I was deeply moved by Bob Pyles's column “Lessons from Midway” [TAP 34/1]. I was moved by the story of Midway itself (the details of which I had not completely known), then again by the analogy he drew to the sometimes unseen and unrecognized work by many of our members on behalf of our values, ideals, and beliefs. Soon after relocating to Portland several years ago, I relearned a lesson that somehow had become less visible to me during all the years I lived in New York. The lesson was that psychoanalysis is in its essence a populist and radically humanitarian endeavor, a true antidote to complacency and conformity in support of evil. Back east there were enough of us to make us feel elite somehow. I think I had known intellectually, but never appreciated deeply enough, our radical roots and rootedness in humanitarian values.
In Portland, for the first time in my analytic life, I gave occasional talks to non-analytic audiences. I soon found myself explaining that psychoanalysis stood for relationship, autonomy, communication, feelings, and personal growth. In addition, insofar as we fight selfishness (narcissism) and destructiveness (immature superegos and part-object relationships) we are foursquare in the fight against power for its own sake, against technospeak, and against any forces that dehumanize us or that substitute arbitrary authority for responsible, autonomous human beings in communication with each other for the common good. I was finding out for myself that psychoanalysts are in the forefront of the struggle against pharmacological brainwashing and managed care dehumanizing.
Anyway, I would have thought that military analogies were doomed for our cause, since those of Freud had been apparently so thoroughly routed by his relational, feminist, and other useful critics. To my sensibilities, however, Bob got it exactly right. I found myself reliving my boyhood during World War II and remembering once again the wonderful experience of feeling oneself part of a just cause and proud of the actual heroes who were acting on our behalf.
I found Bob's piece truly stirring. I thank him for all his efforts on behalf of all of us during his term of office. He made enormous contributions.
Gerald Fogel