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Why do psychoanalysts attribute complex experiences to babies?
Most psychoanalysts attribute a great deal of importance to people’s early experiences, but the stories they tell seem far removed from what we would normally say about the experiences of babies and very young children. The school of psychoanalysis that does this in the most striking (and sometimes most offensive) way is Kleinianism, so it Continue reading
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Does it make sense to attribute complex thoughts and feelings to babies?
Psychoanalysts often attribute complex thoughts and feelings to babies, but since babies cannot speak and have a limited behavioural repertoire (compared to children and adults), this seems ridiculous. This objection resonates strongly with Wittgensteinians, who emphasise that inner processes stand in need of outward criteria. They may also note that Wittgenstein himself called into question Continue reading
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Challenging Traditional Views of the Mind
In his search for certainty, Descartes took refuge in the apparent unchallengeability of the individual’s assertions about their own thoughts and feelings. If I say I am thinking of my brother Mike, no one is in a position to tell me that I am actually thinking of my brother Mark. If I say I am Continue reading
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Oedipus and the Dangers of Splitting
Guilt is a painful emotion, but surely it has a positive value. Isn’t feeling sorry for the wrong that one has done the first step towards becoming a better person? It is certainly more attractive than refusing to admit that one has acted badly. But guilt is a difficult emotion to handle. It can create Continue reading
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Are Children Really Polymorphously Perverse?
In his Three Essays on Sexuality, Freud claims that children are polymorphously perverse. What does this deliberately provocative statement mean? Freud argues that the sexual instinct (or more accurately, drive (Trieb)) is active in human beings from the very start of life. He acknowledges that infants and children are not physically capable of experiencing the Continue reading
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What is the Unconscious? Winnicott gets it wrong and gets it right!
What questions are generally a terrible starting point in philosophy (“what is Time?” “What is consciousness”) because they suggest that what we need to do is identify the kind of thing that is in question, whereas the real issue is to get a clearer understanding of the concepts involved. One way of doing this in Continue reading
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The World is My World – Wittgenstein vs Winnicott
“The world as it presents itself is of no meaning to the newly developing human being unless it is created as well as discovered.” Donald Winnicott How should we think about our relationship with the external world and with other people? Since Descartes, philosophers have started with the experiencing subject and then run into difficulties. Continue reading
Wittgenstein and Freud 