"Tales from the Freudian Crypt" is a fundamental reassessment of the Freud legend that aims to shake the very foundations of Freud studies. Writing from the perspective of intellectual history, the author traces the impact that Freud's essay "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" has had, and continues to have, on twentieth-century thought. Designed as both an introduction and a corrective to the vast literature on Freud, the book explores the trail left by Freud's late theory of the death drive, paying special attention to its ramifications in the fields of biography, biology, psychotherapy, philosophy, and literary theory. The author ironically concludes that if there were such a thing as a death drive, it would look like this seemingly endless and in many ways arbitrary proliferation of the literature on Freud.
After first undertaking to demystify the pretensions of this literature, from the works of Sandor Ferenczi to those of Jacques Lacan, the author proposes a theory that sheds new light on the so-called cultural works of Freud's final years. He argues that the death drive theory was an elaborate ruse that Freud adopted to insulate his "findings" against criticism directed from outside the field of psychoanalysis--that Freud's troubling recourse to metapsychology was closely tied to his lifelong fear of suggestion. The author delivers a carefully reasoned, sustained blow to the culture of psychoanalysis--theoretical, therapeutic, institutional--which is driven by what it desires and fears most: death. In sum, "Tales from the Freudian Crypt" is offered as a kind of bankbook, audit, and investment plan for future work in Freud studies.

'In a closely argued and well documented book, [Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen] demonstrates that almost everything believed by psychoanlaysts about the case of Anna O is false.' - Times Higher Eductaion Supplement

' ... enjoyable exposure of Freud's lies and tergiversations ... ' The Times Higher Education Supplement Oct 97

Just what is the subject in Freud? The author draws on a wide range of French critical thought to argue that the subject is always fundamentally identification, in an even more radical sense than has previously been postulated. Rigorously examining the texts of Freud, he arrives at compelling rereadings of familiar concepts, concluding with a disturbing new analysis of the social bond.

"Tales from the Freudian Crypt" is a fundamental reassessment of the Freud legend that aims to shake the very foundations of Freud studies. Writing from the perspective of intellectual history, the author traces the impact that Freud's essay "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" has had, and continues to have, on twentieth-century thought. Designed as both an introduction and a corrective to the vast literature on Freud, the book explores the trail left by Freud's late theory of the death drive, paying special attention to its ramifications in the fields of biography, biology, psychotherapy, philosophy, and literary theory. The author ironically concludes that if there were such a thing as a death drive, it would look like this seemingly endless and in many ways arbitrary proliferation of the literature on Freud.
After first undertaking to demystify the pretensions of this literature, from the works of Sandor Ferenczi to those of Jacques Lacan, the author proposes a theory that sheds new light on the so-called cultural works of Freud's final years. He argues that the death drive theory was an elaborate ruse that Freud adopted to insulate his "findings" against criticism directed from outside the field of psychoanalysis--that Freud's troubling recourse to metapsychology was closely tied to his lifelong fear of suggestion. The author delivers a carefully reasoned, sustained blow to the culture of psychoanalysis--theoretical, therapeutic, institutional--which is driven by what it desires and fears most: death. In sum, "Tales from the Freudian Crypt" is offered as a kind of bankbook, audit, and investment plan for future work in Freud studies.

In this brief but comprehensive introduction to Freud's theories, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen provides a step-by-step overview of his ideas regarding the unconscious, the cure, sexuality, drives, and culture, highlighting their indebtedness to contemporary neurophysiological and biological assumptions. The picture of Freud that emerges is very different from that of the fact-finding scientist he claimed to be. Bold conceptual innovations – repression, infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex, narcissism, the death drive – were not discoveries made by Freud, but speculative constructs placed on clinical material to satisfy the requirements of the general theory of the mind and culture that he was building. Freud's Thinking provides a final accounting of this mirage of the mind that was psychoanalysis.

In this brief but comprehensive introduction to Freud's theories, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen provides a step-by-step overview of his ideas regarding the unconscious, the cure, sexuality, drives, and culture, highlighting their indebtedness to contemporary neurophysiological and biological assumptions. The picture of Freud that emerges is very different from that of the fact-finding scientist he claimed to be. Bold conceptual innovations – repression, infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex, narcissism, the death drive – were not discoveries made by Freud, but speculative constructs placed on clinical material to satisfy the requirements of the general theory of the mind and culture that he was building. Freud's Thinking provides a final accounting of this mirage of the mind that was psychoanalysis.

Mas que como una introduccion, este libro puede leerse como una forma de acceso al pensamiento de Lacan. La dimension que tiene Hegel, leido por Kojeve, y por sobre el hombro de Heidegger, en el pensamiento de Lacan, es asi una cara trabajada brillantemente por Borch-Jacobsen, quien trae a la luz fuentes y conceptos que se traducen no solo en la dialectica del Amo y el Esclavo, sino, sobre todo, en la concepcion del deseo, lo real y la verdad en Lacan, fundamentales para su idea del sujeto. La seriedad y formacion del autor, y su fidelidad a los textos de Freud y Lacan, traen el resguardo de una operacion de honesto trabajo intelectual que nos revela facetas escondidas de un pensamiento. Frente a versiones repetitivas y canonizantes de los "partidarios" de un gran pensador, resultan mas fructiferos los analisis de criticos que lo estudien desde fuera del movimiento por el creado, como ya lo habia observado el mismo Lacan acerca de su "Instancia de la letra."

