ABSTRACT
This paper about the desire to keep even ourselves under control and in order, does not set out to show that the author, having himself under control and in order, is able to make masterful links between psychoanalytic theory and practice. It is a paper that takes up and illustrates with client work Socrates' argument in Plato's dialogue, Phaedrus, that although technical mastery and self-control are necessary, without the madness of love and passion, what is produced and the life that is lived is limited, arid, crude, unfulfilled and unfulfilling. The paper shows a passion for speaking and listening that may help to take our conversations outside the walls of the city: outside of where we usually speak and listen, outside of 'normal', 'natural' and permitted. This passion for listening and speaking is a divine madness, that can help to lift us out of foolish, complacent and calculative ways of being, inspiring us to consider and revere another person and our own existence. Love in this dialogue is not something that we have under our control. It is rather something that might lead us to philosophy as Plato seemed to value it, to speaking about what is important to us, to companionship and conversation.
