Reflecting Psychoanalysis: Narrative and Resolve in the Psychoanalytic Experience

Acknowledging the influence of such thinkers as Bion, Winnicott, Lacan and Ricour Jurgen Reeder charts his own course in this 'exploration into my own standpoints'.

At the heart of this book is an ethical question: 'With what legitimacy do I assume the right to interpret my fellow being?' This question is raised in the context of a critique of a particular hermeneutic interpretation of psychoanalysis, namely, psychoanalysis as an objectifying discipline in which the other (the analysand) is regarded quintessentially as a representation or exterior object to be understood.

Reeder embraces the fundamental intersubjectivity of psychoanalytic experience. Intersubjectivity is viewed as the human encounter within the psychoanalytic setting where there occurs a mutual influencing or acting upon, rather than an encounter guided by an essentially objectivating scientific knowledge.

Truth in this conception is not a cumulatively acquired possession, but an always-emerging process coiled within an interpretative dialectic occurring between human beings. This is a thoughtful, nuanced, clearly articulated and challenging book that engages directly with the perceived crisis of psychoanalysis.