Title: THE ORIGINS OF FREUD'S THEORY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS: A PHILOSOPHICAL LINK
Abstract:The recent publication of Freud's correspondence to his school friend, Edward Silberstein, has provided new impetus for research into Freud's relationships with the philosopher Franz Brentano. In seve...The recent publication of Freud's correspondence to his school friend, Edward Silberstein, has provided new impetus for research into Freud's relationships with the philosopher Franz Brentano. In several letters Freud expresses his great admiration for both the man and his ideas (Boehlich, 1990). Their personal rapport and the impact of Brentano's early intentionality thesis on Freud's work has been detailed elsewhere. 1 In this paper I will address one possible objection to any claim that the philosopher could have influenced Freud on a theoretical level. It may be argued that there could be no significant theoretical influence because the psychoanalyst constructed a model of mental functioning which presupposes an unconscious, while Brentano was a philosopher of consciousness, who denied the very existence of unconscious ideas. I will demonstrate that, despite his rejection of unconscious mental functioning, Brentano presents a systematic investigation into what he perceives to be the strongest arguments in favour of the existence of unconscious ideas. I argue that it is this analysis which provided Freud with a template for a coherent account of the unconscious. Brentano’s discussion is detailed in his seminal early text Psychology From an Empirical Standpoint (1874) which was published the very year that Freud began to attend his lectures in philosophy at the University of Vienna. 2Read More
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 16
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