Freud and Philosophy of Mind, Volume 1 Jerome C

Freud and Philosophy of Mind, Volume 1 Jerome C. Wakefeld Freud and Philosophy of Mind, Volume 1

Reconstructing the Argument for Unconscious Mental States Jerome C. Wakefeld Silver School of Social Work and Department of Psychiatry New York University New York, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-96342-6 ISBN 978-3-319-96343-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96343-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951045

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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements

I am startled to realize that this book has taken about twenty years to complete, admittedly with efforts that were highly intermittent. I started working on the topic of Freud and philosophy of mind during my grad- uate student days studying philosophy at Berkeley. The basic idea of the book occurred to me then and formed the basis for my doctoral dissertation with John Searle as Chair and Hubert Dreyfus as a close advisor on my committee. John and Bert offered me an extraordinarily vital and rigorous philosophical foundation, and I express my heartfelt gratitude to them for shaping my intellectual growth in inspiring and enriching ways that I still draw on every single day—sadly, my appreciation must be expressed posthumously to Bert. This book is a much-altered descendent of the frst section of that doctoral dissertation, which I fnally completed in 2001 while holding academic appointments in my other feld, social work. Some elements of this project were presented to the Seminar on Science and Society in the philosophy department at Bordeaux Montaigne University, Bordeaux, France, in 2017, and I thank the department and the seminar’s director, Steeves Demazeux, for that opportunity and for the spirited interchange that followed. Earlier versions of parts of the project were presented to the Group for Psychoanalysis and the Humanities, Bologna, Italy; the Center for the Study of Mind in Nature, Institute for Philosophy, University of Oslo; and the Institute of Philosophy, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, all in 2009–2010. I am grateful for the constructive

v vi Acknowledgements interchanges that occurred on each of these occasions. I also thank my colleagues and the candidates at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education at NYU for their stimulating questions when attending my course on Psychoanalysis and Philosophy of Mind. I also wish to thank my acquisitions editor at Palgrave Macmillan, Rachel Daniel, for her receptiveness to the vision behind this series of monographs on Freud and philosophy of mind and her nurturing of the proposal through to acceptance. To her and to Palgrave, I express my appreciation for the exceptional opportunity they have afforded me. On the last leg of this long journey during the preparation of the fnal manuscript, my extraordinarily capable and tireless research assistant, Jordan Conrad—who happily also has training in both philosophy and psychoanalysis as well as social work—was an invaluable interlocutor, editor, and friend. He helped to make the completion of this project a reality rather than the theoretical entity it had been for so long, and he made it a much-improved reality at that. Finally, I am most of all grateful for the love, the many forms of sup- port, and the tolerance of my idiosyncratic ways from my wife, Lisa N. Peters, and my sons, Joshua and Zachary Wakefeld. Despite the family sacrifces that scholarly writing entails, they provided me with an encour- aging context every day that affrmed the meaningfulness of personal and intellectual striving. With love and admiration, I dedicate this book to them. Praise for Freud and Philosophy of Mind, Volume 1

“This is a groundbreaking book, the frst to unpack comprehensively the implications of Freud’s radical proposal, made in 1900, to the effect that mental activity (i.e., what we now call cognition) is unconscious in itself, and therefore consists fundamentally in the same sort of stuff as the rest of the natural universe. Wakefeld becomes the frst philosopher to rise to the challenge that Freud set in 1913, when he wrote that “the hypoth- esis of unconscious mental activities must compel philosophy to decide one way or the other and, if it accepts the idea, to modify its own views on the relation of mind to body so that they may conform to the new knowledge.” The insights that fow from Wakefeld’s careful analysis have substantial implications not only for the philosophy of mind but also for some of the most pressing questions facing the cognitive and affective neurosciences today.” —Mark Solms, Editor of The Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud

“Is it still possible today to say something about Freud that is both new and relevant? With the frst volume of Freud and Philosophy of Mind, Jerome Wakefeld shows that it is. Wakefeld reconstructs Freud’s defense of the possibility and importance of unconscious mental states as a gen- uinely philosophical endeavor. To do this, he relies on a careful reading of Freud’s texts, but also on analytical tools derived from both history of philosophy and contemporary semantics and philosophy of mind.

vii viii PRAISE FOR FREUD AND PHILOSOPHY OF MIND, VOLUME 1

The result, a portrait of Freud as a rebellious student of Brentano, will be of tremendous interest to philosophers, psychologists and historians alike.” —Denis Forest, Professor of Philosophy of Science, Paris 1 Panthéon- Sorbonne University

“This is a brilliant and bold book. It provides the deepest analysis of the concept of unconscious mental states I have read. The main claim of the book, presented with a level of lucidity characteristic of Wakefeld’s writing, is that Freud is a prescient and major contributor to a coherent philosophy of mind and a major infuence on the emergence of a primary emphasis on unconscious mental states and processes in contemporary cognitive science. This book will radically alter our recognition of Freud as a philosopher of mind. For anyone interested in the profound issues inherent in the concept of unconscious mental states and for anyone who wants to have his or her mind stretched, this book provides major rewards.” —Morris Eagle, Professor Emeritus, Derner Institute for Advanced Psychological Studies, Author of Core Concepts in Classical Psychoanalysis and Core Concepts in Contemporary Psychoanalysis

