You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
23rd International Psycho-Analytical Congress
MAXWELL GITELSON
President of the International Psycho-Analytical Association
ON THE PRESENT SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL POSITION OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
As members of society and of one of its healing professions, we once learned and more or less accepted the paradoxical necessity for controlling the impulse which expresses itself as therapeutic ambition. However, it seems to have been more difficult for us to resist the temptation to extend ourselves in areas of social commitment beyond our expertise as psycho-analysts. Under the pressure of the conditions of our times, we have engaged ourselves in various socially meliorative activities which have undoubted ethical appeal but are not psycho-analysis. Applications of psycho-analysis have become so numerous that it has become difficult to be certain where the boundaries of psycho-analysis lie.
Another aspect of the current social situation in which we tend to reach beyond our scope is research. In the strictest view, research pertains to science. But