Negative Psychoanalysis for the Living Dead: Philosophical Pessimism and the Death Drive - Hardcover

by Julie Reshe (Author)

This book offers a radical alternative to the positive orientation of popular psychology. This positive orientation has been criticized numerous times. However, there has yet to be a coherent alternative proposed. We all know today that life hurts and that there is no ultimate remedy to this pain. The positive approach feels to us as dishonest and irrelevant. We require a new, more negative, perspective and practice, one that is honest and does not pretend to offer an escape from the agonies of the world. This book offers in three main chapters a 'depressive realist' perspective that explores the structural role of negativity and tragedy in relation to the individual psyche, society, and nature. It explores the possibility of 'negative psychoanalysis' which takes into account the tragedy of human existence instead of adopting escapist positions.

Back Jacket

This book offers a radical alternative to the positive orientation of popular psychology. This positive orientation has been criticized numerous times. However, there has yet to be a coherent alternative proposed. We all know today that life hurts and that there is no ultimate remedy to this pain. The positive approach feels to us as dishonest and irrelevant. We require a new, more negative, perspective and practice, one that is honest and does not pretend to offer an escape from the agonies of the world. This book offers in three main chapters a 'depressive realist' perspective that explores the structural role of negativity and tragedy in relation to the individual psyche, society, and nature. It explores the possibility of 'negative psychoanalysis' which takes into account the tragedy of human existence instead of adopting escapist positions.
Julie Reshe is a Ukrainian-born philosopher, a practicing negative psychoanalyst, and a public intellectual. She iscurrently a visiting professor at University College Cork and University College Dublin. She is also a Director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis at the Global Centre for Advanced Studies.

Author Biography

Julie Reshe is a Ukrainian-born philosopher, a practicing negative psychoanalyst, and a public intellectual. She is currently a visiting professor at University College Cork and University College Dublin. She is also a Director of the Institute of Psychoanalysis at the Global Centre for Advanced Studies.