Abstract

This paper is a review article of Elyn R. Saks's book "Interpreting Interpretation: The Limits of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis" published in 1999. In the article Saks's approach is criticized for lacking a proper background understanding of hermeneutics and its place in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, whether we name it hermeneutic or not, will always deal with both meanings and causes. The role of hermeneutics in psychoanalysis can, thus, not be to get rid of the metapsychology of the unconscious altogether, but rather to stress that the causal explanations are enacted in a dialogue where new meaning is brought forth by interpreting the past