James Donnelly, DSW, LCSW

“Make the nothing therein appropriate, and you will have the use of the vessel”

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (circa fifth century BCE)

Lao Tsu is big on spaces; so are Hannah Arendt and her voice,in the uniquely French articulation  of Freud,  Julia Kristeva.

Like many of the Continental Psychoanalytic authors, the writers presume a fairly au courant facility with the     history of western philosophy and Freud in the original German!   A presumption not applicable to myself and, probably, most  American therapists.

In Strangers to Ourselves, Kristeva takes us on a journey starting with a poetic, sometimes opaque, expression of her own experiences of foreignness (she is an eastern European immigrant to France) through her meditations on the agony of acceptance and rejection of the strange and the foreign in the literature of the early Greeks, the Jews, Paul and Augustine, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. How, personally and communally, we have struggled to define ourselves at the expense of some “other” is the tragic core of the human condition; a dilemma, if remaining unacknowledged and unaddressed, wrecks havoc and is an assault on the survival of the human spirit in our increasingly shrinking world. Illustrating the efforts of Augustine, Kant and Montesquieu to explore an ethics and politics based on the common human nature of all people (crystallized in the Enlightenment’s declaration of the Rights of Man), Kristeva leads us to the unique genius of Freud. He brings to this issue his discovery and exposition of the reality of the unconscious and therapeutic power of transference. Kristeva’s attraction to Freud has been enhanced by the influence of Hannah Arendt, Heidgger and Sartre – all of whom are advocates of the validity of plurality and difference at the heart of each and all’s struggle for meaning. In Freud, and her own understanding of Freudian psychology and the development of our capacity for symbol, language and the formation of identity/self, Kristiva finds some hope of resolution of the dilemma inherent in each person’s struggle to remain alive and meaningful in relationship and community. For Kristeva, it is the acknowledgement and acceptance of the “stranger”, in the other and within ourselves, that the true hope of meaningful life together abides.

A linguist, political philosopher as well as psychoanalyst, Kristeva’s basic insight is that language reflects the ambiguity of our very being-in-community; an ambiguity at the root of the formation and maintenance of our selves. The aliveness of our being cannot be adequately expressed or contained by either our selves, our language and all their derivatives of law, culture and society. Sanity and authenticity require a balance between our genuine need to connect to each other and to rebel against the surrender of our difference. However, true difference without the rejection of the other can only be achieved through the sometimes painful and disturbing acknowledgement and acceptance of the “uncanny” and “strange” within our selves –  an uncanny that is at the root of our biological-linguistic being. It stems from both the residue of the vicissitudes of our development through relationships and the inherent incapacity of symbol and language to completely hold the pre-verbal roots of meaning; meanings that keep us vital and creative. In this lies the true hope of community.

Drawing from her background in linguistics, philosophy and object relations theory, Kristeva brings us a unique and rich interpretation of the Freudian drive theory rooted not on satisfaction or release of tension but on the creation of meaning as the heart of all relationships. The paradigm for hope and true humanness is held for Kristeva in the power of the dynamics of transference to access the unconscious in the therapeutic situation; a human relationship where, consciously, strangeness can be allowed and valued –  and the discomfort of meaning-between-us-being-placed-in-question can be tolerated, realizing our capacity to create new and inclusive meanings.

The therapeutic space within which this can occur is essentially the sometimes awe full emptiness of the undefined.

Julia Kristeva’s works can be difficult for many who are outside the preoccupations of Continental philosophy and an understanding of Freud and Psychoanalysis within that tradition. In addition, she brings to her work her own unique language as well as the personal and political struggles that have taken her through Hegel, Marx to Jacques Lacan and Freud. In Strangers to Ourselves, however, most of her theoretical concepts such a abjection, revolt and the semiotic are implicit and not directly elaborated. It does serve to highlight the importance of our work and its relevance to both the complexity of our world and the history of our Western tradition’s attempts to address the core dilemmas of being human together.

For those who may be interested to meet Kristeva in depth, there are two excellent introductions to her thoughts:

• The Portable Kristeva, edited by Kelly Oliver and published by Columbia University Press

• Kristeva and the Political, by Cecilia Sjoholm and published by Routledge.

For thoughts and comments, please send to: jdonnellydsw@gmail.com

©  2009 James Donnelly, DSW.LCSW

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