Ricoeur's book Freud and Philosophy was not well received in France, in part due to its rejection by Jacques Lacan, a leading psychoanalyst and psychiatrist.

Around this time, Ricoeur was publically accused of borrowing his interpretation of Freud from Lacan, an accusation Ricoeur denied and demonstrated to be false by comparing the dates of his writings on Freud and the date he attended a seminar with Lacan and heard him speak on the famous master of psychology.