ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud's mechanistic and causal language stands in the way of a proper appreciation of his aims and achievements. Freud's moral view is blended with the physicalist model, which is structured on efficient causes. The motivating factor in this model is one of homeostasis: tension builds within the organism, which seeks discharge in order to restore its former state. The change of focus from determinist science/efficient causation to a moral direction/teleological causation was a profound one. Freud’s followers in the British School travelled further in that direction, but like Freud were not able to acknowledge that they had abandoned the model of efficient causation and had espoused a model which was moral. Thus an important school of psychoanalysis has a spiritual aim in its clinical practice. It has influenced psychoanalysis in many parts of the world, but there is also considerable opposition to it from other schools.
