The article comments on an unpublished paper by P. Aulagnier, presented at the 8th International Fórum on Psychoanalysis, held in Rio in 1989. Based on Aulagnier' s foundational works, the present texthighlights the epistemologi-cal presuppositions that underpin the concept of subject in her theoretical discourse (interpretation, intersubjectivity, temporality, singularity, and libidinal investment) and from which the criteria that guide Aulagnier's meta-psychological reading of the psyche are derived. After framing the question of demand for psychoanalysis, the article focuses on the idea that the concept of psychoanalytical interpretation is not part of a hermeneutic reading. It further stresses the ethics of desire inherent to the act of psychoanalyzing.