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Raskolnikov's Rebirth
Psychology and the Understanding of
Good and Evil
Ilham
Dilman
In
Raskolnikov's Rebirth, Dilman explains the important
role that Freud's theory of psychoanalysis plays in our
understanding of ethics and in our continuing investigation
into the nature of good and evil. Arguing against recent
critics of Freud, Dilman shows that the strength of
psychoanalysis lies in its ability to reflect upon human
life and its different modes of being. Dilman employs
Raskolnikov, Dostoyevsky's axe-murdering protagonist in
Crime and Punishment, to better illustrate these
concepts, following Raskolnikov's alienation from goodness,
his return to it, and his ultimate ethical rebirth. An
original and insightful approach to thinking about
psychology,
Raskolnikov's Rebirth is a thoughtful examination
of the value of psychoanalysis that will lead the reader to
a deeper understanding of humankind's experience with good
and evil.
"Raskolnikov's
Rebirth is a profound contribution to understanding the
psychology of the moral life as we live it. Ilham Dilman
distinguishes this sharply from the fundamentally misguided
attempts at a 'scientific' study of moral psychology. He
presents highly specific and sensitive explorations of a
broad range of topics such as moral integrity, love and
hate, egocentricity and altruism, guilt and repentance, the
insights and limitations of psychoanalysis, the role of
religion, and Dostoyevsky's psychology of the soul. There
is—as always—rigor in Dilman's analyses, but it is in the
service of philosophy as illumination and engagement rather
than theory and detachment."
—Herbert Fingarette
University of California, Santa Barbara
"Wonderfully
refreshing. By rejecting a scientific approach and focusing
on the soul rather than on observable behavior, Dilman
sketches a program for understanding ourselves through
'enabling' rather than 'determining' concepts and
principles. . . the development of the soul can transform a
person, such as Raskolnikov, from evil to good, but not the
other way around."
—Newton Garver
Author of This Complicated Form of Life
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