Book description
This short work by world-renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud marks a major turning point in the author's theoretical approach. Prior to this work Freud's examination of the forces that drive man focused primarily on the Eros of man, the life instinct innate in all humans. In "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" Freud…
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1 author picked Beyond the Pleasure Principle as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Of all Freud’s writings, 1920's Beyond the Pleasure Principle occupies a special place in relation not only to Žižek’s conception of psychoanalysis but also to his philosophical/theoretical framework as a whole. This is the text in which Freud introduces his audacious and controversial hypothesis of the “death drive” (Todestrieb). It is not until 1920 that Freud fully brings to light tendencies within the psyche disrupting and disobeying the pleasure principle, forces of negativity able to suspend (if only momentarily) the psyche’s usual pursuits of gratification, satisfaction, well-being, and the like. Žižek repeatedly insists that his core intellectual agenda…
From Adrian's list on understanding the work of Slavoj Žižek.
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