Wittgenstein and Psychoanalysis

Author: John Hinton
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Freud and Wittgenstein were contemporaries. Freud founded psychoanalysis, while Wittgenstein may be considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. Both thinkers were fundamentally concerned with humanity's deeply ingrained tendency toward self-deception. Freud explored this issue from the perspective of psychiatry, aiming to treat neuroses, psychoses, and perversions. Freud assumed that readers could recognize the self-deceptive phenomena depicted in his descriptions of neurotic patients. On the other hand, Wittgenstein adopted an ironic attitude toward himself and his readers, believing that we are all certainly deceived, even by orthodox psychoanalysts. He made people feel that language, understanding, and knowledge are merely thin nets over a chasm. Wittgenstein and Psychoanalysis places these two immensely influential Viennese thinkers on the stage of postmodernism. The book discusses the question: For us today, which of these two philosophies is a better therapeutic method? Or is it merely a competition between the two?