Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary Theory and Practice

293 Pages·2018·2.501 MB·English

by  Donald L. Carveth

“Psychoanalytic Thinking is a bold and fascinating exploration of
diverse trends in contemporary psychoanalysis; one firmly grounded in
the history of the discipline. Carveth’s fearless critique of authoritarian
trends in psychoanalysis, past and present, is balanced by refreshing
reminders of the emancipatory power of truth, the dangers of postmodern
relativism, and the importance of differentiating between the superego
and conscience proper. And much, much else besides.”
Daniel Burston, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,
Duquesne University.
“Internationally respected, Donald Carveth is one of the most original
and penetrating psychoanalytic theorists in Canada. Among his notable
contributions, he has added the concept of conscience to Freud’s notion
of the super-ego to produce a picture of moral psychology much closer
to complete than Freud’s. And he has made Lacan intelligible to English-
speaking students of psychoanalysis in a way that few if any others have
done. As is true of most prolific authors, Carveth’s works originally
appeared in a great variety of different publications, some no longer
easily accessible. Having a large sample of his work available in one
volume is a cause for celebration.”
Andrew Brook, Ph.D., Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy
and Cognitive Science, Emeritus, Carleton University,
Fellow and Treasurer, International Psychoanalytic Association.
“The publication of Donald Carveth’s Psychoanalytic Thinking con-
tinues what I have come to regard as a ‘Wittenberg moment’ in the
history of psychoanalysis, which began with his first book, The Still
Small Voice: Psychoanalytic Reflections on Guilt and Conscience
(2013). Like Luther in the Catholic world, Carveth has managed, with a
trenchant logic that is rare in psychoanalytic writing, to ‘nail’ down
something fundamental, which I hope will alter the course of psycho-
analytic culture in a positive and integrative way.”
Charles Levin, Ph.D., Director, Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis
(Québec English Branch), Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Journal of
Psychoanalysis/Revue canadienne de psychanalyse.

Psychoanalytic Thinking
Since the classical Freudian and ego psychology paradigms lost their position of
dominance in the late 1950s, psychoanalysis became a multi- paradigm science
with those working in the different frameworks increasingly engaging only with
those in the same or related intellectual “silos.” Beginning with Freud’s theory
of human nature and civilization, Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Cri-
tique of Contemporary Theory and Practice proceeds to review and critically
evaluate a series of major post-F reudian contributions to psychoanalytic thought.
In response to the defects, blind spots and biases in Freud’s work, Melanie
Klein, Wilfred Bion, Jacques Lacan, Erich Fromm, Donald Winnicott, Heinz
Kohut, Heinrich Racker, Ernest Becker among others offered useful correctives
and innovations that are, nevertheless, themselves in need of remediation for
their own forms of one-s idedness. Through Carveth’s comparative exploration,
readers will acquire a sense of what is enduringly valuable in these diverse psy-
choanalytic contributions, as well as exposure to the dialectically deconstructive
method of critique that Carveth sees as central to psychoanalytic thinking at its
best. Carveth violates the taboo against speaking of the Imaginary, Symbolic and
the Real unless one is a Lacanian, or the paranoid- schizoid and depressive posi-
tions unless one is a Kleinian, or id, ego, superego, ego- ideal and conscience
unless one is a Freudian ego psychologist, and so on.
Out of dialogue and mutual critique, psychoanalysis can over time separate
the wheat from the chaff, collect the wheat and approach an ever-e volving syn-
thesis. Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary Theory
and Practice will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic
psychotherapists and, more broadly, to readers in philosophy, social science and
critical social theory.
Donald L. Carveth is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social and Political
Thought and a Senior Scholar at York University, Toronto, Canada and a Training
and Supervising Analyst in the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis. He is past
Director of the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis and a past Editor- in-Chief of
the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis/Revue canadienne de psychanalyse.
Psychological Issues
David L. Wolitzky
Series Editor
The basic mission of Psychological Issues is to contribute to the further
development of psychoanalysis as a science, as a respected scholarly
enterprise, as a theory of human behavior, and as a therapeutic method.
Over the past fifty years, the series has focused on fundamental aspects
and foundations of psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice, as well as
on work in related disciplines relevant to psychoanalysis. Psychological
Issues does not aim to represent or promote a particular point of view.
The contributions cover broad and integrative topics of vital interest to
all psychoanalysts as well as to colleagues in related disciplines. They cut
across particular schools of thought and tackle key issues, such as the
philosophical underpinnings of psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic theories
of motivation, conceptions of therapeutic action, the nature of uncon-
scious mental functioning, psychoanalysis and social issues and reports
of original empirical research relevant to psychoanalysis. The authors
often take a critical stance toward theories and offer a careful theoretical
analysis and conceptual clarification of the complexities of theories and
their clinical implications, drawing upon relevant empirical findings from
psychoanalytic research as well as from research in related fields.
The Editorial Board continues to invite contributions from social/
behavioral sciences such as anthropology and sociology, from biological
sciences such as physiology and the various brain sciences, and from
scholarly humanistic disciplines such as philosophy, law and ethics.
Volumes 1–64 in this series were published by International Universities
Press. Volumes 65–69 were published by Jason Aronson.
Routledge titles in this series
Vol. 70
From Classical to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: A Critique and
Integration
Morris N. Eagle
Vol. 71
Memory, Myth, and Seduction: Unconscious Fantasy and the
Interpretive Process
Jean- Georges Schimek
Vol. 72
Identity and the New Psychoanalytic Explorations of
Self- organization
Mardi Horowitz
Vol. 73
Myths of Termination: What Patients Can Teach Psychoanalysts
About Endings
Judy Leopold Kantrowitz
Vol. 74
Manual of Regulation- Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP- C)
with Externalizing Behaviors: A Psychodynamic Approach
Leon Hoffman, Timothy Rice, & Tracy Prout
Vol. 75
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Conflict
Edited by Christopher Christian, Morris N. Eagle, & David L. Wolitzky
Vol. 76
Death and Fallibility in the Psychoanalytic Encounter: Mortal Gifts
Ellen Pinsky
Vol. 77
Core Concepts in Classical Psychoanalysis: Clinical, Research
Evidence and Conceptual Critiques
Morris N. Eagle
Vol. 78
Core Concepts in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Clinical, Research
Evidence and Conceptual Critiques
Morris N. Eagle
Vol. 79
Psychoanalytic Thinking: A Dialectical Critique of Contemporary
Theory and Practice
Donald L. Carveth
Psychoanalytic Thinking
A Dialectical Critique of
Contemporary Theory and
Practice
Donald L. Carveth
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 Donald L. Carveth
The right of Donald L. Carveth to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Carveth, Donald L., 1944– author.
Title: Psychoanalytic thinking : a dialectical critique of
contemporary theory and practice / Donald L. Carveth.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017050635 (print) | LCCN 2017061204
(ebook) | ISBN 9780203713105 (Master) | ISBN 9781351360548
(Web PDF) | ISBN 9781351360531 (ePub) | ISBN
9781351360524 (Mobipocket/Kindle) | ISBN 9781138560710
(hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138560727 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis.
Classification: LCC BF173 (ebook) | LCC BF173 .C4247 2018
(print) | DDC 150.19/5–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017050635
ISBN: 978-1-138-56071-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-56072-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-71310-5 (ebk)
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