Reason and Unreason: Psychoanalysis, Science and Politics - Hardcover

Rustin, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826455778 ISBN 13: 9780826455772

Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2002

Synopsis

This work explores the justification and legitimacy of psychoanalytic knowledge, and its relevance to political and social questions. Part one explores the achievements of the British psychoanalytic tradition, relating these to recent developments in the sociological understanding of the sciences. Here the argument over the legitimacy of psychoanalysis is advanced beyond sterile polemics towards a more complex and self-confident understanding of its distinctive features and contributions. The book's second major theme concerns the relevance of psychoanalysis to social and political understanding. Psychoanalysis is here identified as a late form of "modernism" providing coherent and profound ways of thinking about the needs of society. The author argues that public policy would be more effective if based on a psychoanalytically-informed understanding of relational needs and unconscious anxieties.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Rustin is Dean of Social Sciences at the University of East London and Visiting Professor at the Tavistock Clinic. He is co-editor of the political journal Soundings

Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826455778
• ISBN 13: 9780826455772
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240