You are forewarned, sexuality and profanity are explicitly portrayed in KISSINg FREUd. KISSINg FREUd explores emotional power with buried secrets. Spellbinding. Scandalous. Ripe. Ruthless. Sensational. A cast of free form thinkers, opportunists and sinners get down to business. GET IT! READ IT! SAVOR IT!

Tickle a child, and she peals with laughter. Go on too long, and her laughter is sure to turn to tears. Where is that ticklish line between pleasure and pain? Why do we risk its being crossed? Does psychoanalysis possess the language to talk about such an extraordinary ordinary thing? In a style that is writerly and audacious, Adam Phillips takes up this subject and others largely overlooked by psychoanalysis - kissing, worrying, risk, solitude, and composure. He writes about phobias as a kind of theory, a form of protection against curiosity; about analysis as a patient's way of reconstituting solitude; about "good-enough" mothering as the antithesis of "bad-enough" imperialism; about psychoanalysis as an attempt to cure idolatry through idolatry; and even about farting as it relates to worrying. Psychoanalysis began as a virtuoso improvisation within the science of medicine, but virtuosity has given way to the dream of science that only the examined life is worth living. Phillips shows that the drive to omniscience has been unfortunate both for psychoanalysis and for life. On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored is a set of meditations on underinvestigated themes in psyochoanalysis that shows how much one's psychic health depends on establishing a realm of life that successfully resists examination.

Freud's Paranoid Quest is an exceptionally broad-ranging and well-written book....Whether or not one agrees with certain of his arguments and assessments, one must acknowledge the remarkable intelligence that is displayed on nearly every page. --Louis Sassauthor of Madness and Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion John Farrell's Freud's Paranoid Quest is the most trenchant, exhilarating and illuminating book I have encountered in many years. [The book] should be pondered not just by all students of Freud's thought but by everyone who senses that 'advanced modernity' has by now outstayed its welcome. --Frederick CrewsUniversity of California, Berkeley In Freud's Paranoid Quest, John Farrell analyzes the personality and thought of Sigmund Freud in order to give insight into modernity's paranoid character and into the true nature of Freudian psychoanalysis. John Farrell's Freud is not the path-breaking psychologist he claimed to be, but the fashioner and prisoner of a total system of suspicion. The most gifted of paranoids, Freud deployed this system as a self-heroizing myth and a compelling historical ideology.

From a noted science journalist comes a wonderfully witty and fascinating exploration of how and why we kiss. When did humans begin to kiss? Why is kissing integral to some cultures and alien to others? Do good kissers make the best lovers? And is that expensive lip-plumping gloss worth it? Sheril Kirshenbaum, a biologist and science journalist, tackles these questions and more in The Science of a Kiss. It's everything you always wanted to know about kissing but either haven't asked, couldn't find out, or didn't realize you should understand. The book is informed by the latest studies and theories, but Kirshenbaum's engaging voice gives the information a light touch. Topics range from the kind of kissing men like to do (as distinct from women) to what animals can teach us about the kiss to whether or not the true art of kissing was lost sometime in the Dark Ages. Drawing upon classical history, evolutionary biology, psychology, popular culture, and more, Kirshenbaum's winning book will appeal to romantics and armchair scientists alike.

How and when did the kiss become a vital sign of romance and love? In this wide-ranging book, pop culture expert Marcel Danesi takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the history of the kiss, from poetry and painting to movies and popular songs, and argues that its romantic incarnation signaled the birth of popular culture.

Freud's ideas on infantile sexuality can only be understood as constructions that are necessary to understand the psychopathological formations of adults. These constructions of infantile sexuality, therefore, must not be considered to be speculations about infant behaviour as such, because in infancy sexuality is obviously a rather marginal problem, and because, consequently, only their nachträglich effects reveal the significance of our infantile sexual experiences. In the psychoanalytic cure, these infantile experiences are never remembered as such. The idea that what is repressed in adults can be observed in infants does not take into account this notion of Nachträglichkeit, while Freud's theory cannot be understood without it.The relation between the pathological and the infantile bridges the gap between pathology and normality because pathology is caused by universally human problems or "weak points": infantile sexuality and, following our interpretation of the death instinct, the infant's radical Hilflosigkeit. In psychoanalysis, therefore, the analysis of the different pathologies has inevitably an anthropological claim. To understand what it means to be human, says Freud, we must analyse the extreme, paradigmatic answers to this problem that we all are ourselves. The analysis of different pathologies will highlight the different aspects of our infantile experience and its nachträglich effects. In this perspective, the difference between normality and pathology can only be a quantitative, not a qualitative difference. In this way, Freud transformed the study of psychopathology into a clinical anthropology, i.e. a clarification of the specifically human in human nature by analysing its pathological manifestations.

Sigmund Freud’s 1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a founding text of psychoanalysis and yet it remains to a large extent an "unknown" text. In this book Freud’s 1905 theory of sexuality is reconstructed in its historical context, its systematic outline, and its actual relevance. This reconstruction reveals a non-oedipal theory of sexuality defined in terms of autoerotic, non-objectal, physical-pleasurable activities originating from the "drive" and the excitability of erogenous zones. This book, consequently, not only calls for a reconsideration of the development of Freudian thinking and of the status of the Oedipus complex in psychoanalysis but also has a strong potential for supporting contemporary non-heteronormative theories of sexuality. It is as such that the 1905 edition of Three Essays becomes a highly relevant document in contemporary philosophical discussions of sexuality. This book also explores the inconsistencies and problems in the original theory of sexuality, notably the unresolved question of the transition from autoerotic infantile sexuality to objectal adult sexuality, as well as the theoretical and methodological shifts present in later editions of Three Essays. It will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and those with an academic interest in the history of psychoanalysis and sexuality.

In Freud’s Student Years, Florian Houssier presents the life experiences and inner conflicts of Sigmund Freud from his eighteenth birthday to his clinical practice, showing how these experiences informed his later theories. Following on from Freud’s Adolescence: Oedipus Complex and Parricidal Tendencies (2023) and starting at the point of the young Freud’s graduation, Houssier charts the inception of Freud’s ideas on fantasy, the Madonna-Whore complex, the Oedipal Complex, mother-daughter relationships and narcissism. Working chronologically, he looks at the way Freud’s reflection and lamentation on his inhibited adolescence led to a fantasy of possession that informed his later work. Including excerpts from Freud’s private letters to his fiancée, Martha Bernays, and exploring his relationship with Sándor Ferenczi, this volume offers a unique and intimate look into the life and inner workings of the most eminent figure of modern psychoanalysis. Accessible in style and thorough in its assessments of Freud’s personal experiences, this book is an essential read for psychoanalysts and psychologists, as well as students and scholars interested in the history of psychoanalysis and the enduring legacy of Freudian thought.

Since its discovery, psychoanalysis has been one of the defining influences of the 20th century, with a profound impact on the humanities and social sciences. However, in the public eye it is often equated with the insights of its founder, the Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud. The further evolution of psychoanalysis, particularly through the works of Joseph Sandler and Melanie Klein, remains far less known to the public. This introductory text, tailored for the curious layperson, aims to bridge this knowledge gap. It combines elements of psychoanalytic theory with numerous practical treatment and therapy examples.

The first study to offer an integral theory of love poetry, examining why it is that poetry, even more than other arts, is so consistently associated with romantic love.