The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis, and: Intimate Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis (review)

In both of these recently translated books by Kristeva, the question of revolt is cast as a question of civilization. Inspired by Freud, Kristeva views the work of civilization as tied to an overcoming of the archaic, in particular, the archaic mother. Indeed, as her arguments develop in these works, it becomes clear that she understands revolt in decidedly paternal terms. Kristeva tells us that in order for revolt to be effective in securing freedom, there must be a confrontation with an obstacle, a prohibition, a struggle with authority and the law (SNR 7). Referencing Freud in Totem and Taboo, revolt's success comes through a displacement of the father's authority on to the sons, and the formation of a symbolic pact which protects the sons from the impurity of the maternal space (SNR 21-24).

There are, however, two fathers for Kristeva, one imaginary and the other oedipal, and both are necessary for revolt, both necessary in securing a space of separation from the mother. The imaginary father is the father of identification and idealization, one who, through the effect of the mirror, presents the subject with an image of the ego that allows a space from the maternal container. Kristeva is at pains to emphasize the importance of this formation of the narcissistic ego for aesthetic representation, and surprisingly, for the emergence of the death drive. By loving itself, an image of itself, the subject engages in a kind of de-eroticization, a disengagement from the drive of eros, thus exposing itself to the death drive. Kristeva comments that "we invest not in an erotic object (a partner) but a pseudo-object, a production of the ego itself, that is quite simply its own aptitude to imagine, to signify, to speak, to think" (SNR 55). In its narcissistic withdrawal, the ego makes use of the negative, assumes the risk of the death drive, and forms a new object, which is not mommy or daddy, not an external object, but an internal object that is then capable of producing speech.

The paternal work of identification and idealization is also at work in analysis with the transference. In the transference the analyst sparks a rebirth that comes through forgiveness. Ill-being occurs because of an absence of meaning. The imaginary ego is able to give meaning to what previously did not have any. By encountering a "loving" other who does not judge but "hears" my truth, I experience forgiveness. Kristeva tells us that "forgiveness is not given by another: one forgives oneself with the help of another" (IR 19). Especially for those people who experience depression, it is important for the analyst to mobilize an "intense identification" with the analysand so that he or she can forge a "forgiving interpretation" to their suffering. This involves mourning the lost object, which initially the depressive does not want to give up, putting the loss into words.

Yet, despite the importance of the imaginary father as a paternal structure, Kristeva insists that the paternal must be transformed through the figure of the oedipal father. Rather than separation through love, we now have separation in relation to the agency of the law: "I must identify in relation to the law at the same time as I separate myself from it in order to create my own place" (SNR 84). The figure of the oedipal father does not support me but threatens me with sanctions, puts in front of me his authority as a block to my path. This authority is unique, however, because it is grounded in negativity: the oedipal father exercises his authority in the belief that he can lose it. He is...