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The Ethical Seduction of the Analytic Situation: The Feminine-Maternal Origins of Responsibility for the Other

Author(s) : Viviane Chetrit-Vatine

Reviews and Endorsements

‘The purpose of this book is to confront the demanding issue of the ethics of psychoanalysis from the original perspective of trying to discover the ethical consistency of the actual foundations of the discipline. The hypothesis that the ethical stance of Levinas, identified with the "responsibilisation" for the other, has maternal origins and must be re-thought following Laplanche’s theory of primary seduction, clearly distinguishes the ethics of psychoanalysis from a mere – though always exacting – professional deontology. We are grateful to Viviane Chetrit-Vatine for trying to construct a new psychoanalytic statute for ethics and a new ethical orientation for psychoanalysis.’
— Jorge Canestri, Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association’s Ethics Committee (2001 – 2005) and author of Putting Theory to Work: How are Theories Actually Used in Practice?

‘This book talks to all analysts, regardless of their different theoretical backgrounds, as it goes deep to the quintessential origin of our profession: the importance of the adult caring environment conjugated with a philosophical vision of our ethical sense of responsibility towards the other. Reflecting on the seductive and the ethical dimensions of the analytic situation not only helps us to refine our conceptualisation of psychoanalytic work, but also proves amazingly useful in our actual work whenever we have to scrutinise the adequacy of the elasticity of the setting. I believe this book really fills a gap in our psychoanalytic culture.’
— Antonino Ferro, President of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society, member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and author of The Analytic Field: A Clinical Concept

‘In this most interesting book, Viviane Chetrit-Vatine aims to construct an ethics for psychoanalysis. She suggests that there is a double asymmetry of the analytical situation, while she stresses both its ethical and seductive dimensions. In particular, she argues that the psychoanalytic encounter takes place in a time/space that is characterised by the analyst’s ethical position defined, after Levinas, as responsibility for the other. Drawing on contemporary schools of psychoanalysis, especially in France, this book is gripping and highly relevant to current discussions on the ethics of psychoanalysis.’
— Rosine Jozef Perelberg, Training Analyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society and Visiting Professor in the Psychoanalysis Unit at University College London