Levinas for Psychologists

Levinas for Psychologists provides a rigorous, yet accessible, examination of Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy and its implications for psychology and the human and social sciences.

Comprehensive in scope, this book traces Levinas’s thought across the arc of his oeuvre, from the earliest works to the last interviews and essays. Laubscher provides numerous examples of how Levinas’s thought challenges current clinical and psychotherapeutic work, psychological theory, social science research, and social theory but also offers promising alternatives. Such alternative ways to think and practice psychology are richly illuminated by accessible examples from therapy, research, and the social everyday. The volume makes Levinas’s dense and demanding philosophical language comprehensible and accessible, without losing the radical, profound, and poetic qualities of the original. Issues of justice, racism, and nature are addressed throughout, and these insights and conclusions are placed within a contemporary context.

This book is essential reading for psychologists, philosophers, and anyone interested in the legacy of Levinas’s work.

Leswin Laubscher is Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA. He also serves as "Extraordinary Professor" at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa (and in the past at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa). Dr. Laubscher has authored several scholarly articles and books and, most recently, edited Fanon, Phenomenology, and Psychology (2022) with Derek Hook and Miraj U. Desai.