Genius After Psychoanalysis
Freud and Lacan
Published on 14. November 2024
Book
Hardback
224 pages
979-8-7651-2317-1 (ISBN)
Description
Develops a new psychoanalytic theory of genius, a concept that is often invoked and pervasive in popular culture but which is rarely scrutinized in depth.
In the absence of this scrutiny, genius has come to be understood as exceptional talent or intelligence-an elitist notion. Genius After Psychoanalysis intervenes in this debate by offering a new account of genius.
Drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, K. Daniel Cho argues that genius is not exceptional talent or intelligence but is related to and illuminated by the psychological concept of sublimation, where the unpleasures that arise when our intellectual products fail become themselves pleasurable. Beginning with a close examination of Freud's work on Leonardo da Vinci, Cho analyzes film, art, our relationship to nature, politics, group psychology, love, and philosophy to demonstrate that genius, far from an elitist notion, is universally available through a different approach to ideas of imperfection, disappointment, and failure.
Genius After Psychoanalysis is a bold new intervention on a culturally central but understudied topic.
In the absence of this scrutiny, genius has come to be understood as exceptional talent or intelligence-an elitist notion. Genius After Psychoanalysis intervenes in this debate by offering a new account of genius.
Drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, K. Daniel Cho argues that genius is not exceptional talent or intelligence but is related to and illuminated by the psychological concept of sublimation, where the unpleasures that arise when our intellectual products fail become themselves pleasurable. Beginning with a close examination of Freud's work on Leonardo da Vinci, Cho analyzes film, art, our relationship to nature, politics, group psychology, love, and philosophy to demonstrate that genius, far from an elitist notion, is universally available through a different approach to ideas of imperfection, disappointment, and failure.
Genius After Psychoanalysis is a bold new intervention on a culturally central but understudied topic.
Reviews / Votes
K. Daniel Cho's work on genius accomplishes what seems impossible: it democratizes genius. Through a rigorous and delightful theorization of genius, Cho takes the concept back from the elites and gives it to the people. Genius After Psychoanalysis will transform the conception of genius for everyone who reads it - and everyone should read it. Cho's book is absolutely not to be missed. It reveals not just the truth of genius but exemplifies how we might reinterpret all the concepts that suffuse our daily lives with an unconscious resonance that remains as yet unexplored. * Todd McGowan, Professor of English, University of Vermont, USA * Cho's superb mediation on Freudian and Lacanian theories of sublimation teaches us how to be 'geniuses together.' The argument presented in this cogent and astute re-examination of the whole psychoanalytic canon leads us not to try and emulate Leonardo or Steve Jobs but to embrace life, a life touched by the sublime - a life with and beyond the death drive. * Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA, American Academy of Arts and Sciences *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
400 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-7651-2317-1 (9798765123171)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
K. Daniel Cho is Professor of Education at Otterbein University in Columbus, OH. Professor Cho works on psychoanalysis in a variety of disciplinary contexts. He is the author of Psychopedagogy: Freud, Lacan, and the Psychoanalytic Theory of Education (2009) and co-editor of Marcuse's Challenge to Education (2008).
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Economic Problem of Genius
Part I. Critique of Pure Pleasure
1. Freud's Leonardo
2. Sublimation or, On the Sexual Life of Genius
3. Finding Satisfaction
4. Otherwise than Guilt
Part II. The Trouble with Objects
5. The Thing about Objects or, Sublimation after Lacan
6. Something Missing
7. Acute Nostalgia or, The Strange Case of Coca-Cola
8. A Problem of Narcissism
Part III. Group Psychology and the Analysis of Genius
9. The Secret Life of Groups
10. The Logic of Debasement
11. Toward an Ethics of Subjective Cession
12. Life after the Image or, Cluny Brown
Conclusion: Drive within the Limits of Death Alone
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: The Economic Problem of Genius
Part I. Critique of Pure Pleasure
1. Freud's Leonardo
2. Sublimation or, On the Sexual Life of Genius
3. Finding Satisfaction
4. Otherwise than Guilt
Part II. The Trouble with Objects
5. The Thing about Objects or, Sublimation after Lacan
6. Something Missing
7. Acute Nostalgia or, The Strange Case of Coca-Cola
8. A Problem of Narcissism
Part III. Group Psychology and the Analysis of Genius
9. The Secret Life of Groups
10. The Logic of Debasement
11. Toward an Ethics of Subjective Cession
12. Life after the Image or, Cluny Brown
Conclusion: Drive within the Limits of Death Alone
Bibliography
Index