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To introduce an archival protocol of a >Debate about methods in the social sciences, especially the conception of social science method represented by the Institute<, held on 17 January 1941 at the Institute of Social Research in New York, the article focuses on certain conflicts in substance and terms of discourse among members of the Institute, with special emphasis on Franz Neumann’s distinctive approaches, notwithstanding his professed loyalty to Max Horkheimer’s theory. These are seen to arise not only from Neumann’s assignment as bargaining agent for the Institute and his distinctive relations with American colleagues, but also from their different orientations to the conflicted legacies of Weimar.
The nature of the psychopathology of individuals with eating disorders always requires special understanding. In the case presented in this article, the psychodynamics of the patient's bulimia needed to be thought in relation to her mother's anorexia and the transgenerational transmission of her unmourned trauma. The article will focus on the pathological vampiric tie between mother and daughter, whose bulimia served to saturate the maternal void left by the traumatic losses, actualizing the illusion of their union through a common erotogenic zone, the belly. Special emphasis will be given to the powerful phenomena of bodily countertransference experienced by the analyst, who had to contain the patient's massive projections into her own body and to work through the raw inner tensions and sensations in order to create an intermediate space of thinking between them.
Do individuals have freedom or are they free? This project utilizes phenomenology and Erich Fromm's concepts of having and being to explore the issue of awareness through the lens of individuals working in public and private organizations. It argues that awareness of freedom is not only structurally constrained within organizations, but serves to conflate a way of being. Further, it suggests, individuals, and especially societal leaders, have a responsibility to take a stand and act according to what provides them with meaning so as to preserve and expand access to individual freedom.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse found that members of Catholic congregations in Ireland abused children in institutions which they ran on behalf of the State for much of the 20th century. Drawing from Erich Fromm’s moral psychology, it is argued that members took out the suppression of their individual freedom in hostility towards the children and themselves through forms of submissive and authoritarian behaviour. This is seen as one probable explanation which affected some members. The reason members suppressed their freedom was to find psychological security through embracing a Catholic theology which emphasised self-abnegation. Poor economic and social conditions are also seen as factors which contributed to members not developing a healthy relation to their own freedom. The article concludes that those who work in caring professions need to have security in their own freedom.
In his paper, the author considers >the humans’ love of themselves, of their perfection and self-preservation.< He shares Al-Ghazali’s postulate >humans love the eternity of their being< and highlights the presence of this idea in the doctrine of Christianity, in the conceptions of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) and Erich Fromm (1900–1980).
Through a historical survey of the psychoanalytical reflection on depression the author shows how, after the first works by Freud and Abraham on the topic, it has developed (at least at an implicit level) according to two basic explanatory orientations. By separative orientation, the therapeutic evolution of depression aims at the substantial abandonment of the investment (already impaired by affective ambivalence) in certain objects, or their internal representatives/derivatives, having high narcissistic value. According to restorative orientation, the overcoming of depression is connected, instead, to the possibility of maintaining or re-establishing that investment, at least at a level of internal derivatives. By referring to one of his clinical treatments, the author underlines the greater significance of the separative orientation, together with the necessity of considering the restorative dimension only as a partial and secondary function of the therapeutic dynamic of depression.
Black holes: Some notes on time, symbolization, and perversion in the psychodynamics of addiction
(2012)
Through a historical survey of the psychoanalytical reflection on depression the author shows how, after the first works by Freud and Abraham on the topic, it has developed (at least at an implicit level) according to two basic explanatory orientations. By separative orientation, the therapeutic evolution of depression aims at the substantial abandonment of the investment (already impaired by affective ambivalence) in certain objects, or their internal representatives/derivatives, having high narcissistic value. According to restorative orientation, the overcoming of depression is connected, instead, to the possibility of maintaining or re-establishing that investment, at least at a level of internal derivatives. By referring to one of his clinical treatments, the author underlines the greater significance of the separative orientation, together with the necessity of considering the restorative dimension only as a partial and secondary function of the therapeutic dynamic of depression.
Contemporary neuroscience has demonstrated the radical plasticity of the brain – its ability to change with experience at the synaptic, circuitry, and whole-brain levels – which has profound implications for neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and their interrelationship. With the concept of neural plasticity as an ongoing mobilization of neural form, neuroscience converges with psychoanalysis, which has built its theory and therapeutic practice on the flow of forms in the unconscious. We have attempted to integrate evidence and ideas from contemporary neurobiology, neurophysiology, psychopharmacology, and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory, mainly based on Lacan, Bion, and Winnicott, and we suggest that the recovery of form, as a tool of investigation in these fields, may promote a neuroscientifically informed psychotherapy. We also suggest that plasticity captures the primacy of the dynamic, interactive surface of both intrapsychic and intersubjective processes and allows a conceptualization of the unconscious, facilitating a new understanding of psychic trauma. It is also compatible with the idea of the subject versus the ego of the unconscious, unconscious transformations, intersubjectivity, and freedom of will. We conclude that a new area of research has been identified at the interface between neuroscience and psychoanalytic theory, with promising epistemological, scientific, and therapeutic implications.
In her contribution, the author first deals with the general characteristics of the countertransference process and then sets forth her metapsychological hypotheses, which aim to describe the different psychic stages and movements in the analyst's mind during such process. This exploration intends to encompass its intrapsychic, interpsychic, intersubjective, and objective aspects. Her proposal aims to fulfill a twofold purpose. First is to place the countertransference process as a sort of theoretical-technical >hinge< between Freud's lines of thought imbued with the features of the modern age, and those trends influenced by postmodern ideas that put forward the opposition between the analyst's >objectivity< and his >subjectivity,< casting doubt on any possibility of being objective in our clinical practice. Her second aim is to appeal to the >witch metapsychology< and go deeper into the understanding and description of the constituent psychical movements of the process mentioned. In this case, countertransference is also suggested as a theoretical-clinical >hinge< that may help to overcome the >intrapsychic-intersubjective< opposition, based on the assumption of the predominance of one or another of these approaches during the course of an analytic therapy. This contribution attempts to add to those theoretical comprehensive trends that go beyond certain extremely confrontational positions that frequently arise in contemporary psychoanalytic discussions.
The article traces the main stages of the history of psychoanalytic social psychology in German speaking countries. Beginning with Freud, it illuminates the Freudomarxists, Critical theory, the developments during the 1960ies and 70ies and of ethnopsychoanalysis, followed by an illustration of central topics of psychoanalytic social psychology (in- and exclusion, authoritarism and right-wing extremism, as well as the aftermath of the National Socialism and the fields of subject and gender). Reflections on a psychoanalytic-oriented empirical social research complete the text.
As a psychoanalyst, I believe that conscious mental phenomena (such as feelings) are not epiphenomenal to the workings of the brain. Feelings evolved for good biological reasons; they make specific contributions to (unconscious) brain functioning. Notwithstanding all the philosophical complexities, the interactions between consciousness and unconscious brain functions are causal interactions. The tendency of modern neuroscientists (and biological psychiatrists) to marginalise consciousness in relation to how the brain works is likely to lead them badly astray. I illustrate this view by trying to address the question: why does depression feel bad?
We are presently at a point of unique circumstantial convergence where recession, an increased emphasis on business ethics, and marketer’s reluctance to accept shifting social agendas have combined to identify the need for a new approach to marketing. Using concepts from the human resources, marketing and psychology literatures, and especially Erich Fromm’s ideas concerning economic character, this paper posits that marketers – as a professional community – are driven to promote consumerist outcomes; victims of an automaton amalgam of calling and character. The analysis suggests the vulnerability of both marketer and consumer are mutually reinforcing and that we need, somehow, to break this damaging cycle of dependence. We know little, however, about how marketers think and feel about their discipline, so this paper also promotes an agenda for marketer behaviour research, as a countervailing balance to a currently disproportionate focus on the consumer.
In 1937 Theodor Adorno, in a letter to Erich Fromm, described women as exemplars of commodity fetishism, >agents of the commodity in society<. Adorno wanted Fromm to join him in a study of the invidious psycho-social effects of this phenomenon. Fromm did not respond to this invitation, possibly because his own views on women were diametrically opposed to Adorno’s. To Fromm, women were not agents of capitalist corruption but avatars of altruism, their nurturing qualities providing models for socialist morality. These polarized images of women have their roots in Enlightenment gender theory. This essay outlines the myths of Woman promulgated by Enlightenment intellectuals, in particular the Janus-faced doctrine of ‘female influence’ that dominated eighteenth-century writings on women, which portrayed them simultaneously as acquisitive hedonists and as paragons of self-sacrificial benevolence.
Despite readily available facts and figures regarding human-caused natural degradation, a large portion of the public still refuses to believe that the environment is suffering because of our actions. This refusal to believe, paired with a lack of environmental motivation, has become so evident that it recently attracted the attention of scientists and psychologists attempting to account for it from various perspectives. The disbelief in, for instance, climate change, is hard to explain without referring to a mechanism best described as >environmental denial<. Analysis shows that people may be prone to deny anthropogenic environmental damage because their personal identity, as well as the quest for meaning in their lives, depends upon a consumerist modus vivendi. Consciously or unconsciously faced with the dilemma of either accepting that this lifestyle endangers the life of the planet (as well as their and their children’s well-being), and thus accepting its consequences and the responsibility for change, or refusing to believe that the environmental degradation is occurring in the first place, they choose the latter option. This choice is also motivated by the lack of sound alternatives around which new, >greener< identities could be built. Thus any attempt at changing public opinion regarding anthropogenic environmental degradation, as well as any strategy that advocates putting an abrupt end to our environmentally damaging practices, is not likely to be successful if it neglects to provide new footing for identity building.
Erich Fromm
(2012)
Erich Fromm
(2012)
Erich Fromm and Universal Humane Experience: Application in the Aesthetic Domain for Art Educators
(2012)
The author outlines a unique transdisciplinary method for studying fear and fearlessness, with emphasis on a new conceptualization >World’s Fearlessness Teachings< (i.e., Fearlessness Tradition) and their critical importance, across time and cultures, to better manage and teach fear management in the 21st century. Extracts from the author’s new book >The World’s Fearlessness Teachings: A Critical Integral Approach to Fear Management/ Education for the 21st Century< (University Press of America, 2010) are included. The paper concludes that >experts< in the area of fear management/education are generally unwilling to try a transdisciplinary approach because it is more work and less pragmatic. The author admits his methodology is radical, while grounded in an evolutionary realismidealism model, and few >experts< in fear management are interested in it, so far. The field of Education ought to lead this (r)evolutionary approach and utilize the resource of the World’s Fearlessness Teachings to do so.
Escape from Theology: Theistic and Nontheistic Religion in the Socialist Humanism of Erich Fromm
(2012)
Ferenczi's 1929 claim that >no analysis can be regarded … as complete unless we have succeed in penetrating the traumatic material< resonated deeply in Freud, influencing his last works. According to the author, it reactivated in Freud the same traumatic memories that were at the heart of his self-analysis, letting them resurface in the 1936 essay >A disturbance of memory on the Acropolis,< in the striking simile of the Loch Ness monster. The image of >the sea-serpent we've never believed in< is then analyzed and used as a sounding lead for Freud's self-analysis. The transformation of the love-object into an attractive monster, which is found as a recurrent pattern in Freud's life and work, hints at the centrality of the combined figure of woman and serpent in mythology, in psychoanalysis, and in Freud's self-analysis. Finally, the background of the >memory disturbance< on the Acropolis is traced back to the woman patient who had dreams of gigantic snakes. It is suggested that the patient might be Emma Eckstein and that a still unexplored thread exists, which runs through the foundation of psychoanalysis, connecting the surgical operation of Emma, the Irma dream, and the Acropolis incident.
Freud: Darkness and Vision
(2012)
The legacy of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research has been a powerful force for critically understanding social reality. Erich Fromm was one of the early and best known members of the Institute. Fromm emphasized the centrality of culture and interpersonal relations in the construction of the psyche. The unconscious was not only the location for buried repressed matter but also for the imaginative potential of the human person. He is a forgotten and neglected contributor to the story of the Institute having been written out of this history. This retrospective of his ideas explores his work in the light of the recent work of Juergen Habermas who is also an active but less controversial engager with the psychoanalytic tradition. The implications for adult education will be addressed. The paper outlines Fromm’s radical reinterpretation of psychoanalysis emphasizing the importance of social existence as distinct from the impact of instincts; key concepts of the market, commodity fetishism and automaton conformity; The implications for adult education in the tradition of radical (Freire) and transformative learning theory (Mezirow) and addressed and make connections between Habermas and Fromm that further the project of critical theory. Both attempted in different times to identify and realize the potential of (though neither used the term) of lifelong learning as part of the process of bringing about a more just and caring society and a shared attention to the importance of having free conversations about how the emancipated life might be created and sustained.
Beck (1995) has outlined an influential social theory in which the role of modern risks has been highlighted. Modern societies are characterized as qualitatively distinct from premodern societies due to the self-generated new risks of annihilatory potential. Jonas (1979) has proposed an approach highlighting fear as a heuristic guideline for approaching further scientific research and technological development. According to this framework, imagining annihilatory risks inherent in a particular technology and research should make us forego the potential benefits of this technology, as the potential costs are too high. Mittelstraß (1992) argues exactly the opposite and claims that not less but more research and technological progress is necessary in order to enhance the survival chances of the human species. In order to reduce the possibility of deliberate action, which may trigger the annihilation of the human species, however, Mittelstraß (1992) calls for the development of a strong ethos of responsibility. The question, though, remains on what kind of rationale this ethos of individual responsibility may be grounded? It is suggested in this paper that Fromm (1947) provided the answer to the question of how such an ethos may be created and sustained.
The healing dynamics of psychosis are examined in this article. It is concluded that psychosis might have the following positive and compensating functions: a satisfaction of urgent needs and a realization of urgent goal settings that previously appeared unattainable; the avoidance of and coping with unbearable reality, harmful influences and stress, and/or trauma; the upgrading of social-emotional and cognitive capacities/awareness and effectiveness; the enhancement of self-realization and authenticity; and intrapsychic maturation. The therapeutic implications of these findings are also discussed; in addition, an outline for integrative theory of constructive functions in psychosis and a clinical vignette are presented.
In his approach to understand psychoanalytical knowledge and practice, Igor A. Caruso, one of the founders of IFPS, started with a traditional Christian anthropological view on human development. His early conception of psychosocial disturbances described the loss of cognitive and social ability as a loss of orientation on objective values of human responsibility and attachment.
Referring to Existentialist Philosophy, Caruso later on transformed his view on neurosis into a concept of individual alienation of transcendence. In the 1960s, he conceived psychosocial development as an on-going individual dealing with social and collective alienation of human nature, life and work. The process of becoming a cultural person obliges the ego to face his individual unconscious drive demands as well as the unconscious demands of the society.
Caruso’s stays in Latin America – esp. in Brazil – caused him to reinforce the interference of materialistic theories on socialisation with psychoanalytic knowledge of individual unconscious dynamics. He understood the psychoanalytic situation as a ‘micro-social model’ which symbolizes the collective and the individual alienated conditions as well as the possibilities of solving the alienation in an individual and cultural process.
In the 1970s, Caruso’s conception was understood as a Freudo-Marxist point of view on alienated psychosocial reality.
With his view on psychoanalytical treatment as a dialectic and relational process – intra- and interpersonal – Caruso demanded a psychoanalytical responsibility within the collective changes, which in a historical view on the IFPS can be understood as a part of a common identity within the early federation.
In his approach to understand psychoanalytical knowledge and practice, Igor A. Caruso, one of the founders of IFPS, started with a traditional Christian anthropological view on human development. His early conception of psychosocial disturbances described the loss of cognitive and social ability as a loss of orientation on objective values of human responsibility and attachment.
Referring to Existentialist Philosophy, Caruso later on transformed his view on neurosis into a concept of individual alienation of transcendence. In the 1960s, he conceived psychosocial development as an on-going individual dealing with social and collective alienation of human nature, life and work. The process of becoming a cultural person obliges the ego to face his individual unconscious drive demands as well as the unconscious demands of the society.
Caruso’s stays in Latin America – esp. in Brazil – caused him to reinforce the interference of materialistic theories on socialisation with psychoanalytic knowledge of individual unconscious dynamics. He understood the psychoanalytic situation as a ‘micro-social model’ which symbolizes the collective and the individual alienated conditions as well as the possibilities of solving the alienation in an individual and cultural process.
In the 1970s, Caruso’s conception was understood as a Freudo-Marxist point of view on alienated psychosocial reality.
With his view on psychoanalytical treatment as a dialectic and relational process – intra- and interpersonal – Caruso demanded a psychoanalytical responsibility within the collective changes, which in a historical view on the IFPS can be understood as a part of a common identity within the early federation.
Introduction
(2012)
In this paper, it is argued that the psychoanalytic situation can be considered as an intersubjective field of interactions (psychoanalytic field) involving both patient and analyst. These interactions constantly transform the psychoanalytic field. The dream paradigm of the psychoanalytic session is also discussed. The theoretical arguments are illustrated with clinical vignettes.
The author follows Bion's, Ogden's and the Barangers’ formulations on the intersubjective field of analysis and begins with the hypothesis that, if the analytic situation aspires to mental growth and not just to insight, the new relationship becomes of particular importance. He presents the clinical case of a patient whose archaic relationship was experienced as a rather depriving one. The initial phase of analysis had periods of incomprehension but allowed for a certain degree of interpretive work. In the second phase, it seemed that the intersubjective relationship and interaction created a >field< towards growth.
Objective Measures of Subjective Experience: The Use of Therapist Notes in Process-Outcome Research
(2012)
In a 2002 article that appeared in El País, the Spanish writer Javier Cercas allies himself with other scholars who have argued that during the time of its publication he Family of Pascual Duarte (1942) by Camilo José Cela, served as an apologia for Franco’s dictatorship. Following the ideas articulated by Erich Fromm in Escape from Freedom (1941) about fascism as a reaction against the effects of individual isolation in the modern era, I relate Cerca’s political interpretation of the Family of Pascual Duarte with existential and psychological readings of the novel. I argue that the moral decline of Pascual Duarte is the result of his inability to live up to the existential burden of freedom in the seemingly uncaring, anarchical and meaningless universe associated, from the Nationalist perspective, with the political and social programs of the Second Republic. While Pascual tries to elude this responsibility through various mechanisms of escape, primarily through practices of submission and domination, the lack of any legitimate authority to submit to or of any sphere in which he can legitimately assert his own authority, leads Pascual to unwittingly present his meaningless and immoral life as a case for the reassertion of a dictatorial regime.
What are the implications of the new management models, which are typical of contemporary organizations, on the subjects who depend on their work for a living? Which are the new symptoms and pathologies that define contemporary organizations? What could psychoanalytical studies contribute towards a greater understanding of the contemporary modes of subject–work–organizations relations? As answers, we should stress the relevance of deeper conversations between organizational studies and psychoanalysis, as in its extension it will offer significant potential with regard to new gazes and theoretical–methodological approaches that will allow broader visions with regard to the multiple facets that characterize the complexity of current of subject–work–organizations relations.
Although Freud's theory was born from an observation of individual phenomena and psychological suffering, Freud did not fail to relate and apply it to culture, to the social, and even to the arts and religion. In many of his texts, he dealt with social issues from the psychoanalytic viewpoint. Reviewing these texts and Freud's theories, this paper intends to show evidence of the applicability of the psychoanalytic perspective in current society and in contemporary organizations. In other words, Freud's work remains as ever present and relevant.
Psychoanalysis and job-related dilemmas in the post-modern era: A way out or a pact with the Devil?
(2012)
This paper aims to study the subject–work–organization relationship from the viewpoint of psychoanalysis. Modern organizations now demand a new professional profile. The subject struggles to deal with this new scenario, which offers him new possibilities to articulate enjoyment and desire. Which role does psychoanalysis play with regard to new challenges brought to the contemporary era? Is it possible to think of psychoanalysis as a way out of job-related dilemmas of Post-Modernity, or would psychoanalysis be risking establishing a pact with devil?
Psychoanalysis is becoming an impossible profession within the public welfare system in Sweden
(2012)
The preconditions for psychoanalytic practice within the Swedish public welfare system are analyzed in this article. Psychoanalysis remains a one-to-one treatment and relies on the analyst's capacity to use his or her own subjective response. The development of the psychoanalytic process is dependent on unconscious reality, making it impossible to work with a model that has a strict relation between diagnosis, treatment method, and result. Objectivity and the desire to predict treatment outcomes characterize the immanent logic in the complex system of laws and recommendations that affects most practices within the field of medicine. As a consequence of this development, psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy are marginalized, since our treatment methods are not adapted to the present industrialization and economization of the medical health sector, with the result that the preconditions for psychoanalytic training have changed dramatically. The exclusion of psychoanalysis from the national health insurance scheme is a demanding challenge at a time when the Swedish welfare model is undergoing fundamental changes.
Psychoanalysis, religion, philosophy and the possibility for dialogue: Freud, Binswanger and Pfister
(2012)
This article considers the longstanding disciplinary tensions between psychoanalysis, religion, and philosophy. It argues for a cross-disciplinary understanding of human experience by examining the relationship of Sigmund Freud to his two Swiss colleagues, Ludwig Binswanger and Oskar Pfister. In contrast to Freud's avowed atheism and pronounced ambivalence on philosophy, Binswanger and Pfister both professed a strong religious sensibility and philosophical outlook. The article juxtaposes their theoretical divergences on religion and philosophy with personal interactions and correspondence. The relationship of Freud to Binswanger and Pfister is instructive for understanding the historical and contemporary interaction of psychoanalytic theory and practice with other disciplines and diverse viewpoints. The dialogical spirit that connects the three protagonists constitutes a critical engagement with learning and is essential to psychoanalysis today.
The present paper reports on a study carried out over three years in two companies in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It aimed to give employees an opportunity to talk over and rethink their difficulties and present problems, usually associated with other people who interfered in their professional and personal relationships. We believe that, through acknowledging their issues and accepting the responsibilities assigned to them, a greater quota of creative power could be released in them, generating wellbeing and positive results, both at home and at work. Our intervention was not psychotherapy. However, we gave time for reflection, which in turn gave personal meaning to the problems presented by the employees and thereby lessened their suffering.
Evidence from recent electroencephalographic and magnetoencephalographic sleep studies is reviewed in relation to consciousness and dreams, two fundamental issues in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The rich dynamics of the macro- and microstructure of human sleep indicate specific brain disintegrating mechanisms as underlying the loss and alteration of consciousness in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep, respectively. Transient state changes and dynamic interactions between elements of sleep graphoelements (i.e. K-complexes and spindles) are described; these, beyond their involvement in controlling consciousness level, may support the consolidation or modification of therapeutic experiences. Higher powers than in awake-state gamma-band electrographic activity (known to underlie cognitive processes), which we observed in specific medial prefrontal cortical areas, are proposed to support content in dreaming (REM) and mentation (NREM). These areas lie in remarkably close proximity to the >default system< and >theory of mind< areas, which may be parts of the neural correlates of intrapsychic and intersubjective processes. Specific activations of limbic circuits were observed in REM sleep in consistency with the emotional content of dreams. Current brain imaging technology in sleep studies offers new opportunities to explore the mechanisms underlying consciousness and dreaming, a unique area of convergence between biology and psychology.
Drawing upon the thought of Eric Fromm, this paper argues that efforts to understand and counter behaviour that causes difficulties in education should begin in a critical and reflective engagement with both the conditions of human freedom and the character of educational institutions and society as a whole. Fromm’s critique of dominating ideas about good mental health within capitalistic societies is examined in relation to disablement and attention-deficient hyperactivity disorder. A study of a sixth-form college in the south of England elucidates connections between Fromm’s insights into social psychology and disablement as a process of oppression.
Review Craig Piers (Ed.): Personality and Psychopathology: Critical Dialogues with David Shapiro
(2012)
Review Eric M. Plakun (Ed.): Treatment Resistance and Patient Authority: The Austen Riggs Reader
(2012)
Review Vamik D. Volkan: Psychoanalytic Technique Expanded: A Textbook on Psychoanalytic Treatment
(2012)
Review Vamik D. Volkan: Psychoanalytic Technique Expanded: A Textbook on Psychoanalytic Treatment
(2012)
This paper discusses the notion of mental health from the perspective of the social context in which such a notion has to exist, and has to be fostered or otherwise, by that key social activity in a democracy that is education. In particular, it considers this topic by way of reviewing a thoroughgoing analysis of ‘society and sanity’ presented over a half century ago by Erich Fromm in his >The Sane Society<. The links to and an implications for a PCP understanding of mental health in the light of the ideas of Fromm and some later thinkers are discussed.
Today, much of psychoanalysis has moved beyond Freud, both methodologically and theoretically. I understand Freud to have been always either explicitly or implicitly committed to the view that psychoanalysis is a science, if only at times as an aspirational goal. The question I intend to raise in this article is not whether psychoanalysis is scientific, but rather whether it should still consider itself so in the light of contemporary theoretical physics' ever greater dependence on mathematical assertions that have not to date been validated by experimental conformation. Bestowing the appellation of science to superstring theory, >the theory of everything,< is at present a self-crowing by its adherents taken as a hereditary birthright. I view the relation between psychoanalytic theory and contemporary theoretical physics as a parallelism – a parallelism between approaches to conceptualisation rather than a reduction of disciplines.