• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Ep. 205: Suicide with Dr. Drew (Durkheim et al) (Part One)

December 17, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 2 Comments

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 …

Bonus: (sub)Text #4: Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (Part One)

October 8, 2018 by Wes Alwan Leave a Comment

Wes Alwan is joined by psychoanalyst Tracy Morgan and therapist Louis Scuderi to discuss Freud's classic essay, Mourning and Melancholia. Read it online. Note: Part two will NOT be appearing on this feed. Become a PEL Citizen to get the full discussion. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to learn how. Listen to more (sub)Text.  Continue Reading …

(sub)Text #4: Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia” (Citizens Only)

October 7, 2018 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Wes Alwan is joined by Tracy Morgan and Louis Scuderi to discuss Freud's classic 1917 essay. Read it online. Listen to more (sub)Text.  Continue Reading …

Combat & Classics #17: Freud’s “On Transience”

March 20, 2018 by Brian Wilson 1 Comment

Jeff, Lise, and Brian discuss "On Transience," in which Freud ruminates on the transitory nature of, and beautiful things in, life. The piece prompts a conversation about a variety of topics Freud raises, from death to libido to war. Get more C&C on the PEL site or at combatandclassics.org.  Continue Reading …

On Being a Monster: “Frankenstein” and Creative Ambition, Part III—Frankenstein

January 17, 2018 by Wes Alwan Leave a Comment

Subscribe to more of my writing at https://www.wesalwan.com Follow me on Twitter This essay is the third in a five-part series, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Part two can be found here, part four can be found here. Part III: Frankenstein And so we expect the project of overweening self-creation to be a botched  Continue Reading …

Rhythm 0, Marina Abramović, and Freudian Ambivalence

October 4, 2016 by Ana Sandoiu 3 Comments

As 21st-century humans, we like to think of ourselves as highly intelligent and morally developed beings. But every so often comes an artist who holds up a mirror so close to our face that we can see the fragile veneer of civilization crackle and slowly come off. Marina Abramović is one such artist, and in her 1974 performance Rhythm 0 she exposed humanity in all its primordial  Continue Reading …

Listen or Watch: Episode 116 Aftershow on Freud and Dreams

June 11, 2015 by Wes Alwan 2 Comments

Watch on YouTube. Danny Lobell and Wes Alwan were joined for a discussion of Freud and dreams by PEL citizens Bjorn Dahlby, Ken Presting, Chase Fiorenza, Michael deCamp, Terra Leigh Bell, and Sam Baguley. Our discussion focused less on dreams than on Freud and everything else we happened to want to talk about, from psychedelic drugs to the female lioness' "ambivalence"  Continue Reading …

Ep 116 Aftershow: Freud and Dream Interpretation

June 7, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Featuring Danny Lobell, Wes Alwan, Bjorn Dahlby, Ken Presting, Chase Fiorenza, Michael deCamp, Terra Leigh Bell, and Sam Baguley. Recorded June 7, 2015. Our discussion focused less on dreams than on Freud and everything else we happened to want to talk about, from psychedelic drugs to the female lioness' "ambivalence" about mating. Watch on YouTube. Listen to episode  Continue Reading …

Episode 116: Freud on Dreams

May 25, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 10 Comments

On Sigmund Freud's On Dreams (1902), a bit of The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and the lecture, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” (1933). For Wes Alwan's Freud summaries, go here: https://www.philosophysummaries.com. Are dreams just a bunch of random crap? Freud says, no, they're actually the first and best way to figure out the structure of the mind, which  Continue Reading …

Topic for #116 Freud on Dreams

May 23, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 3 Comments

On 5/11/15, the basic foursome recorded a discussion of Sigmund Freud's method of dream interpretation (for Wes Alwan's Freud summaries, go here: https://www.philosophysummaries.com), and got a little bit into what this is supposed to tell us about the human mind, and what the results are for philosophy per Ricoeur's admonition that we should take Freud into account. The  Continue Reading …

Episode 116: Freud on Dreams (Citizen Edition)

May 23, 2015 by Mark Linsenmayer 7 Comments

On Sigmund Freud's On Dreams (1902), a bit of The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and the lecture, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” (1933). For Wes Alwan's Freud summaries, go here: https://www.philosophysummaries.com. Are dreams just a bunch of random crap? Freud says, no, they're actually the first and best way to figure out the structure of the mind, which  Continue Reading …

Precognition of Ep. 81: Jung

August 28, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer 11 Comments

An introduction to Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols, read by Wes Alwan. After you listen to this, listen to the full episode. Read more about the topic. Get Wes's transcript.  Continue Reading …

Precognition of Ep. 81: Jung

August 28, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

An introduction to Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols, read by Wes Alwan. Read more about the topic. Listen to the full episode. Read a transcript.  Continue Reading …

PREVIEW-Episode 74: Jacques Lacan’s Psychology

April 3, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer 92 Comments

This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more  Continue Reading …

Episode 74: Jacques Lacan’s Psychology (Citizens Only)

April 3, 2013 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

On Bruce Fink's The Lacanian Subject (1996) and Lacan's "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience" (1949). What is the self? Is that the same as the experiencing subject? Lacan says no: while the self (the ego) is an imaginative creation, cemented by language, the subject is something else, something split (at least  Continue Reading …

Structuralism Summarized in 30 Minutes

March 7, 2012 by Daniel Horne 6 Comments

Watch on YouTube. Here is a surprisingly edifying and entertaining synopsis of structuralism. I particularly like how Prof. Louis Markos connects Saussure's work to the "proto-structuralism" of Freud and Marx. Also enjoyable is Markos' mini-rant, in light of Wes's recent post: Structures are found in all areas of thought and study, from history to linguistics, psychology to  Continue Reading …

Lila Notes, Pt. 3: Pirsig’s Teleological Hierarchy

February 6, 2012 by Mark Linsenmayer 21 Comments

In Pt. 2, I described Pirsig's notion of dynamic vs. static quality, which should sound a lot like naturalistic moral intuitionism as discussed in our Hume/Smith episode. All there is is people (or, more widely for Pirsig, any being that is capable of reacting affirmatively or negatively to anything: judging agents, we might want to call them), and morality can only be founded  Continue Reading …

Carol Gilligan on Freud and “Voice”

September 6, 2011 by Mark Linsenmayer 5 Comments

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 …

Schizophrenia, Philosophy & Freud

October 5, 2010 by Seth Paskin 3 Comments

While we're following up on the Freud podcast, I caught this interesting show from ABC National Radio in Australia on schizophrenia and philosophical investigation.  The show is called All in the Mind, hosted by Natasha Mitchell.  In this episode, she interviews Dr Paul Fearne, who suffers from schizophrenia but managed to acknowledge it, get help and get it under control with  Continue Reading …

Mark Steel on Sexual Fixation

October 4, 2010 by Mark Linsenmayer Leave a Comment

Here's an "Open University lecture" on Freud that does not at all resemble a lecture, but is instead a somewhat informative comedy monologue with TV-news-magazine-style visuals. Watch on youtube. Highlights here are more detail on Freud's fascination with cocaine and some funny details about his love life. There's not much explicitly on the philosophical aspects of  Continue Reading …

Next Page »

PEL Live Show 2023

Brothers K Live Show

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Bibliophile on Pretty Much Pop #143: Pinocchio the Unfilmable (Yet Frequently Filmed)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • MartinK on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in