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Hermann Hesse's novel Das Glasperlenspiel was written during the author's withdrawal to Switzerland during World War II. Set in a cloistered, monastic culture, it follows the fortunes of an order of practitioners dedicated to the
study and practice of the Glass Bead Game. This subtle and complex discipline engages profoundly with both high culture and the life of the mind. Its rules are so sophisticated that mastery requires many years of study, and understanding comes only through engagement in practice with other Masters. To progress the Game, players make deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics; themes, such as a musical phrase or a philosophical thought, are stated and developed, associations between themes becoming deeper, more complex and idiosyncratic as it proceeds. For the psychoanalytic initiate, there are clear parallels with the illuminating of unconscious links in psychoanalytic technique and the aura of elitism which has grown up around the institutions and practices of psychoanalysis.
Off the Couch, a collection of papers on psychoanalytic applications, takes up the dilemma posed in Hesse's novel: can an esoteric discipline, the study and mastery of which is limited by its length and difficulty to comparatively few, have an impact on the world beyond the monastery, or must its reach be limited to a hyper-educated elite who live and work largely removed from contemporary political and social problems? Will the exclusion of psychoanalytic thought and practice from current social policy mean that ‘psychoanalysis will be relegated to the pages of history, along with mesmerism, hypnosis, psycho-surgery and insulin coma therapy’? (p. 5). Can it ever be more than an ‘an expensive treatment for the worried well’ (p. 6)? This book is a courageous and lucid exploration of the possibility of applied psychoanalytic treatment models, which makes a strong case for their contribution to the mental well-being of a wide range of population groups, not mer