You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
For psychoanalysis in the United States, the eighties have been a period of rapid movement and dramatic change, a time during which trends that arose in previous decades appear to have achieved visible consolidation. These shifts have encompassed theory, practice, and our organizational structure; and all have been influenced by cultural evolution and social pressure. Later in this essay we shall discuss a number of specific areas in which, we believe significant changes have taken place. We begin, however, with some general observations.
It is our impression that the last ten years have seen a movement, overall, away from categorical insistence on staunch psychoanalytic propositions and toward increasing self-inquiry: we analysts appear more comfortable in acknowledging the limits of what we do know and the tentative nature of many of our established formulations. This greater tolerance for uncertainty suggests, by implication, an underlying increase in genuine confidence regarding the reliable achievements of psychoanalytic understanding. This trend seems to be true across “subcultures,” i.e.,