A plea for a measure of opacity: Psychoanalysis in an age of transparency

Rosemary Rizq

doi:10.1080/14753634.2019.1605682

A plea for a measure of opacity: Psychoanalysis in an age of transparency

Rosemary Rizq

School of Psychology

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Abstract

Ever since the Enlightenment, knowledge has been linked to the metaphor of light. The idea that ‘to see is to know’ so firmly grounds our current way of being in and understanding the world it is hard to imagine otherwise. But our insistence on open government,freedom of information and the public’s right to know privileges not only the visibility of information but also the visibility of the self. In this paper, I consider how we might think about and respond to the ever-increasing demand for transparency in the consulting room. I draw on the ideas of Derrida, Laplanche and Glissant to argue for what has been called ‘the right to opacity’, suggesting that psychoanalytic practitioners are particularly well placed to offer a critical perspective on today’s culture of surveillance.© 2019, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The attached document (embargoed until 09/05/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in PSYCHODYNAMIC PRACTICE uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

Original language	English
Journal	Psychodynamic Practice
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14753634.2019.1605682
Publication status	Published - 9 May 2019

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title = "A plea for a measure of opacity: Psychoanalysis in an age of transparency",

abstract = "Ever since the Enlightenment, knowledge has been linked to the metaphor of light. The idea that {\textquoteleft}to see is to know{\textquoteright} so firmly grounds our current way of being in and understanding the world it is hard to imagine otherwise. But our insistence on open government,freedom of information and the public{\textquoteright}s right to know privileges not only the visibility of information but also the visibility of the self. In this paper, I consider how we might think about and respond to the ever-increasing demand for transparency in the consulting room. I draw on the ideas of Derrida, Laplanche and Glissant to argue for what has been called {\textquoteleft}the right to opacity{\textquoteright}, suggesting that psychoanalytic practitioners are particularly well placed to offer a critical perspective on today{\textquoteright}s culture of surveillance.{\textcopyright} 2019, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The attached document (embargoed until 09/05/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in PSYCHODYNAMIC PRACTICE uploaded in accordance with the publisher{\textquoteright}s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.",

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