Sartre and Psychoanalysis: Existentialist Challenge to Clinical Metatheory

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This book explores the implications of Sartean philosophy for the Freudian psychoanalytic tradition. Drawing upon Sartre’s work as well as her own experiences as a practicing therapist, Betty Cannon shows that Sartre appreciated Freud’s psychoanalytic achievements but rebelled against the determinism of his metatheory. The mind, Sartre argued, cannot be reduced to a collection of drives and structures, nor is it enslaved to its past as Freud’s work suggested. Sartre advocated an existentialist psychoanalysis based on human freedom and the self’s ability to reshape its own meaning and value. Through the Sartrean clinical approach Cannon offers a resolution to a crisis in psychoanalytic metatheory created by the emphasis of many contemporary analysts on relational needs and the creation of an
authentic self
over classical drive theory. By comparing Sartre with Freud and influential post-Freudians like Melanie Klein, Otto Kernberg, Margaret Mahlet, D.W. Winnicott, Heinz Kohut, she demonstrates why the Sartrean model transcends the limitations of traditional Freudian metatheory. In the process, she adds a new dimension to our understanding of Sartre and his place in 20th century philosophy.