Ethics and Humanistic Ethics — A Reply to Dilman

Abstract

In his paper, Dilman wants to explore the ethics of psychoanalysis. It is an ethics characterized by the claim that there is an essential connection between morality and our humanity. Dilman wants to explore what this claim comes to, hence the tide of his paper: ‘Psychoanalysis and Ethics: Some Reflections on the Self in Its Relationship to Good and Evil’. The reflections, it seems to me, are independent of the psychoanalytic claims he discusses, though they are occasioned by them. This is because Dilman’s interest is in the philosophical implications of the claims being made. He wants to criticize them, but, at the same time, rescue what he thinks is of value in them. The claims are trying to say something important about moral considerations, but say it in the wrong way. The claims have been made by others. The fact that they are made by psychoanalysts, as far as Dilman’s discussion is concerned, simply happens to be the case. He treats them as metaphysicians who happen to be psychoanalysts. To further discussion of distinctive issues between ethics and psychoanalysis, Dilman would need to say something about the implications of the confusions he exposes for actual psychoanalytic practice.