Muriel Dimen Interviewed by Andrew Samuels in the Context of the Publication of Her Book Sexuality,Intimacy, Power

Samuels interviewed Dimen in lieu of a book review for her Sexuality, Intimacy, Power. The interview was unstructured and dialogical and covered the following main topics: (a) professional issues in the field of psychoanalysis such as the relation of theory to practice and reflections on the nature and content of trainings in psychoanalysis; (b) issues in the broad areas of sexuality and gender including the question of moral relativism with respect to sexual behaviors historically designated as “perverse” and considerations of masculinity, femininity, and patriarchy; (c) intellectual considerations such as the relations between anthropology and psychoanalysis and the as yet indeterminate nature of the discipline of psychoanalysis, neither art nor science and not a hybrid of the two; and (d) the political, social, and cultural contexts within which psychoanalytic endeavors including the interview itself are taking place.