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May 19, 1969. THE ORIGIN AND FATE OF NEW IDEAS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS. (Freud Anniversary Lecture.) Ralph Greenson, M.D.
Dr. Greenson stated that psychoanalytic training is stultifying the creativity of students. He suggests that innovation occurs when the analyst is depressed, frustrated, anxious, and possibly irritated; at such times he is more receptive to a new clue or insight. The creative analyst must be willing to be wrong, and to recognize that creativity is not the antithesis of conservatism. There is an aggressive component to a new idea—a rebellion against the old and familiar is involved and the creative man must be able to endure being alone. There is also the tendency to overestimate the value of one's production and invest it with magical omnipotence—a regressive form of love. This is destructive and interferes with the integration of the idea into the mainstream of psychoanalytic thinking. It is important to conserve what is useful of old ideas and to synthesize them with new ideas.
When psychoanalytic groups isolate themselves, creativity is stultified and the members become followers of dogma, rejecting new ideas, doubts, and criticisms. There is a need for synthesis of new and old ideas, and of the ideas of the various psychoanalytic schools.