Beyond Postmodernism

'The initial deconstructive phase of postmodernism served the important function of waking psychoanalysis from its dogmatic slumber. By criticizing the objectivism, scientism and authoritarianism of the reigning paradigm, it opened the field to the sort of fundamental debate it had not witnessed in decades, and introduced a new openness and pluralism among analysts. But that initial phase has run its course, and the ritualistic repetition of deconstructive tropes has become a tiresome exercise. What is required now is a reconstructive phase that would ask the hard and unavoidable questions that arise after critique has done its work. Today we must ask what objectivity can mean after the critique of objectivism, what sciences can mean after the critique of scientism, what authority can mean after the critique of authoritarianism and what asymmetry means after the critique of one-person psychology. The rich collection of papers by well-known psychoanalytic theorists published in this volume makes an excellent contribution to this task. Let the heavy lifting begin.'Joel Whitebook, Faculty, The Columbia University Center For Psychoanalytic Training and Research