ABSTRACT
This chapter is dedicated to Paul Celan, witness to the unthinkable, the unspeakable. In the aftermath of the mass slaying of subjectivity, he undertakes the work of the poet.
Philippe Réfabert considers the psychoanalyst to be one who consents to bear witness to the unthinkable and the unspeakable in the aftermath of personal catastrophes. Réfabert presents the witnessing perspective as a tool, a viewpoint suited to the treatment of trauma.
When Celan says: “We write”, he is saying that “we write ourselves”, as we converse with “the strangest”. Indeed, the analyst’s work is to bring about this “we write”, this inscription of the erased trace.
Analysis is having the courage to stay the course, to stay focused on the Other. Analysis is a state of vigilance. The analysand and the analyst are “on the alert”, as Celan says. The work of analysis? Imitating Celan when he speaks of the poem: “Craft means handiwork, a matter of hands. And these hands must belong to one person, i.e. a unique, mortal soul searching for its way with its voice and its dumbness. Only truthful hands write true poems. I cannot see any basic difference between a handshake and a poem”.
