Disturbing the neighbours: an investigation into the relationship between psychopathology and social formations
- Authors: Collins, Anthony
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971 , Social psychiatry , Social psychology , Psychology, Pathological , Frankfurt school of sociology , Political psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2953 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002462 , Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971 , Social psychiatry , Social psychology , Psychology, Pathological , Frankfurt school of sociology , Political psychology
- Description: This work attempts to confront certain political problems created by the individualistic bias in psychoanalytic thinking, and the resulting failure to adequately theorise the importance of social processes. The thesis traces the origins of intrapsychic thinking to Freud's initial move from the seduction theory to the Oedipal theory. This development is offered as a prototype for the debates between conceptualisations of childhood traumatisation as a social problem of actual abuse occurring within dermed power relations, and theories which locate pathology purely within internal conflicts occurring inside the individual. Several criticisms of this shift are offered, and it s impact on later theory is considered. Here a contrast is offered between the theoretical approaches of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, arguing for the usefulness of Winnicott's emphasis on environmental factors within psychodynamic theory. The impact of these theoretical approaches is illustrated through a critical evaluation of Freud's case study of Judge Schreber. Additional historical material is brought in to show the importance of environmental considerations ignored by Freud, and contrasting psychodynamic readings of the case are offered. As an alternative to purely intrapsychic approaches, a reinterpretation of certain strands of Critical Theory is then presented. Adorno's theory of the Authoritarian Personality and Marcuse' s concept of One-Dimensional Man are extended using Winnicott's formulations concerning psychological development. This leads to an examination of the question of the relationship between social structure and individual consciousness. Post-structuralist accounts of language and the construction of identity are explored. These are then developed drawing on theories of ideology, language and consciousness, integrating these with Winnicott's developmental theory to offer an alternative psychodynamic understanding of the relationship between social process and psychopathology. An attempt is made to reformulate - the notions of consciousness and the unconscious in terms of the possibilities and difficulties of representation within available social symbolic codes. In conclusion the it is argued that psychology needs to integrate critical social theory and contemporary understandings of the social construction of consciousness in order to become a meaning force in positive social transformation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
- Authors: Collins, Anthony
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971 , Social psychiatry , Social psychology , Psychology, Pathological , Frankfurt school of sociology , Political psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2953 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002462 , Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971 , Social psychiatry , Social psychology , Psychology, Pathological , Frankfurt school of sociology , Political psychology
- Description: This work attempts to confront certain political problems created by the individualistic bias in psychoanalytic thinking, and the resulting failure to adequately theorise the importance of social processes. The thesis traces the origins of intrapsychic thinking to Freud's initial move from the seduction theory to the Oedipal theory. This development is offered as a prototype for the debates between conceptualisations of childhood traumatisation as a social problem of actual abuse occurring within dermed power relations, and theories which locate pathology purely within internal conflicts occurring inside the individual. Several criticisms of this shift are offered, and it s impact on later theory is considered. Here a contrast is offered between the theoretical approaches of Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, arguing for the usefulness of Winnicott's emphasis on environmental factors within psychodynamic theory. The impact of these theoretical approaches is illustrated through a critical evaluation of Freud's case study of Judge Schreber. Additional historical material is brought in to show the importance of environmental considerations ignored by Freud, and contrasting psychodynamic readings of the case are offered. As an alternative to purely intrapsychic approaches, a reinterpretation of certain strands of Critical Theory is then presented. Adorno's theory of the Authoritarian Personality and Marcuse' s concept of One-Dimensional Man are extended using Winnicott's formulations concerning psychological development. This leads to an examination of the question of the relationship between social structure and individual consciousness. Post-structuralist accounts of language and the construction of identity are explored. These are then developed drawing on theories of ideology, language and consciousness, integrating these with Winnicott's developmental theory to offer an alternative psychodynamic understanding of the relationship between social process and psychopathology. An attempt is made to reformulate - the notions of consciousness and the unconscious in terms of the possibilities and difficulties of representation within available social symbolic codes. In conclusion the it is argued that psychology needs to integrate critical social theory and contemporary understandings of the social construction of consciousness in order to become a meaning force in positive social transformation.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1995
Theory in interpretive psychology - with special reference to Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of Freud
- Authors: Du Toit, Barry
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Ricœur, Paul , Psychoanalysis
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2906 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002071
- Description: The thesis aims to show that, while an interpretive psychology is not compatible with theory as it occurs in the predictive- causal explanation of the natural sciences, it is both possible and necessary to develop a concept of theory valid within an interpretive methodology. These claims are advanced in the course of an examination of Ricoeur 's interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis. After examining some traditional ways in which phenomenological psychology has responded to the psychoanalytic challenge, the thesis presents an interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis as a hermeneutic approach which utilized theoretical constructions in a productive way, although distorted by Freud's natural-scientific self- understanding. Freud's causal-explanatory language and natural- scientific meta theory are shown to be significant inasmuch as they provide a vehicle for theory construction in psychoanalysis. However, since the theory is modeled on that of the natural sciences, it proves incompatible with the interpretive aspects of Freud's approach. We then establish a concept of theory and of causal analysis which is different to that of the natural sciences, and is compatible with, and indeed founded in, an interpretive approach to psychology. These concepts are then illustrated in the context of psychoanalysis. In the final chapter the advantages of the use of theory in interpretive psychology are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
Theory in interpretive psychology - with special reference to Paul Ricoeur's interpretation of Freud
- Authors: Du Toit, Barry
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 , Ricœur, Paul , Psychoanalysis
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2906 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002071
- Description: The thesis aims to show that, while an interpretive psychology is not compatible with theory as it occurs in the predictive- causal explanation of the natural sciences, it is both possible and necessary to develop a concept of theory valid within an interpretive methodology. These claims are advanced in the course of an examination of Ricoeur 's interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis. After examining some traditional ways in which phenomenological psychology has responded to the psychoanalytic challenge, the thesis presents an interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis as a hermeneutic approach which utilized theoretical constructions in a productive way, although distorted by Freud's natural-scientific self- understanding. Freud's causal-explanatory language and natural- scientific meta theory are shown to be significant inasmuch as they provide a vehicle for theory construction in psychoanalysis. However, since the theory is modeled on that of the natural sciences, it proves incompatible with the interpretive aspects of Freud's approach. We then establish a concept of theory and of causal analysis which is different to that of the natural sciences, and is compatible with, and indeed founded in, an interpretive approach to psychology. These concepts are then illustrated in the context of psychoanalysis. In the final chapter the advantages of the use of theory in interpretive psychology are discussed.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
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