Description
The book "The Interpretation of the Flesh" by Teresa Brennan is a book that unites the Lacanian and Kleinian object-relations theories used in feminist debates on psychoanalysis today. It does so by dissecting Freud's writings, proposing a solution to his riddle of feminity. The solution depends on unravelling Freud's neglected if confused theories of psychical energy, while discarding the assumption that the subject is energetically and emotionally self-contained. In this, Teresa Brennan offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between the psychical, the social and the physical. More than this, The Interpretation of the Flesh shows how femininity is a literal physical weight on the shoulders of those who carry it, and how that weight might be lifted. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics in women's studies, psychoanalysis and the philosophy of science.
The Interpretation of the Flesh unites the Lacanian and Kleinian object-relations theories used in feminist debates on psychoanalysis today. It does so as it dissects Freud's writings, proposing a solution to his riddle of feminity. The solution depends on unravelling Freud's neglected if confused theories of psychical energy, while discarding the assumption that the subject is energetically and emotionally self-contained. In this, Teresa Brennan offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between the psychical, the social and the physical. More than this: The Interpretation of the Flesh shows how femininity is a literal physical weight on the shoulders of those who carry it, and how that weight might be lifted. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics in women's studies, psychoanalysis and the philosophy of science. Review: Teresa Brennan has written a challenging book, erudite and spirited. -Elisabeth Young-Bruehl The scholarship of this book is outstanding; but more importantly, it is a necessary guide to survival in any world where masculinity reigns. -Linda Nicholson This book has the clarity and wit that only great learning can achieve. Brennan confronts the toughest questions raised by Freud's theory of femininity, takes a stand in the history of the feminist debate, sweeps from the familiar to the erudite, and delivers a text that is essential reading. -Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak This is a landmark in the encounter between psychoanalysis and feminism. Brennan not only brings an exacting critical intelligence to bear on all crucial Freud texts, but provides a fearless, original answer to Freud's riddle of femininity.' Her book will change the terms in which a major theoretical debate is conducted. -Malcolm Bowie, University of London
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