Linda Brakel
Dr. Brakel is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the UM Department of Psychiatry, where she is Co-Associate Director of the Hunt Memorial Laboratory for research on Subliminal Processes, and she is a Psychoanalyst. As such she has had close acquaintance with psychoanalytic data-- data revealing mental phenomena best described as unconscious and a-rational or irrational. These non-rational and non-conscious mental phenomena call out for empirical investigations and a serious philosophical account. Brakel has done some empirical and philosophical work on "primary process" mentation, a form of thinking different from our ordinary rational thought. A recent philosophical article appearing in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy (2003), on this topic, "Phantasy and Wish: A Proper Function Account of Primary Process A-Rational Mentation" serves as the core of Brakel's upcoming book: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and the A-Rational Mind

Fields of Study
Psychoanalytic Theory, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Action, Epistemology