A Political Exploration of Psychoanalysis: Political Freud: A History, by Eli Zaretsky

Political Freud: A History. By Eli Zaretsky. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 228 pp.

As a historian, Eli Zaretsky is well situated to provide an analysis of the development of psychoanalysis from its origins to the present. In this context, unlike others who have attempted to do this by focusing their attention primarily on metapsychological issues and the clinical work that flows from those suppositions, Zaretsky contextualizes these matters by providing a political, economic, social, and cultural framework. He did this initially in an earlier work, Secrets of the Soul (2004), but in his most recent book, Political Freud, he expands on this earlier work by exploring the manner in which Freud's ideas have been responded to, especially in the United States, from approximately 1900 to the present. Of particular importance to Zaretsky are the theoretical, clinical, and political implications of these responses. According to him, Freud's ideas have been diluted by many of those both inside and outside of the psychoanalytic community.

In addition, Zaretsky is concerned that although Freud's work focused on the nature of inner life, particularly the world of the unconscious, and was therefore not overtly political, it still had a political

dimension that has not been adequately addressed. In the process of exploring this dimension, Zaretsky is bound by his political orientation, which is contestable. He utilizes a specific lens that is outside of the American mainstream, for he speaks of his commitment to socialism and to the importance of “collective values such as public goods and social solidarity” (p. 184). This commitment very much colors his presentation, especially some of his assertions, in ways that could be construed positively or negatively depending upon on