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Both Emmanuel [[Kant ]] and Arthur Schopenhauer, his disciple and interpreter, had a profound influence on [[psychoanalysis]], although their underlying theories sometimes [[need ]] to be differentiated. Just as important, however, is the fact that psychoanalysis can be considered an avatar of Kantianism, if not of [[metaphysics ]] in general.

References to Kant appear in [[Freud]]'s [[work ]] in [[three ]] different contexts:

Many of Freud's [[ideas ]] ([[dreams ]] and [[repression]], the [[unconscious]], [[sexuality]], [[love]], and [[death]]) are similar to those of Schopenhauer. Freud recognized a connection to some of his ideas, though he denied Schopenhauer's influence, which he is said to have come across late in [[life ]] under the influence of Otto Rank. However, between 1830 and 1920 Schopenhauer's ideas were quite popular. The [[interpretation ]] Schopenhauer gave to Kantian [[thought ]] resulted in a "[[marriage ]] between a neo-Kantian philosophic orientation and the [[scientific ]] work conducted under the aegis of [[materialist ]] [[psycho]]-[[physiology]]" (Assoun, 1976), a [[position ]] held by Theodore Meynert, Johann Herbart, and [[others]], who were well known to Freud.

Whatever the [[situation ]] may have been, through his work with [[hysterics]], Freud discovered [[transference]], [[resistance]], and the therapeutic framework. In spite of their shared [[pessimism]], Freud was careful to distinguish himself from Schopenhauer in his conception of the death impulse. Also, Freud's [[metapsychology ]] cannot be confused with a [[weltanschauung ]] (worldview), which characterized Schopenhauer's work as far as Freud was concerned.

When Jacques [[Lacan ]] attempted to define an [[ethics ]] of psychoanalysis, he questioned Kant's conception of [[morality]]. Although he, like Kant, tried to ground ethics in something unconditioned that is distinct from the Sovereign [[Good]], he rejected the Kantian [[choice ]] between [[duty ]] and the [[categorical imperative]]. Similarly, he rejects the [[notion ]] that an [[ethics of psychoanalysis ]] should be a morality of the [[superego]]. For Lacan, the [[truth ]] of Kant's Critique of [[Practical ]] [[Reason ]] is found in the marquis de [[Sade]]'s Philosophy in the Bedroom (1990) and, more particularly, in his long [[theoretical ]] chapter "One more try for the republicans" (Lacan, 1966). The Sadean imperative of [[enjoyment]], "You should seek enjoyment," is a fulfillment of the Kantian categorical imperative. For Lacan, enjoyment is beyond [[pleasure]], or rather, it is the extreme of pleasure, "to the extent that this extreme consists in forcing access to the '[[Thing]]' (das [[Ding]])" (Lacan, 1986), that is, the absolute [[Other ]] of the lost [[subject]]. Hence, the ethics of psychoanalysis [[needs ]] to be grounded somewhere else: in [[desire ]] itself. If there is a law of [[desire, ]] Lacan's associated imperative would be, "Do not give in to your desire." It remains to be determined what this desire is: pure desire, desire of [[castration]], desire of death (Guyomard, 1992)?

For a [[number ]] of [[philosophers ]] who [[want ]] to bring psychoanalysis within the fold of the metaphysics of [[subjectivity]], Kant and Schopenhauer are two [[links ]] in a [[chain ]] that, by way of [[Spinoza ]] and others, joins Freud and Lacan to [[Descartes ]] (Henry, 1993; Vaysse, 1999).

# [[Lacan, Jacques]]. (1966). [[Kant avec Sade]]. In hisÉcrits, pp. 765-790. [[Paris]]: Le Seuil. (Original work published 1963)# Lacan, Jacques. (1986). Le séminaire: livre vii: l'éthique de la [[psychanalyse]]. Paris: Le Seuil.