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In recent decades an increasing number of analysts, first of the knowledgeable, upcoming ones, then more and more of their seasoned elders, have begun to direct their attention to matters of research in psycho-analysis.
This new trend causes us to speculate both about the reasons for the resurgence of interest in research and about its scope and real value. The time has perhaps come for psycho-analysis to leave behind its struggle for survival, and to reach out for more accuracy in its method, more clarity in its concepts, and wider expansion of its field.
A closer look, however, may tell another story. Contrary to the common notion of the popularity of psycho-analysis, the degree to which its theories and principles are accepted is not very different from that of its earlier days. Even where it is said to have been accepted, scientific journals and popular periodicals still carry scathing criticisms and violent, open or disguised, attacks on it. When eminent psycho-analysts accept invitations to sit at a round table with professional workers in logic or the philosophy of science, the net result is rather a loss than a gain to psycho-analysis. The revival of interest in research, then, is not due to any newly-won security that our science has achieved.
Is it, then, because, at a time when man's curiosity and skill are literally carrying him out of this planet to the far reaches of the universe, when his ingenuity and knowledge have already helped him to create some forms of life itself out of inert matter, not to mention that, for marketing purposes, research is being conducted even on cosmetics and dog foods—at such a time, can it be that psycho-analysis is trying to catch up with the fashion and the spirit of our age by engaging in research?
The answer to this question also is in the negative. The oldest and most authentic definition of psycho-analysis is that it is a therapy, a body of knowledge, and a method of research. Thus the current renewed interest in p