Crisis of Authority (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781107551848)

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locates two models for such practices in Sigmund Freud's writings on psychoanalytic technique and Michel Foucault's unpublished lectures on the ancient ethical practices of "fearless speech," or parrhesia.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.

Author: Nancy Luxon
ISBN-10: 1107551846
ISBN-13: 9781107551848
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/06/2015
Pages: 378
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.78d