Unknown Land? The Human Body in Descartes and Freud

• Grant number: 25/07725-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: November 17, 2025
• End date: November 16, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Homero Silveira Santiago
• Grantee: Abel dos Santos Beserra
• Supervisor: Paul Rateau
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/18138-0 - Mirages of the Negative, BP.DR

Abstract

This period at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne is part of our doctoral research project Mirages of the negative (FAPESP 2023/18138-0). This project examines whether the modern understanding of human experience is based on a specific conception of the negative, taking as references Cartesian philosophy and Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis. To this end, we analyze how the Cartesian passion of the soul and the psychoanalytic drive shed light on human experience. In turn, the project Unknown Land? The Human Body in Descartes and Freud explores the relationship between these two concepts and the notion of the human body. The hypothesis we shall investigate is that the category of the human body constitutes an indispensable focal point for conceptualizing human experience and that, perhaps, it requires a certain negativity to become conceptually intelligible. In Descartes, this body is defined by its union with the soul; in Freud, by the role of the drive. Consequently, the international internship constitutes a crucial step for the development of the doctoral research in Brazil, focusing on the potential role of negativity in understanding human experience since modernity. Finally, our starting point will be, notably, Descartes' Treatise on Man, Treatise of the Passions, and Meditations, as well as theoretical texts on the metapsychology of Freudian psychoanalysis. (AU)