Buried but not dead: Resuscitating psychoanalysis in the twenty-first century

This paper argues that psychoanalysis is not dead but in the process of bei ng revived in a more cogent and less erroneous form so it may thrive in the twentieth century. The weak adaptive position is seen as the key error in mainstream psychoanalytic theory. Erroneous concepts, like the primacy of i nner fantasies and memories in emotional life and the role of so-called tra nsferences in psychotherapy have been derived from this base. Affording cur rent psychoanalytic thinking a strong adaptive position that sees coping wi th environmental impingements as the primary task of the human emotion-proc essing mind sets straight many existing misconceptions. Revising psychoanalysis in light of a strong adaptive position brings if in to line with the theory of evolution, the basic theory of biology. It also clarifies the nature of dreams and leads to the creation of a quantitative mathematically based, formal science of psychoanalysis replete with laws an d regularities. Also explored is the neglect of the emotion-processing mind and efforts to overshadow mental concepts with ideas about the brain from neuroscience. Th e dangers of this loss of mind are reviewed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role played by existential dea th anxiety in the perpetuation of the errors rife in classical psychoanalyt ic thinking. Lessening our use of denial mechanisms in response to death an xieties is a Key requisite for advancing psychodynamic theories in the next one hundred years.