By Aner Govrin (Israel)

Psychoanalysis really should not exist today. Until a few years ago, most of the evidence suggested that its time was drawing to a close. And yet psychoanalysis has demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of criticism, demonstrating a significant resurgence over the last few years. In Conservative and Radical Perspectives on Psychoanalytic Knowledge: The Fascinated and the Disenchanted (Routledge Relational Perspectives Book Series, 2016) psychoanalyst and philosopher Aner Govrin describes the sociological mechanisms within the psychoanalytic community that have enabled it to withstand the hostility leveled at it and to flourish as an intellectual and pragmatic endeavor.

Govrin defends the most criticized aspect of psychoanalysis: the fascination of analysts with their theories. Govrin demonstrates that fascination is a common phenomenon in science and shows its role in the evolution of psychoanalysis.

Govrin argues that throughout its history, psychoanalysis has successfully embraced an amalgam of what he has defined and termed fascinated and troubled communities. A fascinated community is a group that embraces a psychoanalytic theory (such as Bion’s, Klein’s, or Winnicott’s) as one embraces truth. A troubled community is one that is not satisfied with the state of psychoanalytic knowledge and seeks to generate a fundamental change that does not square with existing traditions (such as new psychoanalytic schools, scientifically troubled communities, and the relational approach).

It is this amalgam and the continuous tension between these two groups that are responsible for psychoanalysis’ rich and varied development and for its ability to adapt to a changing world. Clinical vignettes from the work of Robert Stolorow, Betty Joseph, Antonino Ferro, and Michael Eigen will illustrate the dynamic by which psychoanalytic knowledge is formed. This book will be of interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and philosophers alike.

Link: https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138856387

Aner Govrin, PhD
Director of Doctoral Track:
Psychoanalysis and Hermeneutics
Program for Cultural Studies
Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan   Israel 529002
Email Aner Govrin