Psychoanalytic interpretations: word-music and translation

Area of Science:

• Psychoanalysis
• Translation Studies
• Literary Theory

Background:

• Psychoanalytic interpretations are complex, involving both content and formal aspects of discourse.
• Freud utilized the metaphor of translation to describe intrapsychic and intersubjective phenomena.
• Later psychoanalytic thinkers and classic translation theories resonate with this metaphor.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose psychoanalytic interpretations as a special case of artistic translation.
• To explore the concept of mutative interpretations as creative endeavors.
• To develop a framework for understanding psychoanalytic interpretation through translation theory.

Main Methods:

• Analyzing Freud's use of the translation metaphor.
• Applying Borges's theory of translation and Bakhtin's concept of exotopy.
• Examining literary and clinical case examples (Borges's 'The Aleph,' Dora's case).

Main Results:

• Psychoanalytic interpretation is framed as an evolving self-other dialect, akin to artistic translation.
• The study questions the notion of an original source text in interpretation.
• Intersubjectivity and the role of the 'other' are crucial for translating unconscious meanings.

Conclusions:

• Psychoanalytic interpretation, like translation, is an implicated and creative process.
• Context (space, time) and the 'other' are vital for interpreting unconscious processes.
• Discrepancies in translation theories mirror contemporary debates in psychoanalysis regarding subjectivity versus intersubjectivity.