Crisis of Authority Politics, Trust, and Truth-Telling in Freud and Foucault

Contemporary social and political theory has reached an impasse about a problem that had once seemed straightforward: how can individuals make ethical judgments about power and politics? Crisis of Authority analyzes the practices that bind authority, trust and truthfulness in contemporary theory and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Luxon, Nancy
Format eBook
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Cambridge University Press 23.09.2013
Edition1
Subjects
1856-1939
1926-1984
Authority
Foucault, Michel
Freud, Sigmund
Power (Social sciences)
Online AccessGet full text
ISBN1107551846
9781107551848
9781107038738
1107038731
DOI10.1017/CBO9781139839365

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Summary:Contemporary social and political theory has reached an impasse about a problem that had once seemed straightforward: how can individuals make ethical judgments about power and politics? Crisis of Authority analyzes the practices that bind authority, trust and truthfulness in contemporary theory and politics. Drawing on newly available archival materials, Nancy Luxon locates two models for such practices in Sigmund Freud's writings on psychoanalytic technique and Michel Foucault's unpublished lectures on the ancient ethical practices of 'fearless speech', or parrhesia. Luxon argues that the dynamics provoked by the figures of psychoanalyst and truth-teller are central to this process. Her account offers a more supple understanding of the modern ethical subject and new insights into political authority and authorship.
ISBN:1107551846
9781107551848
9781107038738
1107038731
DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139839365