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Book Cover for: The Psychoanalytic Movement: The Cunning of Unreason, Ernest Gellner

The Psychoanalytic Movement: The Cunning of Unreason

Ernest Gellner

The Psychoanalytic Movement explains how the language of psychoanalysis became the dominant way in which the middle classes of the industrialized West speak about their emotions.

  • Explains how the language of psychoanalysis became the dominant way for the industrialized West to speak about emotion.
  • Argues that although psychoanalysis offers an incisive picture of human nature, it provides untestable operational definitions and makes unsubstantiated claims concerning its therapeutic efficacy.
  • Includes new foreword by Jose Brunner that expands on the central argument of the book and argues that Gellner and Freud might be seen as kindred spirits.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
  • Publish Date: Jan 27th, 2003
  • Pages: 254
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - 0003
  • Dimensions: 8.36in - 6.44in - 0.76in - 0.73lb
  • EAN: 9780631234135
  • Categories: Psychotherapy - PsychoanalysisClinical Psychology

About the Author

Ernest Gellner was born in Paris in 1925, and was educated in Prague and England. He was professor of philosophy and sociology at the London School of Economics from 1949 to 1984. In 1984 he became the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Nations and Nationalism (Blackwell Publishers, 1983), Anthropology and Politics (Blackwell Publishers, 1996), and Encounters with Nationalism (Blackwell Publishers, 1995). Dr Gellner died in 1995.

More books by Ernest Gellner

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Book Cover for: Words and Things: An Examination Of, and an Attack On, Linguistic Philosophy, a Special Issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Culture, Identity, and Politics, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Words And Things: A Critical Account Of Linguistic Philosophy And A Study In Ideology, Ernest Gellner
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Book Cover for: Relativism and the Social Sciences, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Spectacles and Predicaments: Essays in Social Theory, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: The Devil in Modern Philosophy, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Cause and Meaning in the Social Sciences, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Contemporary Thought and Politics, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Encounters with Nationalism, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: Anthropology and Politics: Revolutions in the Sacred Grove, Ernest Gellner
Book Cover for: The Psychoanalytic Movement: The Cunning of Unreason, Ernest Gellner

Praise for this book

'The Psychoanalytic Movement was recognized as a classic upon its publication. José Brunner's new introduction places the argument within the context of "the Freud wars", making it clear that the book was as concerned to explain the fabulous success of psychoanalysis as to debunk its pretensions. This may be Gellner's greatest book, containing as it does a general view of the history of philosophy and the character of modernity.' John A. Hall, McGill University


Previous praise for The Psychoanalytic Movement


'A marvel... This is a brilliantly written book, every page sparkling with intelligence, style and substance. Gellner provides a welcome and literate overview of the latest philosophic controversy about the logical status of psychoanalytic propositions. Its every page instructs and enlivens and represents a tribute to humane intelligence.' New Statesman


'In a stylish, witty and deceptively readable book, Gellner exposes the secular religious nature of the psychoanalytic enterprise. He admits that a compelling, charismatic belief must possess more than merely the promise of succour in a plague and links with the background convictions of the age.' Nature

'This is the first determined effort to account for a very odd historical and sociological phenomenon in realistic and meaningful terms...and it makes very good sense. Gellner is incisive, agreeable to read and often witty.' Institute of Psychiatry Journal