Freud held psychic life autonomous from cerebral causes

Evidence

The psychical regime of events, for Freud, is autonomous; it does not depend upon any organic causes—especially not upon any cerebral cause. This autonomy manifests itself precisely through the independence of fantasmatic work whose only creative resources come from the psyche and not the brain. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 2055

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the core Freudian position on psychical autonomy that Malabou’s destructive plasticity thesis challenges.
• XREF: Sets up the Freud-vs-neuroscience contrast that the book’s entire project hinges on; connects to Lacan’s return to Freud. — connects to: The psychic apparatus is another inside made external to the nervous system — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 760; The cerebral unconscious differs fundamentally from the Freudian ego or agency — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1027; Neurological case histories challenge the Freudian definition of psychic plasticity. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1294 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Existential psychoanalysis rejects the unconscious and makes psychic acts coextensive with consciousness #contradicts (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1340
• Freud decentered identity by revealing an unconscious inaccessible to introspection #expands (0.80)
• Freud debased reason by denying pleasure as its ultimate end #expands (0.75)