Freud: An Intellectual Biography

Book presentation in English by JOEL WHITEBOOK on the occasion of the publication of the German translation of his new biography:
Freud. Sein Leben und Denken

Admission free, please register: http://bit.do/ezoLr

While a number of Freud biographies have recently appeared, Joel Whitebook’s stands out because of its unique approach. Dr. Whitebook’s study is a specifically intellectual biography. He elucidates the development of Freud’s thinking in terms of the developments in his life and in the society at large. It is argued that, though the figure of the mother is present in the shadows and interstices of Freud's thinking, she is missing from his central theories. Drawing on recent work in Freud studies, feminist theory, and psychoanalysis, Dr. Whitebook’s Freud: An Intellectual Biography traces the absence of the mother to traumatic events in Freud’s early life. The work, which appeared in English in 2016, has now appeared in German: Freud. Sein Leben und Denken (Klett-Cotta 2018).

JOEL WHITEBOOK is a philosopher and a practicing psychoanalyst. He is currently on the faculty of Columbia’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and is the Director of its Psychoanalytic Studies Program. He has written extensively on psychoanalysis, philosophy and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, most recently Der gefesselte Odysseus: Studien zur Kritischen Theorie und Psychoanalyse (2009).