Subterranean Politics and Freud's Legacy Critical Theory and Society

by Buzby, Amy L.

• ISBN13: 9781137330642
• ISBN10: 1137330643
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-08-14
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Subterranean Politics and Freud's Legacy reclaims psychoanalysis as an ally to critical theory's efforts to restore subjectivity and oppose systemic domination in modernity. Buzby achieves this aim by reimagining Freud as a militant optimist, compassionate practitioner, and innovator whose work still supports democratic processes. The most important contribution of this book, however, is the renewal of the radical psychoanalytic foundations of critical theory. A return to these psychoanalytic foundations restores the compassion of critical theory and grants crucial access to the psychological foundations of domination. Given the ongoing crisis of identity and purpose within critical theory, Subterranean Politics and Freud's Legacy marks a significant advancement in contemporary political theory.

Author Biography

Amy L. Buzby is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Arkansas State University, USA. She received her PhD in Political Science from Rutgers University. She is a former Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and Academic Fellow at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. Her published works include an edited volume, Communicative Action: The Logos Interviews.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Freud and the Critical Method
2. Freud and the Critical Theory of Society
3. Psychoanalysis as Humanism: Reclaiming Eros for Critical Theory
4. New Foundations for Resistance: The Marcuse-Fromm Debate Revisited
5. Working Through the Past: Psychoanalysis, Critical Theory and Bad Conscience
6. Wrong Life Lived Rightly: Sublimation, Identification and the Restoration of Subjectivity
Concluding Remarks