Jon Mills, a contemporary philosopher and psychoanalyst, is known for his work in psychology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. He has written extensively on Hegel and his relevance to psychoanalysis, particularly in the context of subjectivity, self-consciousness, and the development of the human psyche. Mills often explores how Hegel’s dialectical process can be applied to understanding the development of the self, particularly in the context of psychological theory and the dynamics of the unconscious.
### Mills on Hegel:
1. **Hegel's Influence on Psychoanalysis**: Mills argues that Hegel’s dialectical method, especially the development of self-consciousness through the master-slave dialectic, provides important insights into the formation of the self and subjectivity, which resonate with psychoanalytic theory. Hegel’s ideas of negation, contradiction, and synthesis align with the psychological processes of internal conflict and transformation.
2. **Dialectics and Subjectivity**: Mills uses Hegel's *Phenomenology of Spirit* to explore how the self develops through a series of dialectical movements — from immediate sense-certainty to self-consciousness and eventually to absolute knowing. This movement mirrors the way the psyche encounters and resolves internal conflicts, leading to the development of a cohesive self.
3. **Negativity and Psychic Conflict**: For Mills, Hegel’s notion of negativity, the idea that the self is defined by a constant process of negation and becoming, aligns with psychoanalytic concepts of internal struggle and the process of working through unconscious material. He believes Hegel’s ideas can enhance our understanding of how individuals confront and integrate repressed aspects of the psyche.
### Why Didn’t Jon Mills Talk About Schelling?
While Mills engages extensively with Hegel, Schelling is less central to his work. There could be a few reasons for this:
1. **Psychoanalytic Relevance**: Hegel’s dialectics, particularly the master-slave dynamic and the focus on self-consciousness, seem more directly applicable to psychoanalytic theory than Schelling’s philosophy. Hegel’s focus on the process of becoming, negation, and the development of consciousness through contradiction resonates strongly with psychoanalysis, where the self is seen as a dynamic, conflicted entity.
In contrast, Schelling’s emphasis on the Absolute and his later metaphysical concerns might be less directly relevant to the psychoanalytic framework Mills works within. Schelling’s ideas, while important in their own right, focus more on the nature of freedom, the unconscious in a metaphysical sense, and the relationship between nature and spirit. These themes, while connected to psychology, don’t directly engage with the process of psychological development in the way Hegel’s dialectical method does.
2. **Hegel's Dominance in Philosophical Discourse**: Hegel’s influence in continental philosophy and psychoanalytic theory is much more prominent compared to Schelling’s, particularly in the 20th century. Thinkers like Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek draw heavily on Hegelian concepts when discussing psychoanalysis, which may explain Mills’s preference for Hegel over Schelling. Hegel's legacy in psychoanalysis makes him a more natural focus for thinkers like Mills who operate within that intellectual tradition.
3. **Schelling’s Philosophical Complexity**: Schelling’s philosophy is notoriously complex and underwent significant shifts over the course of his career, from early idealism to later existential and religious thought. This shifting nature makes it harder to pin down a single cohesive narrative in his thought that can be directly applied to psychoanalytic frameworks in the way Hegel's more structured dialectical approach can.
In summary, Jon Mills focuses on Hegel because Hegel’s dialectics offer a clear framework for understanding the development of the self, subjectivity, and psychic conflict, all of which resonate with psychoanalytic theory. Schelling, while important in his own right, likely doesn’t receive as much attention from Mills because his work doesn’t directly align with the psychoanalytic themes that Mills is interested in exploring.
