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M. Guy Thompson, The Death of Desire. A Study in Psychopathology. New York and London: New York University Press, 1985. xviii + 215 pp., $40.00 (cloth); $15.00 (paper)

M. Guy Thompson, The Death of Desire. A Study in Psychopathology. New York and London: New York... BOOK REVIEWS M. Guy Thompson, The Death of Desire. A Study in Psycho- pathology. New York and London: New York University Press, 1985. xviii + 215 pp., $40.00 (cloth); $15.00 (paper). Thompson presents an attempt at synthesizing phenomenological studies made by Scheler, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty with the psychoanalytic tradition. Thompson also tries to synthesize the two approaches of Laing and Lacan. Crucial for Thompson's integrating effort is his understanding of the concept of desire. Thompson follows Lacan in using Hegel's inter- pretation of the concept of desire. This in turn allows for incorporating an essential insight present in Freud's case studies that tends to be absent in his metapsychological studies: Human beings need and look for recogni- tion by others and are therefore emotionally dependent upon others. By conceptualizing human beings in physical terminology through his con- cept of libido, Freud prevents the conceptualization of the emotional dependence of human beings. Conceptualizing human beings by means of the concept of desire brings that dependence into focus. Thompson does not follow Lacan slavishly, though. He was a student of R. D. Laing and thus is privy to an alternative tradition (which includes the whole school of object relations: Klein, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Phenomenological Psychology Brill

M. Guy Thompson, The Death of Desire. A Study in Psychopathology. New York and London: New York University Press, 1985. xviii + 215 pp., $40.00 (cloth); $15.00 (paper)

Journal of Phenomenological Psychology , Volume 23 (1): 103 – Jan 1, 1992

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1992 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0047-2662
eISSN
1569-1624
DOI
10.1163/156916292X00063
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS M. Guy Thompson, The Death of Desire. A Study in Psycho- pathology. New York and London: New York University Press, 1985. xviii + 215 pp., $40.00 (cloth); $15.00 (paper). Thompson presents an attempt at synthesizing phenomenological studies made by Scheler, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty with the psychoanalytic tradition. Thompson also tries to synthesize the two approaches of Laing and Lacan. Crucial for Thompson's integrating effort is his understanding of the concept of desire. Thompson follows Lacan in using Hegel's inter- pretation of the concept of desire. This in turn allows for incorporating an essential insight present in Freud's case studies that tends to be absent in his metapsychological studies: Human beings need and look for recogni- tion by others and are therefore emotionally dependent upon others. By conceptualizing human beings in physical terminology through his con- cept of libido, Freud prevents the conceptualization of the emotional dependence of human beings. Conceptualizing human beings by means of the concept of desire brings that dependence into focus. Thompson does not follow Lacan slavishly, though. He was a student of R. D. Laing and thus is privy to an alternative tradition (which includes the whole school of object relations: Klein,

Journal

Journal of Phenomenological PsychologyBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1992

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