Towards the Limits of Freudian Thinking: Critical Edition and Readings of Beyond the Pleasure Principle

Sigmund Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle stands as a foundational text in psychoanalysis, delving into profound questions about life, death, pleasure and pain. Through a combination of contextualising and philosophical contributions, this critical edition and commentary sheds new light on Freud’s text. In a series of contributions spanning approaches from historical exegesis to philosophical reflections on key concepts and ideas presented in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the evolution and inconsistencies found in the various versions of the text are highlighted. Particular emphasis is placed on the conceptualisation of the death and life drives. These commentaries also provide context for the work, examining its position within the Freudian corpus, its role in the collaborative project with Sándor Ferenczi in speculative bioanalysis, and its clinical insights into war neuroses, trauma, bonding and aggression in post-World War I society.

By critically examining diverse interpretations of Freud’s work, Towards the Limits of Freudian Thinking re-actualises this classic text in contemporary philosophy and psychoanalysis, rendering it accessible to both specialised and broader audiences.

This book will be made open access within three years of publication thanks to JSTOR’s Path to Open pilot.

Contributors: Ulrike May (Berlin), Herman Westerink (Radboud University Nijmegen), Philippe Van Haute (Radboud University Nijmegen), Ulrike Kistner (University of Pretoria), Jenny Willner (LMU Munich), Jakob Staberg (Södertörn University Stockholm)

Herman Westerink is endowed and associate professor at the Center for Contemporary Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Jenny Willner is assistant professor at the department for comparative literature, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Philippe Van Haute was full professor for philosophical anthropology at the Center for Contemporary Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen.