Agnes Petocz uncovers a theory of symbolism based on investigation of the development of Freud's ideas throughout works.

Freud, Psychoanalysis and Symbolism offers an innovative general theory of symbolism, derived from Freud's psychoanalytic theory and relocated within mainstream scientific psychology. This is a systematic investigation of the development of Freud's treatment of symbolism throughout his published works, and it discovers in those writings a broad theory that is far superior to the narrow but widely accepted "official" view. Agnes Petocz argues that the treatment of symbolism must begin with the identification and clarification of a set of logical constraints and psychological requirements that any general theory of symbolism must respect, and that these requirements have been neglected. Her newly proposed "Freudian broad" theory of symbolism, by contrast, does meet these requirements.

In From Sign to Symbol: Transformational Processes in Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and Psychology, Joseph Newirth describes the evolution of the unconscious from the psychoanalytic concept that reflected Freud’s positivist focus on symptoms and repressed memories to the contemporary structure that uses symbols and metaphors to create meaning within intimate, intersubjective relationships. Newirth integrates psychoanalytic theory with cognitive, developmental, and neuropsychological theories, and he differentiates two broad therapeutic strategies: an asymmetrical strategy that utilizes the logic of consciousness and emphasizes the differentiation of person, place, time, and causality in the world of objects, and a symmetrical strategy that utilizes the logic of the unconscious in the world of emotional, intersubjective experience. He presents multiple approaches to the use of these symmetrical therapeutic strategies, including the use of humor, dreams, metaphors, and implicit procedural learning, in transforming concrete symptoms and signs into the symbolic organizations of meaning. Examples from both psychotherapeutic practice and supervision are presented to illustrate the development of the capacity for symbolic thought or mentalization.

This book is a discussion or debate with Freud. Today we are in search of a comprehensive philosophy of language to account for the multiple functions of the human act of signifying and for their interrelationships.

This book examines the causes of mental illness and psychic-mental suffering, individual and social violence, ideology and utopia, and it proposes a collaboration between neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. As an alternative to the "bad" qualities of the mind, namely the negative feelings, psychoanalysis tries to promote the "good" qualities of the mind, comprising of a positive inner world, in which every kind of positive feeling participates. -- P. [4] of cover.

This book presents a reinterpretation of Freud to show how language can be expressive and repressive.

This book provides a comprehensive exposition of Kleinian ideas. Offering a thorough update of R.D. Hinshelwood’s acclaimed original, this book draws on the twenty years of Kleinian theory and practice which have passed since its publication.

between linguistic and psychoanalytic concepts necessarily arises. Until now this question has been examined mainly by psychoanalysts, from their own perspective, but here it is investigated by a linguist, who systematically explores two domains. The first is related to the sign and symbol, where the meeting of Freud, Saussure and Hjelmselv occurred; whereas in the second, that of the signifier, Saussure reappears escorted by Lacan. But Freud is not far away, since the.

The fledgling science of psychoanalysis permanently altered the nineteenth-century worldview with its remarkable new insights into human behavior and motivation. It quickly became a benchmark for modernity in the twentieth century--though its durability in the twenty-first may now be in doubt. More than a hundred years after the publication of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, we’re no longer in thrall, says cultural historian Eli Zaretsky, to the “romance” of psychotherapy and the authority of the analyst. Only now do we have enough perspective to assess the successes and shortcomings of psychoanalysis, from its late-Victorian Era beginnings to today’s age of psychopharmacology. In Secrets of the Soul, Zaretsky charts the divergent schools in the psychoanalytic community and how they evolved–sometimes under pressure–from sexism to feminism, from homophobia to acceptance of diversity, from social control to personal emancipation. From Freud to Zoloft, Zaretsky tells the story of what may be the most intimate science of all.