In a profound new interweaving of the ideas of Levinas and Laplanche, this book rethinks the origin of ethical capacity in human life. It elaborates on the implications of ethics at the beginning of life in the care of infants; in psychoanalytic practice; and in the socio-political sphere. The author puts forward the hypothesis of the feminine maternal dimension as the origin of ethical capacity, and proposes the notion of “ethical seduction” to address the asymmetry between analyst and analysand. With rich clinical vignettes, the text offers an expansive metapsychology linking three elements: the organic body and the “Vital-Identital”; the erotic body and the “Sexual”; and the infinite part of our psyche arising through the “Ethical”. Written in the long shadow of the Shoah and amid contemporary violence, this book is original and meaningful reading for all psychoanalysts.
