Description
Book SynopsisWhile many of Freud's original formulations have required either revision or rejection and replacement with newer models, his cultural books, such as
Civilization and Its Discontents and
Totem and Taboo, though extremely influential in the early part of the 20th century
, have more recently been either neglected or else dismissed as long-outdated fantasies. Robert A. Paul shows that Freud''s ideas in these books, and his thinking on how human society is possible, given the unpromising materials out of which it is constructed (i.e. human beings), can appear in a different and more favorable light when viewed through the lens of contemporary anthropology, cultural studies, and evolutionary theory.
Trade ReviewBased on his dual inheritance theory, Robert Paul provides us with an excellent integration of contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, evolutionary theory, and cultural anthropology, without minimizing the contributions of each of them. This thought-provoking book shows ways to bridge the gap between the disciplines and how this opens up new insights and approaches for psychoanalytic theory-building. * Werner Bohleber, PhD, psychoanalyst, former editor-in-chief of the German psychoanalytic journal Psyche *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Stream and the Road Part I. DROSS INTO GOLD: Recuperating Freud’s Social Theory 1. Freud’s Theory of Society 2. Biology and Culture in Civilization and Its Discontents 3. Yes, the Primal Crime Did Take Place PART II. LIKE RABBITS OR LIKE ROBOTS? Sexual versus Non-Sexual Reproduction in the Western Tradition 4. The Genealogy of Civilization 5. Sons or Sonnets? 6. The Pygmalion Complex PART III. OUR TWO TRACK-MINDS: A Dual Inheritance Perspective on Some Classic Psychoanalytic Issues 7. Incest Avoidance: Oedipal and Preoedipal, Natural and Cultural 8. Sexuality: Biological Fact or Cultural Construction? 9. Consciousness, Language, and Dual Inheritance References Index
