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John Forrester's passionate yet probing engagement with Freud and psychoanalysis is legendary. Here, in six introductory lectures delivered to his students at the University of Cambridge, his range and lucidity bring the evolution of Freud's thinking and the nature of Freud's discoveries into sharp focus. With an historian's eye for context, Forrester explores Freud's biography, the scientific moment, the radical subject matter of the field itself - sex, dreams, desire, the unconscious, childhood, language - as well as Freud's development of a new clinical practice.
Forrester also explores both the growth of the psychoanalytic movement and the question of what kind of beast it might be as it travels through time and geography. He illuminates the cultural and revolutionary impact of psychoanalytic thinking - not only Freud's, but that of some of his progeny in the many places where the movement flourished.
Freud and Psychoanalysis takes us from Vienna to London, from Paris to New York and Hollywood, from the lab to the couch, to the campus, to film and to literature. This is a slim book that packs a big punch. It invites any curious reader into a field and a way of thinking that shaped the twentieth century.
List of contents
Editor's Preface Lisa Appignanesi
Foreword Darian Leader
Lecture One: A Whole Climate of Opinion
Lecture Two: The Historical Foundations of Psychoanalysis
Lecture Three: Dreams and Sexuality
Lecture Four: Psychoanalysis as a Theory of Culture
Lecture Five: Psychoanalysis as a Movement
Lecture Six: The Significance of Psychoanalysis in the Twentieth Century
Endnotes
Further Reading
About the author
John Forrester was Professor of History and Philosophy of the Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
Lisa Appignanesi is a prize-winning author of many books, including
Everyday Madness: On Grief, Anger, Loss and Love.
Summary
John Forrester's passionate yet probing engagement with Freud and psychoanalysis is legendary. Here, in six introductory lectures delivered to his students at the University of Cambridge, his range and lucidity bring the evolution of Freud's thinking and the nature of Freud's discoveries into sharp focus. With an historian's eye for context, Forrester explores Freud's biography, the scientific moment, the radical subject matter of the field itself - sex, dreams, desire, the unconscious, childhood, language - as well as Freud's development of a new clinical practice.
Forrester also explores both the growth of the psychoanalytic movement and the question of what kind of beast it might be as it travels through time and geography. He illuminates the cultural and revolutionary impact of psychoanalytic thinking - not only Freud's, but that of some of his progeny in the many places where the movement flourished.
Freud and Psychoanalysis takes us from Vienna to London, from Paris to New York and Hollywood, from the lab to the couch, to the campus, to film and to literature. This is a slim book that packs a big punch. It invites any curious reader into a field and a way of thinking that shaped the twentieth century.
Report
"Clear and compelling, these lectures are at once more than accessible and often startlingly informative. In his characteristically lucid and incisive way, Forrester makes Freud new and intriguing. This book is that rare thing: a collection as much for the curious as for the knowledgeable, and the best book on Freud for many years."
Adam Phillips
"[Psychoanalysis is] our inheritance. It will always be there for us. To understand it, we can do no better than to look to Forrester."
Chronicle of Higher Education
