PostmodernSeries--Wittgenstein and Psychoanalysis

Author: (Eng) John Hinton / Xu Xiangdong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Wittgenstein discovered that we are captives of the deceptive nature of language. The illusory power of language can imitate real things so vividly that no discriminative power of words allows us to distinguish truth from falsehood. When words select us as the medium for conveying truth, we have already been deceived. 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 of the neurotic patients he described. On the other hand, Wittgenstein adopted an ironic attitude toward himself and his readers, believing that we would all inevitably be deceived, even if analyzed by orthodox psychoanalysts. He made people feel that language, understanding, and knowledge were merely a thin net over a chasm. Wittgenstein and Psychoanalysis places these two immensely influential Viennese thinkers on the stage of postmodernism. The question discussed in the book is: For us today, which of these two philosophies is a better therapeutic tool? Or is it merely a competition between the two?