Overview

This book shows how persecution is a condition that binds each in an ethical obligation to the other. Persecution is functionally defined here as an impinging, affective relation that is not mediated by reason. It focuses on the works and personal lives of Emmanuel Lévinas—a phenomenological ethicist who understood persecution as an ontological condition for human existence—and Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis who proposed that a demanding superego is a persecuting psychological mechanism that enables one to sadistically enjoy moral injunctions. Scholarship on the work of Freud and Lévinas remains critical about their objectivity, but this book uses the phenomenological method to bracket this concern with objective truth and instead reconstruct their historical biographies to evaluate their hyperbolically opposing claims. By doing so, it is suggested that moral actions and relations of persecution in their personal lives illuminate the epistemic limits that they argued contribute to the psychological and ontological necessity of persecuting behaviors. Object relations and intersubjective approaches in psychoanalysis successfully incorporate meaningful elements from both of their theoretical works, which is used to develop an intentionality of search that is sensitive to an unknowable, relational, and existentially vulnerable ethical subjectivity. Details from Freud’s and Lévinas’ works and lives, on the proclivity to use persecution to achieve moral ends, provide significant ethical warnings, and the author uses them as a strategy for developing the reader’s intentionality of search, to reflect on when they may use persecuting means for moral ends. The interdisciplinary nature of this research monograph is intended for academics, scholars, and researchers who are interested in psychoanalysis, moral philosophy, and phenomenology. Comparisons between various psychoanalytic frameworks and Lévinas’ ethic will also interest scholars who work on the relation between psychoanalysis and The Other. Lévinas scholars will value the convergences between his ethics and Freud’s moral skepticism; likewise, readers will be interested in the extension of Lévinas’ intentionality of search. The book is useful for undergraduate or graduate courses on literary criticism and critical theories worldwide.

Full Product Details

Author:   Valerie Oved Giovanini
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2021
Weight:   0.320kg
ISBN:  

9783030646660

ISBN 10:   3030646661
Pages:   187
Publication Date:   23 April 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Life and Work: A Historical Horizon.- Chapter 3. Getting Personal: Persecution in Freud’s Personal Life.- Chapter 4. The Uncanniness of Conflicting Moral Norms.- Chapter 5. Freud’s Vulnerability to the Social Ideals of His Time & Moral Skepticism.- Chapter 6. A New Kind of Psychotherapy for Ethical Subjectivity.- Chapter 7. Intermission – From Freud to Lévinas.- Chapter 8. Life and Work: A Historical Horizon.- Chapter 9. Epistemic Gaps: Freedom and Mutual Dis-identification.- Chapter 10. Freedom and Existential Vulnerability: Lévinas’s Vulnerability to His Cultural Ideals.- Chapter 11. Intentionality of Search: Vulnerability, Persecution, and the Ethical Bind.- Chapter 12. Conclusion: Ethics Reconsidered – Always Only a Proximate Response.

Reviews

Early Reviews for Persecution and Morality This quite original and engaging book sets up an encounter between Levinas and Freud in order to pave the way towards an ethics at once capacious and discerning. Centering on the primacy of aEUROoepersecutionaEURO in the lives of both Freud and Levinas, Giovanini tracks the way this term surfaces at the level of fantasy and ethical understanding. The aEUROoepersecutoryaEURO structure of Levinasian ethics establishes the involuntary ways we are affected by others, including the ethical demand that is conveyed by alterity itself. Querying the historical resonance of persecution in the wake of the Nazi genocide against the Jews, Giovanini shows how the psychic consequences can lead to delusional states that break with all ethical relationality. However, she also shows how it can lead to an ecstatic and relational understanding of others, one that is alert and responsive to difference. In her reading, the historical circumstances or persecution can lead to practice of responsibility that limits egoism in the name of a non-appropriative relationality. Few books weave their way between biography, fantasy, and ethics with the urgency and clarity that this one does. aEURO Judith Butler, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, USA In her first book, Valerie Giovanini delivers an ambitious canvassing of persecutable objects. As if conducted by a split-off Israeli part, the work is propelled by the unbearable knowledge of relentless brutalizations visited upon the Palestinian people. Pained by acts of blind hatred, Giovanini explores on a large scale the infectious spread of overmoralizing zeal and falsifications historically inscribed. In a mashup of autobiographical and quasi-biographical scenes of disrupted development, she argues that even the most lucid contenders fall short of their own emancipatory insights, egregiously betraying their premises and archive of rigorous investigations. To her credit, Giovanini opens a dossier on the psychotic overuse of aEUROoeethicsaEURO in contemporary American theories that depend on LA (c)vinas and FreudaEURO (TM)s pooled fates for securing faux assumptions and condemnatory stances, uncritically maintained. Importantly, the study tracks how love turns to hate, calling on readers vi to identify their particular otheraEURO object of obsession and shadow partaEURO if only to observe when one becomes vulnerable, in a genuinely Levinasian sense, to the foreclosure of ethical relation. aEURO Avital Ronell, Ph.D., University Professor of the Humanities at New York University, New York, USA In this intriguing book, Valerie Giovanini pairs Sigmund Freud and Emmanuel Levinas, strange bedfellows, perhaps uncanny ones, both haunted by violence. She challenges us to compare and contrast their attitudes toward ethics and vulnerability, as well their life stories. She makes us ask if, or how, psychoanalysis and radical ethics can ft together in the face of personal trauma. Best of all, she leaves us with more questions about the passivity inherent in persecution. An important contribution. aEURO Donna M. Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D., NYU Postdoctoral Program and the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York, USA Dr. Giovanini posits her work as a aEUROoeretellingaEURO of the works and lives of Freud and LA (c)vinas which foregrounds her sensitivity to the intimate relationship between reading, testimony, and the possibility of actionality, thus allowing her to both perform readings of their lives and their works aEURO in all of their multiplicities, complexities, incongruities aEURO whilst, at the very same time, be refexive about the fact that her text might well be running those very same risks. Focusing on persecution as an entry point into her exploration is both philosophically intriguing and strategically very sound: there really arenaEURO (TM)t many texts out there which address this urgent issue. Philosophically speaking, the way in which she unveils the persecutory gestures in the works of those who have been persecuted in their lives (whilst not exonerating herself from the possibility of doing so) is intriguing. IaEURO (TM)ll go so far as to say that this work might well be responsible for initiating a new generation of refections that make our philosophical aEURO and ethical aEURO certitudes tremble. I can well imagine Dr. GiovaniniaEURO (TM)s book being on the reading lists in English, gender studies, philosophy, art, and media studies departments, as well as quite possibly the general public. I certainly will be looking forward to the possibility of including her text in a seminar I run, entitled Writing Women. Her writing style is clear, welcoming, and very engaging. aEURO Jeremy Fernando, Ph.D., Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School, Switzerland

Early Reviews for Persecution and Morality This quite original and engaging book sets up an encounter between Levinas and Freud in order to pave the way towards an ethics at once capacious and discerning. Centering on the primacy of “persecution” in the lives of both Freud and Levinas, Giovanini tracks the way this term surfaces at the level of fantasy and ethical understanding. The “persecutory” structure of Levinasian ethics establishes the involuntary ways we are affected by others, including the ethical demand that is conveyed by alterity itself. Querying the historical resonance of persecution in the wake of the Nazi genocide against the Jews, Giovanini shows how the psychic consequences can lead to delusional states that break with all ethical relationality. However, she also shows how it can lead to an ecstatic and relational understanding of others, one that is alert and responsive to difference. In her reading, the historical circumstances or persecution can lead to practice of responsibility that limits egoism in the name of a non-appropriative relationality. Few books weave their way between biography, fantasy, and ethics with the urgency and clarity that this one does. —Judith Butler, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, USA   In her first book, Valerie Giovanini delivers an ambitious canvassing of persecutable objects. As if conducted by a split-off Israeli part, the work is propelled by the unbearable knowledge of relentless brutalizations visited upon the Palestinian people. Pained by acts of blind hatred, Giovanini explores on a large scale the infectious spread of overmoralizing zeal and falsifications historically inscribed. In a mashup of autobiographical and quasi-biographical scenes of disrupted development, she argues that even the most lucid contenders fall short of their own emancipatory insights, egregiously betraying their premises and archive of rigorous investigations. To her credit, Giovanini opens a dossier on the psychotic overuse of “ethics” in contemporary American theories that depend on Lévinas and Freud’s pooled fates for securing faux assumptions and condemnatory stances, uncritically maintained. Importantly, the study tracks how love turns to hate, calling on readers vi to identify their particular other—object of obsession and shadow part—if only to observe when one becomes vulnerable, in a genuinely Levinasian sense, to the foreclosure of ethical relation. —Avital Ronell, Ph.D., University Professor of the Humanities at New York University, New York, USA   In this intriguing book, Valerie Giovanini pairs Sigmund Freud and Emmanuel Levinas, strange bedfellows, perhaps uncanny ones, both haunted by violence. She challenges us to compare and contrast their attitudes toward ethics and vulnerability, as well their life stories. She makes us ask if, or how,psychoanalysis and radical ethics can ft together in the face of personal trauma. Best of all, she leaves us with more questions about the passivity inherent in persecution. An important contribution. —Donna M. Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D., NYU Postdoctoral Program and the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York, USA   Dr. Giovanini posits her work as a “retelling” of the works and lives of Freud and Lévinas which foregrounds her sensitivity to the intimate relationship between reading, testimony, and the possibility of actionality, thus allowing her to both perform readings of their lives and their works  — in all of their multiplicities, complexities, incongruities — whilst, at the very same time, be refexive about the fact that her text might well be running those very same risks. Focusing on persecution as an entry point into her exploration is both philosophically intriguing and strategicallyvery sound: there really aren’t many texts out there which address this urgent issue. Philosophically speaking, the way in which she unveils the persecutory gestures in the works of those who have been persecuted in their lives (whilst not exonerating herself from the possibility of doing so) is intriguing. I’ll go so far as to say that this work might well be responsible for initiating a new generation of refections that make our philosophical — and ethical — certitudes tremble. I can well imagine Dr. Giovanini’s book being on the reading lists in English, gender studies, philosophy, art, and media studies departments, as well as quite possibly the general public. I certainly will be looking forward to the possibility of including her text in a seminar I run, entitled Writing Women. Her writing style is clear, welcoming, and very engaging. —Jeremy Fernando, Ph.D., Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School, Switzerland

Author Information

Valerie Giovanini is a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge, USA. She earned her PhD in Philosophy, Art and Critical thought from The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, with Judith Butler as her advisor. She has taught at Mt. St. Mary's University and for various colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed and published journal articles and book reviews. Her work concerns applied ethics, moral philosophy, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology.

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