ABSTRACT
Where is the human heart in psychoanalysis? Rarely do theorists deal with the heart as a psychic juncture of human experience. Perhaps two exceptions are D.W. Winnicott (1974), when he speaks of the true self, and Harry Guntrip (1976), when he speaks of split off core parts of the self, which he calls hearts. The most recent exception is Michael Eigen, who in Psychic Deadness (1996) frequently refers to the hearts of his patients. Indeed, the wounds to the heart that his patients ward off, he suggests, represent a central locus of their psychic identity. As if to underscore the central role of the heart in his book, Eigen offers the following dedication in the book: “To all who strive to make this world a place the heart can live in” (1996: dedication page).
