Synopses & Reviews
“Psychoanalysis is dead!” Again and again this obituary is pronounced, with ever-increasing conviction in newspapers and scholarly journals alike. But the ghost of Freud and his thought continues to haunt those who would seal the grave. The Legend of Freud shows why psychoanalysis has remained uncanny, not just for its enemies but for its advocates and practitioners as well—and why it continues to fascinate us. For psychoanalysis is not just a theory of psychic conflict: it is a thought in conflict with itself. Often violent, the conflicts of psychoanalysis are most productive where they remain unresolved, thus producing a text that must be read: deciphered, interpreted, rewritten. Psychoanalysis: legenda est.
Review
“The Legend of Freud is a fine example of what can be done with Freud's texts when philosophical and literary approaches converge, and you leave the couch in the other room. . . . Like Lacan and Derrida, Weber doesn’t so much explain or interpret Freud as engage him, performing what Freud would have called an Auseinandersetzung, a discussion or argument that’s also a taking apart, a deconstruction. . . . Deconstruction has picked up a bad name, especially in the minds of those who don’t understand it; but this wouldn’t be the case if there were more books like Weber’s. The Legend of Freud is the best deconstructive work I’ve seen lately, and the best response to Freud; it merits close attention from anyone who wants a challenge, not merely a guide to what’s right and wrong. . . . Weber is brilliantly imaginative, respectful of his subject and his readers, and productive of new ideas.”
—Village Voice Literary Supplement
Synopsis
“The Legend of Freud is a fine example of what can be done with Freuds texts when philosophical and literary approaches converge, and you leave the couch in the other room. . . . Weber is brilliantly imaginative, respectful of his subject and his readers, and productive of new ideas.”—Village Voice Literary Supplement
Synopsis
“Psychoanalysis is dead!” Again and again this obituary is pronounced, with ever-increasing conviction in newspapers and scholarly journals alike. But the ghost of Freud and his thought continues to haunt those who would seal the grave. The Legend of Freud shows why psychoanalysis has remained uncanny, not just for its enemies but for its advocates and practitioners as well—and why it continues to fascinate us. For psychoanalysis is not just a theory of psychic conflict: it is a thought in conflict with itself. Often violent, the conflicts of psychoanalysis are most productive where they remain unresolved, thus producing a text that must be read: deciphered, interpreted, rewritten. Psychoanalysis: legenda est.
Review
“The Legend of Freud is a fine example of what can be done with Freud's texts when philosophical and literary approaches converge, and you leave the couch in the other room. . . . Like Lacan and Derrida, Weber doesnt so much explain or interpret Freud as engage him, performing what Freud would have called an Auseinandersetzung, a discussion or argument thats also a taking apart, a deconstruction. . . . Deconstruction has picked up a bad name, especially in the minds of those who dont understand it; but this wouldnt be the case if there were more books like Webers. The Legend of Freud is the best deconstructive work Ive seen lately, and the best response to Freud; it merits close attention from anyone who wants a challenge, not merely a guide to whats right and wrong. . . . Weber is brilliantly imaginative, respectful of his subject and his readers, and productive of new ideas.”
—Village Voice Literary Supplement
Synopsis
Freud's defences of psychoanalysis and the conflicts into which psychoanalytic theory has been drawn.
Synopsis
Readable as an introduction to psychoanalytic theory, The Legend of Freud also analyzes Freud's own attempt to safeguard the legacy of psychoanalysis in the face of conflicting interpretations of its fundamental definition and direction.
Synopsis
The Legend of Freud could be read as an introduction to psychoanalytic theory, as it clearly lays out many of the key concepts of Freud's thought. It is also, however, a highly original reflection on the nature of conflict. Beginning by analyzing Freud's own attempt to safeguard the legacy of psychoanalysis in the face of conflicting interpretations that had arisen concerning its fundamental definition and direction, subsequent chapters each examine a particular conflict into which psychoanalytic theory is drawn, and presents this conflict in relation to its supposed theoretical solution.
About the Author
Samuel Weber is Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the UCLA Paris Program in Critical Theory. Among his many books is Mass Mediauras: Form, Technics, Media (Stanford, 1996).