ABSTRACT
Freud articulated an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary vision for psychoanalysis in which both the theory and the practice have the potential to enrich and to be enriched by a diverse range of other academic fields and professional practices. In promoting his interdisciplinary vision in “The question of lay analysis”, Freud made no direct reference to geography as an academic discipline or field of study. Nearly a century ago, Freud offered us an interdisciplinary vision for psychoanalysis. Just as psychoanalysis inhabits geographically variable external environments, so, too, it invokes interior realms of extraordinary complexity and diversity. Although Freud argued for the superiority of psychoanalysis relative to other forms of psychological healing, he also recognised that the blending of psychoanalytic insights with other ideas was inevitable. By framing psychoanalysis as “analytical pastoral work” or “secular pastoral” care, Freud simultaneously put distance between psychoanalysis and medicine, and positioned psychoanalysis as a successor to religiously based pastoral care.
