Reddit mentions of The Heritage of Our Times

Cavell argues that Wittgenstein's final work, Philosophical Investigations, is a confession. The passage that starts the work refers to Augstine's Confessions. However, this is only one part of the "New Wittgenstein" The part that is most striking is the "method of reading" used by Cavell. I would advise, if you are interested, reading The Cavell Reader which is edited by Stephen Mullhall. It has a collection of Cavell's essays. Most important to this discussion are the essays "Declining Decline", "Being odd, Getting even", and "Words and Sentences."

I am now required to call upon another philosopher from the Modernist period, Ernest Bloch. He predated Benjamin and thinks of Benjamin as an upstart who isn't really in the Frankfurt school. (Oh how wrong one man can be) I am thinking of his work Heritage of Our Times. In this he presents something similar to, and more relatable than, Cavell's method of reading.

A montage is a collection of things that have a different meaning by themselves. When put together they have some sort of new meaning that may not relate at all to any of its parts. It is something greater than its parts. Here is Hitchcock explaining this in terms of film with the Kuloshuv Effect. Bloch sees montage as a way foreword in communism as it allows for "propaganda" to be disseminated to the public efficiently. I would go so far as to say any movie's point/ emotional impact is made through montage. Not just the scenes in eighties movies where people get stuff done, but the entire movie.

Now to tie this all back to your original question. What in blue blazes does this have to do with psychoanalysis? One the one hand we have an American philosopher from the 1970's who is talking about some method of reading. On the other we have a Jew from the 1920's who is talking about communist propaganda. Let us step back. Both the method of reading and montage both use some form of psychoanalysis. Namely, that of free association. Put to use in one way, it allows for a new reading of Wittgenstein. In another, it allows a complex idea to be portrayed in a short amount of time without the audience knowing what hit them. In the end both of these different things use psychoanalysis in a dialectical way to achieve something greater than a traditional route.

Sources:

• The Cavell Reader
  
  
• Heritage of Our Times
  
  Also, thank you for the article. I will read it and let you know my thoughts.