"Psychoanalysis has to begin with accepting that you’re an asshole"—Interview with Simon Critchley and excerpt from The Hamlet Doctrine in Berfrois
Berfrois interviews Simon Critchley, discussing the themes of political pessimism, inhibition, shame, love and psychoanalysis, examined in his and Jamieson Webster’s book The Hamlet Doctrine. Continue reading for a short extract of the interview and a link to an excerpt from the book, published on the Berfrois website, as well as a link to the full interview.
‘So in a sense this is very politically pessimistic – and pessimistic is the right word – in the sense in which all optimism is gone, it’s totally evacuated. We’re looking to the really unpleasant nature of political power and the way it functions through mechanisms of surveillance, control and espionage. We spend a lot of time analysing that in part of the book. You could say that’s kind of where we are. And in this book we’re not offering a kind of political exit from that.’ From Simon Critchley's interview with Berfrois.
The full interview is avaiable to read in full here. Visit Berfrois to read an excerpt from The Hamlet Doctrine.