About its emancipatory function and the status of interpretation in critical psychoanalysis

Abstract

Psychoanalysis is a plural, multiple and open practice. Its dialogue with other disciplines not only constitutes a relevant contribution to the present public debate, but is an indispensable exigency towards its own future as a discourse interested in getting rid of the trusteeship or servitude of established knowledge.
In that sense, the exercise of psychoanalysis is bound to the critical practice in its strict sense. This critical function is associated to the corresponding conception of interpretation and the respective interpretative practice. Interpretation, insofar as it pretends to be truly revealing, entails the necessity to promote a judicious analysis of the relations of power that condition and contextualize it. A psychoanalytical ethics must consider these elements if it wants to make a contribution to the contemporary debate and particularly to the emancipatory project of which it is part.