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:

1. Freud presents Kant's "categorical imperative" as the "inheritor of the Oedipus complex."
2. Freud contested the universal and necessary character of the categories of space and time in human sensibility. These categories undergo a process of development that depends on the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious.
3. Freud compares the unconscious and the thing-in-itself (Assoun, 1976). Although the first reference serves only to legitimate and anticipate Freudian theory, the other two references...