Testimony and Witnessing in Psychoanalysis: A Literary and Philosophical Perspective

In this fascinating volume, Zipi Rosenberg Schipper approaches the fundamental topic of testimony, seeking to recognize its value as a distinct and vital function in psychoanalytic work, separate from its inherited importance to work on trauma.

Rosenberg Schipper introduces a revivifying philosophical, linguistic and psychoanalytic approach to the act of testimony, focusing on the role of witnessing in daily life and the importance it has as a therapeutic tool in psychoanalytic and psychological therapy. Throughout, she pinpoints three key psychoanalytic theories on patient testimony. She begins by looking at Freud’s foundational work on testimony as a means of concealing the unconscious and the questions of credibility in the consulting room this creates, before looking at Winnicottian and Kohutian theories [whereby] therapists take everything the patient says as a definitive truth. She concludes by looking at the Intersubjective and Relational schools of thought, where the therapist assumes the role of witness.

By providing a comprehensive overview of the conflicting theories on the topic, Rosenberg Schipper equips practicing psychoanalysts and analysts-in-training with the tools necessary to utilise this vital therapeutic device and engage with it in treatment for all patients.