''The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond'' (french: La carte postale: De Socrate à Freud et au-delà) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It is a "satire of epistolary literature." After '' Glas'' (1974), it is sometimes considered Derrida's most "

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

" book, and continues the critical engagement with

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

first signaled in "Freud and the Scene of Writing" from Derrida's ''

Writing and Difference ''Writing and Difference'' (french: L'écriture et la différence) is a book by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. The work, which collects some of the early lectures and essays that established his fame, was published in 1967 alongside ''Of G ...

'' (1967).

Summary

The first half of the book, titled ''Envois'' (sendings), contains a series of love letters addressed by Derrida to an unnamed loved one. In one of the letters, dated 6 June 1977, Derrida tells about his time spent in London with Jonathan Culler and Cynthia Chase, who had recently married. They showed Derrida an exposition of hundreds of card reproductions, among which was the medieval depiction of

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

taking dictation from

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, which seized Derrida's attention by its reversal of the historical relationship between the two figures (since Socrates himself left behind no written texts). After describing Plato's posture in the picture, and speculating about what he may have been doing behind Socrates's back (riding a skateboard, conducting a tram), Derrida sayspp. 17–28 ''Envois'' is followed by: * ''To Speculate - On Freud'', an extended commentary on ''

Beyond the Pleasure Principle ''Beyond the Pleasure Principle'' (german: Jenseits des Lustprinzips) is a 1920 essay by Sigmund Freud. It marks a major turning point in the formulation of his drive theory, where Freud had previously attributed self-preservation in human behav ...

'' * ''Le Facteur de la Verité'' (the maker of truth), a critique of

Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and ...

ian psychoanalysis focusing on an analysis of Lacan's

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

commentary, the "Seminar on 'The Purloined Letter'" * and ''Du Tout'' (on the whole), a response to questions posed by the psychoanalyst René Major concerning '' Glas'' and Derrida's general relation to psychoanalytic theory. In 2014 a feature film based on the book was released. ''Love in the Post'' is directed by Joanna Callaghan and co-written by Martin McQuillan and produced by Heraclitus Pictures. The film features an unseen interview with Derrida and contributions from Geoffrey Bennington,

J. Hillis Miller Joseph Hillis Miller Jr. (March 5, 1928 – February 7, 2021) was an American literary critic and scholar who advanced theories of literary deconstruction. He was part of the Yale School along with scholars including Paul de Man, Jacques De ...

, Sam Weber, Ellen Burt and

Catherine Malabou Catherine Malabou (; born 1959) is a French philosopher. She is a Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University, at the European Graduate School, and in the departmen ...

References

External links

Love in the Post
1980 non-fiction books Contemporary philosophical literature French non-fiction books Works by Jacques Derrida {{philo-book-stub