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)
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)
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”
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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
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)
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
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
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”
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
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
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 …