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)