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Many books that take psychoanalytic approaches toward politics and society do so without exploring, at least in great detail, the concept and meaning of freedom. This is unfortunate, for notwithstanding its difficulty to theorize, freedom undeniably represents a fundamental motivating concern for both psychoanalysis and democratic political life. To his credit, David Levine addresses this challenging but crucial topic head on, analyzing “the essence of freedom” and working to unpack the dynamics of its relationship to individual psyches and the broader society within which they are shaped (Levine 2021, 3). In so doing, Levine makes a unique contribution by arguing that freedom, which he models as an internally-mindful capability to make choices without predetermination, demands “that we have the emotional capacity to engage with and depend on strangers” (xi).
While most psychoanalytic studies, and especially those from an object relations perspective, focus on familial relationships as they are internalized from birth, Levine urges his readers to consider the significance of how one relates to the “outside world [that] is not our family” (121). Levine posits that securely relating to strangers requires a different form of relating than that which characterizes the ambivalent emotional attachments we have to familiar others; instead, it requires a form of relating marked by “the exercise of negative capability” or the accommodation of absences or unknowns in one's internal self (136). Levine further argues that relating to strangers in this way provides an important psychological basis for the collective maintenance of democratic institutions.
Although Levine develops this argument in an often circuitous way, his overall claim is cogent enough. It is provocative, as well, and may help spur one's thinking in new and unforeseen directions. The best part of this book, and one which is likely to move readers regardless of their theoretical inclinations or their sympathies