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Freud's confrontation with the telic mind
Author(s) -
Rychlak Joseph F.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198104)17:2<176::aid-jhbs2300170204>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - teleology , libido , dilemma , psychoanalysis , philosophy , reductionism , dialectic , epistemology , fell , psychology , paleontology , biology
Sigmund Freud's relations with four significant figures in his life are traced: Ernst Brücke, Josef Wilhelm Fliess, and Carl G. Jung. In each of these relationships, Freud was confronted with the dilemma of wanting to describe people in what is obviously a teleological fashion while simultaneously meeting the strictures of natural‐science reductions to the nontelic. Freud initially fell back on a dialectical theory, but later substituted libido theory as a concession to biological reductionism. Strangely enough, in depolarizing libido as the “power behind the sexual drive” Freud lost the opportunity to portray the clear teleology his theory calls for.