Description
Book SynopsisDoes critical theory still need psychoanalysis? Amy Allen offers a cogent and convincing defense of its ongoing relevance. She draws on Freud, Klein, and Lacan to develop a more realistic strand of psychoanalytic thinking that centers on notions of loss, negativity, ambivalence, and mourning.
Trade ReviewCertainly, the book carefully evaluates critical theory. -- Jaeyoon Park * Contemporary Political Theory *
Allen’s
Critique On The Couch is clearly timely. . . More work by her or others writing within the field of critical theory is needed to address questions and issues raised in the book. -- Ali Sadeghi * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *
In
Critique on the Couch: Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis, Amy Allen makes a strong case for the relevance of psychoanalysis to any project that seeks to advance the work initiated by the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists. -- Charlene Elsby * Symposium *
Amy Allen works with many of the central authors in the field of critical theory to make the case for psychoanalysis, the analytic potential of the death drive, and the importance of retaining the notion of the unconscious. Much of this book is composed of sustained arguments with the central figures of critical theory: Habermas, Honneth, and the important contributions of Joel Whitebook. Without ever leaving the foothold in philosophy, Allen widens the terms of the debate, asking her readers to consider the important contributions that Klein and Lacan can make to a rethinking of the self, progress, and the prospects of relationality. This work is written with Allen's signature clarity and patience, pursuing arguments to conclusion rather than resting with petty skirmishes. Taken as a whole, this is a remarkable achievement of sustained attention, patient thought, persuasive argumentation. -- Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley
Cogently argued, this superb book offers a dazzling defense of the continued relevance of psychoanalysis for critical social theory. At a moment in intellectual history when antitheory forces proclaim the demise of both critical theory and psychoanalysis, Allen shows that the intersection of these fields furnishes invaluable resources for analyzing the contours of subjectivity, relationality, politics, and social change.
Critique on the Couch—especially its adroit revitalization of Kleinian theory—makes a magnificent contribution to the critical humanities. -- Mari Ruti, author of
Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings: The Emotional Costs of Everyday LifeThe encounter between social theory and psychoanalysis has been a classical topos in the history of the Frankfurt School’s early critical theory. Allen’s bold, original, and timely book revisits this theoretical relationship with a strong systematic intention. She urges us to do nothing less than to critically rethink the social nature of the psyche as well as the imaginary dimension of contemporary politics. -- Martin Saar, Goethe Universität Frankfurt
Ambitious, timely and thought-provoking. * Journal of Social and Political Philosophy *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis (Now More Than Ever)
1. Kleinian Realism: Between the Intrapsychic and the Intersubjective
2. A System of Scars: The Problem of Ego Integration
3. Beyond Developmentalism: Psychoanalysis and the Critique of Progress
4. The Cure Is That There Is No Cure: Psychoanalysis and the Idea of Progress
5. Transference: Psychoanalysis and the Methodology of Critique
Conclusion: From Theory to Praxis
Notes
Bibliography
Index
