8/7/2019 Assignment 3 and 4

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3. Freud, Enlightenment and Suspicion (400 words)

(a) In his text A Difficulty on the Path to Psychoanalysis Freud aligns his own theory

with those of Copernicus and Darwin. Explain the common characteristics and the

differences that he sees between the three theories.

In his text A Difficulty on the Path to Psychoanalysis, Freud refers to Copernicus and Darwin

when presenting the so-called three blows: scientific discoveries which revolutionized mans

perception of the world and clashed with his primitive sense of omnipotence. The first of these

blows is the Cosmological blowwhich is accredited to Copernicus but had been described by

others before him. This blow is associated with the destruction of the narcissist belief that man

was standing on a privileged position at the center of the universe. Mankind was thought to have

a predominant role in the universe, this first blow pointed out how naive that belief was.

This primitive sense of predominance was not only extended to the world mankind lived in, but

also to the creatures that lived within it. Over the course of the development of civilization man

acquires a dominating position over his fellow-creatures in the animal kingdom. Thispresumption was once again cracked, this time by the Biological blow. Darwins discoveries

showed men as descents of animals and for no reason superior to them. Linking these events to

his work allows Freud to show how our primitive (and childish) beliefs were shaped by our

fallacious perception of the world surrounding us, and not based on facts describing the world in

its actual form.

(b) Would you call psychoanalysis a continuation or a break with the goals of the

scientific revolution and the Enlightenment? Explain your answer and use the concept of

suspicion in your answer.

Whether or not Psychoanalysis can be considered a science has been discussed in manypapers. In the text mentioned above, Freud himself gives an idea of his opinion on the matter:

Our one-sideness is like that of the chemist, who traces all compounds back to the force of

chemical attraction. He is not on that account denying the force of gravity; he leaves that to the

physicist to deal with. He defines psychoanalysis as a science whose core is sexual instinct.

A more elaborated view of the matter is the one of Thomas Kuhn. He analyzed the positivists

and Poppers opposite definitions of science and uses them to define psychoanalysis. Although

he denied psychoanalysis as a science, he argues that natural sciences involve interpretation

just as human and social sciences do, one difference is that hermeneutic re-interpretation, the

search for new and deeper interpretations, is the essence of many social scientific enterprises.

In his words: Re-interpretation is the result of a scientific revolution and is typically resisted

rather than actively sought.Whether or not a science, Psychoanalysis has its founding in the idea of false consciousness

and uses the concept of suspicion to re-interpret our thought as deeply influenced by our

subconscious. In this sense Psychoanalysis could be considered as a continuation of the

previous scientific discoveries, a step forward to a more conscious scientific system. We could

see it as an improvement in the sense of including a more sharp view of consciousness in a

process that is lead by consciousness.

8/7/2019 Assignment 3 and 4

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(c) Freud has acknowledged, on several occasions, the similarity between Nietzsche's

thought and his own. Would you agree with Freud? Why (not)? Base your answer on a

short comparison between the two.

Even though Freud said he has never read Nietzsches works, several facts bring the twomasters closed to each other. First of all both Freud and Nietzsche lived in the second half of the

19th century. Paul-Laurent defined this as strange contemporaneity, implying that Freud is

bombarded with Nietzschean solicitations; everywhere around him, he discovers Nietzsche.

Being both masters of suspicion, Freud and Nietzsches conclusions share a common core-

concept: false consciousness and the consecutive suspicion of the self. Both philosopher

describe how repression pushes felling and thoughts that are hard to accept into the

unconscious. The idea that these repressed instinctual drives later are manifested in disguised

ways and the importance of dreams are also concepts common to both masters.

Needs conclusion

4. Essay question (600 words)

Write a short essay on one of three topics mentioned below. Give your interpretation of

the topic of your choice and show how/why it plays a role in the theories of one, or

several, of the Master(s) of suspicion.

Use at least 2 texts from the compulsory literature and at least 2 texts from the

additional literature. Write your essay with an interested, but unspecialized audience inmind. You have a great deal of freedom in choosing how to approach the topic of your

choice. You will be graded on your comprehension of the literature used and overall

argumentation.

Topic chosen:

1. the relationship between suspicion and language

2. the relationship between suspicion and history

3. the relationship between suspicion and science