Understanding PsychoanalysisMatthew Sharpe and Joanne Faulkner Stocksfield, UK: Acumen Publishing, 2008, 240 pp.

Abstract

Understanding Psychoanalysis is a much-needed introductory text that addresses both the dense historical contextualization underpinning psychoanalysis' genesis as well as the litany of criticism that never ceased tarrying alongside it since its inception. Synthesizing their respective understandings of various moments in the history of psychoanalysis, from both a contemporary and a historical perspective, Sharpe and Faulkner have produced a fecund presentation of the tradition that is ideal for both basic and advanced learning. Consistent with the ideal for any "introductory" text, no prior knowledge of psychoanalysis is required to aid understanding. However, for those students of psychoanalysis and instructors who are more familiar with the material, it will be most obvious to these individuals how well Sharpe and Faulkner convey the complexity of this tradition (e.g., the of translation of key terms in Freud that are otherwise commonly overlooked (p. 46), Lacan's concept of the "gaze" (pp. 160-161), Derrida's sympathies and criticisms of psychoanalysis (pp. 179-180), to name just a few). The authors themselves come well prepared to deliver on all fronts related to psychoanalysis with special interest in the poststructuralist, critical theory, and feminist interpretations. See Sharpe's article "Psychoanalysis" in Understanding Derrida (2004); Sharpe (2002a) on Derrida and Camus; Sharpe (2002b) on critical theory and Herbert Marcuse;Boucher et al.'s Traversing the Fantasy: Critical Responses to Slavoj Žižek (2006); as well as Faulkner's (2008) brilliant article on Sarah Kofman and Nietzsche published in " Hypatia ." After reviewing the literature it is evidently diffi cult to fi nd such a thorough, wellread introductory text on psychoanalysis under three hundred pages that covers the breadth and substance that Understanding Psychoanalysis achieves. Whether in good company or under derisive criticism, various aspects of psychoanalysis have been usurped by many diverse fi elds to which the authors allude (p. 173). Many of the texts related to these various fi elds of study tend to be too narrow in scope and any introduction or background of psychoanalytic theory/history "in general" is either too cursory or biased. See, for example, Karen Kaplan-Solms and Mark Solms (2000), Todd McGowan (2007), Gabriele Schwab (2007) for a neuropsychoanalytic, fi lm, and poststructuralist interpretation, respectively. Sharpe and Faulkner begin with the guiding question "What can psychoanalysis have to do with philosophy and other modern movements of thought, if it can have to do with them at all?"(p. 4) Understanding Psychoanalysis is presented in a rather "uncritical" manner concerning its tackling of some of the fi gures in the tradition only to fulfi ll the impetus of an introductory text as "primarily exegetical." However (and this is the fi rst commendable move on behalf of the authors), in their text they have staked a philosophical position with respect to psychoanalysis in general. Readers of this book "can discern an ethi...

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