Underworlds: Philosophies of the Unconscious from Psychoanalysis to Metaphysics

202 Pages·2014·1.03 MB·English

by  Jon Mills

UNDERWORLDS

With the fi rst book of its kind to provide a detailed analysis of the history of the
unconscious from the underworlds of Greek and Egyptian mythology to psycho-
analysis and metaphysics, Jon Mills presents here a unique study of differing phil-
osophies of the unconscious.
Mills examines how three major philosophical systems on the nature of the
unconscious emerge after modern philosophy, fi nding their most celebrated elabor-
tions in Freud, Lacan and Jung. These three psychoanalytic traditions, quite separate
from one another in terms of their emphasis and philosophical presuppositions, are
scrutinized alongside contemporaneous movements in existential phenomenology,
semiotics, epistemology, transcendental psychology and Western metaphysics in the
texts of Hegel, Heidegger, Sartre and Whitehead. Underworlds provides a scholarly
exegesis and critique of the main philosophies of the unconscious to have transpired
in the history of ideas.
Exploring the unconscious from its philosophical beginnings in antiquity to its
systematic articulation brought about by the rise of psychoanalysis, Underworlds
is ideal for practising psychoanalysts, academics of Freud, Jung and Lacan, and
scholars of psychology, philosophy and the humanities.
Jon Mills , Psy.D., Ph.D., ABPP, is a philosopher, psychoanalyst and psycholo-
gist in private practice and Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis at the
Adler Graduate Professional School, Toronto. He is the author of many works in
psychoanalysis, philosophy and psychology, including Conundrums: A Critique
of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2012), for which he won the Goethe
Award for best book in 2013. Mills was also the recipient of a 2013 Gradiva Award
from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis in New
York City for his television series T he Talking Cure .
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UNDERWORLDS
Philosophies of the unconscious from
psychoanalysis to metaphysics
Jon Mills
First published 2014
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Jon Mills
The right of Jon Mills to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by him 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 utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage
or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation 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
Mills, Jon, 1964–
Underworlds : philosophies of the unconscious from psychoanalysis to metaphysics /
Jon Mills.
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Subconsciousness—History. I. Title.
BF315.M553 2014
154.2—dc23 2013038894
ISBN: 978-0-415-66052-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-79594-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
About the author vii
About the texts ix
Introduction: underworlds and the ancient soul 1
1 Hegel on unconscious spirit 18
2 Freud’s unconscious ontology 40
3 Existentialism and the unconscious subject 70
4 Lacan’s epistemology 94
5 Jung’s metaphysics 119
6 Whitehead’s unconscious cosmology 145
Bibliography 173
Index 185
v
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jon Mills , Psy.D., Ph.D., ABPP, is a philosopher, psychoanalyst, and psycholo-
gist in private practice and runs a mental health corporation in Ontario, Canada.
He is a Diplomate in Psychoanalysis and Clinical Psychology with the American
Board of Professional Psychology, Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical
Psychology, Fellow of the Academy of Psychoanalysis, and is Past-President and
Fellow of the Section on Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology of the
Canadian Psychological Association. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from
Vanderbilt University, his Psy.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois School
of Professional Psychology, Chicago, and was a Fulbright scholar at the Univer-
sity of Toronto and York University. He is Professor of Psychology and Psycho-
analysis at the Adler Graduate Professional School in Toronto, is editor of two
book series, and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology. He is the
author of many works in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and psychology including
twelve books, among which are Conundrums: A Critique of Contemporary Psy-
choanalysis ; Origins: On the Genesis of Psychic Reality (which was translated
into French); T reating Attachment Pathology ; The Unconscious Abyss: Hegel’s
Anticipation of Psychoanalysis ; and an existential novel, When God Wept . He won
the Goethe Award in 2013 for his book C onundrums, has won a Gradiva Award
three times from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
in New York City for his scholarship, and in 2008 was given a Signifi cant Con-
tribution to Canadian Psychology Award by the Section on Psychoanalytic and
Psychodynamic Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association.
vii
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ABOUT THE TEXTS
From the E ncyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences , M.J. Petry, ed., outlines
Hegel’s P hilosophy of Spirit in Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit , vol. 1:
Introductions ; vol. 2: A nthropology ; and vol. 3: Phenomenology and Psychology
(Dordrecht, The Netherlands: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1978). Petry’s edi-
tion provides a photographic reproduction of Hegel’s original text published in the
1830 revision, along with the Zusätze, or A dditions, supplied by Boumann when
the material was republished in 1845. Petry’s edition also indicates variations
between the 1827 and 1830 editions of the E ncyclopaedia . His edition has several
decisive advantages over A.V. Miller’s edition of the P hilosophie des Geistes ,
which was translated as the P hilosophy of Mind . In addition to having the origi-
nal German text and his notations of the variations between the 1827 and 1830
editions, Petry also provides notes from the Griesheim and K ehler manuscripts.
Further, he accurately translates the word bewuβtlos as ‘unconscious’, whereas
Miller translates it as ‘subconscious’. For these reasons, Petry’s edition is a supe-
rior text to the Miller translation. For comparison, I have also examined Hegel’s
1827–28 lectures on the Philosophy of Spirit: V orlesungen über die Philosophie
des Geistes (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1994). I have mainly relied on Petry’s trans-
lation but provide my own in places that warrant changes. Hereafter, references
to the Philosophy of Spirit ( Die Philosophie des Geistes) , which is the third part
of Hegel’s Enzyklopädia , will customarily be referred to as E G followed by the
section number. References to the Zusätze are identifi ed as such.
All references to Freud’s texts refer to the original German monographs com-
piled in his G esammelte Werke, Chronologisch Geordnet, 18 vols, edited by Anna
Freud, Edward Bibring, Willi Hoffer, Ernst Kris and Otto Isakower, in collabora-
tion with Marie Bonaparte (London: Imago Publishing, 1968 [1940–52]). Most
translations are mine. Because most English-speaking psychoanalysts neither own
nor readily have access to these original texts, I have cited The Standard Edition
of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 24 vols (1886–1940),
translator and general editor James Strachey, in collaboration with Anna Freud,
assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson (London: Hogarth Press, 1966–95
[1886–1940]). References to quotations are designated by SE followed by the
appropriate volume and page numbers.
ix