The Genealogy of Psychoanalysis

The certainty of the Cogito is more an "I feel" (an auto-affection), which on principle eludes the ek-stasis of representation in its modern sense. In such representation, subjectivity is always posed outside the self, whereas affectivity is felt in itself, immanently, without the mediation of any representation. In this sense, affectivity remains profoundly inaccessible to representation - not because it could only ever manifest itself as a representation, but because it manifests itself otherwise, in a manner anterior to the shown/hidden opposition that characterizes representational ek-stasis. The book traces this heritage from Descartes through Malebranche, Leibniz, Kant, and Schopenhauer to Freud. It also discusses Nietzsche, who the author argues stands outside this genealogy.