Irrationality and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis

Download or read book Irrationality and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis written by Sebastian Gardner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-03-25 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a reconstruction of the theories of Freud and Klein, Sebastian Gardner asks: what causes irrationality, what must the mind be like for it to be irrational, to what extent does irrationality involve self-awareness, and what is the point of irrationality? Arguing that psychoanalytic theory provides the most penetrating answers to these questions, he rejects the widespread view of the unconscious as a 'second mind', in favour of a view of it as a source of inherently irrational desires seeking expression through wish-fulfilment and phantasy. He meets scepticism about psychoanalytic explanation by exhibiting its continuity with everyday psychology.