Description
The Body First
Book Summary
In The Body First, Christophe Dejours explores the complex relationship between the biological body and the erotic body, challenging the classic dichotomy that separates them. Through a rigorous analysis connecting biology with psychoanalysis, the author examines how affects, suffering, pleasure, and memory emerge from this interaction. The reader will find a profound reflection on the instinctual and its role in the organization of the unconscious, offering a renewed perspective on psychopathology and human experience.
What is it about?
The book addresses the fundamental question of what happens to the instinctual in human beings and in what forms it survives in the functioning of the body. Dejours analyzes the tension between the biological body, governed by physiology, and the erotic body, linked to desire and subjectivity. Through themes such as dreams, fantasy, anxiety, memory, pleasure, and love, the author traces a path from biology to psychoanalysis, showing how instinctual dispositions and the innate are reflected in the organization of the unconscious. This work invites us to rethink psychopathology from a perspective that integrates the body as a central axis of affective experience.
Main themes
- Relationship between the biological body and the erotic body in human experience.
- The role of the instinctual and innate dispositions in psychopathology.
- Connection between affects (pleasure, love, suffering, anxiety) and their physiological basis.
- Influence of the body on the formation of the unconscious and dream processes.
- Revision of the classic dichotomy between biology and psychoanalysis.
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at professionals and students of psychoanalysis, psychology, neuropsychology, and health sciences interested in the intersection between body and mind. It is also of great value to readers with a background in philosophy or literary essays who are seeking a rigorous reflection on human nature, affects, and subjectivity from an interdisciplinary perspective.
What this book contributes
- A renewed understanding of psychopathology by integrating the biological and erotic body as fundamental axes.
- A detailed analysis of how affects and the instinctual manifest themselves in the organization of the unconscious.
- Conceptual tools to overcome the traditional dichotomy between biology and psychoanalysis.
- A profound reflection on the role of the body in memory, pleasure, love, and suffering.
- An interdisciplinary perspective that enriches the study of human subjectivity.
Data sheet
- Author: Dejours, Christophe
- Publisher: Biblioteca Nueva
- Language: Spanish
- Subject: Literary essays, Physiological psychology and neuropsychology, Biopsycho
- Collection: Psicoanálisis Biblioteca Nueva
- Binding: Others
- Publication date: February 2017
- Number of pages: 192
- Weight: 230 g
Editorial review
The Body First is a rigorous and provocative work that invites us to rethink the relationship between the body and the psyche from an interdisciplinary perspective. Christophe Dejours manages to build bridges between biology and psychoanalysis, offering an original look at affects and the instinctual. His approach is especially valuable for specialists seeking to overcome traditional divisions in the study of subjectivity, although its conceptual density may require some familiarity with the subjects discussed. A reference book for those who wish to delve into psychopathology from an integrative vision of the human being.