The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd: Existentialism and Phenomenology in Contemporary Psychoanalysis

243 Pages·2020·3.261 MB·English

by  Mark Leffert

The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd
The Psychoanalysis of the Absurd offers an interdisciplinary study of Existentialism
andPhenomenologyandtheirimportancetotheclinicalworkofContemporary
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. The concept of Absurdity, developed by
Camus,has neverbeenappliedtothe therapeutic situationor directlycontrasted
withitsantithesis;thesearchforpersonalmeaning.
ThebookbeginswithnarrativeaccountsofthehistoricaldevelopmentofPsy-
choanalysis, Existentialism and Phenomenology in 20th century Europe. The
focushere ison finde siècleVienna andParisbetweenthe Warsasthe principal
incubators of the two disciplines. Accompanied by composite case illustrations,
Leffert then explores his own development of the Psychoanalysis of the Absurd,
drawingontheworkofCamus,HeideggerandSartre.Absurdityisfirstdiscussed
in relation to the Bio-Psycho-Social Self and Dasein is posited as a bridge con-
cept,withpersonalmeaningastheantithesistoAbsurdity,beforebeingdiscussed
in relation to the world and how it impinges on self. A final chapter attempts to
tie together particular issues raised bythe book: Subjective Well-Being, Meaning,
thrownness, Absurdity, Death and Death Anxiety and how we have become
technologicallyenhancedhumanbeings.
Existential psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have, until now, largely gone
their own way: the goal of this book is to fold them back into Contemporary
Psychoanalysis. Establishing that the concept of Absurdity is of singular clinical
importance to both diagnosis and therapeutic action, this book will be of great
interest to clinicians, philosophers, and interdisciplinary scientists.
Mark Leffert has been on the faculty of five psychoanalytic institutes and has
been a Training and Supervising Analyst at four of them. He has taught, and
supervised psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychiatrists for 50 years. He is
the author of many papers and six books. He has been engaged in an interdis-
ciplinary reformulation of clinical psychoanalysis drawing on phenomenology,
neuroscience, network studies, and (among others), heuristics and biases. He
is in private practice in Santa Barbara, California.
“Over the past decade Mark Leffert has been on a creative journey resulting in
this, his sixth volume, extending the contact, confrontation and integration of
psychoanalysiswithdevelopmentsinamultitudeofinterdisciplinarydomains.He
is confronting us with findings in fields ranging from neuroscience, to chaos and
complexity theories, to post-modern studies and in this book to Existentialism
and Phenomenology to enrich psychoanalysis in both theoretical and clinical
understanding of the human mind and condition. In his hands, psychoanalysis is
getting solidly ensconced in the intellectual, scientific and cultural climate of the
21st Century. He is willing to seek outside the usual boxes of psychoanalytic
discourse.Weshouldgotherewithhim.”
ErikGann,M.D.,PastPresidentoftheSanFransiscoCenter
forPsychoanalysisandChairofthePsychoanalyticScholarship
ForumoftheAmericanPsychoanalyticAssociation.
“Leffert has an open, questioning mind, a keen sense of history, an orignal fresh
stance to the clinical enterprise of psychoanalysis, and a clear and charming way
of making his existential point. This book is a must read for all mental health
clinicians.”
PeterLoewenbergisaProfessorEmeritusofModernEuropeanHistoryand
PoliticalPsychologyatUCLA,aTrainingandSupervisingAnalystand
formerDeanoftheNewCenterofPsychoanalysis,LosAngeles.
CurrentlyheteachesPsychoanalysisandCultureinChina.
The Psychoanalysis of the
Absurd
Existentialism and Phenomenology in
Contemporary Psychoanalysis
ff
Mark Le ert
Firstpublished2021
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
andbyRoutledge
52VanderbiltAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2021MarkLeffert
TherightofMarkLefferttobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen
assertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced
orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,
nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,
orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin
writingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook
ISBN:978-0-367-36736-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-367-36737-4(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-429-35106-8(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byIntegraSoftwareServicesPvt.Ltd.
For Nancy
It is a Slippery Slope from Epiphany to Identity Category
—Mark Leffert
Contents
Acknowledgements x
Introduction xi
1 Psychoanalyticknowing:AbriefhistoryofPsychoanalysisand
Psychotherapy 1
Introduction 1
ThebroadsweepofPsychoanalytichistory 3
TheeducationalandpracticetraditionsofPsychotherapists 11
ThePsychotherapists 12
ThePsychoanalysts 14
Theoreticalplurality 16
Whatdopsychoanalystsandpsychotherapistsactuallydowiththeirpatients? 22
Metapsychologyanddifférance 25
References 28
2 Existentialism:ThecafésofViennaandParisandbeyond 32
Introduction 32
Kierkegaard 36
Nietzsche 38
Schopenhauer 40
FindesiècleVienna 41
Husserl 47
Heidegger 48
Parisbetweenthewarsandbeyond 51
Sartre 54
Beingandno-thing-ness 54
ExistentialismisaHumanism 55
NoExit 56
Nausea 57
viii Contents
Camusandthe“ThreeAbsurds” 58
TheStranger 59
TheMythofSisyphus 60
Caligula 63
WhateverhappenedtoExistentialism? 64
References 65
3 Existentialist:PsychoanalysisandPsychotherapy 69
Introduction 69
Origins 71
Thesixties 75
TheExistentialistapproachtothetherapeuticsituation 77
ExistentialistPsychologytoday 84
Twocases 86
Daseinanalysis 87
TheNorthAmericansandtheBritish 89
YalomonDeath 91
Anxiety 96
Despair 99
Thebeginningofalongcase 100
References 104
4 ThePsychotherapyandPsychoanalysisoftheAbsurd 108
Introduction 108
AbsurdityandMeaningintheworkofCamusandbeyond 111
Everydayness(Alltäglichkeit)explained 113
TheSelf,Dasein,theEigenwelt,andAbsurdity 115
TheneuralhardwareoftheSelfanditsrelationshiptotheAbsurdandthe
Everyday 117
Affectiveneuroscienceandtheneuroevolutionarybasisofhumanemotion 119
HeuristicsandBiases 120
SubjectiveWell-Being 124
TheAbsurdityofdevelopmentacrossthelifecycle(fromuterustograve) 127
ThebiologyandthepsychologyofDevelopment 128
TheExistential 131
TheartofExistentialinterpretation 133
SomefinalthoughtsaboutAbsurdity 134
References 135
Contents ix
5 CultureandHistory:HowSelfengagesWorld 140
Introduction 140
Unknowabilityanditspost-structuraleffectsontheontologyoftheSelf 142
Dasein:thebridgebetweenSelfandWorld 144
Cultureandsociety 144
TheAmericanDream 146
Anxieties—ecologicalandpolitical 151
TheEcoanxieties 153
PoliticalAnxiety 158
Theinnerworld—theMicrobiome 161
Themechanics—theSocialNetworkandtheMirrorNeuronSystem 164
TheMirrorNeuronSystem(MNS) 165
TheSocialNetworksthatmakeuswhoweare 167
References 168
6 Meaning,SubjectiveWell-Being,Thrownness,andDeath:A
summingup 173
Introduction 173
SubjectiveWell-Being 175
Meaning,Absurdity,Thrownness,Happiness,andSubjectiveWell-Being 177
Meaning 179
DeathandDeathAnxiety 183
Charles 187
Dennis 188
EmpiricalstudiesofDeathAnxiety 190
TechnologicallyenhancedHumanBeings 192
Background 192
Cyborgs 193
AfinalnoteonPostphenomenology 197
References 197
Index 202