@article{Mackenthun, author = {Mackenthun, Gerald}, title = {Passt sich Psychotherapie an >die Gesellschaft< an?}, series = {Dynamische Psychiatrie, Vol. 24 (No. 5-6, 1991) pp. 326-333.}, journal = {Dynamische Psychiatrie, Vol. 24 (No. 5-6, 1991) pp. 326-333.}, abstract = {The author wishes to know, if the old discussion about whether psychotherapy leads to the adjustment of its patients to society should be reexamined. The author considers that the question has incorrectly been ignored for too long. The pleads for an integration of therapy, theory and questions concerning society in order to enable the patient to a real emancipation. The question of adjustment versus emancipation is historically demonstrated using different schools. He begins with the critical theory of the >Frankfurter Schule,< through the neo-psychoanalysis of FROMM, Horney and Schultz-Hencke up to bourgeois psychology and ends with the americanised and medicinalized psychoanalysis (Jacoby). - Using the example of the former >Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv Heidelberg< (SPK) the author demonstrates the failure of liberation movements and discusses the different concepts of adjustment. He himself is of the opinion that one should adjust to the highest cultural level and that the level of individualisation which is accepted by society should be exceeded. Although he does not think highly of the critics of adjustment, he considers however that there is a certain grain of truth in their statements. Almost all therapy schools have taken out of their programmes all form of social analysis and criticism. For example, American psychoanalysis has allowed itself to be degraded to a medical auxiliary science. The therapist and patient made themselves comfortable in a form of gentlemen's agreement and the analyst has become rich in addition. The difference between psychotherapy as technique and psychotherapy as a source of enlightenment is discussed, and a practical example is demonstrated. Despite of all social criticism the political - or any other goals - should not be forced on the patient. In individual therapy it can be expected from the patient, that he has a standpoint concerning social questions such as religion, pacifism, democracy, minorities, the third world etc. Healing can only be reached by dismantling the >neurotic-making superstructures<. He recommends a rewakening of the Freudian cultural criticism as many social-psychological approaches from Adler to Reich and FROMM. He demands a widening of the therapeutic possibilities by means of schooling in social and theoretical questions. He sees psychoanalysis as extra education also in terms of intellectuality. He calls for the ability to be inspired by intellectual and social problems and says that the intellectual development and the development of the personality is not completed when a person becomes an adult. Only a psychoanalysis which integrates these intellectual and social aspects has a future.}, language = {de} }