Summary & Questions

Laplanche offers a psychoanalytic anti-hermeneutic theory. “I thus come back to the general problem of hermeneutics, to state, within the framework of the general theory of seduction, a fundamental proposition: the only genuine, originary hermeneutics is the human being” (10).  Laplanche dubs his psychoanalytic anti-hermeneutics as the “theory of seduction.” While LaPlanche offers an interesting engagement with hermeneutics, I found myself confused by what his theory truly means. What does a general theory of seduction entail? What does a “genuine, originary hermeneutics” of the human being mean? Because I wasn’t sure who LaPlanche was writing against, I found it hard to fully engage with and comprehend what he was really trying to say.