The author describes the theoretical foundation and the paradigms of comparative psychoanalysis (or ethnopsychoanalysis), which was developed through the psychoanalytic investigation of subjects in nations outside the western cultural area. The scope, the results, and the pitfalls of this approach are illustrated by means of vignettes from the work of others as well as from the author's own research, which was partly drawn from observations made in Europe and the United States. Ethnopsychoanalysis provides insight into the relationship between inner conflicts and the contradictions and tensions in the social structure. Inner conflicts cannot be elucidated by the analysis of individuals only, according to the author. While its most important method of investigation is individual psychoanalysis, comparative psychoanalysis views the origin and the result of inner conflicts within the context of social conditions and historical processes.