Does critical theory still need psychoanalysis? Amy Allen offers a cogent and convincing defense of its ongoing relevance. She draws on Freud, Klein, and Lacan to develop a more realistic strand of psychoanalytic thinking that centers on notions of loss, negativity, ambivalence, and mourning.

Amy Allen is Liberal Arts Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and head of the Philosophy Department at the Pennsylvania State University. Her previous books include Critical Theory Between Klein and Lacan: A Dialogue (2019, with Mari Ruti) and The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory (Columbia, 2016).

Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley:
Amy Allen works with many of the central authors in the field of critical theory to make the case for psychoanalysis, the analytic potential of the death drive, and the importance of retaining the notion of the unconscious. Much of this book is composed of sustained arguments with the central figures of critical theory: Habermas, Honneth, and the important contributions of Joel Whitebeck. Without ever leaving the foothold in philosophy, Allen widens the terms of the debate, asking her readers to consider the important contributions that Klein and Lacan can made to a rethinking of the self, progress, and the prospects of relationality. This work is written with Allen's signature clarity and patience, pursuing arguments to conclusion rather than resting with petty skirmishes. Taken as a whole, this is a remarkable achievement of sustained attention, patient thought, persuasive argumentation.