The Theory of Psychoanalysis

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As may easily be understood, psychoanalysis will never do for polyclinic work, and will therefore always remain in the hands of those few who, because of their innate and trained psychological faculties, are particularly apt and have a special liking for this profession. Just as not every physician makes a good surgeon, so neither will every one make a good psychoanalyst. The predominant psychological character of psychoanalytic work will make it difficult for doctors to monopolize it. Sooner or later other faculties will master it, either for practical uses or for its theoretical interest. Of course the treatment must remain confined entirely to the hands of responsible scientific people.

So long as official science excludes psychoanalysis from general discussion, as pure nonsense, we cannot be astonished if those belonging to other faculties master this material even before the medical profession. And this will occur the more because psychoanalysis is a general psychological method of investigation, as well as a heuristic principle of the first rank in all departments of mental science (“Geisteswissenschaften”). Chiefly through the work of the Zürich School, the possibility of applying psychoanalysis to the domain of the mental diseases has been demonstrated. Psychoanalytical investigation of dementia præcox, for instance, brought us the most valuable insight into the psychological structure of this remarkable disease. It would lead me too far were I to demonstrate to you the results of those investigations. The theory of the psychological determinants of this disease is already in itself a vast territory. Even if I had to treat