The Philosopher's Desire: Psychoanalysis, Interpretation, and Truth

by William Egginton

Overview

This book is about interpretation as it pertains to literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. It argues against certain trends of thought that claim we should do without interpretation by demonstrating that interpretation, as described by psychoanalysis, is already a fundamental aspect of all human experience. Egginton examines the idea of interpretation developed by Freud; how that notion was in turn changed by Lacan; the debate around psychoanalytic interpretation staged by philosophers like Deleuze and Derrida; and finally how a psychoanalytic notion of interpretation is necessary for even the most basic experience of consciousness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804756006
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2007
Edition description:	1
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

William Egginton is Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Perversity and Ethics (Stanford, 2006) and How the World Became a Stage: Presence, Theatricality, and the Question of Modernity(2003).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Prologue: Interpretive Strings     1
The Interpretation String     7
The Bipolar Logos     7
The Awakening     14
The Fault-Line     25
The Psychosis String     38
The Incommunicable World     39
The Exclusion of the Other     50
Reality and Uncertainty     57
Psychosis and Interpretation     64
To Space or Not to Space     71
The Purloined String     83
Death and the Signifier     84
Truth to the Letter     92
The Racketeer of Truth     99
The Temporality String     106
Of Time and Spacing     107
Vulgar Time     118
Original Time     123
Memorious Time     131
Epilogue: The Sense of Certainties to Come     139
Notes     147
Index     165

Editorial Reviews

"Egginton provides a thorough but theoretical discussion of the notion of interpretation as it relates to literary and philosophical texts. Relying on the work of major literary, psychoanalytic, and cultural critics, Egginton problematizes the idea that authors can be distinct from their interpretations... [A] valuable contribution to the study of literature, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies."

CHOICE

"Egginton provides a thorough but theoretical discussion of the notion of interpretation as it relates to literary and philosophical texts. Relying on the work of major literary, psychoanalytic, and cultural critics, Egginton problematizes the idea that authors can be distinct from their interpretations... [A] valuable contribution to the study of literature, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies."—CHOICE


"This tightly wound and carefully crafted treatise reads like wonderful detective fiction. It brings together dominant twentieth-century interpretive practices usually understood to be in opposition to one another in order to focus on a singular object of interpretation they have in common: that of the philosopher's desire. In tying together psychoanalysis, phenomenological hermeneutics, deconstruction, and literary practice, this book makes a significant contribution to the current fields of psychoanalysis and criticism in general and establishes its author as a leading theorist of psychoanalytic commentary."—Gregg Lambert, Syracuse University

From the Publisher

"This tightly wound and carefully crafted treatise reads like wonderful detective fiction. It brings together dominant twentieth-century interpretive practices usually understood to be in opposition to one another in order to focus on a singular object of interpretation they have in common: that of the philosopher's desire. In tying together psychoanalysis, phenomenological hermeneutics, deconstruction, and literary practice, this book makes a significant contribution to the current fields of psychoanalysis and criticism in general and establishes its author as a leading theorist of psychoanalytic commentary."

Syracuse University - Gregg Lambert