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Psychoanalysis is a dynamic psychology, the study of man's mind. The psychoanalyst in his daily work with his patients observes the richness, the interaction, and the complexity of human thought, emotion, and behavior which comprise human nature, the functions which distinguish man from animal. The psychoanalyst observes human psychic functions in adaptation to environmental demands, to interpersonal relations, and to inner conflict, as well as in mental illness, in which the individual fails in his efforts to cope with stress and conflict.
Psychoanalysis is also a developmental psychology concerned with the study of the development and maturation of psychic functions in the individual, the interaction of environmental influences and innate capacities. As a developmental psychology the interest of psychoanalysis extends to comparative psychology, the similarities of and differences between man and animal, and the evolution of human psychic functioning. A comparative study of behavior in different animal species, whether between human and animal or between different animals, may be approached in one of two ways—either to emphasize similarities or to emphasize differences. If the approach goes to either extreme, it will be misleading, and the proper approach must be to place similarities and differences in perspective.
There is, of course, a biological basis for human structure and function, whether these be anatomical, physiological, or psychic. Man shares with nonhuman species numerous anatomical and physiological attributes, and there is certainly much