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A patient once brought in a dream image to the psychoanalyst Joseph Barnett. The image was that of a clown's face, with a big smile on it, in a bucket. Barnett, rather than starting to explore this dream with his patient, responded with something to the effect of, “Put some blood in the bucket, and then we'll talk” (G. Goldstein, personal communication, December 28, 2019). There is simply no psychoanalytic treatment without blood. And Stolorow and Atwood highlight this in their most recent book, The Power of Phenomenology: Psychoanalytic and Philosophical Perspectives. This book on phenomenology and psychoanalysis truly is phenomenal! It is simply a magnificent book on a number of levels. For one, it delves deeply into the current thinking of these authors on a field of study they have immersed themselves in for a lifetime. Secondly, most chapters in this book end with a section devoted to dialogue between Stolorow and Atwood. This is a creative way of illustrating in a very alive manner both (a) the long collaborative journey taken together by these two psychoanalysts, and (b) the emphasis in hermeneutic phenomenology on truth emerging from dialogue, or what the hermeneutic philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer terms a “fusion of horizons” (p. 106). Thirdly, the concepts developed in this book have direct implications for both psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice. In fact, I think it would be fair to say that putting these concepts into practice would be a step toward radicalizing psychoanalysis. Fourthly, this book has implications for the world beyond the confines of the consulting room.
I think it would be fair to say that Stolorow and Atwood have spent their lives working toward moving psychoanalysis into a post-Cartesian framework. Descartes, in doubting everything, introduced his cogito, “I think, therefore I am,” which led to the prevailing dualistic thinking in Western philosophy and culture, which separates mind from body, subject from object, inner from ou