A collection of essays by theorists in culture and politics. Experts from a variety of fields re-examine the origins of the subject as understood by Descartes, Kant and Hegel, and consider contemporary ideas that revive the subject, including queer theory and national identity. Contributors include Parveen Adams, Etienne Balibar, Homi Bhabha, Slavoj Zizek, Joan Copjec, Juliet Flower MacCannell, Charles Shepardson, Mikkei Borch-Jacobsen, Elizabeth Grosz and Miaden Dolar.

How did psychoanalysis attain its prominent cultural position? How did it eclipse rival psychologies and psychotherapies, such that it became natural to bracket Freud with Copernicus and Darwin? Why did Freud 'triumph' to such a degree that we hardly remember his rivals? This book reconstructs the early controversies around psychoanalysis and shows that rather than demonstrating its superiority, Freud and his followers rescripted history. This legend-making was not an incidental addition to psychoanalytic theory but formed its core. Letting the primary material speak for itself, this history demonstrates the extraordinary apparatus by which this would-be science of psychoanalysis installed itself in contemporary societies. Beyond psychoanalysis, it opens up the history of the constitution of the modern psychological sciences and psychotherapies, how they furnished the ideas which we have of ourselves and how these became solidified into indisputable 'facts'.

How did psychoanalysis attain its prominent cultural position? How did it eclipse rival psychologies and psychotherapies, such that it became natural to bracket Freud with Copernicus and Darwin? Why did Freud 'triumph' to such a degree that we hardly remember his rivals? This book reconstructs the early controversies around psychoanalysis and shows that rather than demonstrating its superiority, Freud and his followers rescripted history. This legend-making was not an incidental addition to psychoanalytic theory but formed its core. Letting the primary material speak for itself, this history demonstrates the extraordinary apparatus by which this would-be science of psychoanalysis installed itself in contemporary societies. Beyond psychoanalysis, it opens up the history of the constitution of the modern psychological sciences and psychotherapies, how they furnished the ideas which we have of ourselves and how these became solidified into indisputable 'facts'.

Why do 'maladies of the soul' such as hysteria, anxiety disorders, or depression wax and wane over time? Through a study of the history of psychiatry, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen provocatively argues that most mental illnesses are not, in fact, diseases but the product of varying expectations shared and negotiated by therapists and patients. With a series of fascinating historical vignettes, stretching from Freud's creation of false memories of sexual abuse in his early hysterical patients to today's promotion and marketing of depression by drug companies, Making Minds and Madness offers a powerful critique of all the theories, such as psychoanalysis and biomedical psychiatry, that claim to discover facts about the human psyche while, in reality, producing them. Borch-Jacobsen proposes such objectivizing approaches should be abandoned in favor of a constructionist and relativist psychology that recognizes the artifactual and interactive character of psychic productions instead of attempting to deny or control it.

Why do 'maladies of the soul' such as hysteria, anxiety disorders, or depression wax and wane over time? Through a study of the history of psychiatry, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen provocatively argues that most mental illnesses are not, in fact, diseases but the product of varying expectations shared and negotiated by therapists and patients. With a series of fascinating historical vignettes, stretching from Freud's creation of false memories of sexual abuse in his early hysterical patients to today's promotion and marketing of depression by drug companies, Making Minds and Madness offers a powerful critique of all the theories, such as psychoanalysis and biomedical psychiatry, that claim to discover facts about the human psyche while, in reality, producing them. Borch-Jacobsen proposes such objectivizing approaches should be abandoned in favor of a constructionist and relativist psychology that recognizes the artifactual and interactive character of psychic productions instead of attempting to deny or control it.

Offers an examination of the very foundations of psychoanalytic theory and practice, which was born with the publication of Breuer and Freud's "Studies on Hysteria" in 1895. In his opening essay, Breuer described the case of Anna O., a young woman afflicted with a severe hysteria whom he had cured of her symptoms by having her recount under hypnosis the traumatic events that precipitated her illness. "Hysterics suffer from reminiscences," wrote Freud, and they heal when they remember these repressed or dissociated memories. "This discovery of Breuer's," Freud continued, "is still the foundation of psychoanalytic therapy." It is also the foundation of present-day "recovered memory therapy" and more generally, of our widespread belief in the healing and redemptive power of memory. However, this belief, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen asserts, is based on a deceptive account of the founding case of psychoanalysis. Drawing on the most recent Freud scholarship and on documents long kept from public view, Borch-Jacobsen demonstrates that Anna O. (Bertha Pappenheim) was in fact, never cured by Breuer's "talking cure" at all.