Metapsychologica - rivista di psicanalisi freudiana

Presentazione del Convegno Finalità o finalismo. Percorsi epistemologici attorno alla «causa finale» a partire dalla psicanalisi

Edoardo Toffoletto — 2024-12-18

Una critica del concetto di intenzionalità in Husserl alla luce della metapsicologia freudiana

Silvana Dalto — 2024-12-18

A criticism of the concept of intentionality in Husserl in the light of Freudian metapsychology.
A criticism of Brentano’s and Husserl’s concept of intentionality is carried out and a comparison is made with Freud’s concept of drive. For Husserl, against positivistic logic, a new approach is needed, which considers reality no longer as a set of objects separate from the subject, but which places the world as a correlate of consciousness; some inconsistencies in Husserlian argumentation are highlighted: first of all, the epoché fails to separate the self-perception from the sensitive perception; this means that the epoché is not sufficient to establish the transcendental subject, but neither is it sufficient to construct a valid objectivity in subjectivity. For Freud instead the self-position of the subject is original and arises well before the object is constituted as such. In fact the drive is originally without an object: there is nothing pre-constituted in the definition of the subject or even of our relationship with the world. The concept of drive is much more adherent to real psychic dynamics than the concept of intentionality, which is moreover contradicted by basic clinical phenomena such as anxiety or hallucination.

Alcune riflessioni sul significato gnoseologico della metapsicologia freudiana

Franco Baldini — 2024-12-18

Some reflections on the gnoseological significance of freudian metapsychology.
The article examines Freud’s metapsychology, highlighting its central role in understanding the human mind while critiquing contemporary misunderstandings that have led to its gradual rejection within the scientific community and the psychoanalytic movement. It also challenges the widespread notion that cognitive syntax can directly correlate with neurophysiological dynamics, arguing that thought cannot be reduced to mere neuronal processes. The article further contends that Freudian metapsychology can serve as a conceptual bridge between neurophysiology and cognition, focusing on the concept of drive. It demonstrates that metapsychology, far from being obsolete, remains an indispensable interpretative tool for investigating the human psyche, provided it is developed and properly reevaluated in light of current knowledge.

Il problema delle finalità nel vivente, nella macchina e nella società. Un’analisi epistemologica

Pierpaolo Cesaroni — 2024-12-18

The Problem of Finalities in the Living, Machine, and Society: An Epistemological
Analysis.

This contribution will consist of two parts. In the first part, we will explore the field of cybernetics to demonstrate how, in the works of its most prominent representatives, there is an attempt to rehabilitate the concepts of purpose and teleology. This effort coincides with a broader reform of the mechanistic and deterministic views inherited from modern science. We aim to show that the central issue in cybernetics is not merely a critique of modern mechanism and determinism, as much of the existing scientific literature suggests, but rather an
expansion and reassessment of these tendencies towards what can be defined as both mechanist/teleological determinism and mechanistic/determinist teleology. In the second part, we will illustrate how the onto-epistemological posture initiated by cybernetics serves as a significant epistemological obstacle to scientific practice across various fields. Drawing primarily from the insights of the French philosopher Georges Canguilhem, as well as recent advances in biology and the research on the epistemology of political concepts conducted by our research group at the University of Padua, we will argue that it is only by critically questioning the broad and abstract theory promoted by cybernetics that we can engage in meaningful scientific reflections on the question of finalities. This approach allows us to preserve the complex potential embedded in this question when it is appropriately examined within the unique contexts of different epistemic domains, such as biology and the social and political sciences.

Per una naturalizzazione del concetto di aspettativa in economia a partire dal(la) fine: J. M. Keynes e S. Freud

Maria Vittoria Ceschi — 2024-12-18

For a naturalization of the concept of expectation in economics starting from the end: J. M. Keynes and S. Freud.

The article explores the concept of expectation in economics through a naturalization approach, primarily drawing on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Sigmund Freud. It contrasts the theoretical framework of the rational expectations hypothesis (and its developments) with Keynesian concepts of conventions and animal spirits, emphasizing the role of uncertainty and the ends or motives in economic behavior. The article first examines the biological foundation through anticipatory systems theory and then the drive foundation through metapsychology. It demonstrates how the evolution of expectations is determined by their differing relationships with the drive end, understood as a combination of object and aim (satisfaction). This naturalized understanding of expectations enables their formulation within a theory of living systems: complex and creative.

Psicanalisi come critica dell’economia politica. L’economia libidica del capitalismo contemporaneo

Edoardo Toffoletto — 2024-12-18

Psychoanalysis as a critique of political economy. Libidinal economy of contemporary capitalism.
The ambition of this essay is to provide a solid epistemological and methodological foundation to the Freudo-marxist project, who attempted to construct a social theory by exploiting Karl Marx’s critique of political economy and Freudian psychoanalysis. The underlying hypothesis of this work is that – beyond the ideological appropriations of that philosophical tradition – both political economy and psychoanalysis happen to study and analyse aspects of the drives that constitute human psychology. Hence, the first section addresses the question of the relation between work and the theory of civilization through a dialogue between theorists and ideologists of Liberalism and psychoanalytic theory by highlighting the roles played by the mechanisms of sublimation and idealization into any working activity. The second section then stresses the insufficient approach of DSM-5 in dealing with critical pathologies, which reveal themselves as none other than symptoms of late capitalism. The notion of depressive hedonia adopted by Mark Fisher to describe his student’s relation to consumerism has been exploited as the entry point to understand the libidinal economy of late capitalism, as well as its normative libidinal type. In the last section, the Freudian analogy between obsessional neurosis and religion is clarified in order to distinguish the traditional religious phenomenon from an understanding of capitalism as religion, which – following Walter Benjamin – consists in a pure cult without dogma. The paper concludes with methodological and epistemological remarks on the possibility to apply psychoanalysis to analyse what Freud calls social neurosis, i.e., on the possibility to use psychoanalysis for the critique of political economy’s ideology.

Il problema della realtà nella metapsicologia freudiana

Franco Baldini — 2024-12-18

The problem of external reality in Freudian metapsychology.
Through an in-depth analysis of Freudian texts on the subject, this article highlights the metapsychological dimension of the concept of external reality and its importance for a clear structural description of psychoanalytic nosography. It also demonstrates its relevance in addressing several unresolved issues in Saussurianderived linguistics. Additionally, the argument underscores the inconsistency of Lacan’s interpretation of the same texts.