The Unconscious as Infinite Sets. An Essay in Bi-Logic.

Gutes Ex.; Einband stw. berieben. - Englisch. - Moderner Klassiker. - � The author, a professor of psychiatry who is a practising psycho-analyst, feels that psycho-analysis needs a new theoretical frame of reference, without which itis proving impossible to see new facts in clinical reality. He offers an account of the logic of the unconscious, satisfying the characteristics claimed by Freud to be true of the unconscious such as the absence of time and contradiction (i.e., negation). This logic is arrived at by appropriate adjustments of standard logic, the chief being the treatment of asymmetrical relations as if they were symmetrical, so abolishing at a stroke all forms of serial order, such as space and time. This universal application of symmetry is, according to the author, constantly found in schizophrenic and unconscious thinking. It also entails the equivalence of part and whole, which is characteristic of infinite sets (hence the title). This is not an alternative logic, but (as the author correctly states) a dissolution of logic; in particular, the principle of contradiction is rejected. It is, however, partly dependent on logic and, if Matte Blanco is right, it represents the actual processes of the unconscious, which though inconsistent cannot be merely chaotic if any of Freud's description applies. The logic of emotional thinking is also explained as involving infinite sets. Whatever acceptance these views achieve, they will stimulate efforts to characterize the unconscious and to extend psychoanalytic theory. The book ought to be read by everyone interested in psychiatry or in Freudian psychology.' - British Book News. � (Verlagstext) // INHALT : . Absence of negation ---- Summary ---- Comments and explanations (especially for mathematical logicians and philosophers) ---- Explanation ---- The law or principle of contradiction in the light of the principle of symmetry ---- A geometrical interpretation of the principles of contradiction and of symmetry ---- Does the proper part become improper part? ---- The application of the principle of symmetry actually observed is not total but limited, in a degree varying according to the case ---- Logic? And if so, what logic? ---- The emotional origin of 'aseptic', contradiction-respecting bivalent logic ---- From Logos to something larger: man ---- FROM THE UNREPRESSED UNCONSCIOUS TO THE SYMMETRICAL MODE OF BEING ---- Chapter Four: A Formulation of the Question ---- Chapter Five: Freud's Development of the Concept of Unrepressed Unconscious (a Historical Survey) Conclusion ---- Chapter Six: The Interrelations between Repressed, Unrepressed, Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Id, Ego, Super-Ego ---- A preliminary warning ---- Repressed unconscious contents and asymmetrical ---- relations ---- Unrepressed unconscious contents, asymmetrical relations ---- and the three instances ---- Repressed unconscious contents and symmetrical relations ---- Unrepressed unconscious, symmetrical relations, id, ego ---- and super-ego ---- Chapter Seven: The Two Modes of Being in Man ---- Some brief preliminary reflections about happening and being ---- Back from the psychical qualities to the psychical modes ---- of being ---- A question of terminology ---- Consciousness and 'the unconscious' ---- (u.v.a.) ISBN 0715607189