Freud and His Critics
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1980s
1980s critical theory
A01=Paul Robinson
adolf grunbaum
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anti freudian
anti freudian scholarship
Author_Paul Robinson
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Category1=Non-Fiction
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COP=United States
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early seduction theory
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frank sulloway
freud and the self
freudian philosophy
freudian psychology
freudian theory
freudian thought
history of freud
history of psychoanalysis
history of science
infantile sexuality
jeffrey masson
Language_English
literary criticism
new puritanism
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philosophical critique of freud
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psychoanalysis
softlaunch
the unconscious
Product details
- ISBN 9780520414495
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 04 Jun 2024
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Wars against Freud were waged along virtually every front in the 1980s. In Freud and His Critics, Paul Robinson takes on three of Freud's most formidable detractors, mounting a thoughtful, witty, and ultimately devastating critique of the historian of science Frank Sulloway, the psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, and the philosopher Adolf Grünbaum.
Frank Sulloway contends that Freud took most of his ideas from Darwin and other contemporary thinkers—that he was something of a closet biologist. Jeffrey Masson charges that Freud caved in to peer pressure when he abandoned his early seduction theory (which Masson believes was correct) in favor of the theory of infantile sexuality. Adolf Grünbaum impugns Freud's claim to have grounded his ideas—especially the idea of the unconscious—on solid empirical foundations.
Under Robinson's rigorous cross-examination, the evidence of these three accusers proves ambiguous and their arguments biased by underlying assumptions and ideological commitments. Robinson concludes that the anti-Freudian writings of Sulloway, Masson, and Grünbaum reveal more about their authors' prejudices—and about the Zeitgeist of the 1980s—than they do about Freud. Indeed, they fundamentally distort and diminish Freud, pointedly ignoring his remarkable historical achievement—the invention of a new way of thinking about the self that has revolutionized the modern imagination.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1993.
Frank Sulloway contends that Freud took most of his ideas from Darwin and other contemporary thinkers—that he was something of a closet biologist. Jeffrey Masson charges that Freud caved in to peer pressure when he abandoned his early seduction theory (which Masson believes was correct) in favor of the theory of infantile sexuality. Adolf Grünbaum impugns Freud's claim to have grounded his ideas—especially the idea of the unconscious—on solid empirical foundations.
Under Robinson's rigorous cross-examination, the evidence of these three accusers proves ambiguous and their arguments biased by underlying assumptions and ideological commitments. Robinson concludes that the anti-Freudian writings of Sulloway, Masson, and Grünbaum reveal more about their authors' prejudices—and about the Zeitgeist of the 1980s—than they do about Freud. Indeed, they fundamentally distort and diminish Freud, pointedly ignoring his remarkable historical achievement—the invention of a new way of thinking about the self that has revolutionized the modern imagination.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1993.
Paul Robinson is Professor Emeritus of History at Stanford University and the author of The Freudian Left, The Modernization of Sex, and Opera and Ideas.
