It is no longer possible for society to ignore the dimension added by the study of the unconscious. Psychoanalytic thought has had an impact on the sociocultural milieu. Further, metapsychology is not a closed system, but is itself based on extra-analytic considerations. Psychoanalysis is thus open to influences from other areas of scientific endeavor. However, the attempts to integrate psychoanalysis with other sciences and to apply it to the study of cultural and historical phenomena could lead to the loss of integrity and specificity of psychoanalysis. It is difficult to draw a line between an esoteric refusal of interchange with other disciplines dealing with human behavior and a diluting integration. The authors suggest that psychoanalysis as a therapeutic and research process will be carried on much as it is now, as an endeavor to bring about knowledge of the unconscious. Perhaps psychoanalysis can guard its specific character by remaining faithful to a coherent metapsychology, while being enriched by findings from other sciences.