Castoriadis, C., Crossroads in the Labyrinth, tr. Martin H.Ryle and Kate Soper, Brighton: Harvester Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984. —— The Imaginary Institution of Society, tr. Kathleen Blamey, Cambridge: Polity Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987. —— Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy, tr. David A.Curtis, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. —— Political and Social Writings, 3rd edn, tr. David A.Curtis, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988–93. * * *

doi:10.4324/9780203049129-6

Chapter

Castoriadis, C., Crossroads in the Labyrinth, tr. Martin H.Ryle and Kate Soper, Brighton: Harvester Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984. —— The Imaginary Institution of Society, tr. Kathleen Blamey, Cambridge: Polity Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987. —— Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy, tr. David A.Curtis, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. —— Political and Social Writings, 3rd edn, tr. David A.Curtis, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988–93. * * *

Chapter

Castoriadis, C., Crossroads in the Labyrinth, tr. Martin H.Ryle and Kate Soper, Brighton: Harvester Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984. —— The Imaginary Institution of Society, tr. Kathleen Blamey, Cambridge: Polity Press and Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987. —— Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy, tr. David A.Curtis, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. —— Political and Social Writings, 3rd edn, tr. David A.Curtis, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988–93. * * *

ABSTRACT

I shall take as my starting point a remark of Freud’s which I consider to be

profound and true. He said twice that psychoanalysis, pedagogy and politics were the three impossible professions.3 He did not explain why he took them to be impossible, a term which must be taken literally as well as cum grano salis, since, after all, he created psychoanalysis and practised it. We can reflect usefully on his use of this term, “impossible”. He did not say that these professions were extremely difficult, as, for instance, are those of a brain surgeon, a concert pianist or Himalayan Sherpa. He said: impossible. Why? Certainly not because they have to do with that most intractable of all materials, the human being. Generals, salesmen and prostitutes deal with the same material, and we would not pronounce their professions impossible.