Impossible Ethics

Abstract

The proper practice of psychoanalysis repudiates a rule-based code of ethical conduct. A conflict exists, however, between Freud’s rejection of the Biblical commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself and his development of psychoanalytic techniques that demand something very much of this ilk. Other essential conflicts in analytic practice include the impossibility of removing the analyst’s desire from the analytic relationship, the unruly nature of unconscious processes in both analyst and analysand, and the après-coup nature of ethical recognition. A discourse of ethics is recommended in which analysts are called on to consider the ethical demands of each clinical moment. Ethical demands on the analysand, as well as the analyst, bring to light the way in which analysis rests on the foundational ethical situation into which humankind is born.

Social Justice Activism as Interpretation in a Loewaldian World

“…Because psychoanalytic ethics are conversant with unconscious processes, our ethical inquiry is often an indirect undertaking that may be understood only in retrospect. Psychoanalysis frequently considers the ethics of choices that have been made in the past, which are illumined through deferred action and the insight borne of retrospection (Ackerman 2020). For Loewald, this sort of "past-work" in the present is what creates the future, transforming the haunting presences of ethical failures into the antecedents of generative potential.…”

Limits on Love: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Psychoanalytic Texts

“…Of the six, 2 the search term love was prioritized, and papers were selected if they featured both the term love and subject matter related to issues of race, shared humanity, or sociopolitics. A text that mentioned “the analyst’s ethical obligation to love her patient as herself” (Ackerman 2020), for example, met inclusion criteria. Texts that used the phrase loved ones to refer to family and close friends did not.…”

“…Sometimes the concept is named, but framed restrictively, with the therapist having to curb a patient’s wishes and desires. Sarah Ackerman (2020) writes of patients “expecting a curative kind of love, receiving what their parents and caretakers failed to deliver. It falls on the analyst to awaken patients from this dream .…”