Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis

An important development of Freud's ideas, which goes far beyond standard misunderstandings in a way that is wholly justified by Freud's later works. Lear, a philosopher, is a remarkable thinker in his own right. The theme of this book is nothing less than the way that the discoveries of depth psychology pose an unavoidable challenge to our prevailing scientific ways of thinking about self and world. The needed revision would not be a lapse into softheadedness but a science of the human psyche which would do justice to the subject. To understand love, theoretically and in practice, is to accept a vision of rationality and a view of the world that the most progressive thinkers -- those who have accepted the legacy of psychoanalysis -- have just begun to sketch. Lear, who is at the forefront of such thinkers, has written a cogent and loving book which can be read by the specialist or by anyone interested in a topic which is of concern to each of us.