John Forrester (historian)
John Forrester (25 August 1949 – 24 November 2015) was a British historian and philosopher of science and medicine.[1] His main interests were in the history of the human sciences, in particular psychoanalysis and psychiatry.
Life
Born and raised in London, Forrester attended
He was visiting professor at the Institute of Logic and the Epistemology of the Human Sciences, University of Campinas, Brazil (1988); visiting professor at the Institut für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung, University of Bielefeld in Germany (1997); research scholar, Getty Research Institute in the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, California (1998); Whitney J. Oates Fellow of the Council of the Humanities and the Program in the History of Science, Princeton University (2001); Schaffner Visiting Professor, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago (2003); professor, Ittingen Summer School, Kartaus Ittingen, Switzerland (2004); Visiting Directeur d’Études, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris (2006). He taught at the School of Criticism and Theory when it was located at Dartmouth College (1995).
Work
Much of his research was devoted to the history of
Thinking in Cases, the volume that contains "If P then what" and other essays on the case, came out soon after he died.
His final book, Freud in Cambridge (co-authored with Laura Jean Cameron), was finished before his death, and was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press. Sander L. Gilman said of it "this is one of the most important books on twentieth-century British intellectual history I have read in a long time".
Personal life
Forrester was married to Lisa Appignanesi; their daughter is Katrina Forrester, an assistant professor in political theory at Harvard University; his step-son is the filmmaker Josh Appignanesi. John Forrester died on 24 November 2015 from cancer.[8] He was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.
Further reading
- Forrester, John (2023) Freud and Psychoanalysis: Six Introductory Lectures, edited by Lisa Appignanesi with a Foreword by Darian Leader , Cambridge: Polity Press
- Forrester, John and Laura Cameron (2017) Freud in Cambridge, Cambridge: CUP
- Forrester, John (2016) Thinking in Cases, Cambridge: Polity Press
- Forrester, John (1980) Language and the Origins of Psychoanalysis London: Macmillan/New York: Columbia University Press
- Forrester, John (1990) The Seductions of Psychoanalysis. Freud, Lacan and Derrida Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- Appignanesi, Lisa and Forrester, John (1992) Freud's Women London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 3rd edition (Orion) 2005
- Forrester, John (1997) Dispatches from the Freud Wars. Psychoanalysis and its Passions Cambridge: ISBN 978-0-674-53960-0.
- Forrester, John (1997) Truth Games. Lies, Money, and Psychoanalysis Cambridge, MA: ISBN 0-674-53962-1
- Lacan, Jacques, The Seminar. Book I. Freud's Papers on Technique. 1953–54, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, translated with notes by John Forrester, Cambridge: C.U.P/New York: Norton, 1988.
- Lacan, Jacques, The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in Psychoanalytic Technique 1954–55, edited by Jacques-Alain Miller, translated by Sylvana Tomaselli with notes by John Forrester, Cambridge: C.U.P./New York: Norton, 1988.
- Anne Ber-Schiavetta, « Histoire de la psychanalyse, histoire des sciences. Renouvellements et convergences », Revue française de psychanalyse, 2020/1 (Vol. 84), p. 223-232, DOI : 10.3917/rfp.841.0223
External links
- University web-page: http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/people/forrester/
- John Forrester, 'The Idea of a Moral Science, State Funding and Teutonophobia', lecture to CRASSH Conference 'Changing the Humanities', University of Cambridge, July 2009: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/gallery/28 (accessed 26.1.13)
- Psychoanalysis and History Vol 19, no. 2. Special issue on John Forrester
References
- ^ The Independent 17 May 2002 'What Freud, Einstein and Wittgenstein thought about the truth of psychoanalysis' Retrieved 4 August 2010
- ^ "HPS: John Forrester". Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
- ^ Dispatches from the Freud Wars. Psychoanalysis and Its Passions By John Forrester.
- PMC 1044301.
- ^ History of the Human Sciences 9 No. 3 (1996): 1–25
- ^ Laura Cameron. Department of Geography and Planning, Queen's University.
- ^ "Editorial Board – Psychoanalysis & History". Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
- ^ Professor John Forrester: Philosopher and historian widely celebrated for his work on Sigmund Freud and much-loved as an inspiring teacher