The Mind's Affective Life: A Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Inquiry

by Fiumara Corradi,Gemma

• ISBN13: 9781583911532
• ISBN10: 1583911537
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Mind's Affective Lifeis a refreshing and innovative examination of the relationship between feeling and thinking. Our thoughts and behavior are shaped by both our emotions and reason; yet until recently most of the literature analyzing thought has concentrated largely on philosophical reasoning and neglected emotions. This book is an original and provocative contribution to the rapidly growing literature on the neglected "affective" dimensions of modern thought. The author draws on contemporary psychoanalysis, philosophy, feminist theory, and recent innovations in neuroscience to argue that in order to understand thought, we need to consider not only both emotional and rational aspects of thought but also the complex interactions between these different aspects. Only through such a rich and complicated understanding of modern thought can we hope to avoid what the author identifies as a significant contemporary problem for individuals and cultures; that is, suppression or denial ofintolerable states of feeling.

Author Biography

Gemma Corradi Fiumara is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Third University of Rome, and a training member of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(3)
The fragility of `pure reason'	4	(16)
The island of `pure reason' and the sea of passions	4	(5)
The contingency of the subject	9	(5)
Hierarchised knowledges	14	(3)
Notes	17	(3)
From philosophy to epistemophily	20	(13)
Latent functions of Knowledge	20	(4)
Alternative modes of inquiry	24	(5)
Notes	29	(4)
Thinking affects	33	(8)
The problem of thinking affects	33	(2)
The conquest of affects	35	(2)
Ulterior perspectives	37	(2)
Notes	39	(2)
A passion for reason	41	(12)
Passions in reason	41	(4)
The pleasures of mental efficacy	45	(5)
Notes	50	(3)
Minding the body	53	(7)
Mental life and embodied existence	53	(3)
Knowledge as an organismic derivative	56	(2)
Notes	58	(2)
The terminology of affects	60	(12)
The question of classification and terminology	60	(3)
Familiarity and continuities	63	(3)
Vocabularies and perception of affects	66	(2)
Notes	68	(4)
Affective knowledge	72	(15)
Affective components of reason	72	(3)
Expanding the conditions of knowledge	75	(1)
Relational knowing	76	(3)
Affects and cognition	79	(3)
Notes	82	(5)
The price of maturity	87	(16)
The question of maturity	87	(4)
The legitimacy of affects and moods	91	(5)
Silencing affects	96	(3)
Notes	99	(4)
Towards affective literacy	103	(9)
Naming our inner states	103	(5)
Cultural influences	108	(1)
Notes	109	(3)
Affects and narratives	112	(12)
Joint narratives	112	(2)
Narrative constructions	114	(3)
Psychoanalytic narratives	117	(4)
Notes	121	(3)
Affects and identity	124	(14)
Identity and affects in the psychoanalytic relation	124	(3)
Empathy and identity	127	(5)
Reprocessing our inner past	132	(3)
Notes	135	(3)
Affects and indifference	138	(15)
The question of indifference	138	(3)
Psychodiversity and co-optosis	141	(5)
Preliminaries as conclusions	146	(3)
Notes	149	(4)
Bibliography	153	(14)
Index	167