Psychology, Meditation, and Philosophy book reviews
Psychical Causality With the foundational understanding of the mirror stage, and its imaginary stability against fragmentation, Jacques Lacan had to come up with his own theory of the psychogenesis of mental illness against, “…a doctrine of mental problems that I consider incomplete and false, a doctrine which, in psychiatry, is known as ‘organicism.'” The prevailing […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt.…
Family Complexes Jacques Lacan wanted to take the usual understanding of family, where it’s the responsibility of parents to raise their children to survive and thrive, and to expand that definition with the exploration of cultural influences that go beyond a mere biological inheritance. Because humans have so much adaptability, roles can shift and change […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt. 5 appeared…
Analyst or Analysand? Sooner or later, any psychoanalytic theoreticians bump up against politics when they choose to become an analysand and begin to explore their own unconscious. As insightful as Jacques Lacan was with paranoia, self-punishment, and sexual identity, there was a limit when he was not able to analyze a patient. News clippings and […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt. 4 appeared first on…
Warning: Grisly violence, Sexual Themes, Suicidal content Review of Hallucinations With paranoia and schizophrenia, it’s easy to get lost on the differences between different types of delusions, and deliriums. In the case of the deluded Aimée, the patient was imagining a life that she felt was denied to her but there were others who instead […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt. 3 appeared first on Psych…
Blood in Antithesis In the modern world, there is plenty of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis activity going on as described by Hegel, but unfortunately, any kind of prediction of where it will go and how it will end up continues to surprise and dismay the generations. As in Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings, socialization always included […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt. 2 appeared first on Psych…
Accused as being impenetrable, a fraud and a charlatan, Jacques Lacan was also described as an autistic dandy stringing out his followers for a truth they would never find. Despite the controversy, he made a lasting impact on psychoanalysis that is still credited by many as a counterbalance to dogmatic orthodox views. He also brought […] The post Jacques Lacan Pt. 1 appeared first on Psych Reviews…
Meno includes a disarming question: Can you explain what virtue is, or is it something we just assume we know? The dialogue begins with confidence and ends in uncertainty—but not defeat. Along the way, Socrates introduces the famous theory of recollection: the idea that the soul already holds knowledge and learning is a kind of […] The post Plato: Meno appeared first on Psych Reviews .
In Gorgias, Plato unleashed one of his most searing critiques of power, rhetoric, and moral compromise. Socrates confronted three ambitious men—Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles—each who represented a different view of power and persuasion. Should we do what is right—or just what we can get away with? Callicles argued that morality was for the weak. Socrates […] The post Plato: Gorgias appeared first…
Plato’s Protagoras stages an intellectual showdown between Socrates and the famous sophist on a vital question: Can virtue be taught? Protagoras appealed to culture and storytelling; Socrates pushed for precision and logical unity. At stake was more than education—the dialogue Protagoras explored whether morality was a skill, a strength of will, or something innate in […] The post Plato:…
In Euthydemus, Plato doesn’t just give us Socratic inquiry—he gives us its parody. Two sophists, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, engage in relentless verbal games to show off their so called “wisdom,” turning argument into promotion and logic into absurdity. Socrates, watched with interest and irony, and tried to steer the dialogue back to a meaningful question: […] The post Plato: Euthydemus…