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The Paradoxical Legacy of Sigmund Freud

Author(s) : Frances Moran

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'The Western world has tired of Freud. His propositions and methods are deemed outdated. I reject such sentiments and this book is an attempt to explain why. I will do this in two stages. First, I want to introduce a new reading of Freud and second, I want to expose the paradox that lies at the kernel of his life's endeavour.

Once I have established Freud as a practitioner rather than a scientist I will explain the notion of a theory of practice with its tripartite components of theoretical premises, technique and aim.

Freud's psychoanalytic theory of practice has as its kernel the etching out of the dimensions of human subjectivity. This I will explore through a brief presentation of the work of the contemporary academic and practitioner Paul Verhaeghe whose project I will show to be a direct inheritance of the Freudian theory of practice.

Finally I propose that while the scientific enterprise may be seen to offer much to the contemporary way of life it nevertheless necessarily excludes the very notion of the human subject. Its focus is none other than the human object. Paradoxically, what many see as Freud's failure - to make psychoanalysis a science - is nothing less than his greatest success. He offers us a possible route to repositioning ourselves today.'
- From the Author's Introduction

Selection from the Contents:
Much Ado About Science
Establishing the Freudian Field
The Fundamental Hypothesis of the Split Psyche
The Fulcrum of Diagnosis
Technique
Subject to Exclusion
Telling Evidence
The Paradoxical Legacy of Sigmund Freud