Freud’s Aphasias: notions of Functionality, Lesion, and Representation in Their Scientific Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2447-2158.i19p122-150Keywords:
Freud, aphasias, psychoanalysis, Neurology, historyAbstract
This study examines On the Conception of Aphasias (1891) with the aim of identifying the concepts of functionality, lesion, and representation within the scientific context of the 19th century. The work is situated within the psychiatric and neurological debates of the time, challenging the localizationist model—which posited the existence of fixed cerebral centers responsible for linguistic functions—and instead proposing a dynamic and integrated conception. Drawing on the contributions of Hughlings Jackson and Henry Charlton Bastian, Freud reformulates the understanding of the relationship between brain damage and language disorders, arguing that aphasias result from functional alterations in the linguistic apparatus rather than being direct consequences of circumscribed lesions. This article seeks to demonstrate how Freud’s monograph, while engaging with the prevailing medical tradition, also anticipates fundamental epistemological conditions for the later development of the theory of neuroses.
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