The Psychoanalytic Mind

When philosophy and psychoanalysts talk about meaning, as both must, what do they mean? Do they mean the same thing? And where does meaning figure in their respective accounts of the mind? Marcia Cavell shows how these questions, so often left unanswered or unconsidered, can open new perspectives on both disciplines. A synthesis of Freudian theory and a contemporary, highly influential philosophy of mind, her book discloses and refines the concept of meaning that psychoanalysis and philosophy share. Cavell elaborates a view within analytic philosophy, traceable from Wittgenstein to Davidson, that there is no thought, and thus no meaning, without language, and shows how this concurs with psychoanalytic theory and practice. Her articulation of this view, which stresses the importance of interpretation to a theory of meaning and mind, leads to a serious recasting of a number of psychoanalytic tenets and a strong philosophical defense of others - such as the idea that the mind is inherently social. Cavell's argument takes up several issues of continuing interest to both philosophers and psychoanalysts, including the explanation of action, especially irrational action, the concept of subjectivity, the minds of children, and the genealogy of morals. This book offers psychoanalysts an introduction to some of the most interesting philosophical thinking being done on n the subjects of meaning and mind, and mind and body, as it bears on their discipline. At the same time, it explores some of the central insights of psychoanalysis as these relate to philosophy.