The truth is, I don’t much like politics. It is desperately important, and I have
devoted a good deal of my life to thinking about it, writing about it, and
even, in small ways, doing it, but I would much rather spend my time thinking
about the arguments of Plato, Kant, Hume, Marx … or Freud. For that reason, I am looking forward with
great anticipation to the start of my four part videotaped series on The
Thought of Sigmund Freud. I find Freud’s
work genuinely interesting, and trying to make clear what I see as its core
ideas gives me considerable pleasure. It
is not really important to me that viewers [or readers of my books] agree with
me, only that they find the ideas as fascinating as I do. A week from tomorrow I shall deliver and
record the first lecture. I hope that a
few of you will take a brief break from the painful but compelling events of
the public world and devote some time to watching.
I'm looking to forward to your Freud lectures.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I don't see studying Freud as unconnected to politics as I might see the study of Greek architecture or even of Kant. Understanding Freud can help us become more aware of the instinctual forces which underlie so much apparently rational political behavior: Trump's behavior with Angela Merkel might well be as much the product of his deep-seated unconscious misogyny as of his supposedly well-thought out foreign policy.
And it's not just Trump. Many times my own political hostilities stem from repressed or by now semi-conscious childhood trauma.
Will Marcuse's Eros and Civilization be taught in the course?
ReplyDeleteNo. I will mention it in the first lecture, but then it will be all Freud. I wish I could find a way to offer a continuing seminar on the many different things that interest me. One step at a time.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to it. Are there any particular works of Freud that you would recommend reading in preparation? I have a copy of a Freud reader at work and I've been reading selections at lunchtime.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait!
ReplyDelete