The
13 contributors to this volume engage the reader in a stimulating exchange and
dialogue about postmodern turn in psychoanalysis. They advocate, critique, or
simply observe this contemporary phenomena with superb scholarship.  Postmodern psychoanalysis is neither a
unified school. Matters of culture, gender, neurobiology, self-states, and the
profound complexities of relationships have riveted the attention of the
theorists and practitioners of pathogenesis that have emerged.

What
binds postmodern psychoanalysis is defined not only by thematic threads but by
what is rejected in a segment of Freudian psychoanalysis usually termed the classical. Most postmodernists have
in common a disdain for reductionism (seen as characterizing drive-focused
psychoanalysis), criticism of the concept of neutrality, opposition to the
exclusive focus on the intrapsychic dynamics of the subject of analytic
experience (what is termed one-person
psychology), and the counterposition regarding the emphasis on
interpretation as the major role of therapeutic action.

While
many of the terms employed by postmodern psychoanalysts are the same as those
used since the time of Freud, the shift to intersubjective (or two-person) perspective has generated
new meanings. This can be seen even in the definition of psychoanalysis. For
Freud, psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method is essentially concerned with
bringing unconscious meaning into consciousness, and it is characterized by the
interpretation, under controlled conditions of the analytic setting.   In contrast, postmodern psychoanalysis is
basically interpersonally oriented. The analytic relation is being more and
more conceptualized as an intersubjective system of mutual influence. All
knowledge in the psychoanalytic situation is contingent upon the experience of
the actual moment, and the perspective of the analyst can be no more accurate
than the perspective of his patient. A key tenet of postmodernism is that both
internal and external reality are social constructions, reflecting (among other
things) an individual’s cultural background, his language and his past and
present experience. In the empirical setting, postmodernism has led to a
resurgence of constructivist research and an emphasis on cultural relativism in
any discourse. In clinical setting, postmodernism has led to greater focus on narrative truth and skepticism regarding
the relevance of objective research methods to all important psychological and
psychopathological issues.

Freud’s
first outlines and ideas of psychoanalysis were derived from biological
principles as well as psychological ones, and much of his early drive model was
framed in the language of nineteenth century physiology. The post-Freudian
evolution of psychoanalysis has been characterized by an increasing emphasis on
psychological processes, with decreasing attention to biology. As
neuroimagining techniques move from research laboratory to consulting room, the
stage will be set for a renewal of Freud’s dream: the creation of
psychoanalysis that integrates biological and psychological principles into a
unified theory of a human life. Postmodern psychoanalysis offers numerous opportunities
for reconnecting psychoanalysis with mainstream psychology and all social (and
other) sciences.

This book will be of great interest for beginners and
for mature and highly experienced analyst. Its value is (or it could be)
practical and theoretical. The book is highly informative, well balanced, and
really interesting. There is a lot of neurobiology, epistemology, critical
sociology, and all other actually relevant theory and practice in it. Off
course, somebody could object that there is no room in this book for the
authors that are not Anglo-American. But, you cannot expect all from one book.
In this volume there are chapters that are clinical, empirical, philosophical,
historical, developmental and theoretical. The main importance of this book, I believe,
lays in its author’s courage to see things from rather different perspectives.
It is not necessary to agree with him in all of his ideas and to accept all of
his theses. On the contrary, priority is on questions not on answers. And the
questions that are posed here represents the best richness of this book.

© 2005 Petar Jevremovic

Petar
Jevremovic: Clinical psychologist and practicing psychotherapist, author of
two books (Psychoanalysis and Ontology, Lacan and Psychoanalysis),
translator of Aristotle and Maximus the Confessor, editor of the Serbian
editions of selected works of Heintz Kohut, Jacques Lacan and Melanie Klein,
author of various texts that are concerned with psychoanalysis, philosophy,
literature and theology. He lives in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Categories: Psychoanalysis