Discussion of Eyal Rozmarin's “An other in Psychoanalysis”

Abstract

This commentary focuses on Rozmarin's use of Levinas to critique psychoanalytic theories of being and of knowing. The commentary explores the psychoanalytic implications of Levinas's unique use of “otherness” and of the crisis in relatedness and ethics that arises in conventional understandings of knowing and relating to another. Using a clinical example, I raise questions that address the tensions in postmodern and enlightenment elements in psychoanalytic theory, the place of ambivalence, and the potential role for a view of multiple subjectivities.