Perversion and Utopia: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)

The author, a philosopher and psychoanalyst, argues for a reintegration of Freud's investigation of the unconscious with the political and philosophical insights of the Frankfurt tradition of critical theory. His central thesis is that there is an essential affinity between the utopian impulse and the perverse impulse, and that both reflect a desire to bypass the reality principle that Freud claimed defined the human condition. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.