Author: Donnel B. Stern File Type: epub In this powerful and wonderfully accessible meditation on psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and social constructivism, Donnel Stern explores the relationship between two fundamental kinds of experience explicit verbal reflection and unformulated experience, or experience we have not yet reflected on and put into words. Stern is especially concerned with the process by which we come to formulate the unformulated. It is not an instrumental task, he holds, but one that requires openness and curiosity the result of the process is not accuracy alone, but experience that is deeply felt and fully imagined. Sterns sense of explicit verbal experience as continuously constructed and emergent leads to a central dialectic at the heart of his work that between curiosity and imagination, on one hand, and dissociation and unthinking acceptance of the familiar on the other. The goal of psychoanalytic work, he holds, is the freedom to be curious, whereas defense signifies the denial of this freedom. We defend against our fear of what we would think, that is, if we allowed ourselves the freedom to think it.Stern also shows how the unconscious itself can be reconceptualized hermeneutically, and he goes on to explore the implications of this viewpoint on interpretation and countertransference. He is especially persuasive in showing how the interpersonal field, which is continuously in flux, limits the experience that it is possible for participants to reflect on. Thus it is that analyst and patient are together caught in the grip of the field, often unable to see the kind of relatedness in which they are mutually involved.A brilliant demonstration of the clinical consequentiality of hermeneutic thinking, Unformulated Experience bears out Sterns belief that psychoanalysis is as much about the revelation of the new in experience as it is about the discovery of the old

Author: Lisa Downing File Type: pdf French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault is essential reading for students in departments of literature, history, sociology and cultural studies. His work on the institutions of mental health and medicine, the history of systems of knowledge, literature and literary theory, criminality and the prison system, and sexuality, has had a profound and enduring impact across the humanities and social sciences. This introductory 2008 book, written for students, offers in-depth critical and contextual perspectives on all of Foucaults major published works. It provides ways in to understanding Foucaults key concepts of subjectivity, discourse, and power and explains the problems of translation encountered in reading Foucault in English. The book also explores the critical reception of Foucaults works and acquaints the reader with the afterlives of some of his theories, particularly his influence on feminist and queer studies. This book offers the ideal introduction to a famously complex, controversial and important thinker.Book DescriptionFrench philosopher and historian Michel Foucault is essential reading for students in departments of literature, history, sociology and cultural studies. This introductory 2008 book, written for students, offers in-depth critical and contextual perspectives on his work and is an ideal introduction to a famously complex, controversial and important thinker. About the AuthorLisa Downing is Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality and Director of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Sexuality and Gender in Europe at the University of Exeter.

Author: Xiaogan Liu File Type: pdf This is the first comprehensive companion to the study of Daoism as a philosophical tradition. It provides a general overview of Daoist philosophy in various thinkers and texts from 6th century BCE to 5th century CE and reflects the latest academic developments in the field. It discusses theoretical and philosophical issues based on rigorous textual and historical investigations and examinations, reflecting both the ancient scholarship and modern approaches and methodologies. The themes include debates on the origin of the Daoism, the authorship and dating of the Laozi, the authorship and classification of chapters in the Zhuangzi, the themes and philosophical arguments in the Laozi and Zhuangzi, their transformations and developments in Pre-Qin, Han, and Wei-Jin periods, by Huang-Lao school, Heguanzi, Wenzi, Huainanzi, Wang Bi, Guo Xiang, and Worthies in bamboo grove, among others. Each chapter is written by expert(s) and specialist(s) on the topic discussed.**

Author: Myrto Hatzimichali File Type: pdf Eclecticism is a concept widely used in the history of ancient philosophy to describe the intellectual stance of diverse thinkers such as Plutarch, Cicero and Seneca. In this book the historical and interpretative problems associated with eclecticism are for the first time approached from the point of view of the only self-described eclectic philosopher from antiquity, Potamo of Alexandria. The evidence is examined in detail with reference to the philosophical and wider intellectual background of the period. Potamos views are placed in the context of key debates at the forefront of late Hellenistic philosophical activity to which he contributed, such as the criterion of truth, the first principles in physics, the moral end and the interpretation of Aristotles esoteric works. The emergence of eclecticism is thus treated in connection with the major shift in philosophical interests and methods that marked the passage from Hellenistic to Imperial philosophy.ReviewThe book is handsomely produced, in keeping with Cambridge s characteristic high standards. ...the volume will be well worth the purchase price for all specialists in Hellenistic philosophy. --BMCR Book DescriptionExplores key issues at the forefront of philosophical activity in the late Hellenistic period through examining the work of Potamo of Alexandria, the only self-styled eclectic philosopher from Antiquity. Topics covered include Alexandrian intellectual life, epistemology, physics and ethics.