The Psychoanalytic Movement: The Cunning of Unreason (Rethinking Theory) - Softcover

Ernest Gellner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810113708 ISBN 13: 9780810113701

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2000

Synopsis

How did psychoanalysis become so accepted by the public? This provocative book reconstructs the system of ideas upon which the theory and practice of psychoanalysis rests, describing a modern culture that has created a psychic or a spiritual void that psychoanalysis seems custom-made to fill. Gellner approaches the question as a sociologist and attains a broad perspective on the ideas of the psychoanalytic movement as a system of cultural beliefs.

About this title

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

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

From the Back Cover:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0810113708
• ISBN 13: 9780810113701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 241