Can Freud Get His Job Back?

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Whatever else may have changed, the intellectual adventure of psychoanalysis, the delving into the depths, is still part of the Freudian tradition, and that's not going to disappear. Psychoanalysis is based on the fundamental belief that we aren't just a collection of neurotransmitters to be fixed with a pill, or a set of cognitive skills to be coached back into shape like a slumping quarterback. To Freudians, the mind is a complex and mysterious thing, and symptoms like depression and anxiety are the language in which deep inner conflicts express themselves. "Now most psychiatrists have scorn for psychoanalysis," says Frattaroli. "In this age of the quick fix, the idea is to get rid of the symptom with a pill or some sort of therapy. But one of the problems with the current thinking is the belief that symptoms are bad. In psychoanalysis, symptoms are messages from the subconscious that something is out of balance. They have meaning. The symptom points to something deeper, and if you just get rid of the symptom, you're not solving the underlying problem."

In other words, the future of psychoanalysis depends on who, deep down, we really think we are. With or without clinical studies, the idea that the mind is a deep, mysterious place is too powerful to go away by itself. But to keep psychoanalysis alive, psychoanalysts will have to learn to innovate and evolve. A sense of humor might not be a bad place to start.