Psychoanalysis as Humanism: Reclaiming Eros for Critical Theory

Abstract

The psychoanalytic process can neither be theorized nor practiced without an accounting of the drive that allows it to heal, unite and, above all, to mobilize: Eros. To understand Eros, however, is a tricky prospect. At its origins, Eros figures primarily in Greek mythology as the companion and child of Aphrodite, and functions as the agent who directly placed love’s directives into action by firing his arrows into the hearts of mortals. This image is worth unpacking. While the myths of Aphrodite are as likely to involve violence as life-affirming passion (she is described as the lover of Ares and as the jealous persecutor of Psyche, to take but two examples), Eros embodies a love that is at the core of any project of critical resistance. First, while Aphrodite remains, at best, a passive ideal of love, Eros fuels the potency of love in the real world. Without Eros, indeed, love would neither drive the creative efforts of men nor support solidarity among them. Eros is thus linked, from the start, with an unyielding impulse to bind together that which must come together—most importantly, disparate human beings—in a passionate unity that pushes society closer to a mature, fulfilling mode of life.