Robert M. Young Online Writings
'What does psychoanalysis have to offer the newly-democratising countries?'95k
I chose the ceremony at which I received an honorary
professorship at the New Bulgarian University to reflect on what psychoanalysis
has to offer to the former Soviet Bloc countries. The argument applies equally
to the West. Drawing to some extent on earlier essays of mine, I assert that no
other view of human nature takes sufficient account of the mixture of the good
and the dark sides of humanity, and no other view is anything like as realistic
about the strengths and weaknesses of people in groups and institutions.
Particular criticisms are made of cognitive psychology and evolutionary
psychology, while a long-term integration of these with psychoanalysis is
advocated.