Psychoanalytic Movement - Hardcover
How did the language of psychoanalysis become the dominant idiom in which the middle classes of the industrialized West speak about their emotions? Ernest Gellner offers a forceful and complex answer to this intriguing question in The Psychoanalytic Movement. In this landmark study Gellner argues that although psychoanalysis offers an incisive picture of human nature, it provides untestable operational definitions and makes unsubstantiated claims concerning its therapeutic efficacy. In an Introduction to this new edition Jose Brunner expands on the central argument of The Psychoanalytic Movement. Placing Gellner′s work in the context of contemporary hostile critiques of Freud, Brunner argues that these two blatantly different thinkers might also be seen as kindred spirits.
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Review:
The Psychoanalytic Movement was recognized as a classic upon its publication. José Brunner′s new introduction places the argument within the context of the Freud wars , making it clear that the book was as concerned to explain the fabulous success of psychoanalysis as to debunk its pretensions. This may be Gellner′s greatest book, containing as it does a general view of the history of philosophy and the character of modernity. John A. Hall, McGill University
About the Author:
Previous praise for The Psychoanalytic Movement:
A marvel This is a brilliantly written book, every page sparkling with intelligence, style and substance. Gellner provides a welcome and literate overview of the latest philosophic controversy about the logical status of psychoanalytic propositions. Its every page instructs and enlivens and represents a tribute to humane intelligence. New Statesman
In a stylish, witty and deceptively readable book, Gellner exposes the secular religious nature of the psychoanalytic enterprise. He admits that a compelling, charismatic belief must possess more than merely the promise of succour in a plague and links with the background convictions of the age. Nature
This is the first determined effort to account for a very odd historical and sociological phenomenon in realistic and meaningful terms and it makes very good sense. Gellner is incisive, agreeable to read and often witty. Institute of Psychiatry Journal
Ernest Gellner was Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at the London School of Economics from 1949 to 1984. In 1984 he became the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Gellner published a number of books with Blackwell, including Nations and Nationalism (1983).
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- PublisherWiley–Blackwell
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 0631234128
- ISBN 13 9780631234128
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number3
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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