Critical Appreciation of Wollheim, R., and

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Critical Appreciation of Wollheim, R., and Kermode, F. (editor). (1971) Freud

Richard Wollheim author of ‘Freud’ was one of the most distinguished and productive philosophers of his generation. He made a significant contribution to the post war flourishing of British philosophy and as his career continued his work grew steadily more individual, rich and expressive (The Times 2003). For Wollheim psychoanalysis was crucial to his personal outlook and played a fundamental role in defining his outlook on art. This was reflected in his standing as an honorary member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytical Institute and honorary affiliate of the British Psychoanalytical Society. In addition to this in 1991 Wollheim was awarded for his distinguished services to psychoanalysis by the International Society for Psychoanalysis. It is these personal and political affiliations which shaped the highly uncritical nature of the text.

‘Freud’ published in 1971 was written during an era when psychoanalysis became an influential method for understanding modern literature and culture. Psychoanalytical theory had been particularly effective in the area of literary and film criticism, its reading techniques widely disseminated, even when they were not always labelled psychoanalytic. Richard Wollheim points out that psychologist Sigmund Freud’s writings on art usually focussed on the psychology of critics, rather than on analyses of particular paintings or stories (Thurschwell 2000). However, Wollheim adopting an uncritical stance failed to acknowledge the strong reactions psychoanalysis had provoked particularly within the feminist movement during the nineteen seventies. The criticism aimed essentially towards Freud’s analytic practice and his theories of sexuality.

Wollheim states in the outset that the text will take the form of an exposition rather than an interpretation or evaluation of Freud’s work. It does seem plausible to suggest that the text in fact can be described as a biography (Wollheim 1971) as it provides a detailed version of the ‘life of a mind at work, and the story of a long and intricate process of discovery’ (Wollheim 1971). It is at this point Wollheim sets himself two aims in the writing of the study. Firstly, to bring out what Freud actually said and secondly, to show the relevance of the chronological order in which he said it (Wollheim 1971). From these two aims it is possible to infer that Wollheim is attempting to inform and address an academic audience. This text would prove useful to academics largely in the field of psychology due to Wollheim’s thorough account of Freud’s work and findings. However, it may have implications for a variety of other fields including anthropology, semiotics and artistic creativity.

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Wollheim successfully and systematically maps the work of Freud providing a chapter-by-chapter account of Freud’s most influential and crucial theories. The first chapter entitled ‘The First Phase’ explores the beginnings of Freud’s theories and it is here that the reader can see the surfacing of the ideas of defence mechanisms, the unconscious and infantile sexuality. Each of the chapters, are dedicated chronologically to a specific theory. For example ‘the theory of mind’ in chapter two, ‘dreams, errors, symptoms and jokes’ in chapter three and ‘the unconscious and the ego’ in chapter six. The penultimate chapter, ‘the last phase’ includes Freud’s ...

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