Herman Westerink (Author), Philippe Van Haute (Author) A reinterpretation of Freud’s trauma theory This book makes the compelling argument that the key to understanding Freud’s clinical writings and psychoanalytical theories lies in his trauma theory. The authors argue that Freud never truly abandoned his initial trauma theory – the seduction theory – in favour of the […]
Category: Figures of the unconscious
Herman Westerink (Editor), Jenny Willner (Editor), Philippe Van Haute (Editor) A critical edition of one of the key texts in psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle stands as a foundational text in psychoanalysis, delving into profound questions about life, death, pleasure and pain. Through a combination of contextualising and philosophical contributions, this critical edition and commentary sheds new […]
Daniela Finzi (Editor), Jeanne Wolff Bernstein (Editor) A timely contribution in this era of authoritarianism, right-wing populist movements, identity formation, and political correctness. “In groups the most contradictory ideas can exist side by side and tolerate each other, without any conflict arising from the logical contradiction between them”, wrote Freud in his 1921 book Group Psychology and […]
by Paulo Beer The question of truth within the construction of knowledge on suffering. Although truth occupies a central position in philosophy and the philosophy of science, there is much debate about its actual role in scientific practice. Truth and Suffering explores different conceptions of truth and their profound influence on our understanding and approach to suffering. […]
Raluca Soreanu (Author), Jakob Staberg (Author), Jenny Willner (Author) Contemporary reading of Sándor Ferenczi’s trauma theory Ferenczi Dialogues presents the contribution of Sándor Ferenczi to a psychoanalytic theory of trauma and discusses the philosophical, political and clinical implications of Ferenczi’s thinking. To a far greater extent than Freud, Sándor Ferenczi centered his psychoanalytic thought around trauma. Ferenczi’s work […]
Jasper Feyaerts (Editor), Paulo Beer (Editor) Dealing with the matter of truth Truth has always been a central philosophical category, occupying different fields of knowledge and practice. In the current moment of fake news and alternative facts, it is mandatory to revisit the various meanings of truth. Departing from various approaches to psychoanalytic theory and practice, […]
by Herman Westerink Sigmund Freud, in his search for the origins of the sense of guilt in individual life and culture, regularly speaks of “reading a dark trace”, thus referring to the Oedipus myth as a myth on the problem of human guilt. The sense of guilt is indeed a trace that leads deep into […]
by Emmanuel Falque The special role of psychoanalysis in the development of phenomenology The confrontation between philosophy and psychoanalysis has had its heyday. After the major debates between Paul Ricoeur, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Henry, this dialogue now seems to have broken down. It has therefore proven necessary and gainful to […]
The book “Phenomenology and Lacan on Schizophrenia, after the Decade of the Brain,” consists of two contributions. The contribution by Alphonse De Waelhens has several merits. First, De Waelhens provides a clear summary of Lacan’s theory of schizophrenia, as Lacan derived it from his commentary of Freud’s study of the Memoirs of Schreber. Second, De […]
Gilles Deleuze is among the twentieth century’s most important philosophers of difference. The style of his extended oeuvre is so extremely dense and cryptic that reading and appreciating it require an unusual degree of openness and a willingness to enter a complicated but extremely rich system of thought. The abundant debates with and references to […]