| Title | : | Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0300036019 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780300036015 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 252 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1976 |
Reich's flamboyant life and tragic end (he died in a federal penitentiary, by then almost surely psychotic) make him the perfect foil for the author's traditionally Freudian perspective.…[they] contend that the espousal of any ideology is "projective and paranoid"--an attempt to deny the intrapsychic causes of human misery and to evade the responsibility and guilt that are the hallmarks of emotional maturity. All human activities, they argue, are responses to drives to defenses against the drives.
Not everyone will agree with their essentially conservative position, but their lively presentation is certain to provoke fresh discussion of 'Freudo-Marxis' among social scientists as well as psychoanalysts.
The book includes critiques of several of the 'Freudo-Marxisms'--including those of Marcuse, Reich, and Deleuze and Guattari-- based on the argument that each adopts a mistaken view of the unconscious and distorts the Freudian theory of psychoanalysis in the interests of illusion.
"This is a relatively brief and extremely well written overview of the theoretical relations and psychological implications of the dialogue between psychoanalysis and Marxism. The book contains some of the most interesting contributions to the applications of psychoanalysis to the social sciences written in recent years."
-- Otto F. Kernberg
Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion Reviews
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Entertaining to the extent that we have here two of the most dogmatic and orthodox Classical Freudians I’ve ever read spending about 100 odd pages trying to convince you that Reich’s entire corpus of work can be summed up as the paranoid ramblings of a man rabidly conceptualising his way out of passive homosexual desires that he’s struggling to repress.
Oh so you say that Freud’s topology comes almost wholly from external factors? That the Marcuses and Deleuzes of the world are right in seeing the global factors of capital, authoritarian society/familism etc. as being the cause of neurosis? Shut up you just wanna get fucked in the arse by your dead alcoholic father, Wilhelm. Get back in your little orgone energy accumulator you sick, perverted, schizophrenic freak. -
This book is a historical reconstruction of the relationship between Freud and Reich. The authors giving us a brief analysis of Reich’s work in addition to the reality principle, as we can experience and acknowledge it in everyday life. It is not surprising that, beside that, we can get an insight into a deep understanding of the psychoanalytical standpoints from Chasseguet-Smirgel and Grunberger as distinguishable analysts from the French psychoanalytical tradition. Also, in my opinion, they open a fruitful debate between Marxism and psychoanalysis concerning the meanings and value of love and work in today’s society. Thinking about the capillaries of mental health, as Freud puts it, in the context of our society, maybe we can agree, is as challenging as indispensable.
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Quite a good summary of errors in Reich's thought, but written by orthodox Freudians, who at the same time restate the horrid tenants of psychoanalysis, with little clue of their shortcomings.
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Had to keep in mind that it was written in 1986 by classical Freudians.
