Merleau-Ponty's Conception of the Unconscious

Abstract

In an attempt to fill the gap left by the widespread rejection of Freud's quasi-physiological metapsychology, the unconsciousness which Freud encountered is rearticulated in existential-phenomenological terms. It is argued that psychoanalysis and phenomenology converge in their attempt to understand the latent but operative meanings that structure human life. The unconscious is situated as an ambiguous, lived consciousness within the structure of perception, founded on the forgotten body's world-relations. Repression is discussed in terms of temporality and ambivalence. An incident in psychotherapy is presented in order to highlight these themes. Implications are drawn regarding the ambiguity of psychotherapy, transference, interpretation, and the language of psychology.