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It has become commonplace to observe the great strides which the physical sciences have made over the past several decades. However impressive these observations may appear, for the present they remain as premature summaries of man's supposed progress. They have yet to be interpreted by social historians in a broader philosophic frame of reference. Much of this advance occurred under the impetus of the recent wars and their political aftermath; thus, large scale atomic research has been spurred by continuing political necessities and military needs. In this perspective movement in science thus appears to be regarded as “progress” when its contributions are congruent with the realities which the society perceives and accepts at a given historical moment.
Relating this generalization to another area of the human sciences, what shall we say of the new developments in psychotherapy? In what frame of reference can this movement be evaluated? If the acceptance of a new idea, or indeed of an entire conceptual system waits on its congruence with the realities in its social situation, is “truth” or “validity” then a matter of conformity, agreement or accommodation to the dominant views of its time? While concepts of reality or validity are admittedly highly nebulous and arguable terms of vast philosophic dimensions, Mannheim 8 nonetheless holds that
what is to be regarded as ‘real’ historically or sociologically at a given time is of importance to us and fortunately can be definitely ascertained. Inasmuch as man is a creature living primarily in history and society, the ‘existence’ that surrounds him is never ‘existence as such’, but is always a concrete historical form of social existence. For the sociologist ‘existence’ is that which is ‘concretely
Page 3effective', i.e. a functioning social order, which does not exist only in the imagination of certain individuals but according to which people really act…
It is in Mannheim's brilliant development of the origins of utopian and ideo