Psychoanalysis as Critical Theory and Diagnosis of the Bad Present (Part II)5

Psychoanalysis is not only a theory of the mind, a method of studying mental processes and a form of psychotherapy. It can be said to have founded critical theory and to still be an authoritative voice of it. On the one hand, it can be argued that there are no essential differences between individual and social psychology; on the other hand, after Freud, psychoanalysis has made great progress in the study of groups, for example with Bion. The thesis that I propose in this article, with a view to ‘updating’ Freud's diagnosis of the malaise of civilization, is that both individual and social suffering arise from mechanisms of splitting that are used to cope with distress. The spiritual needs of individuals and groups are sacrificed to the need for security and the satisfaction of material needs. Just as an internal critical agency is formed in the individual, so in society it can take the form of a power that no longer obeys ethical principles and becomes self-referential. What makes this kind of power particularly dangerous is that it uses advances in technology to exercise increasingly invasive and alienating forms of control. What psychoanalysis can do is to remain viable as a critical theory and thus contribute to the diagnosis of the ‘bad present’. In this way, it can certainly represent a point of resistance to the degradation of our humanity.