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New Psychoanalytic Readings of Shakespeare: Cool Reason and Seething Brains is an important contribution to the literature linking psychoanalytic theory with the works of Shakespeare. The authors vary considerably in their academic orientations, and the reader is offered many personal evocations of Shakespeare's work. The book is divided into five main sections: 1. Cryptonomy, Necrology, Ghosts (Chapters 1–3); 2. Festivity and Sacrifice (Chapters 4–5); 3. History and Trauma (Chapters 6–8); 4. Gender Trouble (Chapters 9–11); and 5. Shakespeare and the Matter of Clinical Practice (Chapters 12–14).
One convergence, which perhaps is inevitable with Shakespearean scholarship, is the pull that Hamlet has on the collective—of the fourteen chapters, five are dedicated (in part or entirely) to this one play, while no other work is discussed more than once. Perhaps the reason for such an attraction to this play in a psychoanalytically-themed volume is hinted at in the Introduction, given that (referencing Nicholas Bellinson [Chapter 12]) the titular Hamlet utilizes soliloquy to transform his character, “in ways that closely resemble the dynamic of the ‘talking cure’” (p. 9).
Shakespeare's works, as tools inviting a depth of psychic understanding, rely largely on the verbal to do so, as does psychoanalysis. Rather than conveying certainty, speech relays doubt, a translation of one's momentary grasp on reality. Through speech, we invite another mind to register our subjectivity, much as plays are staged to be registered by an audience. In a Bionian sense, when we speak, we invite another to help us render our experience thinkable, perhaps for the first time. As much as we try to maintain a sense of agency over the psyche, we cannot purpose to grasp its full dimensions any more than
we could stare at the sun for a long period and hope to draw its contours. Thus, our internal world will inform, guide, and maddeningly elude us. In our attempts to process it, we need something ali