The Analyst's Ear and the Critic's Eye: Rethinking Psychoanalysis and Literature. By Benjamin H. Ogden and Thomas H. Ogden. London/New York:  Routledge, 2013.  112 pp.

Let me say at once that I very much appreciate the idea of this book: the collaboration between a practicing psychoanalyst and a literary critic for purposes of refining our understanding of the possible contributions of psychoanalysis to literary criticism and vice versa. It is worthwhile noting at the start, to be precise, however, that the “literary critic” invoked in this book is not a critic but an academic who writes about literature.

I accepted the request to review The Analyst's Ear and the Critic's Eye because I am deeply saddened by the increasing marginalization of psychoanalysis in intellectual circles, both inside and outside the academy, and I long to see that trend reversed. Psychoanalysis offers a cornucopia of unique insights to the humanities, but its gifts remain unopened because there are so few dialogues that demonstrate real respect and do not shy away from conflict and ambiguity. Unfortunately, this book does not alter this sorry state of affairs. Ogden and Ogden, however, do deserve credit for their pioneering effort. In this review, I shall address matters of form and secondly matters of content.

Clearly, the authors are members of the same family. It stands as a curious omission that this is nowhere openly addressed. Coauthorship of scholarly books by kinsmen is not usual practice. It cannot help being noticed. Indeed, it cannot prove irrelevant. Yet here, in a psychoanalytic context, the authors fall silent. Any reader who picks up this book,