The “Wise Baby” and the “Original Hermeneut”

This paper situates Ferenczi’s concept of the “wise baby” in relation to Jean Laplanche’s concept of “seduction” in order to rethink the “wise baby” as one possible outcome of the adult-infant relationship. Drawing on Laplanche’s translational model of the unconscious – and specifically, his delineation of the “urge to translateFootnote11 I am so grateful to Jonathan House for suggesting to me that “urge” might be a better word for what Laplanche describes (personal communication). I think Jonathan’s translation of this as an “urge” (rather than a drive) has the immeasurable advantage of calling our attention to how “translation” works at a biopsychical level.” – this paper argues that the “wise baby” names a particular variation of ordinary seduction. This paper draws on Laplanche’s concept of the “original hermeneut” in order to specify why the biopsychical encounter makes every baby hermeneutic, but only some babies “wise.”