It's Time to Reinvent Freud
By Richard A. Shweder; Richard A. Shweder, professor of human development at the University of Chicago, is currently a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
There is a panic inherent in the anticipation of professional extinction that is the dread of Freud's disciples these days.
The announcement by the Library of Congress that it would shelve an exhibition titled "Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture" coincided with the winter meeting of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, prophetically titled "Is There a Place for Psychoanalysis in Contemporary Culture?" -- thereby confirming the fear of many psychoanalysts that the answer may be "no."
The library's half-hearted decision to put the great guru in cold storage left some analysts in a sweat, feeling defensive, unloved and full of self-doubt about their prospects in the intellectual and economic marketplace. The delay is proba...