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Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go
Book by Roustang, Professor François
- GenresTheoryPsychoanalysis
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
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January 21, 2019
Since this book is marginal to my project, I'm only going to give it a cursory review. I'm a fan of Roustang's, a psychoanalyst who trained with Lacan but who has always maintained a position of healthy skepticism toward both his mentor and psychoanalysis as a whole.
Roustang is best known for his books Dire Mastery: Discipleship from Freud to Lacan, a critique of the way that psychoanalysis uses transference to propagate (rather than eliminate) itself, and The Lacanian Delusion, his most vehement statement about the shortcomings of Lacanian theory. I have read and reviewed both books which, despite some minor shortcomings, remain some of the best critical works about Lacanian theory ever written. In Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go, however, Lacan is mostly a marginal figure, discussed at length only in Chapter 5.
The book's concern is similar to the main thesis of Dire Mastery, arguing that there is a distinct overlap between transference and Freud's interest in things like hypnosis, suggestion, and telepathy. The dilemma that this overlap highlights is the tension between psychoanalysis as a positive system for providing the patient with a path to independence and mental stability, and the danger that it can become a technique for tyranny and mind-control.
For Roustang, this dilemma is something that Freud - and indeed, Lacan - never really resolved. Psychoanalysis may aspire to act ethically, but it is simply impossible to abolish the dark side of transference. Roustang thus borrows a famous remark from Ludwig Binswanger for his title: "He whom psychoanalysis has once seized, it never lets go." The book explores this idea from a number of different angles, beginning with Freud's style, such as examining the way his system allows and encourages others to become entangled in its jargon and logic.
On the whole, the central point of Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go is worthy, but unlike Roustang's other books this one seems both more technical (the audience at which it aims, despite Roustang's claims to a more general readership in the preface, is clearly other practicing psychoanalysts) and bound by the context of France circa 1980. As such, the core trunk of Roustang's conceptual tree is strong, but its branches and leaves seem somewhat outdated when visited by today's reader.
Roustang is best known for his books Dire Mastery: Discipleship from Freud to Lacan, a critique of the way that psychoanalysis uses transference to propagate (rather than eliminate) itself, and The Lacanian Delusion, his most vehement statement about the shortcomings of Lacanian theory. I have read and reviewed both books which, despite some minor shortcomings, remain some of the best critical works about Lacanian theory ever written. In Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go, however, Lacan is mostly a marginal figure, discussed at length only in Chapter 5.
The book's concern is similar to the main thesis of Dire Mastery, arguing that there is a distinct overlap between transference and Freud's interest in things like hypnosis, suggestion, and telepathy. The dilemma that this overlap highlights is the tension between psychoanalysis as a positive system for providing the patient with a path to independence and mental stability, and the danger that it can become a technique for tyranny and mind-control.
For Roustang, this dilemma is something that Freud - and indeed, Lacan - never really resolved. Psychoanalysis may aspire to act ethically, but it is simply impossible to abolish the dark side of transference. Roustang thus borrows a famous remark from Ludwig Binswanger for his title: "He whom psychoanalysis has once seized, it never lets go." The book explores this idea from a number of different angles, beginning with Freud's style, such as examining the way his system allows and encourages others to become entangled in its jargon and logic.
On the whole, the central point of Psychoanalysis Never Lets Go is worthy, but unlike Roustang's other books this one seems both more technical (the audience at which it aims, despite Roustang's claims to a more general readership in the preface, is clearly other practicing psychoanalysts) and bound by the context of France circa 1980. As such, the core trunk of Roustang's conceptual tree is strong, but its branches and leaves seem somewhat outdated when visited by today's reader.
Displaying 1 of 1 review