Toward an Ethics of Desire for Psychoanalysis: Introduction to Kirshner

Lewis Kirshner invites psychoanalysts to look again at the question, Is there an ethics intrinsic to psychoanalysis? Using Lacan's seminar The Ethics of Psychoanalysis as his foundation, he hypothesizes that “psychoanalysis as a discipline and as a set of institutions embodies intrinsic ethical problems …” (p. 1224). These problems are rooted in desire: the desire of the analyst, of analytic groups, and of society. Kirshner urges us to make the exploration of the impact of these desires more central in psychoanalytic training and to consider ways to provide for review of psychoanalytic practice.

The ethical considerations that interest Kirshner form three strands in the discussion. The first involves the assumptions, the values, and the goals of psychoanalysis itself. What is the nature of human beings? What constitutes a good and healthy life? The second concerns the analyst's desire and the impact of the analyst's fantasies. What led the analyst to want to be an analyst? What does the analyst want from psychoanalysis and from the analysand? The third is the influence of psychoanalytic groups, institutions, and practices and the society and culture in which they exist and function. How are these influences expressed in ideologies, forms of power, and economic interests? Can safeguards for ethical standards be institutionalized?

The complexity and intensity of the psychoanalytic process contribute to a paradoxical situation for the analyst concerning the “good” of the analysand. How do psychoanalysts preserve an analysand's individuality and autonomy while thinking about treatment goals? How do they think about and work with wanting something from or for the analysand? Kirshner and his commentators, Lawrence Friedman, Jonathan Lear, and Mitchell Wilson, lead us through the shifting perspectives that inform these questions and shape the landscape of an ethical domain.