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treatments by the descendants of Freud. For whatever reasons, psychoana–
lysts-whether M.D.s or psychologists-attract fewer and fewer patients;
psychiatrists increasingly are using mind altering drugs; the culture is mov–
ing toward simpler and simpler interventions and tends to be unaware that
true psychological insight does not come about wi thout effort. All of these
currents came together in the controversies around the upcoming Freud
exhibit at the Library of Congress. Freudian analysts and a number of his–
torians planned a tribute to Freud; some vociferous and dissident Freud
scholars soon accused them of wanting to resurrect their dwindling influ–
ence; psychologists who only recently were accepted by the so-called
establishment joined them to get even for previous slights; European ana–
lysts accused all these nay-sayers of "politically correct" thought control;
the dissidents protested officially and unofficially keep pressuring; and the
media once again has a field day.
Altogether, I believe, these circumstances only help to confirm the fact
that Freud's dreams of one hundred years ago have taken root, that some
of his basic motivations are our motivations as well, and that we each have
our own dreams and fantasies. So, even if our unconscious demons appear
in different representations and shapes, they must be tamed in relation to
new possibilities, and current contingencies.
Morris Eagle:
Thank you, Edith. I am pleased to introduce the next
speaker, Leon Cooper. He is the Thomas Watson Professor of Science and
founder and director of the Institute for Brain and Neural Systems at
Brown University. He also shared the Nobel prize in physics for his stud–
ies on the theories of subject conductivity. Dr. Cooper's topic is "Shal l We
Deconstruct Science?"
Leon Cooper:
As a scientist (a hard scientist with a soft heart) before this
audience, I believe it is appropriate to quote a remark of Ed Bloom, a
departed colleague. Once, when addressing the Modern Language
Association, Ed said he felt like a lion thrown to the Christians.
I was very much influenced by Freud's writings on psychoanalysis,
particularly by his theory of dreams. I didn't believe all of Freud's elabora–
tions, but I thought he touched on concepts that were enormously deep,
such as the unconscious, the conscious, and the very powerful interaction
between them. It is of great interest to me since biologists and neuro–
physiologists expect to find the underlying physical correlate for such
concepts as the unconscious. For example, we might say that the uncon–
scious is like stored memory and what is conscious is memory in play.
I seem to remember that Freud believed we would eventually find the
biological basis for psychoanalytic concepts. But at the beginning of the
century that time had not arrived. So the best way was to proceed without
