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The ethical import of psychoanalysis has become the subject of increasing controversy over the past decade.8, 12, 19 In large part it has been the implications of the personality theory which have preoccupied the discussants. Recently, however, Thomas Szasz18 has focused on the ethical values to be found in the psychoanalytic situation. He has proposed that there exists in psychoanalysis a “moral mandate” which can be realized fully only when the roles of both therapist and patient are defined and rigorously maintained in an autonomous way. Having found myself in whole-hearted agreement with his point of view, it is my purpose in this paper to outline his arguments, and to augment them by some considerations of the social and economic context in which psychoanalysis is practiced.
It is clear that psychoanalysis, as with any body of scientific knowledge or theory, can be used to justify various ethical positions according to the needs of their adherents. For example, the Copernican theory had its impact in a Renaissance ripe to avail itself of any weapon in the service of rebellion against a stifling theological dogma. We know that psychoanalytic theory had been substantially available to the public for twenty years before it was suddenly and enthusiastically taken up as an ethical dictate by a generation