VOLUME 06 - SPECIAL NUMBER "HISTORY AND METHOD IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL RECEPTION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS"

2021-02-21

Since its emergence at the turn of the 20th century, psychoanalysis has been a constant object of philosophical inquiry. Freud’s creation is present in contemporary philosophy’s central debates and traditions and remains a regular topic in Marxism, existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, hermeneutics, analytical philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, among others. In brief, there is a surprising resonance of psychoanalysis within philosophy. Philosophers from all major contemporary philosophical traditions have maintained a constant dialogue with Freud’s theories and ideas.

One can mention Nagel, Popper, MacIntyre, Grünbaum, Rorty, Davidson, and Wittgenstein in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. In the German tradition, Jaspers’ works are significant, as well as the contributions of philosophically-informed Swiss psychiatry, with Binswanger and Boss, in the line of thought inaugurated by Heidegger. The Frankfurt School, with Fromm, Adorno, Marcuse, and Habermas, also found in psychoanalysis a vital interlocutor. In the French tradition, virtually every philosopher in the last century has confronted psychoanalysis in one way or another. The relationship ranges from Bergson’s more or less implicit dialogue with Freud to Politzer, Dalbiez, Bachelard, and Sartre. In this context, Lacan’s famous “return to Freud” further stimulated the debate between philosophy and psychoanalysis. Suffice it to note the works of Hyppolite, Merleau-Ponty, Ricœur, Lévi-Strauss, Althusser, Henry, Castoriadis, Lyotard, Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, among many others. This dialogue with psychoanalysis is still alive today, including philosophers like Butler and Cavell, Sloterdijk, Honnet, Vatimmo, Agamben, Maldiney, and Badiou.

Brazilian philosophers’ output in this field has also been particularly relevant. Prado Jr., Monzani, Mezan, Gabbi Jr., Loparic, Stein, Japiassu, Garcia-Roza, and Birman can be regarded as the founders of this significant and growing trend in contemporary Brazilian philosophy, which has the interdisciplinarity of philosophical interrogation as one of its distinctive features.

What does explain such a phenomenon – this intense and diverse philosophical attention directed to psychoanalysis? Why a “philosophy of psychoanalysis”? What philosophical interests do justify the severe criticism to, and the many acknowledgments of, Freud and his successors? What notion of philosophy is best able to incorporate a thought such as Freud’s and the other relevant theorists in the history of psychoanalysis? In one way or another, these theorists have been the object of an ever-renewed philosophical reception.

To understand, deepen and address these questions, the journal Eleuthería at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) makes public this call for papers for its Special Issue: History and Method in the Philosophical Reception of Psychoanalysis. The journal will welcome contributions addressing, from a theoretical or historical point of view (social history, history of ideas, history of philosophy), the various and different modes and styles of reception adopted in philosophy’s relationship with psychoanalysis. Paper submissions related to the following main research topics will be considered for publication:

1) History of the philosophical reception of psychoanalysis: foundations and methods - this topic includes but it is not restricted to:

  • The philosophical problem of the historiographic method;
  • The philosophical problem of reception;
  • Philosophy of psychoanalysis and history of psychoanalysis;
  • Philosophy of psychoanalysis and history of philosophy;
  • Philosophy of psychoanalysis and history of science;
  • Philosophy of psychoanalysis and intellectual history;
  • Internal analysis of theories and contextual analysis;
  • Psychoanalysis as object of philosophical interpretation;
  • Psychoanalysis as a field of philosophical problems;
  • Philosophical critique of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic critique of philosophy;
  • Other related issues.

2) The philosophical reception of psychoanalysis: authors and traditions - this topic includes but it is not restricted to:

  • Critical discussion of philosophical authors and/or traditions in dialogue with psychoanalysis;
  • The reception of psychoanalysis in French philosophy;
  • The reception of psychoanalysis in German philosophy;
  • The reception of psychoanalysis in analytical philosophy;
  • Philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychoanalysis;
  • Philosophy of science and philosophy of psychoanalysis;
  • Philosophy of language and philosophy of psychoanalysis;
  • Philosophy of psychoanalysis in Brazil;
  • Other related issues.

The Editors,
Prof. Dr. Weiny César Freitas Pinto (UFMS)
Prof. Dr. Caio Padovan (UPV - Montpellier 3)
Prof. Dr. Richard Simanke (UFJF)
Prof. Dr. Francisco Bocca (PUCPR)

 

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