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To the Editors: Dr. Radomisli's excellent comment does not discuss my underlying argument, nor the various plans which I have suggested from time to time. It is primarily a discussion of the destructive consequences of the official opposition which psychoanalytic organizations exhibit to any systematic training of non-medical behavioral scientists in psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy, and even to any systematic pilot testing of such training. With this part of his argument I am in complete agreement.
There are, however, a few points of disagreement which may be worth noting. For instance, when Dr. Radomisli says that Freud “discovered that research and practice of psychoanalysis are absolutely inseparable,” I am afraid that he is not doing justice to Freud as a scientist; since in the very nature of things this cannot be true of any professional discipline. It is not and cannot be true that every practitioner of medicine, of clinical psychology, of surgery, or of electrical engineering is an investigator. In the application of facts or theories, one may make observations which others can use as a basis for new investigations. But that does not make the clinical observer an investigator, not unless he changes roles and turns from application to investigation. Furthermore, in every field of medicine many men are fine investigators yet not good physicians and therapists, and many excellent therapists and physicians are not good investigators. The same is true in psychoanalysis, whether this is carried out by a man who has been through the full medical discipline or by a man whose basic training is in clinical psychology or in psychiatric social work. The two roles are not one and inseparable and never will be. Furthermore, the argument itself has been misused as an excuse for the absence of basic research in psychoanalysis and on psychoanalysis, which is both possible and urgently needed. So I deplore Dr. Radomisli's misuse of this inaccurate and defensive argument.
Agai