Abstract
One of the relics of positivism has been an underappreciation of the moral and ethical dimensions of psychoanalytic theory and practice. In a positivist metapsychology, cure and therapeutic gain were often defined instrumentally, with relatively little consideration given to aspects of human experience (e.g., moral, cultural, spiritual) that did not fit within a positivist framework. Conceptual and paradigmatic shifts in psychoanalysis have occurred, in part, because of the inability of the classical model to provide a language that adequately captures deeply felt human values and beliefs. Aided by hermeneutic and postmodern influences, many contemporary psychoanalytic theories are beginning to focus greater attention on the notion that analytic therapy is empowered by a set of ethical convictions, beliefs, and commitments, which are tied to a certain understanding of the good life. Along these lines, the author argues that developing a fresh understanding of the moral and ethical dimensions of psychoanalysis requires elaborating a new ontology of human subjectivity and social life. The author offers a sketch of how this gargantuan task might be started by integrating psychoanalysis within a hermeneutic perspective on dialogue, by suggesting that it would be helpful to view psychoanalysis as promoting Aristotelian practical wisdom or phronesis, and by rethinking psychoanalytic theory and interpretation as a form of practice.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aristotle. (1962). Nicomachean ethics (M. Ostwald, Trans.) New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Aron, L. (1996). A meeting of minds: Mutuality in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Aron, L. (1998). Clinical choices and the theory of psychoanalytic technique: Commentary of papers by Mitchell and Davies. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 207-216.
Aron, L. (1999). Clinical choices and the relational matrix. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 9, 1-29.
Balter, L., Lothane, Z., & Spencer, J. (1980). On the analyzing instrument. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 49, 474-504.
Beiner, (1992). What's the matter with liberalism? Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bernstein, R. J. (1983). Beyond objectivism and relativism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bion, W. (1967). Notes on memory and desire. In E. B. Spillius (Ed.), Melanie Klein today, vol. 2 (pp. 17-21). London: Routledge.
Bromberg, P. (1998). Staying the same while changing: Reflections on clinical judgment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 225-236.
Cushman, P. (1995). Constructing the self, constructing America. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Etzioni, A. (1996). The new golden rule: Community and morality in democratic society. New York: Basic Books.
Fancher, R. (1995). Cultures of healing: Correcting the image of American mental health care. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Fosshage, J. (1997). Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy: Is there a meaningful distinction in the process? Psychoanalytic Psychology, 14, 409-425.
Freud, S. (1905). Fragment of an analysis of a case of hysteria. SE, 7, 3-122.
Freud, S. (1912). Recommendations for physicians on the psycho-analytic method of treatment. SE, 12, 110-121.
Freud, S. (1913). On beginning the treatment. SE, 12, 121-144.
Freud, S. (1923). The ego and the id. SE, 19, 1-66.
Freud, S. (1927). The future of an illusion. SE, 21, 3-56.
Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and its discontents. SE, 21, 59-145.
Freud, S. (1933). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. SE, 22, 1-182.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1975). Truth and method. New York: Crossword. (Original work published in 1960)
Gadamer, H.-G. (1981). Reason in the age of science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1987). The problem of historical consciousness. In P. Rabinow & W. Sullivan (Eds.), Interpreting social science: A second look (pp. 82-140). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gill, M. (1994). Psychoanalysis in transition: A personal view. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Gergen, K. (1998). Social construction and psychoanalytic promise: Commentary on paper by Michael Bader. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 45-53.
Greenberg, J. (1986). Theoretical models and the analyst's neutrality. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 22, 89-106.
Greenberg, J. (1996). Psychoanalytic words and psychoanalytic acts. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 32, 195-213.
Greenberg, J. (1998). A clinical moment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 217-224.
Greenberg, J. (1999). Analytic authority and analytic restraint. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 35, 25-41.
Greenberg, J. (in press). The analyst's participation: A new look. JAPA.
Grossman, W. (1995). Psychological vicissitudes of theory in clinical work. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 76, 885-899.
Hoffman, I. Z. (1998). Ritual and spontaneity in the psychoanalytic process: A dialectical-constructivist view. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Isakower, O. (1992). The analyzing instrument in the teaching and conduct of the analytic process. Journal of Clinical Psychoanalysis, 1, 181-222.
Mayer, E. (1996). Changes in science and changing ideas about knowledge and authority in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 65, 158-200.
Mitchell, S. (1988). Relational concepts in psychoanalysis. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Mitchell, S. (1997). Influence and autonomy in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Mitchell, S. (1998). The emergence of features of the analyst's life. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 8, 187-194.
Mitchell, S. (2000). Relationality: From attachment to intersubjectivity. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Orange, D. (1995). Emotional understanding: Studies in psychoanalytic epistemology. New York: Guilford.
Orange, D., Atwood, G., & Stolorow, R. (1997). Working intersubjectively: Contextualism in psychoanalytic practice. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Racker, H. (1968). Transference and counter-transference. New York: International Universities Press.
Renik (1998). Getting real in analysis. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 67, 566-593.
Richardson, F., & Christopher, J. (1993). Social theory as practice: Metatheoretical frameworks for social inquiry. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 13, 137-153.
Richardson, F., Fowers, B., & Guignon, C. (1999). Re-envisioning psychology: Moral dimensions of theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Saks, E. (1999). Interpreting interpretation: The limits of hermeneutic psychoanalysis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sandel, M. (1996). Democracy's discontent: America in search of a public philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Slife, B., & Williams, R. (1995). What's behind the research? Discovering hidden assumptions in the behavioral sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Stern, D. B. (1996). The social construction of therapeutic action. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 16, 265-293.
Stern, D. B. (1997). Unformulated experience: From dissociation to imagination in psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
Taylor, C. (1985). Philosophy and the human sciences: Philosophical papers, volume 2. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wallerstein, R. (1989). Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy: An historical perspective. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 70, 563-591.
Warnke, G. (1987). Gadamer: Hermeneutics, tradition, and reason. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Zeddies, T. (2000a). Psychoanalytic praxis and the moral vision of psychoanalysis: Brief communication on a paper by Kenneth Eisold. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 36, 521-528.
Zeddies, T. (2000b). Within, outside, and in between: The relational unconscious. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 17, 467-487.
Zeddies, T., & Richardson, F. (1999). Analytic authority in historical and critical perspective: Beyond objectivism and relativism. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 35, 581-601.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zeddies, T.J. Out of the Consulting Room and into the World: Hermeneutic Dialogue, Phronesis, and Psychoanalytic Theory as Practice. Am J Psychoanal 61, 217–238 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010225301066
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010225301066