PrefaceIntroduction 1 Part 1: The Back Story--How We Got to Where We Are 2 Part 2: The Cynical Therapeutic Part 1: Back Story: How We Got to Where We Are 1 Ancient Cynicism: Defacing the Currency 1 Ancient Cynicism: a General Introduction 2 Defacing the Currency 3 Conclusion2 Exile and Parrhesia 1 Exile 1.1 The Conflict with Culture 1.2 The Gift of Exile 1.3 The Difficulty of Exile 2 Parrhesia 3 Conclusion3 Freud''s Defacing of the Currency 1 Cynicism as an Uncharitable Interpretation 2 Freud''s Theory of the Psyche 2.1 Id 2.2 Ego 2.3 Superego 3 Conclusion4 Freud''s Social Theory 1 The Implication of Freud''s Psyche-Structure on Cultural Formation 1.1 The Irrationality of Morality 1.

2 Sublimation 1.3 Defacing the Currency 2 The Irredeemable Conflict of the Psyche 3 Neurosis 3.1 The Lack of Internalizing Cultural Norms and Morality 3.2 "Normal" and "Abnormal" Neurosis 3.3 The Therapeutic Process 4 Conclusion5 Ernest Becker: Rethinking Freud 1 The Peculiar Human Bind 2 Nature 2.1 The Repression of Creatureliness 2.2 The Ancient Cynics, Freud and Becker on Nature 2.3 Anxiety and Culture 3 Conclusion6 The Human Need for Meaning 1 Significance and the Cultural Heroics 1.

1 Our Need for Meaning 1.2 Our Lack of Meaning: Nihilism 2 Our Approach to Meaning: Cultural Symbolics 3 Transference: the Need to Lean on Others 4 Conclusion7 A New Understanding for Neurosis 1 The Failure of Tradition 1.1 Positive and Negative Therapeutic Communities 1.2 The Illusion of Self-Sufficiency 2 Existential Guilt 3 Conclusion8 Evil, Neurosis and Immortality Striving 1 Sin and Neurosis: Traditional Views of Evil 2 Immortality Striving and the Nature of Evil 2.1 Cultural Support and Symbolic Durability 2.2 Competition 3 The Lie of Character 4 Conclusion9 Kierkegaard and the Task of Self-Becoming 1 The Repression of the Self 2 The Self 3 The Crowd and Established Order 4 Conclusion10 Identity- Krisis 1 The Decision 1.1 Krisis 1.2 The Cost 1.

3 Does the Decision Really Matter? 1.4 The Emphasis on the "How" 1.5 Freedom and Disposition 2 The Cost of the Illusion of Risk-Free Living 2.1 Controlled by What We Do Not Trust 2.2 The Loss of One''s Self 3 Conclusion11 Kierkegaard and Ideology Critique 1 Kierkegaard''s Defacing the Currency and Exile 1.1 Losing Ourselves 1.2 Anxiety 1.3 Kierkegaard''s Defacing of the Currency and Exile 1.

4 Kierkegaard and Conscience 2 Ideology Critique 2.1 The War of Consciousness and Ideology Critique 2.2 Cynical Knowledge: an Ideological Mistrust 3 Conclusion12 Failure to Launch 1 Cynicism as Ideology 2 Master-Cynics, Insider-Cynics and Outsider-Cynics 3 Cynicism: Narrowing the Causa Sui Project 3.1 Defacing the Currency without Being Exiled 3.2 Example of Consumer Cynicism 4 Cynical Reason: the Rationalizations of the Modern Cynic 159 4.1 Rationalization #1: Ironic Detachment Which Transcends the Deception through Thought 159 4.2 Rationalization #2: Living in Self-Contradiction Appears Reasonable because the System in Which One Has One''s Life Is Itself Contradictory 5 Conclusion13 Freedom and the Loss of Alternatives 1 Rationalization #3 2 The Technological Morality 2.1 The Change in Techniques in the Service of the Causa Sui Project 2.

2 The Morality of Power 2.3 Organizational Techniques and Psychological Techniques 3 Conclusion Part 2: The Cynical Therapeutic 14 Freud and Cynicism 1 Freud: the Social Theorist 2 The Enlightenment: Rameau''s Nephew 3 The Freudian Diagnosis of Human Neurosis 3.1 Ideology Critique 3.2 Religion: Normal or Mass Neurosis 4 Conclusion15 Resistance, Therapy and Cynicism 1 The Cynical Rationalizations and Freud 2 The Analytic Process: Overcoming Resistance through Ideology Critique 2.1 The Goal of Therapy: from Outsider-Cynic to Master-Cynic 2.2 The Process of Therapy: Breaking Down Resistance through Cynical Interpretation 2.3 A Critical Problem with the Analytic Process: the Need for Transference 3 The Analytic Process as a Training in Mistrust 3.1 The Ego as Deceived: a Weakening through Mistrust 3.

2 The Ego as Deceiver: the Master-Cynic 4 Implications and Results of the Connection between Cynicism and Psychoanalysis 5 Conclusion16 Freudian Ambivalence and the Irreconcilable Conflict 1 Coping in the Moment 2 Unending Conflict 2.1 Belief in the Green Light 2.2 The Pessimism of Freud 3 The Analytic Attitude 3.1 No Hierarchy of Values 3.2 No New Doctrines 4 Conclusion17 Re-education as Coping 1 An Answer to Nihilism 2 The Approach 2.1 Learning How Not to Be Good 2.2 Reason as a Technical Instrument 3 The Freudian Causa Sui Project 3.1 Adaptation and Narrowing 3.

2 The Illusion of Openness 4 Health as Languishing: a Critique of Freudian Re-education 5 Conclusion18 Freud and the Therapeutic 1 Freudian Influence on American Society 2 The Therapeutic: Self-Interest and Personal Well-Being 2.1 Becoming an Egoist 2.2 More Is Better 2.3 "Psychological Man" 2.4 The Empty Self 2.5 The Empty Self as a Perfect Consumer 3 Conclusion19 The Therapeutic False Consciousness: the Illusions of Freedom and Significance 1 The Three Rationalizations in Reference to Cynicism, Freud and the Therapeutic 2 Rationalization #1: Freedom 2.1 Primacy of Possibility and the Hypothetical Self 2.2 The Hypothetical Self and Culture 3 Rationalization #2: Significance 3.

1 Consumerism 3.2 Character and Personality 4 Technological Morality: Psychological Technique 5 Conclusion20 Self-Mastery and the Despair of the Esthetic Stage of Existence 1 Rationalization #3: Self-Mastery 2 The Kierkegaardian Stages of Life: Esthetic, Ethical, Religious 3 The Esthetic 3.1 Spiritlessness 3.2 Pure Immediacy 3.3 Reflective Immediacy 4 Despair Itself 5 Conclusion21 Seeing through the Cynical Therapeutic 1 Courage, Humility and Patience 1.1 Culture 1.2 Krisis 1.3 Choose to Be Anxious 2 Kierkegaard''s "Epistemology" 2.

1 Awakening from Self-Concern Gone Awry 2.2 The Structure of Consciousness as a "Positive Third" 3 Knowledge and Interpretation 3.1 Choosing How to See the World 3.2 Ethical Considerations 3.3 The Krisis : Accept the ShipwreckBibliographyIndex of NamesIndex of Subjects.