Abstract
The view that language is a key to understanding many of the most significant dimensions of human relationships is shared by some post-Freudian psychoanalysts (including Hans Loewald, Stephen Mitchell, and Thomas Ogden) as well as three Jewish philosophers of encounter (Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas). They can be seen to suggest that Ferdinand de Saussure’s famous discussion of language as langue and parole, that is, as system and performance, fails to capture its sensory, affective, formative, dialogical, ethical, and even metaphysical features. A dialogue between the psychoanalysts and the Jewish philosophers brings to the fore their common insights and distinctive observations, as well as areas of possible cross-fertilization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
See David Tracy’s (1994, pp. 52–60) discussion of Saussure’s statement in Plurality and Ambiguity.
While Walter Kaufmann has translated the German du as “You” in his edition of Buber’s I and Thou, I prefer the more classical translation used for that book, “Thou.”
See Mitchell (2000, pp. 8–10).
Mitchell (2000) brings up the example of words having an impact even on a fetus in utero (pp. 8–9).
Mitchell and Black (1995) note in Freud and Beyond that the psychoanalyst Harry Stack Sullivan also spoke of “the meaning of words” being “embedded in the original interpersonal contexts in which they were learned” (p. 72).
Ogden (2004) in Reverie and Interpretation quotes Robert Frost as referring to poetry as “words that have become deeds” (p. 242).
Of course, it is Freud’s creation of psychoanalysis, “the talking cure,” which is the best example of an understanding of language as event, of the transformative feature of words. The expression itself came from Josef Breuer’s famous patient, Bertha Pappenheim.
The parallel between the foundational mother-infant interaction and the remedial analyst-patient relationship, an omnipresent trope in relational psychoanalysis, is important in Benjamin’s (1998) discussion also (pp. 28–29).
Rosenzweig saw this writing as providing a summary of the Star of Redemption, and he permitted it to stand as the introduction to that book for the second edition.
There is a good overview of Levinas’s criticisms of Buber’s views of relation in Robert Bernasconi’s (1988) “‘Failure of Communication’ as a Surplus.”
For a discussion of the importance and the challenge of this second love commandment to the three Jewish philosophers, see the author’s essay “Loving the Neighbor: Some Reflections on Narcissism” (Oppenheim 2007).
This shift in terminology, from the face-to-face to substitution, is one of the most pronounced differences between Levinas’s two works, Totality and Infinity of 1961 and the later Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence of 1981.
Levinas frequently refers to Spinoza’s notion of contus essendi, or the right to existence.
Wyschogrod’s (2004a) essay, “From Ethics to Language: The Imperative of the Other,” presents a fine discussion of the saying and the said. It is especially important as it places this in the context of Levinas’s critique of Martin Heidegger.
Buber completed the translation in 1961. A book of essays about translating the Bible and the issues the two philosophers encountered, Scripture and Translation, first appeared in German in 1936. For a treatment of Buber’s “dialogical hermeneutic,” see Kepnes’s (1992) The Text as Thou, especially pp. 41–60, 78.
The divine dimension of the Bible, particularly in relation to biblical law, is the topic of one of Rosenzweig’s (1961) most important letters, which has been titled “Divine and Human” (pp. 242–247).
Irigaray’s (1987/1993) essay “Divine Women” explores the issue of figuring the divine as a woman (pp. 57–72).
Irigaray’s (1987/1993) “Body Against Body: In Relation to the Mother” includes an insightful comment about “when the father refuses to allow the mother her power of giving birth and seeks to be the sole creator” (p. 16).
This critique is more accurately directed to Rosenzweig and Levinas than it is to Buber. See, for example, Buber’s (1999) essay, “Guilt and Guilt Feelings.”
References
Benjamin, J. (1998). Shadow of the other: Intersubjectivity and gender in psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.
