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The last decade has been a notably fruitful time in Swedish psychoanalysis, at any rate in terms of its literary output. At least a dozen publishing analysts come to mind and a colleague from a neighboring country cannot but wonder, with feelings of controlled envy, what this remarkable boom is all about? The publishing of Freud's writing in Swedish and Divan-Natur och Kultur's series of publications are other impressive examples of this hot-house atmosphere. To what extent could this be viewed as an expression of a genuine recovery and an intensified introspection in a psychoanalytic society that has undergone a salutary time of trials and tribulations? Further, as one result of an ideological breakdown in a society waking up to face the unfulfilled promises of eternal bounty? Closer to home and more important, is probably the somewhat puzzling phenomenon that characterizes every occurrence of cultural flourishing: people crystallizing into informal groups that offer an advantageous blend of mutual stimulation, collaboration and rivalry.
All the works belonging to the “Swedish wave” give voice to an observable and unmistakable sense of respect in relation to the enigmatic and positively irresolvable dimensions of psychoanalysis. In this context too, the rarely acknowledged childish and boundless illusion of continuing progress has been deserted. The notion of an “eternal movement” was also present in Lars Sjögren's study “Sigmund Freud – Mannen och verket” and its definition of Freudian psychoanalysis' perpetual mission:
As Freud constructs his psychoanalysis, he is forced to recognize that every answer gives birth to a question. This makes it possible for him to always keep on pushing, and for us, his disciples, to do the same.
Each of us shoulder the responsibility of sustaining the sense of uncertainty that is essential to psychoanalytic thinking in our own fashion. In the psychoanalytic study Inre värld och förändring, Ludvig Igra preserves the desired eleme