Freud on the Psychology of Ordinary Mental Life

This book works to expose that vision and to demonstrate its fertility for further inquiry. It reconstructs several of Freud's works on ordinary mental life, tracking his method of inquiry, in particular his search for the child within the adult, and culminating in a deployment of his tools independently of his analyses. It shows how to read Freud for his insight and generativity and how to push beyond the confines of his analyses in pursuit of new lines of exploration. In this endeavor, in turn, it at once echoes and encourages the spirit of play with ideas so characteristic of, and so engaging in, Freud.

Susan Sugarman is professor of psychology at Princeton University, where she also teaches in the Council of the Humanities. She is the author of empirical and theoretical works on the cognitive development of children. Attracted by Freud's investigative tactic of using the child to understand the adult, she has written more recently on Freud, including Freud on the Acropolis: Reflections on a Paradoxical Response to the Real.