The Analyst's Ear and the Critic's Eye

by Benjamin H. Ogden, Thomas H. Ogden

The Analyst’s Ear and the Critic’s Eye is the first volume of literary criticism to be co-authored by a practicing psychoanalyst and a literary critic. The result of this unique collaboration is a lively conversation that not only demonstrates what is most fundamental to each discipline, but creates a joint perspective on reading literature that neither discipline alone can achieve. This book radically redefines the relationship between psychoanalysis and literary studies in a way that revitalizes the conversation between the two fields. This is achieved, in part, by providing richly textured descriptions of analytic work. These clinical illustrations bring to life the intersubjective dimension of analytic practice, which is integral to the book’s original conception of psychoanalytic literary criticism. In their readings of seminal works of American and European literature, the authors address questions that are fundamental to psychoanalysis, literary studies, and the future of psychoanalytic literary -What is psychoanalytic literary criticism? -Which concepts are most fundamental to psychoanalytic theory? -What is the role of psychoanalytic theory in reading literature? -How does an analyst’s clinical experience shape the way he reads? -How might literary critics make use of the analyst’s experience with his patients? -What might psychoanalysts learn from the ways professional literary critics read? This volume provides cutting edge work which will breathe new life into psychoanalytic ways of reading, free from technical language, yet drawing upon what is most fundamental to psychoanalytic theory and practice. It will be of great interest to mental health professionals, literary scholars and those studying psychoanalysis and literature.

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 2013

Reviews

[Daniel Nobre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good points of this book:
-A critique to the current psychoanalitic literary criticism that can also be applied to sociology, marxist and feminist literary criticism as all of this fields tend to make superficial interpretations based on a rigid conceptual framework.
-It explores the notion of uncounscious by Bion and exposes the relation between psychoanalysis/psychology and language.

(Some) Lacks of this book:
-It is very repetitive, and- using the tools that this book gave me to criticize it- this repetitiveness tells me that this book lacks content that would fill some of the gaps that were unexplored by this book such as:
-There is no explanation to the psychoanalitic ear, and it presents this kind of earing as something purely intuitive- the book repeats itself over and over saying that the psychoanalist has years of clinical experience- when in fact this kind of operation of earing the patient in psychoanalysis unfolds in two ways: mirroring ( you try to mirror your patient so you can connect with him/her) and transference (when you allow the patients feelings to become yours)- these two processes are never mentioned in the book and they are a fundamental practice in psychoanalitic reading.
-the book lacks a Lacanian Analytic perspective- this is clear when the authors try to explain the relation between psychology and language and end up repeating themselves- the famous quote of Lacan "The unconscious is structured like a language." Unravels the connection between language and psychology precisely because we cannot think outside of our language, and because of this limitation, we use language in a way that tries to convey a message, however that message can never express our true feelings and desires (Desirée).

Overall a bit boring, might finnish this book later.