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Various commentators have seized upon the centenary of the birth of psychoanalysis and the inauguration of the new millennium as an opportunity
to survey the scene and take stock of the state of psychoanalysis. However, many of the interventions made in the last few years betray a certain degree of confusion between the state of psychoanalysis and its status. Indeed, it is the latter that has been assessed more often, with both public and academic discourse typically starting their exploration of the subject by examining the relationship between psychoanalysis and various disciplines to which it has traditionally been linked. Numerous recent publications have found themselves dealing with the difficulties entailed by the attempt (and the pressing need) to situate psychoanalysis within contemporary culture and knowledge. While we can safely skip over the inevitable ‘Black Books’ that address this question, it is worth recalling a number of works whose validity stems from an approach to the subject which is neither apologetic nor unquestioning: for example, Whose Freud? The Place of Psychoanalysis in Contemporary Culture (Brooks and Woloch, 2000) and Speculations after Freud: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Culture (Munchow and Shamdasani, 1994). To this list we can now add The Academic Face of Psychoanalysis, the stimulating volume edited by Louise Braddock and Michael Lacewing.
The heated disagreements and passionate side-taking which characterize recent debates about the crisis facing psychoanalysis or its presumed death are nothing new in the turbulent, and typically 20th century, history of the movement. Nor are they evidence that the psychoanalytic approach is now outmoded, as this would more likely result in silence than heated debate. Rather, they should be seen as a reaction to the long-standing and anxiety-provoking difficulty of situating psychoanalysis that I mentioned above. It is precisely the nature and s