Life and Death in Freud and Heidegger

Life and Death in Freud and Heidegger
(Contemporary Psychoanalytic Studies 6)
by Havi Carel

Life and Death in Freud and Heidegger argues that mortality is a fundamental structuring element in human life. The ordinary view of life and death regards them as dichotomous and separate. This book explains why this view is unsatisfactory and presents a new model of the relationship between life and death that sees them as interlinked. Using Heidegger’s concept of being towards death and Freud’s notion of the death drive, it demonstrates the extensive influence death has on everyday life and gives an account of its structural and existential significance. By bringing the two perspectives together, this book presents a reading of death that establishes its significance for life, creates a meeting point for philosophical and psychoanalytical perspectives, and examines the problems and strengths of each. It then puts forth a unified view, based on the strengths of each position and overcoming the problems of each. Finally, it works out the ethical consequences of this view. This volume is of interest for philosophers, mental health practitioners and those working in the field of death studies.

About the Author
Havi Carel is a Lecturer in Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at the Australian National University. Her research interests include 20th Century German and French philosophy (in particular phenomenology), philosophy of psychology and psychoanalysis (especially Freud) and metaphysics. She is the co-editor of What Philosophy Is (London: Continuum, 2004) and the co-translator of The Order of Evils, by Adi Ophir (Zone Books: New York, 2005).

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