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This is a belated review; Open Minded was published in 1998. Being one of the more delightful and charming books in our field that I have read recently,
and one that will endure, late is not too late. The book is having an ever-widening impact and may decisively contribute to a much-needed change in perspective in our field. Our minds are opened to infinite, potential new vistas by killing off the authoritarian father—the dogmatic Freud—but gaining a full appreciation of the father whose fertile genius provided many disparate ideas and observations, sending us on our way richly endowed.
Lear is a philosopher as well as a psychoanalyst. The book consists of a collection of previously published essays tied together by a preface, which well lays the foundation for the specialized field trips into psychoanalysis as well as into philosophic territory. “There is something dead in the profession of psychoanalysis and something dead in the profession of philosophy!” is Lear's opening declaration. This something dead is, of course, the lack of open-mindedness. The book is, above all, a response to this deadness, hoping to bring some life to the practitioners of these disciplines.
Lear targets as culprit the process of professionalization of all disciplines but the disciplines of psychoanalysis and philosophy in particular. The professions aim to set high standards, but the high standards enable the professions to stop thinking critically about issues precisely because the standards present themselves as if they have already answered the questions. This is a form of deadness. For Socrates, human living consists in living openly with the question. Lear is combatting the spirit of “knowingness,” that is, the assumption that there are fixed answers already known. Each chapter astounds and excites us with new ways of viewing familiar ground.
This review can offer you only a few glimpses of Lear's wisdom. Chapter II, “On Killing Freud (Again),” passionately takes on the Freud bashi