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From its very beginnings, psychoanalytic theory has been applied to the phenomena of human society and cultural life. One of its basic discoveries, the Oedipus complex, used Sophocles' drama as an allegory to be subjected to psychological interpretation as work of art and myth at the same time. With the exploration of the unconscious, the relation of the examined object to “other individuals” appeared in a specific way: “In the individual's mental life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper, as an opponent; and so from the very first individual psychology in this extended but entirely justifiable sense of the words, is at the same time social psychology as well” (Freud, 1921, p. 69). The application of psychoanalysis to all areas of society proved so fruitful that Freud (1933) could write: “Strictly speaking there are only two sciences: psychology, pure and applied, and natural science” (p. 179).
The answers found by applied psychoanalysis are psychological explanations. This is more than a result of its method; the underlying assumption is that all social behavior derives from the conscious and unconscious mental life of the human beings who form society. Thus, the study of society is an applied psychology.
Of course, we do not deny that psychology is applicable to the study of social groups or that every past, present, and future society is made up of