ABSTRACT
Paul Ricoeur has noted that the unconscious poses a challenge not simply to one or another philosophical theme, but to the whole enterprise of philosophy itself. We need, therefore, a method that takes the unconscious into account. Alchemical hermeneutics is that method, and it differs from traditional hermeneutics in several fundamental ways. This chapter gives an historical example of how the unconscious has been more or less absent in hermeneutics. Self-criticism needs more than the presence of other witnesses to how one reads a text. It needs the presence of that other within oneself, that complex other, the denial of which can only lead to discounting the other person’s argument. Indeed, there is no true outer objectivity apart from its connection to a deep subjectivity aware of its complexes. The chapter shows that Robert Steele's procedure for a self-critical analysis is insufficient and needs to be supplemented by the process of transference dialogues presented here.
