Autobiographics in Freud and Derrida

Originally published in 1990. This uniquely fascinating study first approaches the problem of autobiography by assessing theories of the self, consciousness and language developed by both Freud and Derrida; then through the reading of the autobiographical aspects of their writings.

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Originally published in 1990. This uniquely fascinating study approaches the problem of autobiography from two directions: first assessing theories of the self, consciousness and language developed by both Freud and Derrida; second through the reading of the autobiographical aspects of their writings. The book begins with looking at the issue of making sense of a life by means of representation, through autobiography, within the field of psychological phenomena – screen memories, mourning, obsession, hysteria, transference. Part 1 focuses on Freud’s case histories and psychoanalysis being used to make a narrative of behaviour in language. Part two considers Freud’s own Interpretation of Dreams and its autobiographical nature. Part 3 examines intellectual movements such as phenomenology, speed act theory and structuralism while Parts 4 and 5 turn to Derrida’s use of autobiography as self-criticism and his debt to Freud.