Emotion, Thought and Therapy: A Study of Hume and Spinoza and the Relationship of Philosophical Theories of Emotion

Description

First published in 1977, Emotion, Thought and Therapy is a study of Hume and Spinoza and the relationship of philosophical theories of the emotions to psychological theories of therapy. Jerome Neu argues that the Spinozists are closer to the truth; that is, that thoughts are of greater importance than feelings in the classification and discrimination of emotional states. He then contends that if the Spinozists are closer to the truth, we have the beginning of an argument to show that Freudian or analytic therapies make philosophic sense. Throughout the book, careful attention is paid to modern discussions in philosophy of mind and psychology, and materials from anthropology and other relevant disciplines are considered. At the centre of the discussion is the notion of ‘thought-dependence’. Therapies for psychological disorders are placed along a spectrum in accordance with the role they assign to thoughts. The Spinozist view of the emotions can be seen as at the extreme thought end of a corresponding spectrum of theories of the emotions. The book suggests that this stream may help explain the spectrum of therapeutic theories and the possibilities that exist for psychological development and change. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy, psychology and counselling. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Original Title Original Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Introduction I Hume 1 Impressions of Reflexion 2 Pride and Double Association 3 ‘Limitations’ 4 Association: Resemblance and Simplicity 5 Association: Simplicity and the Essential 6 Impressions of Pleasure and Pleasant Impressions 7 Self and the Idea of Self 8 Emotion and Object 9 Object and Effect 10 Object and Cause 11 Thought-Dependence 12 Sympathy and Knowledge of Other Minds 13 Calm Passions 14 Thought, Turbulence, and Action Hume’s Classification of the Passions (diagram) II Spinoza 1 Conatus and Unconscious Desire 2 Pleasure and Pain and the Spinozist Analysis of Love 3 Active/Passive and the Intellectual Love of God 4 More Adequate Ideas and Activity 5 Transforming Emotions 6 Intellectual or Social Emotions 7 Active Emotion and Action III Thought, Theory and Therapy 1 Non-Analytical Therapies 2 Behaviour Therapy and 'Effectiveness' 3 Lévi-Strauss and Quesalid 4 Consensus and Curing 5 Structuralist Explanation: Coherence and Correspondence and Curing 6 Psychoanalysis and Shamanism: The ‘Same Forces’? 7 Little Hans and Little Albert, Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Therapy: On Aetiology and Displacement 8 Nosology and Anthropology 9 Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Therapy: The Effectiveness of Interpretations 10 Insight Is Not Enough 11 Freud’s ‘Theory’ of the Emotions 12 Unconscious Fantasy and Emotion 13 Spinoza: ‘The Philosopher of Psychoanalysis’ In Summary Appendix A: On Objects and Causes Appendix B: On Thoughts and Emotions Appendix C: On a Humean View of Fantasy Notes Bibliography Index