ABSTRACT
Rhetoric and hermeneutics have both emerged as teachable arts which methodically discipline and cultivate a natural ability. Hermeneutic experience brings to consciousness the position of a speaking subject vis-a-vis his language. Hermeneutic consciousness is thus the outcome of a process of self-reflection in which a speaking subject recognized his specific freedom from, and dependence on, language. This chapter considers the question whether a critical science such as psychoanalysis can by-pass the way skilful interpretation is tied to the natural competence of everyday communication with the help of a theoretically based semantic analysis – and thereby refute the hermeneutic claim to universality. Hermeneutic consciousness remains incomplete as long as it does not include a reflection upon the limits of hermeneutic understanding. Metapsychology consists, in the main, of assumptions about the formation of personality structures which, too, can be explained by reference to the meta-hermeneutical role of psychoanalysis.
