ABSTRACT
The author reminds the reader of the connections between Freud and literature, and of the importance of taking the unconscious into account to understand the political. To illustrate, he describes the organised action of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which was a crucial element for ending State terrorism in Argentina. In Dostoevsky’s novels, the greatness or pitifulness of the main characters is related to the extent to which they discover the unconscious dimension of their lives. The fact that the characters are constructed beginning with their encounter with the unconscious contributes greatly to make them timeless. The author uses these characters to illustrate the variety of responses of human beings to their encounter with the world and with others: fantasy, neurosis, perversion, madness. This book and the seminars on which it is based are part of his ongoing reflection about his profession. He shows that psychoanalysis is not constituted of a body of knowledge closed in on itself, but is, rather, a practice of thought, both theoretical and clinical, in the service of life and the human community. De Macedo’s starting point for this book was the idea that Freud could not tolerate the fact that Dostoevsky was exploring two questions he himself had left unresolved when he developed his theory of neurosis: trauma and madness. This book examines madness in order to talk about love; and Dostoevsky is the perfect choice for talking about love, because he is the writer who describes, better than anyone else, the excessive nature of a true encounter.
