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‘The heart has its reasons’ is the theme of this book, which despite its modest form is very large in scope. Its ambitious intention is to build bridges of understanding between philosophy and psychoanalysis, and so it refers to an enormous range of writings in philosophy, while the essence of the psychoanalytical exploring and theorising is provided by case material.
Kennedy seeks to extend the dialogue between these disciplines, sensing that they tend to ignore or oversimplify each other's ideas through ignorance and fear. He hopes to encourage the hesitant to explore, so that each discipline may have more freedom to relate: the idea is that relating more freely to the other may give rise to a richer freedom within, as well as without, and so to more enjoyable debate and dialogue between psychoanalysis and philosophy. As the reader will be aware, this process is also the hope for the dialogue of the analytic couple; to develop new, more creative discourses.
Exploring the concept of freedom despite its endless misuse and misapplication, Kennedy, from the British Independent tradition, takes one particular form of it—‘freedom to relate’. He aims to ‘open up to the analysts areas of speculation that they too often ignore, and at the same time to challenge the notion of rationality that certain philosophers find too comfortable’. He is aware that he is unlikely to please either group, but intends that his base will be ‘wherever possible, the clinical encounter between analyst and analysand’ (p. 1).
The comprehensive introduction leads to nine psychoanalytical questions often avoided in analytical training, while the conclusions section is in the form of Kennedy's summarising answers. Learning always requires work, which is eased here by good writing replete with insights and information.
The ‘explorations in psychoanalysis’ of the subtitle occupy more than three whole chapters (chapters one and two, the first quarter of three, also chapter five), while the bulk of chapter