Reflections On Shaw And Psychoanalysis

Abstract

By BRINGING TOGETHER A NUMBER OF Bernard Shaw's scattered obiter dicta on psychoanalysis, Arthur Nethercot has performed a distinct service to Shavian scholarship. His article, "Bernard Shaw and Psychoanalysis"! launches a useful exploration into Shaw's relation to the psychoanalytic movement. Not only does it helpfully direct our attention to a hitherto neglected aspect of Shaw's thought, but assembles much material essential to its proper appraisal. .But it is necessary to point out that this pioneering article is only an introduction. to its subject, and one that stands in need of correction in a variety of respects. Indeed, the author, who has written more perceptively about Shaw in the past, has in this case allowed his own predilections to lead him into a series of critical pitfalls. Inclined to regard Shaw's prevailing assessment of Freudian psychoanalysis as misguided, if not perverse, he is much too willing to attribute this seemingly inexplicable outlook to obliviousness or indifference. What is more, in presuming no data to exist where he found none, he is impelled to subscribe to divers premature and untenable conclusions.