Features
ISBN Number: 9780415048361
Author: Ferguson, Harvie
Publisher: Routledge
Location: London ;
Subject: Civilization, Modern
Subject: 20th century
Subject: Civilization
Subject: Methodology
Subject: Dreams
Subject: Dream interpretation
Subject: Freud, Sigmund
Subject: Civilization, Modern, 20th century.
Subject: Research, Methodology.
Subject: Methodology x
Subject: Movements, Behaviorism
Subject: Dreams, General
Series Volume: no. 10
Publication Date: April 1996
Cover Type: Paperback
Written in: English
Illustrations: Yes
Number of Pages: 260
Book Size: 917x597x78 85
From literary theory to social anthropology, the influence of Freud runs through every part of the human and social sciences. In The Lure of Dreams, Harvie Ferguson shows how Freud's writings and particularly The Interpretation of Dreams contribute, both in their content and in the baroque and dream-like forms in which they are cast, to our understanding of the character of modernity. He argues that the recent tendency to view Freud's work mainly as a product of nineteenth-century developments in biology and medicine have obscured what is most important and suggestive for us in his writings. Instead Harvie Ferguson discusses the development of Freud's ideas in the context of the Viennese fin de siecle culture in which they were nurtured, and examines the extent to which they reflect a breakdown of classical forms of rationalism in both the sciences and the arts and, more generally, the rehabilitation of dreams in late modernity. This novel and stimulating approach to Freud and to the dilemmas of modernity and postmodernity will fascinate everyone with an interest in the development of modern consciousness. Description:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-243) and indexes.
