Mark and Wes continue the discussion of Emile Durkheim's Suicide begun in parts 1 and 2, getting into more of the details of his account and in particular exploring comparative modes of explanation: Are there really "sociological facts" distinct from mere generalizations about psychological facts? This leads us to more discussion of the legitimacy of psychoanalytic Continue Reading …
Ep. 205: Suicide with Dr. Drew (Durkheim et al) (Part Two)
More on philosophical and psychological interpretations of and judgments about suicide with guest Drew Pinsky. Is suicide an epidemic or a choice? Could it be both? Socrates didn't fear death and inspired Stoics and others to see suicide in some circumstances as brave. Or is it always cowardly? Does meaninglessness motivate suicide? If so, why should it? Listen to part Continue Reading …
Ep. 205: Suicide with Dr. Drew (Durkheim et al) (Citizen Edition)
We are rejoined by Drew Pinsky to discuss philosophical, psychological, and sociological readings on suicide. Is suicide ever morally permissible? If it's a symptom of mental illness rather than a chosen behavior, is it even appropriate to morally evaluate it? Last time Drew joined us, he helped us add clinical depth to an area that we'd already talked about Continue Reading …
Not School Discussion of Zizek Now Available
I and four Citizens took a first crack at discussing The Year of Dreaming Dangerously yesterday (read more about our Not School group here). Since Freud and Jung, psychotherapy has been used to try to make sense of group behavior, and Lacan himself applied his insights to the political realm (among other places). Zizek follows in that tradition, doing a Marxist analysis of Continue Reading …
Episode 81: Jung on the Psyche and Dreams (Citizens Only)
On Carl Jung's "Approaching the Unconscious" from Man and His Symbols, written in 1961. What's the structure of the mind? Jung followed Freud in positing an unconscious distinct from the conscious ego, but Jung's picture has the unconscious much more stuffed full of all sorts of stuff from who knows where, including instincts (the archetypes) that tend to give rise to Continue Reading …
Topic for #74: Lacan on the Self/Subject
Listen to the episode. What is that thing I call "I?" While most of your grade-A philosophers of the past hundred years or so agree that it's not a Cartesian Cogito, i.e. an immortal soul characterized by continuous consciousness, the alternatives are many and varied. With Hegel, we got the idea that the self is built, and this through our relations with others, but that Continue Reading …
Carol Gilligan on Freud and “Voice”
We mentioned on the episode Gilligan's opposition to Freud. In this clip, Gilligan discusses a methodological difference in analyzing women's self-reporting (much of the content of In a Different Voice): Watch on YouTube. She claims that rather than imposing your theory (in this case that the patient knows more than she is willing or able to say) on the patient, you Continue Reading …
Buddhist Psychotherapy?
Having recorded our discussion on Buddhism but still feeling obligated here to plumb the depths of the web further for Freud-related material, I did a search for "Buddhist Psychotherapy" and came up with this site (part of "the complementary health information service at Metta.org.uk") that demonstrates that, as Wes said, all of your talking cures come out approximately the Continue Reading …