Richard Wollheim's Analysis of Freud

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Richard Wollheim author of ‘Freud’ was one of the most distinguished

and productive philosophers of his generation. He made a significant

contribution to the post war flourishing of British philosophy and as

his career continued his work grew steadily more individual, rich and

expressive (The Times 2003). For Wollheim psychoanalysis was crucial

to his personal outlook and played a fundamental role in defining his

outlook on art. This was reflected in his standing as an honorary

member of the San Francisco Psychoanalytical Institute and honorary

affiliate of the British Psychoanalytical Society. In addition to this

in 1991 Wollheim was awarded for his distinguished services to

psychoanalysis by the International Society for Psychoanalysis. It is

these personal and political affiliations which shaped the highly

uncritical nature of the text.

‘Freud’ published in 1971 was written during an era when

psychoanalysis became an influential method for understanding modern

literature and culture. Psychoanalytical theory had been particularly

effective in the area of literary and film criticism, its reading

techniques widely disseminated, even when they were not always

labelled psychoanalytical. Richard Wollheim points out that

psychologist Sigmund Freud’s writings on art usually focussed on the

psychology of critics, rather than on analyses of particular paintings

or stories (Thurschwell 2000). However, Wollheim adopting an

uncritical stance failed to acknowledge the strong reactions

psychoanalysis had provoked particularly within the feminist movement

during the nineteen seventies. The criticism aimed essentially towards

Freud’s analytic practice and his theories of sexuality.

Wollheim states in the outset that the text will take the form of an

exposition rather than an interpretation or evaluation of Freud’s

work. It does seem plausible to suggest that the text in fact can be

described as a biography (Wollheim 1971) as it provides a detailed

version of the ‘life of a mind at work, and the story of a long and

intricate process of discovery’ (Wollheim 1971). It is at this point

Wollheim sets himself two aims in the writing of the study. Firstly,

to bring out what Freud actually said and secondly, to show the

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