The Freudian Moment: Refelections on Herbert Marcuse
The Freudian Moment: Reflections on Herbert Marcuse for Illuminations - The Critical Theory Project (2006)
Playing Attention: The Hermeneutic Problems of Reading Ico Closely
Published in Loading... (2012)
This article argues that paying attention to the specifics of a videogame involves a difficult problem of interpreting... more This article argues that paying attention to the specifics of a videogame involves a difficult problem of interpreting the meaning of repeated acts. A hermeneutic framework is developed by examining the PlayStation 2 game Ico through Melanie Klein’s object-relations psychoanalysis. The author argues that the controller functions as a semi-autonomous unconscious space that mediates unconscious phantasy and emotions, and therefore represents a privileged space for analysis. The article demonstrates the difference between a traditional close reading and a ludic close-reading by applying the tools to Ico in order to show how the game develops from a paranoid to a depressive style of play.
Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis: 'A Problematic Proximity'
Derrida Today 5.1 (2012)
This essay explores Derrida’s work on repetition in psychoanalysis and what Freud, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle,... more This essay explores Derrida’s work on repetition in psychoanalysis and what Freud, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, called the ‘compulsion to repeat’. Revising the model of the psyche that had to that point dominated his theory, Freud began in 1920 to ascribe greater significance to experiences of trauma and unpleasure, and to their recurrence in the analytic treatment. This type of repeated repetition ultimately suggested to Freud the existence of a ‘death drive’ antithetical to life. I examine here how Derrida re-reads Beyond in The Post Card, analysing the way uncontrollable effects of repetition repeatedly undo Freud’s efforts to make any progress on what lies beyond the pleasure principle. Another ‘logic’ of repetition, other than the one Freud invokes, inhabits Freud’s text, threatening the fundamental opposition between the life drives and the death drive. But in reading Freud in this way, Derrida himself cannot quite ‘do justice to’ Freud, to the ambivalence at work in Freud’s text. At certain key moments in his reading of Beyond the Pleasure Principle, I show, Derrida seems to restrict an ambiguity in Freud’s thinking around the relation between life and death. What Derrida’s reading makes legible in part, then, is Derrida’s resistance to psychoanalysis, the tension inhabiting Derrida’s dealings with Freud in The Post Card and beyond.
Antropologia applicata all'invervento psicoterapeutico. L'esperienza del Centre Georges Dévereux
Published in (con)textos. revista d’antropologia i investigació social, Número 3. Juny de 2009. Pàgines 84-98. ISSN: 2013-0864
http://www.con-textos.net
Si descrivono qui alcuni dei presupposti teorici e dei dispositivi pratici attraverso i quali si sviluppa l'attività... more Si descrivono qui alcuni dei presupposti teorici e dei dispositivi pratici attraverso i quali si sviluppa l'attività del Centre Georges Dévereux, fondato a Parigi dallo psichiatra Tobie Nathan e orientato alla prise en charge di pazienti migranti. La necessità di evitare le semplificazioni nella traduzione tra le culture ha portato Nathan e il gruppo di professionisti del Centro a elaborare una teoria critica della modernità e del paradigma psichiatrico corrente, a partire dagli insegnamenti dell'antropologia contemporanea e dalla necessità di aiutare la disciplina psicanalitica ad affrontare le sfide della contemporaneità. Per l'antropologia, l'etnopsichiatria rappresenta una possibilità concreta di contribuire alla costruzione di un sapere pratico.
12 views
Seen by:From the Problem of the Nature of Psychosis to the Phenomenological Reform of Psychiatry. Historical and Epistemological Remarks on Ludwig Binswanger’s Psychiatric Project, Medicine Studies, 2012 (DOI) 10.1007/s12376-012-0076-x
This paper focuses on one of the original moments of the development of the “phenomenological” current of psychiatry,... more This paper focuses on one of the original moments of the development of the “phenomenological” current of psychiatry, namely, the psychopathological research of Ludwig Binswanger. By means of the clinical and conceptual problem of schizophrenia as it was conceived and developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, I will try to outline and analyze Binswanger’s perspective from a both historical and epistemological point of view. Binswanger’s own way means of approaching and conceiving schizophrenia within the scientific, medical, and psychiatric context of that time will lead us to grasp the epistemological stakes at the origins of his project of reforming psychiatry by means of phenomenology. I will finally attempt to upgrade and update Binswanger’s project in light of the current reappraisal of phenomenology within the ongoing debate on psychopathology engaged by studies in the field of science and philosophy of mind.
