Description
Psychotherapist and former teacher of philosophy and history, Longhin rethinks Sigmund Freud's early 20th-century project for a metapsychology. He takes inspiration from Immanuel Kant's investigations into the mind and his epistemological project to give a philosophical foundation to modern science, but also a wide array of scientific, aesthetic, and anthropological disciplines. The quality of mind for Longheim is the result of an interplay of individual developmental and socio-historical factors, "mental processes of projective and introjective identification." As this quality can be good or bad, Longheim is concerned with human suffering and how to relieve or avoid it altogether. He explores the question of abnormality, what epistemology is for psychoanalysis, objectivity and reliability in psychoanalysis, symbolism and dreams, Charles Taylor as a psychoanalytic philosopher, aesthetic quality and creativity in psychoanalysis, ideology and negative qualities of mind, social and political conflicts considered psychoanalytically, and happiness and creativity as positive qualities of mind. The fifteen chapters can stand-alone as essays, complete with page-long abstracts. Price is converted from euros. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Society and contemporary culture unquestionably assign much importance to the search for quality. So can this kind of research include the mind? In his analysis, Luigi Longhin examines the causes of mental illness and psychic-mental suffering, the notions of individuality, social violence, and utopia; and he suggests a collaboration between the neurosciences and psychoanalysis, within a correct epistemological approach. The relationship between epistemology and psychoanalysis is examined. The objectivistic and relativistic shift in contemporary epistemology, and the problem of the responsibility of the techno-scientific system are emphasized. Why such a privileged connection with philosophy? The contribution of philosophy is primarily epistemological. However, both epistemology and psychoanalysis run a risk; whilst epistemology runs the risk of being a knowledge which does not know, psychoanalysts run the risk of pursuing scientific knowledge without knowing its foundations. Hence there is a need for collaboration between the two forms of knowledge: the philosophical-epistemological and the scientific-psychoanalytic. Psychoanalysis works in two directions: on the one hand, it tries to eliminate the negative components of the mind, on the other hand, it tries to develop the trusting and creative parts of the self.
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