The Unconscious Abyss is in many ways a remarkable book, particularly, as will be illustrated below, in the manner and content of Mills exposition of both Hegel’s and Freud’s ideas.
Perhaps Hoffman has not fully appreciated this aspect of the Hegelian dialectic. However, as Mills notes in his introductory chapter on the prehistory of Hegel’s notion of the unconscious abyss, the Hegelian dialectic is radically different from the Fichtean thesis-antithesis-synthesis for Hegel, rather, every “synthesis” is a new beginning, and this places the emphasis properly: the dialectical process is ever ongoing. In this respect, Hoffman’s version of dialectics is radically different from the Hegelian dialectic that Mills advocates for psychoanalysis. Irwin Hoffman, for example, refers to his view of psychoanalysis as dialectical however, Hoffman maintains that in his version of dialectic, there is no reference to synthesis. Mill’s does not discuss the work of contemporary analysts, e.g., Ogden or Hoffman, who believe that some version of dialectics should be a feature of psychoanalysis. Other than by a passing reference to Jessica Benjamin’s use of Hegel. Thus, the showing of Hegel’s anticipation of psychoanalysis (a highly successful tour de force by Mills), is intended to evoke something like the following reflections: if Hegel anticipated psychoanalysis, then psychoanalysis can benefit greatly, at the very least, from Hegel’s dialectical method (Mills repeatedly states in the book that he does not advocate adoption of Hegel’s philosophical stance tout court). Rather, in showing that Hegel anticipated Freud, Mills seeks to accomplish two goals: first, he aims to restore the unconscious to the status and role it has in the Freudian body of writings secondly, Mills aims to motivate the transformation of psychoanalysis into what he calls a “process psychology” or, equivalently, a “dialectical psychoanalysis.” Were this to come about, a sea change in clinical thinking and clinical work should follow. This is not to say that the book offers clinical case material drawn from his own practice or from other sources it does not. 65-68 I: PreliminaryĪs one might expect, inasmuch as he holds a doctorate in philosophy and is a practicing analyst, and though his book is scholarly throughout, Jon Mills was motivated by more than academic interest when he wrote The Unconscious Abyss: Hegel’s Anticipation of Psychoanalysis. Reviewed By: Marilyn Nissim Sabat, Winter 2005, pp. Title: The Unconscious Abyss: Hegel's Anticipation of Psychoanalysis
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