Todd Dufresne

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Todd Dufresne (born 7 November 1966) is a Canadian social and cultural theorist best known for his work on Sigmund Freud and the history of psychoanalysis. He is Professor of Philosophy at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. [1]

Contents

Education and career

Dufresne (PhD Social & Political Thought, York University, Toronto) was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the now defunct Psychoanalytic Thought Program at Trinity College, University of Toronto, before moving to Lakehead University in 1999. His administrative posts have included Chair of Philosophy, Interim Division Head of Human Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and Founding Director of The Advanced Institute for Globalization and Culture (aig+c). From 2008 to 2010 he was Research Chair of Social & Cultural Theory [2] at Lakehead University, and from 2008 to 2011 he was an "affiliated scholar" at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. He teaches in the areas of Continental philosophy, film, cultural studies, and social and political philosophy.

Bibliography

As author

Books
Selected Essays
Edited Collections
Selected Chapters
Journal

Interviews

See also

Books
People
Book Reviews

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis Psychological theory and therapy established by Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques used to study the unconscious mind, which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, who retained the term psychoanalysis for his own school of thought. Freud's work stems partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions, mostly by students of Freud, such as Alfred Adler and his collaborator, Carl Gustav Jung, as well as by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

Sigmund Freud Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, psychoanalytic theory has undergone many refinements since his work. Psychoanalytic theory came to full prominence in the last third of the twentieth century as part of the flow of critical discourse regarding psychological treatments after the 1960s, long after Freud's death in 1939. Freud had ceased his analysis of the brain and his physiological studies and shifted his focus to the study of the mind and the related psychological attributes making up the mind, and on treatment using free association and the phenomena of transference. His study emphasized the recognition of childhood events that could influence the mental functioning of adults. His examination of the genetic and then the developmental aspects gave the psychoanalytic theory its characteristics. Starting with his publication of The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899, his theories began to gain prominence.

Freudian slip Concept in classical psychoanalysis

In psychoanalysis, a Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that occurs due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought. Classical examples involve slips of the tongue, but psychoanalytic theory also embraces misreadings, mishearings, mistypings, temporary forgettings, and the mislaying and losing of objects.

<i>The Interpretation of Dreams</i> 1899 book by Sigmund Freud

The Interpretation of Dreams is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex. Freud revised the book at least eight times and, in the third edition, added an extensive section which treated dream symbolism very literally, following the influence of Wilhelm Stekel. Freud said of this work, "Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once in a lifetime."

Neo-Freudianism is a psychoanalytic approach derived from the influence of Sigmund Freud but extending his theories towards typically social or cultural aspects of psychoanalysis over the biological.

Depth psychology refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as the patterns and dynamics of motivation and the mind. The theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Alfred Adler are considered its foundations.

<i>Life Against Death</i> 1959 book by Norman O. Brown

Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History is a book by the American classicist Norman O. Brown, in which the author offers a radical analysis and critique of the work of Sigmund Freud, tries to provide a theoretical rationale for a nonrepressive civilization, explores parallels between psychoanalysis and Martin Luther's theology, and draws on revolutionary themes in western religious thought, especially the body mysticism of Jakob Böhme and William Blake. It was the result of an interest in psychoanalysis that began when the philosopher Herbert Marcuse suggested to Brown that he should read Freud.

Girindrasekhar Bose was an early 20th-century South Asian psychoanalyst, the first president (1922–1953) of the Indian Psychoanalytic Society. Bose carried on a twenty-year dialogue with Sigmund Freud. Known for disputing the specifics of Freud's Oedipal theory, he has been pointed to by some as an early example of non-Western contestations of Western methodologies. Apart from this, he also started the first general hospital psychiatry unit (GHPU) in India at the R.G. Kar Medical College, Calcutta in 1933.<https://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5545;year=2018;volume=60;issue=6;spage=198;epage=202;aulast=Bhattacharyya></ref>

<i>Eros and Civilization</i> 1955 book by Herbert Marcuse

Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the theories of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, and explores the potential of collective memory to be a source of disobedience and revolt and point the way to an alternative future. Its title alludes to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). The 1966 edition has an added "political preface".

