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Sometimes a book finds a niche by the analyst's armchair. Before Being the Person Who Speaks may be one of these, along with some other instruments with which
Jean-Claude Rolland is evidently familiar: an art book, a collection of poems, a philosophical essay or some other score to be sight-read, the practice and the enjoyment of playing. What Rolland suggests applies to a reading of Freud — providing ‘the language of analysis’, while ‘analytic or psychotherapeutic practice provides its content’ - may be equally true of his own book. There may be a pleasure in the sight-reading and the practice of Rolland's book, even though the enjoyment of playing is already firmly established. I would like to increase it by quoting from the first few lines of the final chapter, ‘The Self-Sufficiency of the Artwork’:
The work of art … derives its power from its absolute self-sufficiency. ‘Self-sufficiency’ is an ambiguous word. Many of its senses in the psychological context are pejorative when they refer to positions adopted by the human being. These attest that in a poignant reversal the threat of annihilation that this person bears inside him is being denied. Self-sufficiency is at odds with death … That is why self-sufficient people immediately inspire so much aversion … To preserve the ordinary low water-level of our narcissisms, we move away from them as from sources of contamination. It is certainly possible that the estrangement from his human counterpart that is thereby induced by the person in distress is one of the masterpieces of the self-destructive drive.
The sight-reading of these few lines is indebted to the good fortune of an unexpected encounter. A characteristic of popular psychology, “self-sufficiency” is proclaimed as a feature of every true work of art. The quality that attracts the mind - “absolute self-sufficiency” - stands out as that which, in equal measure, fuels rejection - “the aversion” inspired by “self-sufficien