censorship of dissident thinkers, residual sexism, and overly simplistic accounts of self. A Psychoanalysis for Our Time does not only cogently critique psychoanalysis, however; it also offers a visionary approach for its renewal, based on cultivating greater historical, theoretical, and methodological self-awareness within psychoanalysis.
Drawing on history, deconstructionism, feminism, anthropology, and Eastern meditative disciplines, Rubin portrays a psychoanalysis that is self-reflective and non-authoritarian, pluralistic and emancipatory. Encyclopedic in scope, integrative in spirit, A Psychoanalysis for Our Time is a brilliant and landmark work.
Psychoanalysis is not a relic of a bygone era, argues Jeffrey B. Rubin in A Psychoanalysis for Our Time . Rather, it has profound relevance for our troubled time.
Steering a balanced course between Freud's virulent attackers and his loyalist defenders, Rubin discerns both blind spots and hidden strengths in psychoanalysis. He reveals its covert authoritarianism, Byzantine politics, censorship of dissident thinkers, residual sexism, and overly simplistic accounts of self. A Psychoanalysis for Our Time does not only cogently critique psychoanalysis, however; it also offers a visionary approach for its renewal, based on cultivating greater historical, theoretical, and methodological self-awareness within psychoanalysis.
Drawing on history, deconstructionism, feminism, anthropology, and Eastern meditative disciplines, Rubin portrays a psychoanalysis that is self-reflective and non-authoritarian, pluralistic and emancipatory. Encyclopedic in scope, integrative in spirit, A Psychoanalysis for Our Time is a brilliant and landmark work.
230 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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January 23, 2012
This is another wonderful book from Jeffrey Rubin; this one is a thorough investigation into what he calls the "blindness of the seeing I" within the psychoanalytic traditions! He makes a strong point for how the theory and institution of psychoanalysis can become more an obstacle to healing and liberation than a path toward them. This contrasts with the reality of practice -- or perhaps more accurately -- the potential of practice.
He calls for a 'post-humanist' perspective that avoids the traps of idealization and nihilism. I think his point is clear, and one that, if taken up by psychoanalysis can have a truly revitalizing effect on the tradition.
He calls for a 'post-humanist' perspective that avoids the traps of idealization and nihilism. I think his point is clear, and one that, if taken up by psychoanalysis can have a truly revitalizing effect on the tradition.
Displaying 1 of 1 review