The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd: Existentialism and Phenomenology in Contemporary Psychoanalysis PDF
Preview The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd: Existentialism and Phenomenology in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd offers an interdisciplinary study of Existentialism andPhenomenologyandtheirimportancetotheclinicalworkofContemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. The concept of Absurdity, developed by Camus,has neverbeenappliedtothe therapeutic situationor directlycontrasted withitsantithesis;thesearchforpersonalmeaning. ThebookbeginswithnarrativeaccountsofthehistoricaldevelopmentofPsy- choanalysis, Existentialism and Phenomenology in 20th century Europe. The focushere ison finde siècleVienna andParisbetweenthe Warsasthe principal incubators of the two disciplines. Accompanied by composite case illustrations, Leffert then explores his own development of the Psychoanalysis of the Absurd, drawingontheworkofCamus,HeideggerandSartre.Absurdityisfirstdiscussed in relation to the Bio-Psycho-Social Self and Dasein is posited as a bridge con- cept,withpersonalmeaningastheantithesistoAbsurdity,beforebeingdiscussed in relation to the world and how it impinges on self. A final chapter attempts to tie together particular issues raised bythe book: Subjective Well-Being, Meaning, thrownness, Absurdity, Death and Death Anxiety and how we have become technologicallyenhancedhumanbeings. Existential psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have, until now, largely gone their own way: the goal of this book is to fold them back into Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Establishing that the concept of Absurdity is of singular clinical importance to both diagnosis and therapeutic action, this book will be of great interest to clinicians, philosophers, and interdisciplinary scientists. Mark Leffert has been on the faculty of five psychoanalytic institutes and has been a Training and Supervising Analyst at four of them. He has taught, and supervised psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychiatrists for 50 years. He is the author of many papers and six books. He has been engaged in an interdis- ciplinary reformulation of clinical psychoanalysis drawing on phenomenology, neuroscience, network studies, and (among others), heuristics and biases. He is in private practice in Santa Barbara, California. “Over the past decade Mark Leffert has been on a creative journey resulting in this, his sixth volume, extending the contact, confrontation and integration of psychoanalysiswithdevelopmentsinamultitudeofinterdisciplinarydomains.He is confronting us with findings in fields ranging from neuroscience, to chaos and complexity theories, to post-modern studies and in this book to Existentialism and Phenomenology to enrich psychoanalysis in both theoretical and clinical understanding of the human mind and condition. In his hands, psychoanalysis is getting solidly ensconced in the intellectual, scientific and cultural climate of the 21st Century. He is willing to seek outside the usual boxes of psychoanalytic discourse.Weshouldgotherewithhim.” ErikGann,M.D.,PastPresidentoftheSanFransiscoCenter forPsychoanalysisandChairofthePsychoanalyticScholarship ForumoftheAmericanPsychoanalyticAssociation. “Leffert has an open, questioning mind, a keen sense of history, an orignal fresh stance to the clinical enterprise of psychoanalysis, and a clear and charming way of making his existential point. This book is a must read for all mental health clinicians.” PeterLoewenbergisaProfessorEmeritusofModernEuropeanHistoryand PoliticalPsychologyatUCLA,aTrainingandSupervisingAnalystand formerDeanoftheNewCenterofPsychoanalysis,LosAngeles. CurrentlyheteachesPsychoanalysisandCultureinChina. The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd Existentialism and Phenomenology in Contemporary Psychoanalysis ff Mark Le ert Firstpublished2021 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 52VanderbiltAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2021MarkLeffert TherightofMarkLefferttobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording, orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin writingfromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation withoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook ISBN:978-0-367-36736-7(hbk) ISBN:978-0-367-36737-4(pbk) ISBN:978-0-429-35106-8(ebk) TypesetinBembo byIntegraSoftwareServicesPvt.Ltd. For Nancy It is a Slippery Slope from Epiphany to Identity Category —Mark Leffert Contents Acknowledgements x Introduction xi 1 Psychoanalyticknowing:AbriefhistoryofPsychoanalysisand Psychotherapy 1 Introduction 1 ThebroadsweepofPsychoanalytichistory 3 TheeducationalandpracticetraditionsofPsychotherapists 11 ThePsychotherapists 12 ThePsychoanalysts 14 Theoreticalplurality 16 Whatdopsychoanalystsandpsychotherapistsactuallydowiththeirpatients? 22 Metapsychologyanddifférance 25 References 28 2 Existentialism:ThecafésofViennaandParisandbeyond 32 Introduction 32 Kierkegaard 36 Nietzsche 38 Schopenhauer 40 FindesiècleVienna 41 Husserl 47 Heidegger 48 Parisbetweenthewarsandbeyond 51 Sartre 54 Beingandno-thing-ness 54 ExistentialismisaHumanism 55 NoExit 56 Nausea 57 viii Contents Camusandthe“ThreeAbsurds” 58 TheStranger 59 TheMythofSisyphus 60 Caligula 63 WhateverhappenedtoExistentialism? 64 References 65 3 Existentialist:PsychoanalysisandPsychotherapy 69 Introduction 69 Origins 71 Thesixties 75 TheExistentialistapproachtothetherapeuticsituation 77 ExistentialistPsychologytoday 84 Twocases 86 Daseinanalysis 87 TheNorthAmericansandtheBritish 89 YalomonDeath 91 Anxiety 96 Despair 99 Thebeginningofalongcase 100 References 104 4 ThePsychotherapyandPsychoanalysisoftheAbsurd 108 Introduction 108 AbsurdityandMeaningintheworkofCamusandbeyond 111 Everydayness(Alltäglichkeit)explained 113 TheSelf,Dasein,theEigenwelt,andAbsurdity 115 TheneuralhardwareoftheSelfanditsrelationshiptotheAbsurdandthe Everyday 117 Affectiveneuroscienceandtheneuroevolutionarybasisofhumanemotion 119 HeuristicsandBiases 120 SubjectiveWell-Being 124 TheAbsurdityofdevelopmentacrossthelifecycle(fromuterustograve) 127 ThebiologyandthepsychologyofDevelopment 128 TheExistential 131 TheartofExistentialinterpretation 133 SomefinalthoughtsaboutAbsurdity 134 References 135 Contents ix 5 CultureandHistory:HowSelfengagesWorld 140 Introduction 140 Unknowabilityanditspost-structuraleffectsontheontologyoftheSelf 142 Dasein:thebridgebetweenSelfandWorld 144 Cultureandsociety 144 TheAmericanDream 146 Anxieties—ecologicalandpolitical 151 TheEcoanxieties 153 PoliticalAnxiety 158 Theinnerworld—theMicrobiome 161 Themechanics—theSocialNetworkandtheMirrorNeuronSystem 164 TheMirrorNeuronSystem(MNS) 165 TheSocialNetworksthatmakeuswhoweare 167 References 168 6 Meaning,SubjectiveWell-Being,Thrownness,andDeath:A summingup 173 Introduction 173 SubjectiveWell-Being 175 Meaning,Absurdity,Thrownness,Happiness,andSubjectiveWell-Being 177 Meaning 179 DeathandDeathAnxiety 183 Charles 187 Dennis 188 EmpiricalstudiesofDeathAnxiety 190 TechnologicallyenhancedHumanBeings 192 Background 192 Cyborgs 193 AfinalnoteonPostphenomenology 197 References 197 Index 202
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