Does critical social theory need psychoanalysis, and if so, what for? In her new book, Critique on the Couch: Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis, renowned philosopher Amy Allen addresses this question, offering a new interpretation of psychoanalysis that mobilizes the insights of Freud, Klein and Lacan for critical social theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School. In this conversation, Allen will discuss this new project and the ongoing relationship between psychoanalysis, critique, and politics, with a focus on how psychoanalysis challenges and enriches critical theory’s understandings of subjectivity, progress, emancipation, and social transformation.

Amy Allen is Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her new book, Critique on the Couch: Why Critical Theory Needs Psychoanalysis, is published in December.

Eva von Redecker is a critical theorist and feminist philosopher. Her book Praxis und Revolution proposes an interstitial model of radical social change and is forthcoming in English translation with Columbia University Press. Her current work is on property and domination. antisightseeing.org / @EvRedecker