ABSTRACT
Literature was present at the birth of psychoanalysis. Taylor Robinson points out that psychoanalysis developed out of Freud's autobiography in The Interpretation of Dreams. The analysts are not interested in psychologising about the authors; if anything, they are rather shy of discussing the authors' personal lives, even when the authors speak of it themselves. The interest is in a non-specialist exploration of the writing, in the process of writing, in engaging with literature as a reader, and in areas of commonality and difference between psychoanalysis and literature. Perhaps some of the excitement and aesthetic satisfaction for the reader comes from a live sense of sharing discovery not only in identification with the characters but also with the writer too, rather than passively consuming a finished product. Perhaps writers who are interested in a dialogue with analysts are to some extent self-selecting.
