Psychoanalysis (with Benedetta Todaro)

The HBS hosts take a break from the bar and lie down on the couch.

Almost from the beginning of its theoretical elaboration and clinical practice, Psychoanalysis has had a profound impact on culture, particularly in the west. We all laugh at the idea that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!” And we speak freely of “Freudian slips.” And many are at least passingly familiar with the main concepts: Ego, Id, repression, sublimation, etc. Philosophy, in particular, has been in a fairly constant dialogue with Freud and psychoanalysis–some philosophers embracing it and using it to understand aspects of our moral, political, social, and cultural lives, others critiquing or even rejecting it. It seems that European philosophy and its heirs cannot get away from Freud and psychoanalysis. But what is so compelling about the theory? Why have philosophers turned to psychoanalysis but not to, for example, behaviorism? Is the influence of psychoanalysis on philosophy a good thing? And are there not really terrible things about psychoanalysis–that it simply helps bourgeois people adjust to their own alienation; that it turns social and political issues into psychological ones; and that it is not necessarily liberating but might instead be reactionary?

This week, were are joined by philosopher and practicing psychoanalyst Benedetta Todaro to bring psychoanalysis on the couch, dig into its darkest recesses, understand its dreams, and see what is really going on.

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-132-psychoanalysis-with-benedetta-todaro

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