Integration and Difference: Constructing a Mythical Dialectic

361 Pages·2022·2.894 MB·English

by  Grant Maxwell

Integration and Difference
“An important book for continental philosophy.”
Professor David F. Hoinski
“One of today’s most original thinkers.”
Professor Vernon W. Cisney
“A tremendously exciting and generative book.”
Professor Roderick Main
“A deep and poetic rumination.”
Professor Barbara Jenkins
“Brilliant.”
Peter Salmon
“A hugely stimulating read.”
Professor Mark Saban
This groundbreaking work synthesizes concepts from thirteen crucial philosophers
and psychologists, relating how the ancient problem of opposites has been opening
to an integration which not only conserves differentiation but enacts it, especially
through the integration of myth into the dialectic.
Weaving a fascinating narrative that ‘thinks with’ the complex encounters of
theorists from Baruch Spinoza, G. W. F. Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and William
James to Alfred North Whitehead, C. G. Jung, Gilles Deleuze, and Isabelle Stengers,
this book uniquely performs the convergence of continental philosophy, pragmatism,
depth psychology, and constructivist ‘postmodern’ theory as a complement to the
trajectory culminating in Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction.
This is an important book for professionals and academics working across the
humanities and social sciences, particularly for continental theorists and depth
psychologists interested in the construction of a novel epoch after the modern.
Grant Maxwell is an editor of the Archai journal and he holds a PhD from the
City University of New York’s Graduate Center. He is the author of multiple books
including The Dynamics of Transformation: Tracing an Emerging World View,
and he has written for Deleuze and Guattari Studies, the American Philosophical
Association blog, American Songwriter magazine, and the Journal of Religion
and Popular Culture.
Philosophy & Psychoanalysis Book Series
Series Editor: JON MILLS
Philosophy & Psychoanalysis is dedicated to current developments and
cutting-edge research in the philosophical sciences, phenomenology,
hermeneutics, existentialism, logic, semiotics, cultural studies, social criticism,
and the humanities that engage and enrich psychoanalytic thought through
philosophical rigor. With the philosophical turn in psychoanalysis comes a
new era of theoretical research that revisits past paradigms while invigorating
new approaches to theoretical, historical, contemporary, and applied
psychoanalysis. No subject or discipline is immune from psychoanalytic
reflection within a philosophical context including psychology, sociology,
anthropology, politics, the arts, religion, science, culture, physics, and the
nature of morality. Philosophical approaches to psychoanalysis may stimulate
new areas of knowledge that have conceptual and applied value beyond the
consulting room reflective of greater society at large. In the spirit of pluralism,
Philosophy & Psychoanalysis is open to any theoretical school in philosophy
and psychoanalysis that offers novel, scholarly, and important insights in the
way we come to understand our world.
Titles in this series:
Psychoanalysis and the Mind-Body Problem
Jon Mills
Jung’s Alchemical Philosophy
Psyche and the Mercurial Play of Image and Idea
Stanton Marlan
Integration and Difference
Constructing a Mythical Dialectic
Grant Maxwell
Integration and Difference
Constructing a Mythical Dialectic
Grant Maxwell
Cover image: Orange by Christian Kurt Ebert
First published 2022
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Grant Maxwell
The right of Grant Maxwell to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-04987-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-04985-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-19549-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003195498
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
TO GINNY, ALWAYS

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Turning Deconstruction on Its Head 1
1 The Final Writing of an Epoch: Jacques Derrida’s
Of Grammatology 11
2 Freedom of Mind: Baruch Spinoza’s
Ethics 32
3 Well-Founded Fictions: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s
Monadology 45
4 The Life of the Whole: G.W.F. Hegel’s
On Scientific Cognition 52
5 God-Positing Potencies: F.W.J. Schelling’s
Berlin Lectures 64
6 Something Higher Than Any Reconciliation:
Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy 83
7 An Integrated Affair: William James’
Pragmatism 107
8 A True Work of Integration: Henri Bergson’s
Creative Evolution 126
9 The Process of Integration: Alfred North Whitehead’s
Process and Reality 144
viii Contents
10 A Widening of Consciousness Through Integration:
C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis 165
11 Integrating Myth Into the Dialectic: Gilles Deleuze’s
Difference and Repetition 197
12 Disintegrated Integration: James Hillman’s
Re-Visioning Psychology 268
13 The Question of Integration: Concluding with
Isabelle Stengers 310
Works Cited 332
Index 340
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my profound gratitude to the colleagues who have
contributed in some way to this book’s composition, and to my friends and
family whose love and support has helped to make the writing process a
highly enjoyable experience despite the collective difficulties we have all
been immersed in these last few years. Thank you to Taylor Adkins, Charles
Alunni, Rachael Anderson-Watts, Frida Beckman, Eli Bortz, Richard
Bright, Kent Bye, John Campbell, Cooper Cherry, Vern Cisney, Don Curren,
Mark Dean, Tod Desmond, Jackie DiSalvo, Kevin Drost, Simon Duffy,
Russell Duvernoy, Susannah Frearson, Dwight Gaudet, Béa Gonzalez, Will
Grissom, David Henderson, David Hoinski, Ken Jedding, Barbara Jenkins,
Sean Kelly, Jeremy Liebman, Roderick Main, Tim McKague, Sam Mickey,
Jon Mills, Hellmut Monz, Kelly Nezat, Laurent Nottale, Alexis O’Brien,
Nathan Oseroff-Spicer, John Protevi, Jason Quetel, Joshua Ramey, Katie
Randall, Joan Richardson, Mark Saban, Peter Salmon, Matthew Segall,
Ike Sharpless, Matthew Stoulil, Becca Tarnas, Rick Tarnas, Dan Tyler,
Stephanie von Behr, and Scott Zimmerle. And, as always, thank you to my
family: Ginny Maxwell, Mason Maxwell, Dylan Maxwell, Dan Orsborn,
Carol Orsborn, Jody Orsborn, Don Edwards, Susan Edwards, and Kitty
Edwards. Thank you, finally, to Deleuze and Guattari Studies and Interalia
Magazine for permission to republish material in modified form, and to
Christian Kurt Ebert for permission to use his painting Orange on the cover.