Irrationality and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis

In a reconstruction of the theories of Freud and Klein, Sebastian Gardner asks: what causes irrationality? what must the mind be like for it to be irrational? to what extent does irrationality involve self-awareness? and what is the point of irrationality? Arguing that psychoanalytic theory provides the most penetrating answers to these questions, he rejects the widespread view of the unconscious as a 'second mind', in favour of a view of it as a source of inherently irrational desires seeking expression through wish-fulfilment and phantasy. He meets skepticism about psychoanalytic explanation by exhibiting its continuity with everyday psychology. 'It has been a commonplace for many decades that Freud changed our conception of the human mind. Few writers and very few philosophers have tried to to tell us what this change amounts to. Sebastian Gardner's book is the most remarkable attempt I know to put this right.' Richard Wollheim