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How Philosophy Changed Psychoanalysis: From Naive Realism to Postmodernism

Author(s) : Aner Govrin

Reviews and Endorsements

A fascinating and useful exploration of the continuing development of psychoanalysis in relation to influences of disciplines outside it, including philosophy, shifting worldviews and science. The author brings out connections between different psychoanalytic sensibilities and impacts of evolving surrounding disciplines. I'm tempted to speak of multiple faces, roots and currents of the shifting philosophical zeitgeist of psychoanalysis.
Michael Eigen PhD is author of The Psychotic Core, Emotional Storm, The Psychoanalytic Mystic, Bits of Psyche

In this provocative and intellectually stimulating volume, Aner Govrin takes us on a journey from Freud to the present, focused on the inextricable link between philosophy and psychoanalysis. Tracing the historical changes in philosophy, he illustrates how they are mirrored in analytic theory from classical analysis to the Postmodern Turn. He creatively argues that no new school of psychoanalytic thought has emerged since the 1980’s, the focus now being on “not knowing,” and creating “sensibilities” rather than complete theories. As a philosopher, as well as a psychoanalyst, he brings unique observations and informative anecdotes to this scholarly yet accessible book. I highly recommend it for its thought-provoking look at the history and current status of psychoanalytic thinking. And for the implicit challenge to create new theories that meet the standard of philosophical rigor.
Karen J. Maroda, Ph.D., ABPP. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin and private practice, Milwaukee, US

This book shows how psychoanalysis became less enamoured with the tenets of positivist science, just as positivist science became less enamoured with psychoanalysis. It is an engaging read, even for positivist scientists like me!
Mark Solms, Editor, Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud