PSYCHOANALYSIS TODAY
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So, whereas psychoanalysis may have made psychiatry more
subtle and more humane, it has as a way of life softened the sinews
that it needs for the principal pu blic challenge of psychiatry. And the
training and practice of psychoanalysis over the years has diverted
the energies of many brilliant doctors trained at publi c expense.
This history has been a fascinating on e. It's been elegant and
sometimes profound, but for the consumer I'm not sure it's been
worth it; it appears to be changing just in time. That is one of the
things that makes me proud to have been a part of it. Both psycho–
ana lysis, it seems to me, and psychiatry are flexible American insti–
tutions, and I think they wi ll survive separately. Thank you.
William Phillips:
We've got two more. Let's have Barrett first and then
Schneiderman.
William Barrett:
I belong
to
the group who were interested twenty-five
years ago passionately in psychoanalytic theory, and I expected
something like that kind of discussion would go on tonight. We
wou ld be interested in asking: Was the theory true? What parts of it
were true and in what ways and so on? Here we've been discussing
statistics, sociology, economics, whether it's a booming profession.
It 's all very interesting .... But intellectually, I would have liked a
different discussion.
William Phillips:
We were trying to prove that the cu lture is in a state
of decline.
Stuart Schneiderman:
I'm going to be brief to finish this. You men–
tioned that you were interested in talking about Lacan to close
things; I'm probably the on ly one here who is a member of his
organization. But I think that what strikes me, having been trained
in Paris, is that most of the phrases that are used to describe the
situation of psychoanalysis in this country-and I cannot judge
whether they are true or fa lse or "accurate or inaccurate-most of
them do not pertain at all
to
what's happening in France. Most of the
reasons given are also present in France; that is to say that the
cu ltural causes for certain decline or crisis-most of these things
exist in France. And yet the consequence has been an increase in
interest in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is taking the place of
cu ltural leadership and innovation. The fact that there is a prolifera–
tion of psychoanalysts as well as a proliferation of patients-these
are some of the things that are going on. I personally think that this
has something to do with Lacan's teaching.
I think that,
to
close the discussion here, it's of some interest to
compare what's happening in this country to what is happening in
another country. Perhaps that might lead the discussion away from
