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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Gunnar Karlsson
Affiliation:
Stockholms Universitet
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Summary

Know thyself

Inscription at Delphi

Don't be ashamed that you are human, be proud!

Within you, vault opens up behind vault ad infinitum.

Never will you be finished, and that's as it ought to be.

Tomas Tranströmer For the living and the dead

Psychoanalysis has been pronounced dead a number of times, despite its short history within the scientific field of study. Psychoanalysis has not only been dismissed due to its alleged lack of scientific character. Per Magnus Johansson (1997: 10) provides a sample of some of the other types of accusations that have been made against the psychoanalytic method:

Psychoanalysis has, during its hundred year old history … among other things, been accused of: pansexualism, encouraging sexual frivolity, being a Jewish science, for possibly being more suitable to the people of Southern Europe, but hardly applicable to those living in Northern Europe. It has also been assumed to be suitable to the Nordic population but not the Latin. Psychoanalysis has been criticised for exclusively analysing and being applicable to upper-class women, and for being captive to an oppressive patriarchal system, for being a bourgeois science. It has also been criticised for being too time-consuming and expensive, for being unscientific and for not having any evident therapeutic effect, and even for being harmful and dangerous.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • Preface
  • Gunnar Karlsson, Stockholms Universitet
  • Book: Psychoanalysis in a New Light
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511845147.001
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Preface
  • Gunnar Karlsson, Stockholms Universitet
  • Book: Psychoanalysis in a New Light
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511845147.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Gunnar Karlsson, Stockholms Universitet
  • Book: Psychoanalysis in a New Light
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511845147.001
Available formats
×