Is psychoanalysis a heresy?

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Inna and all,

I can tell you one small incident from Queen Mary College, University of
London.  In class a student made a striking, somewhat psychoanalytic,
interpretation of a passage in a Chekhov story.  Later in the year I
expressed regret, when reading an essay she had written about this same
story, that she had not followed up this line of thought.  I may also have
said a few words about being in psychoanalysis myself.  Her reply: 'Oh, I
wish I had known you were interested in psychoanalysis! I'd love to have
followed up those thoughts, but at the beginning of the year we were told
that psychoanalytic interpretations were disapproved of!'  This, I think,
was at some general meeting for students of humanities.

I'd be interested, Inna, if you could forward me at least some of the
exchanges in the discussion you mention.

Best Wishes,

Robert

> Dear SEELANGers,
> 
> I subscribe to another list serve, namely, Psychology and the Arts, and
> in the last couple of weeks I have been following a fascinating
> discussion: apparently, attempts at psychoanalytical interpretation are
> met with much resistance, if not downright hostility, in the field of
> English literature. The student experiences are particularly traumatic,
> as they range from getting a D for the paper to being shut up by the
> professor's order to "stop this nonsense."
> 
> I have to say, I did not notice any negativity surrounding
> psychoanalytical approach in Russian literary studies. Is our field more
> eclectic when it comes to interpretive techniques, or is psychoanalysis
> becoming the thing of the past?
> 
> Inna Caron
> Ohio State
> 
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