The Trace of the Face of God

Abstract

The author looks at her analytic work through the lens of the philosophy of French phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas, particularly his concepts of totality, infinity, the face, the caress, and our ethical call to the Other. She examines the possibility and importance of being open to the divine in the patient, particularly through the metaphor of Levinas’ maternal psyche. The author offers a story from the Torah, Mispatim, to describe the ethical commitment to the patient and focuses on Hineni as a guiding concept for her work. She uses Levinas’ philosophy not as a theory or technique but to inform the holding environment of the analytic work.

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