Actuality of Psychoanalysis

The issues of psychoanalysis in the consumption society

 By Jean Chiriac

An author that issues a psychoanalysis site on Internet - in fact, dedicated more to Sigmund Freud - was complaining of the fact that the American critique, and not only, doesn't view with a friendly eye a writing - book, article, essay - that mentions Freud! The author under discussion, who is also a professor somewhere because he mentions "my students", insists on the fact that Freud is a capital character in our modern culture and that's the reason why he teaches him to his students!

At the first sight, we could say: he is a honest man. He renders to Caesar what belongs to him and claims "Justice for Freud". But this opinion is hasty. Why ? Simply because, in fact, our author doesn't render a service to Freud teaching him to the young generation. A Freud taught among some other subject matters at the University courses is nothing more than a forgotten topic in a dusty library! Psychoanalysis obtains nothing from this teaching because what is essential at Freud - if I could say so - is his psychoanalysis and, more precisely, its clinical aspect (the theory of neuroses, as Freud himself would say).

I won't deny the cultural importance of psychoanalysis, its remarkable contributions to the field of cultural hermeneutics, but, on this area psychoanalysis confronts a harsh competition and, particularly, time challenge. In time, it is depreciated because it is no more in fashion... Psychoanalysis is great on clinical level, when it deals with neuroses, which it tries to understand and solve. This is its favorite issue! Or, exactly here psychoanalysis seems to get its great defeat.

And this happens mainly in America, where, as we find out from an interview with Peter Gay, the American Freud's biographer, the psychoanalysts, running to enrich themselves, prefer other psychotherapeutic techniques, which are shorter and faster.

There is no need to discuss any more about "the quality" of these "techniques". The sharp need for more and more money explains why in America "Freud's" psychoanalysis seems to have disappeared. Remember: not its inadequacy to its therapeutical task disqualified psychoanalysis, but the fact that the duration of the therapy is long and the amount of money brought as a profit is small! It is as if we would use an inadequate wooden scalpel, which cuts a bit, but is more profitable because it's cheaper, than a true steel one, which has the disadvantage of being more expensive!

The failure of psychoanalysis on the level of cultural interest, its rejection from the clinical sphere, because it's not financially profitable for the analyst, mostly explain why it seems out of season. It remains for us to appreciate if these apparent shortcomings could be seriously taken into account?!

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