The Power of the Wish and the Wish for Power: A Discussion of Power and Psychoanalysis

We are presented here with five papers solicited for and submitted for an issue of this journal on the subject of power. The papers, each interesting and valuable in its own right, add up to only a patchwork of contributions to a psychoanalytic overview of power. This discussion, then, will take up primarily the various dimensions of the problem(s) of power and psychoanalysis, and secondarily show the place that these particular papers occupy on that dimensional map.

In order for psychoanalysts to have credibility in discussing power it is crucial to examine why and how psychoanalysts (and psychoanalysis) are interested in power. What is the relationship between psychoanalysis and power? What is the power or the kinds of power we eschew, and for what kinds of power do we yearn but rarely achieve?

Let us consider who writes about power? Like many other important things in life, those who have plenty and the assurance of plenty of some commodity tend not to think too much about that commodity, let alone analyze and write it. Lack, not plenty, motivates inquiry. “The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what