Reflections on mentalization and a future of psychoanalysis
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2009). Reflections on mentalization and a future for psychoanalysis [Review of the book Mind to mind: Infant research, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis]. PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 54 (14).
Decoding the meaning of transference and countertransference: An integrative perspective
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2007). Decoding the meaning of transference and countertransference: An integrative perspective [Review of the book Transference and countertransference in non-analytic therapy: Double-edged swords]. PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 52 (51).
Freud and free-will: Fact, fantasy, and philosophy
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2011). Freud and free-will: Fact, fantasy, and philosophy [Review of the book Freud, the reluctant philosopher]. PsycCRITIQUES-Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 56 (6).
7 views
Seen by:Pathological science and the myth of recovered memories: Reply to McNally
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2007). Pathological science & the myth of recovered memories: Reply to McNally. Review of General Psychology, 11 (4), 361-362.
Response to McNally, R. (2007). Do Certain Readings of Freud Constitute "Pathological Science"? A Comment on Boag (2006). Review of General Psychology, 11 (4), 359-360.
pg. 359-360
Richard McNally’s thoughtful commentary points to a non-controversial source of the fixation with Freud’s early theory... more Richard McNally’s thoughtful commentary points to a non-controversial source of the fixation with Freud’s early theory of repression. At the same time, however, McNally’s account does not directly address the critical issue at the heart of my original article, namely that Freud’s later theory of repression is persistently misconceptualised and accompanied by a breakdown in critical inquiry. Although the account proposed by McNally does not necessarily contradict this proposal, other potential sources of bias should also be considered. In particular, the acrimony provoked by the recovered memory dispute and the prevalence of ad hominem attacks against Freud suggests that emotional factors may also be obscuring rigorous debate. Issues surrounding the scientific inquiry of Freud’s theory of repression are further discussed.
Repression, suppression, and conscious awareness
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2010). Repression, suppression, & conscious awareness. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27 (2), 164-181.
Both ‘repression' and ‘suppression' are said to involve removing mental content from awareness. However, repression is... more Both ‘repression' and ‘suppression' are said to involve removing mental content from awareness. However, repression is generally said to be unconscious whereas suppression is said to be conscious. The meanings of the terms ‘unconscious' and ‘conscious', though, are open to a variety of interpretations and so the validity of this distinction is uncertain . This paper discusses the relationship between repression and suppression and whether conscious awareness distinguishes these processes. Consciousness and unconscious are discussed in terms of a relational account of cognition where ‘knowing' is understood as a relation between a cognising subject and a cognised object term. On this view, problems arise from confusing consciousness and unconsciousness with properties or qualities of mental processes. Examined in this light, the present analysis reveals that repression can become conscious and that suppression can occur unconsciously. The role of ‘resistance' and the recognition of a series of defenses are discussed.
Is language necessary for consciousness? An assessment of Freud's ‘word/thing' presentation distinction
by Simon Boag
Boag, S. (2008). Is language necessary for consciousness? An assessment of Freud's ‘word/thing' presentation distinction. In S. Boag (Ed.), Personality Down Under: Perspectives from Australia (pp. 81-89). New York: Nova.
The belief that language is a necessary condition for consciousness is common within psychoanalytic literature. This,... more The belief that language is a necessary condition for consciousness is common within psychoanalytic literature. This, in turn, has led to accounts of ‘passive primal repression', where pre-verbal mental content cannot become conscious at a later time. This paper discusses consciousness and unconsciousness as certain relations rather than as qualities of mental processes. On this view, to be conscious of mental content requires taking it as the object of a second mental act. The view that language is a necessary condition for consciousness is rejected on the basis that applying language to mental content requires knowing the mental content first (i.e., being conscious of it). Implications for primal repression theory, and the manner in which language may facilitate becoming conscious awareness, are discussed.
4 views
Seen by:
