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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND HUMAN RATIONALITY
Author(s) -
Sayers Sean
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of social philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.353
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1467-9833
pISSN - 0047-2786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9833.1991.tb00038.x
Subject(s) - rationality , irrational number , epistemology , root (linguistics) , philosophy , sociology , psychoanalysis , psychology , mathematics , linguistics , geometry
It is clear that Freud's theories have had a profound and revolutionary impact on ideas about human nature and human rationality. However, the precise nature of that impact is less clear. It is often said that psychoanalysis reveals the irrational forces at the root of even the most apparently rational forms of thought and activity; and that, in so doing, it undermines ideas about human rationality which have dominated western thought. That is undoubtedly true. However, it is only one aspect of the truth. For the implications of psychoanalysis are more complex and far‐reaching than this currently fashionable view suggests.