Psychoanalysis and Philosophy

Abstract

This collection of articles by philosophers and psychoanalysts tries to show the relevance of each field to the other. The result is a disappointing hodgepodge, even if a fascinating and instructive one. The volume is dedicated to the philosophically inclined psychoanalyst, Ernest Jones. Unfortunately, Jones, for all his interest, still shared to a degree Freud's antipathy and misapprehensions about philosophy, equating it with sheer speculation. Psychoanalysts often respond erratically to philosophy, as if freely projecting to an inkblot. They tend to resort to their own familiar technical device, interpretation, when faced with a philosophical puzzle. The outcome is what Freud called "psychography": and emphasis on the unconscious origins of a philosophical position. Several papers here discuss interesting biographical gossip about philosophers, and make fascinating correlations of such information with their philosophical positions. This is having fun with trivia. But when the psychological origins are taken as an explanation of the

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