Interpreting Interpretation : The Limits of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis

by Elyn Saks

• ISBN13: 9780300076035
• ISBN10: 0300076037
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-04-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Psychoanalytic interpretation, according to the hermeneutic view, is concerned with meaning rather than facts or causes. In this provocative book, Elyn R. Saks focuses closely on what hermeneutic psychoanalysis is and how the approaches of hermeneutic psychoanalysts differ. She finds that although these psychoanalysts use the same words, concepts, images, and analogies, they hold to at least five different positions on the truth of psychoanalytic interpretations. Saks locates within these five models the thought of such prominent analysts as Roy Schafer, Donald Spence, and George Klein. Then, approaching each model from the patient's point of view, the author reaches important conclusions about treatments that patients not only will -- but should -- reject. If patients understood the true nature of the various models of hermeneutic psychoanalysis, Saks argues, they would spurn the story model, which asks patients to believe interpretations that do not purport to be true; that is, the psychoanalyst simply tells stories that give meaning to patients' lives, the truth of which is not considered relevant. And patients would question the metaphor and the interpretations-as-literary-criticism models, which propose views of psychoanalysis that may be unsatisfying. In addition to discussing which hermeneutic models of treatment are plausible, Saks discusses the nature of metaphorical truth. She arrives at some penetrating insights into the theory of psychoanalysis itself.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
CHAPTER 1 Introduction	1	(17)
CHAPTER 2 The Hermeneutic Analytic Thinkers	18	(62)
CHAPTER 3 The Models	80	(40)
CHAPTER 4 The Plausibility of the Story Model of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis	120	(43)
CHAPTER 5 The Plausibility of the Other Models of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis	163	(44)
CHAPTER 6 The Weak Form of the Argument from Patient Rejection Revisited	207	(13)
CHAPTER 7 Implications for Theoretical Psychoanalysis and Other Concluding Thoughts	220	(11)
APPENDIX The Reality of the Story Model and the Applicability of the Argument of Its Variants	231	(16)
References	247	(8)
Index	255