Mind and the body politic /

Explicitly concerned with the views of great historical figures, these 12 invigorating essays also evince the author's personal intellectual development. In the earliest pieces, Young-Bruehl ( Anna Freud ) focuses on Hannah Arendt, Heidegger and Kant, investigating how their concepts evolved and took unexpected turns. Her own philosophical orientation was soon to experience radical transformation: during the 10 years these works span, Young-Bruehl left the discipline of political philosophy for psychoanalysis. In ``Innovation and Political Imagination,'' she selects the shared metaphor of ``femininity'' to discuss Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Marx (``Each equated form with masculinity and matter with femininity''), paving the way for her subsequent writings, such as ``The Education of Women as Philosophers'' and ``Anna Freud for Feminists.'' Young-Bruehl's identification of male and female ``thinking styles'' and her exhortation to women to learn confidence in their own ways of thinking become increasingly persuasive as these essays progress. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved