Way Beyond Freud

From Metapsychology, a review of “Way Beyond Freud: Postmodern Psychoanalysis Observed” (via).

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.

This raises a number of questions – among which might be, Does this rubbish actually mean anything? – but I’m curious as to why, if “the perspective of the analyst can be no more accurate than the perspective of his patient“, people should be expected to pay thousands of pounds in fees. I mean, what’s the point of psychoanalysis if the analyst has no more clue than the patient? It’s not much of a selling point, is it?

And I like that bit about “postmodernism has led to greater…skepticism regarding the relevance of objective research methods“. I can believe it. I think in that sentence we find a clue as to what exactly the attractions of postmodernism might be for psychoanalysis.