Otto Fenichel Lecture for the «Coletivo Psicanálise: Clínica e Política»

The Brazilian collective «Coletivo Psicanálise: Clínica e Política» invited me to give a lecture on Otto Fenichel, who is not so much known neither in Germany nor in other countries due to political dimensions of his work.

After presenting some biographical notes on this melancholic womanizer and Marxist psychoanalyst of the second generation, I revisited a certain in the history of German psychoanalysis by drawing attention to Otto Fenichel’s critique of anti-Semitism, which he developed during the Second World War and which can also function as a blueprint for the analysis of racism in other contexts today. I added some recent trends in psychoanalytic theorizing such as the works of Stephen Frosh and Joel Kovel to the picture before I went on to outline Fenichel’s limitations and the necessity of an intersectional perspective.

My intention in presenting Fenichel’s work was not only to make some valuable psychological literature available in another language besides German, but also to put forth the idea of Adorno that any judgment is a value judgement; in other words, nothing can be value neutral.

 

08/2021