Bernasconi, R. (1988). “Failure of communication” as a surplus: Dialogue and lack of dialogue between Buber and Levinas. In R. Bernasconi & D. Wood (Eds.), The provocation of Levinas: Rethinking the other (pp. 100–135). New York: Routledge.
Buber, M. (1970). I and thou. Trans. W. Kaufmann. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. (Orig. pub. 1923.)
Buber, M. (1999). Martin Buber on psychology and psychotherapy: Essays, letters, and dialogue. Ed. Judith Buber Agassi. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Flax, J. (1993). Disputed subjects: Essays on psychoanalysis, politics, and philosophy. New York: Routledge.
Irigaray, L. (1993). Sexes and genealogies. Trans. G. C. Gill. New York: Columbia University Press. (Orig. pub. 1987.)
Kepnes, S. (1992). The text as thou: Martin Buber’s dialogical hermeneutics and narrative theology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority. Trans. A. Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. (Orig. pub. 1961.)
Levinas, E. (1985). Ethics and infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo. Trans. R. A. Cohen. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. (Orig. pub. 1982.)
Levinas, E. (1987). Collected philosophical papers. Trans. A. Lingis. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
Levinas, E. (1994). Beyond the verse: Talmudic readings and lectures. Trans. G. D. Mole. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Orig. pub. 1982.)
Loewald, H. (2000). The essential Loewald: Collected papers and monographs. Hagerstown: University Publishing Group.
Mitchell, S. A. (1993). Hope and dread in psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Mitchell, S. A. (2000). Relationality: From attachment to intersubjectivity. Hillsdale: Analytic Press.
Mitchell, S. A. (2003). Can love last? The fate of romance. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
Mitchell, S. A., & Black, M. J. (1995). Freud and beyond: A history of modern psychoanalytic thought. New York: Basic Books.
Ogden, T. (2004). Reverie and interpretation: Sensing something human. Lanham: Jason Aronson.
Oppenheim, M. (2007). Loving the neighbor: Some reflections on narcissism. Modern Judaism, 27(1), 47–71.
Rorty, R. (Ed.). (1992). The linguistic turn: Essays in philosophical method. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rosenzweig, F. (1961). Divine and human. In N. N. Glatzer (Ed.), Franz Rosenzweig: His life and thought (pp. 242–247). New York: Schocken Books.
Rosenzweig, F. (1994). Scripture and word. In M. Buber and F. Rosenzweig. Scripture and translation (pp. 40–46). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Orig. pub. 1936.)
Rosenzweig, F. (1999a). The new thinking. Trans. A. Udoff & B. E. Galli. In A. Udoff & B. E. Galli (Eds.), Franz Rosenzweig’s “The new thinking” (pp. 67–102). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. (Orig. pub. 1925.)
Rosenzweig, F. (1999b). Understanding the sick and the healthy: A view of world, man, and god. Trans. N. Glatzer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Orig. pub. 1992.)
Rosenzweig, F. (2005). The star of redemption. Trans. B. Galli. Madison: Wisconsin University Press. (Orig. pub. 1920.)
Schafer, R. (1992). Retelling a life: Narration and dialogue in psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Tracy, D. (1994). Plurality and ambiguity: Hermeneutics, religion and hope. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Winnicott, D. W. (1986). Transitional objects and transitional phenomena. In P. Buckley (Ed.), Essential papers on object relations (pp. 254–271). New York: New York University Press.
Wyschogrod, E. (2004a). From ethics to language: The imperative of the other. In C. E. Katz (Ed.), Emmanuel Levinas: Critical assessments of leading philosophers, vol. I (pp. 402–414). London: Routledge.
Wyschogrod, E. (2004b). Emmanuel Levinas and the problem of religious language. In C. E. Katz (Ed.), Emmanuel Levinas: Critical assessments of leading philosophers, vol. III (pp. 339–363). London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Oppenheim, M. Langue, Parole, et Chanson: On Language as Song in Psychoanalysis and Jewish Philosophy. Pastoral Psychol 62, 403–421 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0465-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0465-9