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Patrick Mahony, professor of literature, practicing psychoanalyst, skilled reader and critic, continues to guide us toward more intense, psychoanalytically shaped experiences of reading Freud. He shows us how (and encourages us to join him) he allows himself to resonate creatively as reader/re-reader/interpreter of Freud as creative writer/mentor/psychoanalytic explorer. Writing and reading both become exciting, creative acts when one allows oneself to discover where one is going, while immersed in writing or reading. Mahony encourages us to follow Freud's example ("Itzig, the Sunday rider") of writing as creative organization of as yet barely formulated inner experience. Writing becomes a creative act of self-discovery.
I am reminded of Joyce McDougall's description of sitting down to write an article when she is troubled about a psychoanalytic case. A patient who came to me after having read a paper of mine left angrily, taunting me, "At least you'll probably get a paper out of this!" Actually, Mahony takes us back earlier, to St. Augustine: "I try to be among the number of those who write as they progress and who progress as they write" (p. vi). Mahony is inspired/energized by this model of creative writing/exploring, which he does so well. He invites us to join him.
Mahony's combined reading approach as a literary critic and as a practicing psychoanalyst leads to a rich reading of Freud, with psychoanalytic emphasis on process, the writer's and the reader's. Mahony writes:
My own approach presumes that Freud's texts, like crystals, have fault lines, and I wonder where they are and how wittingly as well as unwittingly they are covered up. I muse about whether Freud's self-irony fully accounts for the gaps and contradictions in his report. Given the foiling nature of the unconscious, these questions are where I begin, not end, my enquiry. In addition, by splitting my ego into participant and observer roles, I aim to respond antiphonally to the dual activ