Psychodynamics

Psychodynamics, also known as psychodynamic psychology, in its broadest sense, is an approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.

Élisabeth Roudinesco

Élisabeth Roudinesco is a French historian and psychoanalyst, affiliated researcher in history at Paris Diderot University, in the group « Identités-Cultures-Territoires ». She also conducts a seminar on the history of psychoanalysis at the École Normale Supérieure. Biographer of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud, she mainly worked on the situation of psychoanalysis worldwide but also published on the history of French Revolution, perverts and perversion, philosophy and Judaism. She has been awarded The Prix Décembre 2014 and The Prix des Prix 2014 for her biography of Freud, Freud, In his Time and Ours published by Harvard University Press. Her work has been translated into thirty languages.

Paul Roazen was a political scientist who became a preeminent historian of psychoanalysis.

Pansexualism is a hypothesis in psychology "that regards all desire and interest as derived from [the] sex instinct" or, in other words, "that the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity, mental and physical".

<i>Freud, Biologist of the Mind</i> 1979 book by Frank Sulloway

Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend is a 1979 biography of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the psychologist Frank Sulloway.

<i>Freud and Philosophy</i> 1965 book by Paul Ricœur

Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation is a 1965 book about Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the French philosopher Paul Ricœur. In Freud and Philosophy, Ricœur interprets Freud's work in terms of hermeneutics, the theory of the rules that govern the interpretation of a particular text, and discusses phenomenology, a school of philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl. He addresses questions such as the nature of interpretation in psychoanalysis, the understanding of human nature to which it leads, and the relationship between Freud's interpretation of culture and other interpretations. The book was first published in France by Éditions du Seuil, and in the United States by Yale University Press.

<i>Philosophy of the Unconscious</i> 1869 book by Eduard von Hartmann

Philosophy of the Unconscious: Speculative Results According to the Induction Method of the Physical Sciences is an 1869 book by the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann. The culmination of the speculations and findings of German romantic philosophy in the first two-thirds of the 19th century, Philosophy of the Unconscious became famous. By 1882, it had appeared in nine editions. A three volume English translation appeared in 1884. The English translation is more than 1100 pages long. The work influenced Sigmund Freud's and Carl Jung's theories of the unconscious.

<i>The Memory Wars</i> 1995 book by Frederick Crews

The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in Dispute is a 1995 book that reprints articles by the critic Frederick Crews critical of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and recovered-memory therapy. It also reprints letters from Harold P. Blum, Marcia Cavell, Morris Eagle, Matthew Erdelyi, Allen Esterson, Robert R. Holt, James Hopkins, Lester Luborsky, David D. Olds, Mortimer Ostow, Bernard L. Pacella, Herbert S. Peyser, Charlotte Krause Prozan, Theresa Reid, James L. Rice, Jean Schimek, and Marian Tolpin.

<i>Freud: A Life for Our Time</i> 1988 book by Peter Gay

Freud: A Life for Our Time is a 1988 biography of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the historian Peter Gay. The book was first published in the United Kingdom by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. The book has been praised by some commentators, and compared to the psychoanalyst Ernest Jones's The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (1953–1957). However, it has been criticized by authors skeptical of psychoanalysis, who have accused Gay of lacking objectivity, and of repeating incorrect claims about Freud's work.

<i>The Freudian Fallacy</i> 1983 book by Elizabeth M. Thornton

The Freudian Fallacy, first published in the United Kingdom as Freud and Cocaine, is a 1983 book about Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the medical historian Elizabeth M. Thornton, in which the author argues that Freud became a cocaine addict and that his theories resulted from his use of cocaine. The book received several negative reviews, and some criticism from historians, but has been praised by authors critical of Freud and psychoanalysis. The work has been compared to Jeffrey Masson's The Assault on Truth (1984).

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