Description
Book SynopsisYoung-Bruehl here reflects on the relations between self-knowledge, autobiography, biography, and cultural history. She considers what remains valuable in Sigmund Freud’s work, and what areas—theory of character, for instance—must be rethought to be useful for current psychoanalytic work, for feminist studies, and for social theory.
Trade ReviewA fascinating and challenging series of essays… They range from theoretical speculations on the art of psychobiography and the history of the troubled relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis to personal reflections on [Young-Breuhl’s] empathetic connection to her chosen biographical subjects. -- Barbara Fisher * Boston Globe *
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl demonstrates how psychobiography illuminates the complex relations between the conditions of people’s lives and who they become, explores the processes that mediate between the outer and inner worlds, and makes clear that the latter is no simple product of the former… Those recognising the importance of reflexivity in research can learn a lot from these essays. As knowledge producers, we can learn too about tolerating ambiguity and paradox, resisting the seduction of certainty. -- Wendy Hollway * The Psychologist *
In these engrossing reflections, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl expands our vision of the work of the past as well as of the work that is to come. Wide-ranging and insightful,
Subject to Biography is also a pleasure to read. -- Jessica Benjamin, author of
The Bonds of LoveElisabeth Young-Bruehl…reveals, with precision and candor, how she has brought her philosophical and psychoanalytic knowledge to the biographical task…she writes with unfailing awareness of the need to make herself intelligible and agreeable to the informed public. -- Paul Robinson * Stanford University *
A mature, thoughtful, and scholarly work, reflecting and embodying the experience of sustained research. With a distinctive voice and an equally distinctive capacity to take that one extra mental, reflexive step that deepens the material being presented, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl gives us complex, multidimensional perspectives on biography, psychoanalysis and feminism. It is a genuine pleasure to read her. -- Victor Wolfenstein, University of California, Los Angeles, and Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Practice of Psychobiography The Biographer's Empathy with Her Subject Psychoanalytic Reflections on Creativity Reflections on Anna Freud: A Biography Looking for Anna Freud's Mother Anna Freud as a Historian of Psychoanalysis Profile of Anna Freud as a Latency Woman A History of Freud Biographies Hannah Arendt among Feminists The Exemplary Independence of Hannah Arendt Feminism and Psychoanalysis Rereading Freud on Female Development On Psychoanalysis and Feminism What Happened to "Anorexie Hysterique"? Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and Anorexia Nervosa Gender and Psychoanalysis What Theories Women Want Notes Index
