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Freud was famously ambivalent about philosophy.
On the one hand, he poured scorn on academic philosophers who dismissed the notion of the unconscious mind on the pretext that it involved a logical contradiction – while on the other, he stated proudly in his autobiography that after a long detour through medicine and psychotherapy he had finally returned to the philosophical preoccupations of his youth.
The course will examine the ways in which psychoanalysis and philosophy inform each other, and intersect with each other – sometimes in mutual support and sometimes in sharp conflict.
We begin with the great philosophers of the past who influenced and inspired Freud and later psychoanalysts, then, in the second half of the course, turn to contemporary philosophers who have reflected on psychoanalysis, either critically, or with the aim of clarifying the nature of its contribution to the understanding of the human condition.
Course Outline
Week 1: Introduction
Freud’s study of philosophy as an undergraduate. The deep philosophical background to the emergence of psychoanalysis: the Enlightenment vision vs Romanticism.
Week 2: Schopenhauer
The formative influence on Freud’s thinking of the philosophy of Schopenhauer. ‘The World as Will and Representation’.
Week 3: Nietzsche
Anticipations of psychoanalysis in the philosophy of Nietzsche. Freud and Jung and their different relationships to Nietzsche. Psychoanalysing philosophy.
Week 4: Plato
‘Eros’ in Plato and Freud. Freud’s view of homosexuality and Plato’s philosophy. Plato’s ‘Symposium’. Freud between Plato and Nietzsche.
Week 5: Spinoza
Sometimes referred to as ‘the philosopher of psychoanalysis’, we will examine Spinoza’s understanding of the mind/body relationship, and his views on freedom and happiness. Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’
Week 6: Popper and Grunbaum
The 20th century debate over the scientific status of psychoanalysis. Grunbaum’s ‘The Philosophical Foundations of Psychoanalysis’
Week 7: Ricoeur and Habermas
The debate over the interpretation of psychoanalysis as hermeneutics. Ricoeur’s ‘Freud and Philosophy’
Week 8: Levinas and Buber
Psychoanalysis and the philosophy of the ethical relation to the other. Levinas’ ‘Totality and Infinity’ and Buber’s ‘I and Thou’
Week 9: Marcuse and Girard
Philosophical responses to Freud’s analysis of society. Marcuse’s ‘Eros and Civilisation’ and Girard’s ‘Violence and the Sacred’. Freud and violence.
Week 10: Foucault
Foucault’s earlier view of psychoanalysis in ‘Madness and Civilisation’, and his later view in ‘History of Sexuality, vol 1’.
Week 11: Lacan
Lacan’s appropriation of philosophy for the ends of psychoanalysis. Hegel, Heidegger and Freud, according to Lacan.
Week 12: Derrida
Derrida’s relation to psychoanalysis. Derrida vs Lacan. Derrida in the Freud archives: ‘Archive Fever’
Course tutor
Keith Barrett BA PhD – having received his PhD from the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, Dr Barrett specialises in both philosophy and psychoanalysis and has taught at several leading institutions, including Imperial College and Birkbeck College.
Recommended Reading
Gomez, L. ‘The Freud Wars: an introduction to the philosophy of psychoanalysis’ (Routledge 2005)
Ricoeur, P. ‘On Psychoanalysis’ (Polity 2012)
Orange, D.M. ‘Thinking for clinicians: philosophical resources for contemporary psychoanalysis and the humanistic psychotherapies’ (Routledge 2010)
Braddock, L. ‘The academic face of psychoanalysis: papers in philosophy, the & Lacewing, M. (Eds) the humanities and the British clinical tradition’ (Routledge 2007)
Cavell, M. ‘Becoming a subject: reflections in philosophy and psychoanalysis’ (Oxford UP 2006)
Tauber, A. ‘Freud, the reluctant philosopher’ (Princeton U.P. 2010)
Seung, T.K. ‘Nietzsche’s epic of the soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ (Lexington Books 2005)
Chapelle, D. Nietzsche and psychoanalysis’ (SUNY Press 1993)
Della Rocca, M. ‘Spinoza’ (Routledge 2008)
Janaway, C. ‘Schopenhauer’ (Oxford U.P. 1994)
Beck, M.C. ‘The quest for wisdom in Plato and Carl Jung: a comparative study of the healers of the soul’ (Edwin Mellen Press 2008)
Grunbaum, A. ‘The Foundations of psychoanalysis: A philosophical Critique’ (U of California P 1984)
Habermas, J. ‘Knowledge and Human Interests’ (Heineman 1972)
Mills, J. (Ed) ‘Rereading Freud: psychoanalysis through philosophy’ (SUNY Press 2004)
Frie, R. ‘Subjectivity and intersubjectivity in modern philosophy and psychoanalysis: a study of Sartre, Binswanger, Lacan and Habermas’ (Rowman & Littlefield 1997)
