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The participants in this panel will discuss the origins of destructiveness, its manifestations and some of its attributes. Emphasis will be placed on both the positive and negative values, i. e. (1) frustration and the resulting anxiety which in turn can foster malicious destructiveness; (2) destructiveness as it appears in social reconstruction. The role that these trends play in criminality, the neuroses, class conflict and war will be evaluated. The universality of this problem makes this panel discussion both timely and vital.
PARTICIPANTS:
Moderator—Karen Horney, M.D.
Franz Alexander, M.D. (by invitation)
Alexander R. Martin, M.D.
A. H. Maslow, Ph.D. (by invitation)
Daniel E. Schneider, M.D.
Chairman: William V. Silverberg, M.D.
William V. Silverberg, M.D.
There is no fundamental irreconcilability between psychoanalysis and religion. Only a psychology which regards the human being as basically destructive and hostile towards the external world is incompatible with faith in a just and loving God. Freud's doctrine of death instincts is based on his premise of man's essential and innate “wickedness” and is untenable on objective, scientific grounds. The present world-crisis is a spiritual struggle between believers in the principle of force as the solution for interpersonal difficulties, and believers in the principle of mutual adjustments. It can be shown that this conflict is closely related to beliefs in man's innate “wickedness” and “goodness”, respectively. With a psychoanalysis which discards Freud's belief in man's basic “wickedness,” religion may work harmoniously and fruitfully towards a successful outcome of the present crisis.