Meaning, Mind, and Self-Transformation - Softcover

Schermer, Victor L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780491123 ISBN 13: 9781780491127

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

Interpretation is the primary intervention of psychoanalysis. Until now it has been discussed almost exclusively from a technical standpoint, rather than its relationship to the mind, human life, and how it affects the personality. This book explores the intrinsic nature of interpretation in psychoanalysis. For that purpose, two streams of thought are brought into dialogue with one another: Anglo-American psychoanalysis and Continental European philosophical hermeneutics, the study of meaning and interpretation. This book celebrates and makes explicit the value of interchanges between the paradigm of science and philosophical hermeneutics. It is divided into three sections, preceded by a discussion of the relationship between psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and the sciences, with psychoanalysis at a crossroads seeking a new path. Part 1 starts with a consideration of Freud's methodology in The Interpretation of Dreams, moving to a review of ancient, romantic, and modern theories of interpretation as they relate to psychoanalysis.

About this title

About the Author:

Victor L Schermer

Review:

'I applaud this valuable book that seeks to loosen the grip of scientism on traditional Anglo-American psychoanalysis by arguing persuasively that it is a hermeneutic discipline with interpretation lying at the core of its method. Victor Schermer adds his voice to the growing number of contemporary authors who wish to help psychoanalysis find its rightful place among the human sciences.'- Robert D. Stolorow, PhD, author of World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis'Victor Schermer's book describes the journey between scientific causality and hermeneutic meaning. Starting with Freud's undeniable contribution to hermeneutics - the understanding of dreams as meaningful wishes fulfilled - this book grasps a vast swathe of European philosophy, from Herder to Husserl and beyond. Freud and later psychoanalysts, especially in the object relations tradition of Winnicott and Bion, have shown that the human contribution to nature is to have experiences and to construct narratives. Psychoanalysis must prioritise that. The core of the book for me is the Heideggerian sense of being in the world of the other and with the other. The Talmudic inspiration for Freud's dissection of dreams is well known, but here, it is modern hermeneutics that gives psychoanalysis its true philosophical foundation in the Continental tradition. For psychoanalysts, there is an education here in this branch of philosophy.'- Robert D. Hinshelwood, PhD, author of Research on the Couch: Single Case Studies, Subjectivity, and Psychoanalytic Knowledge'This book manages to cover a huge field - hermeneutics - in a thoughtfully focused manner that whilst not fully inclusive (how could it be?) is remarkably wide ranging. The act of interpretation is too often put in the margins of other actions within the psychoanalytical field, but Victor Schermer returns it to the limelight and any reader interested in the history and practice of psychoanalysis, within the larger field of hermeneutics, will be fascinated by his study.'-Christopher Bollas, PhD, author of The Freudian Moment

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1780491123
• ISBN 13: 9781780491127
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336