“Wakefeld’s attempt is simply unprecedented. In his hands, the philosophy of psychoanalysis is no longer the worn out critique of Freud’s clinical theses on the dynamic unconscious or repression. His Freud is, so to speak, hovering above psychoanalysis itself, for his true founding ges- ture was for all of modern psychology including cognitive science, and it was to separate mind from consciousness and to endow brain states with intrinsic intentionality. Never before in contemporary philosophy of mind has the meaning of a radically anti-Cartesian concept of the unconscious been so precisely delineated. A conceptual tour de force, seam- lessly expounded with vigor and clarity.” —Pierre-Henri Castel, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Research, Institute Marcel Mauss, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris, France, Author of Introduction to the Interpretation of Freud’s Dream: A Philosophy of the Unconscious Mind

“There are two things that are commonly said about Freud in contemporary discussions of the mind. One is that Freud revolutionized our conception of the mind; the other is that Freud’s clinical ideas are largely PRAISE FOR FREUD AND PHILOSOPHY OF MIND, VOLUME 1 ix discredited. Can these claims both be true? What exactly was Freud’s contribution to our understanding of the mind, if so many of his ideas have been discredited? In this wide-ranging and masterly work, Jerome Wakefeld gives an account of Freud that answers this question, by exam- ining in detail the philosophical basis of Freud’s theory of unconscious intentionality, tracing Freud’s ideas back to his reactions to his teacher Franz Brentano. Wakefeld gives a thrilling and absorbing account of Freud as a philosopher of the mind, which shows precisely where Freud’s philosophy came from and how it is relevant today. A very important work.” —Tim Crane, Professor of Philosophy, Central European University, Author of Elements of Mind and The Objects of Thought

“Jerome Wakefeld has produced a fascinating, original and masterful work that brings together history of philosophy and psychology, philosophy of mind and Freudian scholarship to illuminate the origins of con- tinuing debates around our current understanding of mind and Freud’s prescient contribution to them. Crystal clear and richly informed by past and present thought, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the nature of mind.” —Michael Lacewing, University College London, Co-Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

“Wakefeld’s book is strikingly clear and lucidly argued. This is remark- able given that he boldly confronts the reader with the most complex issues in philosophy of mind. This book is not just for experts; its ele- gant analysis of the roots of the modern conception of mind encourages a love of its subject and should be on the reading list of every university student in psychology and philosophy.” —Paolo Migone, Editor of the journal Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane

“In this very original book, Jerome Wakefeld argues that standard ways of describing Sigmund Freud’s work in terms of his much-disputed clinical theories fail to recognize his profound contribution to philosophy of mind and the foundations of contemporary cognitive science. By accept- ing Brentano’s theory that intentionality is the essence of the mental but rejecting Brentano’s equation of intentionality with consciousness, Freud posed the profound problem of how nonconscious brain states can x PRAISE FOR FREUD AND PHILOSOPHY OF MIND, VOLUME 1 possess intentionality and representationality, a problem that challenges philosophers and cognitive scientists to this day. Wakefeld’s exciting book should be read by all philosophers of mind, cognitive scientists, and anyone interested in the essence of the human mind.” —Edward Erwin, Professor of Philosophy, University of Miami, Author of A Final Accounting: Philosophical and Empirical Issues in Freudian Psychology and Editor of The Freud Encyclopedia: Theory, Therapy, and Culture Contents

1 Introduction: Should Freud be Taken Seriously as a Philosopher of Mind? 1

2 Freud and the Transformations of Psychology and Philosophy of Mind 15

3 “Unconscious” as “Mental and Not Conscious”: Why Repression, the Dynamic Unconscious, and Psychopathology Are Irrelevant to Freud’s Philosophical Argument 57

4 The Semantic Objection to Freud’s Thesis 105

5 Freud’s Response to the Semantic Objection: Concepts, Essentialism, and the Defnition of “Mental” 129

6 Brentano, Freud’s Philosophical Interlocutor 165

7 Cartesianism Without the Consciousness Criterion: Solving the Mystery of Freud’s Missing Account of the Mental 211

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8 Freud’s Direct Arguments Against the Consciousness Criterion 241

9 Freud’s Argument, Part 1: Phenomenal Representationality as the Essence of the Mental 263

10 Freud’s Argument, Part 2: Brain Representationality as the Essence of the Mental 285

11 Conclusion: The Freudian Century in Philosophy of Mind 349

References 361

Index 375 About the Author

Jerome C. Wakefeld, PhD (Philosophy), DSW (Clinical Social Work), M.A. (Mathematics: Logic and Methodology of Science) is University Professor, Professor of Social Work, Professor of the Conceptual Foundations of Psychiatry, Associate Faculty in the Center for Bioethics and in the Center for Ancient Studies, and Honorary Faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education, at New York University. Previous faculty appointments were at University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. He is the author of over 250 pub- lications appearing in journals and books in psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and social work, addressing issues at the inter- section of philosophy and the mental health professions. He is Co-author of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder (2007, Oxford), named best psychology book of 2007 by the Association of Professional and Scholarly Publishers, and All We Have to Fear: How Psychiatry Transforms Natural Fear into Mental Disorder (2012, Oxford), as well as Co-editor of Sadness or Depression?: International Perspectives on the Depression Epidemic and its Meaning (Springer, 2016). In addition to Volume 2 of the Freud and Philosophy of Mind series, he is currently working on a book reexamining Freud’s case of Little Hans from philosophy-of-science and Foucaultian perspectives, to be published by Routledge.

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