The Weary Sons of Freud

A Communist, feminist, and analysand asks what the social function of psychoanalysis should be and condemns what it has become

The Weary Sons of Freud lambasts mainstream psychoanalysis for its failure to grapple with pressing political and social matters pertinent to its patients’ condition. Gifted with insight and compelled by fury, Catherine Clément contrasts the original, inspirational psychoanalytical work of Freud and Lacan to the obsessive imitations of their uninspired followers—the weary sons of Freud.

The analyst’s once attentive ear has become deaf to the broader questions of therapeutic practice. Clement asks whether the perspective of socialism, brought to this study by a woman who is herself an analysand, can fill the gap. She reflects on her own history, as well as on that of psychoanalysis and the French left, to show what an activist and feminist restoration of the talking cure might look like.

Catherine Clément is a prominent French philosopher, novelist, feminist, and literary critic. After studying at the École normale supérieure under Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan, she became a leading member of the school of French feminism and écriture féminine. She is a widely read novelist and has collaborated with thinkers such as Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva.