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An invitation from the Editor of The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis to contribute to the commemoration of the journal's 50th anniversary challenges thought. But thinking about 'psychoanalysis past and present' arouses a considerable number of problems. The description of the growth of psychoanalysis as a science and as a therapeutic method, and of the increase in knowledge about the functioning of the human mind during the last 50 years would require the scope of a book. Thus the question is how to make a choice and which topic to elaborate upon for the present issue of the Journal. I have chosen two themes: (1) general remarks on the development of theory; (2) technical implications.
Some 20 years ago I read a paper before an audience of psychiatrists and neurologists, entitled 'Some Remarks on the Development of Psychoanalysis during the Last Decades' (see Lampl-de Groot, 1965). After a few introductory remarks I spoke on three themes: (a) the development of the scientific theory; (b) the development of the technique and the therapeutic possibilities; and (c) the influence of psychoanalysis on other branches of science, such as psychiatry, academic psychology, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, pedagogy.
During the last 20 years a continuation of the expansion of psychoanalytic knowledge can be observed in all of the three fields mentioned. Its influence on psychology and sociology is specially seen in America and in Germany. Psychiatry is largely affected by psychoanalysis, for instance in America and in Holland. The same is valid for pedagogy in different countries, etc.
The therapeutic possibilities have been on the increase to include a wide range of mental disorders other than neurotic disturbances, either through application of psychoanalytic technique, with or without parameters, by means of so-called 'psychotherapy on analytic lines'. Finally, psychoanalytic theory has been extended in different areas.
Freud had already wid