Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis [Paperback]

Jonathan Lear (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300074670 | ISBN-13: 978-0300074673 | Publication Date: February 8, 1999

In this brilliant book, Jonathan Lear argues that Freud posits love as a basic force in nature, one that makes individuation -- the condition for psychological health and development -- possible. Love is active not just in the development of the individual but also in individual analysis and indeed in the development of psychoanalysis itself, says Lear. Expanding on philosophical conceptions of love, nature, and mind, Lear shows that love can cure because it is the force that makes us human.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this heartfelt and scholarly treatise, Lear, chair of Yale's philosophy department and clinical associate of the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, takes up where Freud left off, following "connections, insights, consequences of Freudian thoughts that Freud himself did not pursue." Sticking close to psychoanalytic structure and language, Lear explores the significance of Freud's attempt to limn a science based on subjectivity, to illuminate the power of archaic thinking and to reveal love as a force of nature. Aligned in viewpoint with but more tightly focused than Reuben Fine's Love and Work (Nonfiction Forecasts, July 6), Lear's impassioned, generous interpretation goes its own way (he argues that the catharsis at the heart of analysis is more truly a matter of unification than a discharge of psychic energy), further developing in psychoanalytic fashion the revolutionary models raised in Freud's writings.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This simply written and accessible book seeks to define and identify love as a force, central to human nature, that is at the root of Freudian theory. To accomplish this aim, the author proceeds to explicate basic psychoanalytic concepts in a lucid and compelling manner, convincingly arguing for a psychological rather than a biological root and correspondingly love rather than sex and aggression as a central motivator in Freudian theory. As a philosopher conversant with analytic theory, the author also advocates a view of humanity as needing to discover its archaic unconscious, an area often neglected by more rationally focused philosophers. Psychological theorists might question the author's neglect of neo-Freudians such as Fromm who have focused on love but have seemed less committed to retaining a Freudian viewpoint. But lay readers as well as scholars will benefit from his clear presentation of psychoanalysis and his unique vantage point.
- Paul Hymowitz, New York Medical Coll.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (February 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300074670
• ISBN-13: 978-0300074673
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars stunning, February 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis (Paperback)

An important development of Freud's ideas, which goes far beyond standard misunderstandings in a way that is wholly justified by Freud's later works. Lear, a philosopher, is a remarkable thinker in his own right. The theme of this book is nothing less than the way that the discoveries of depth psychology pose an unavoidable challenge to our prevailing scientific ways of thinking about self and world. The needed revision would not be a lapse into softheadedness but a science of the human psyche which would do justice to the subject. To understand love, theoretically and in practice, is to accept a vision of rationality and a view of the world that the most progressive thinkers -- those who have accepted the legacy of psychoanalysis -- have just begun to sketch. Lear, who is at the forefront of such thinkers, has written a cogent and loving book which can be read by the specialist or by anyone interested in a topic which is of concern to each of us.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Freudian metaphysics?, March 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis (Paperback)

This is a stimulating book. It begins with a very illuminating account of Freud's central ideas, critically alert but sympathetic, and offering lots of fruitful development.

The problem is in the later parts of the book, which try to graft the Freudian idea that the world must offer enough love, and enough objects of love, for the developing child to thrive, on to a bizarre sort of metaphysical idealism, according to which the nature or existence of the world depends on its being lovable. Taken literally (as empirical idealism), this is just silly: the existence of the universe does not depend in any way on love. Perhaps it is instead a form of transcendental idealism (the nature of the world _as it is for us_ depends on love). But that's still pretty far-out, and the idea is not developed enough - at least not here - to seem remotely defensible.