Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Symbolism

Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Symbolism offers an innovative general theory of symbolism, derived from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and relocated within mainstream scientific psychology. It is the first systematic investigation of the development of Freud’s treatment of symbolism throughout his published works, and discovers in those writings a broad theory which is far superior to the widely accepted, narrow, ‘official’ view. Agnes Petocz argues that the treatment of symbolism must begin with the identification and clarification of a set of logical contraints and psychological requirements which any general theory of symbolism must respect, and that these requirements have been neglected by existing accounts across a number of disciplines. Her newly proposed ‘Freudian Broad’ theory of symbolism, by contrast, does meet these requirements, but only after it has been rehabilitated within a revised psychoanalytic context. An important contribution to the ongoing development of a coherent and scientifically acceptable version of psychoanalytic theory, Freud, Psychoanalysis, and Symbolism also offers a radical reconceptualisation of the unconscious and repression and of the role of language.