This paper was first delivered before the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis as the first Alexander Lecture in November, 1957. Lewin draws a parallel between the beginnings of psycho-analysis and that of the universities. History shows that learning has always had as one of its main sources the desire for omniscience within either the teacher, the pupil, or both. Threats to this omniscient phantasy have generally been met with violent reactions. A parallel with psycho-analysis is offered by the Renaissance movement of humanism. The humanists of that period were unorganized, but like the first psycho-analysts they introduced a type of knowledge unwelcome to the established order of learning. A further parallel can be made between psycho-analysis and the development of the experimental method. The universities, the seat of established knowledge, did not attract scientists even when they were not unwilling to utilize their services. In the seventeenth century scientists formed study groups which were to develop into such great