Publications

Publication details [#8688]

Patterson, Gordon. 1990. Freud's rhetoric: Persuasion and history in the 1909 Clark lectures. Bakhtiniana: Revista de Estudos do Discurso 5 (4) : 215–233. 19 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

The rhetorical character of Freud's 1909 Clark Lectures has generally passed unnoticed. Drawing on the lectures and contemporary reports, this article employs both classical and modern rhetorical theory in its analysis of the occasion, audience, mode of argumentation, and manner in which Freud presented himself in these lectures. This article demonstrates that Freud developed a distinctive rhetorical style, which was based in large part on his appropriation of figures of thought drawn from the classical rhetorical tradition and which utilized analogies as his chief mode of argumentation. (Gordon Patterson)