III Psychoanalysis: Ideology and Practitioners

PSYCHOANALYSIS IS AN IDEOLOGICAL formulation which focusses attention on individuality, inner personal freedom, self-expression, concern for oneself and others, as a manifestation of human dignity. In this frame of reference, respect for the individual's inalienable rights is of paramount importance. It is not surprising

therefore, that totalitarian states with their undisputed hegemony of the state over the individual oppose the basic humanistic ideology represented by psychoanalysis. Historically, the extreme political left as well as the extreme political right are in an unholy alliance as outright enemies of psychoanalytic formulations and practice. Another historical truism may be observed in the phenomenon of turning away from psychological concerns when social and economic issues reach a critical stage.

The year 1933 marked that ignominious time when Hitler seized power in Germany. Communists and Jews were earmarked as the relentless targets in his megalomanic quest for world domination. It is of interest that many of the early analysts were Marxist inclined idealists. Accordingly, the tiny psychoanalytic cadre in 1933 represented a symbolic key target for the planned annihilation of "Marxists, " "Jews" and "Free-thinkers." Individual autonomy and independent moral consciousness were declared to be decadent by the Third Reich.

In the year 1933, we also witnessed that barbarian bonfire in which the books of liberals, dissenters and the writings of Sigmund Freud were sacrificed to the demons of the Third Reich. At the same time, predominantly Jewish authors were arrested for alleged Marxist activities. The swelling tide of anti-liberalism, anti-intellectualism and anti-semitism led to an exodus, which included, of course, an endangered group of Jewish psychoanalysts.

Eventually the remaining Jewish members of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute were compelled to resign. Freud, living at the time in his home in Vienna, was consulted about these events,