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The author of The Freudian Reading is already known to the readers of this journal from a paper on Freud and Ibsen (vol. 13/1990/no. 2). She is a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen, a fact that is likely to be an important precondition for her keen interest and scholarship in Freud's writings.
Interesting as Lis Möller's book may be to her fellow researchers in literature, I would say that it is even more essential to psychoanalysts
inclined to reflect upon the nature of the truth sought for in the psychoanalytic dialogue. Especially analysts who are planning to undertake interpretations of works of art by means of their professional tools are recommended to get hold of this book before starting, in order to avoid the ordinary pitfalls of reductionism or circular reasoning.
Being a non-analyst, the author does not evoke the well-known reassuring and entertaining echo of clinical experience. This is not necessarily a disadvantage; on the contrary, it is rather refreshing to follow the development of clear thoughts in an atmosphere beyond any risk of being muddled up by the complexity of emotional involvement. Lis Möller is an interpreter of written texts and does not pretend to be anything else.
The theme of the book is Freud's (and Freudians’) “strategies of reading” when working with psychoanalysis proper or when applying psychoanalytic theory to works of fiction. Underlying the study is the view that “Freud's power as a reader shows itself not so much in his capacity for persuasive synthesis as in his will to press his inquiry to the point where he encounters the unreadable - that which he cannot explain; that which does not fit in with his explanatory system; or that which he can explain only at the risk of overthrowing previous conclusions” (p. IX). Everybody who has tried to find out for himself what Freud really meant, not to say to explain it to students, will agree with Lis Möller's diagnosis of a permanently impending log