ABSTRACT
Paralleling the Enlightenment perspective that goes as far back as Plato, according to the classical psychoanalytic view of human nature, we are beset by the ongoing conflict between the demands of peremptory, instinctually derived passions and the voice of reality-testing and reason. Modifications of the near exclusive emphasis on interpretation and insight began to appear in the classical psychoanalytic literature, some of which were presumably made necessary by the “expanded scope” of psychoanalysis in treating more disturbed patients. For example, Eissler suggested that modifications in psychoanalytic technique and approach—parameters—were often necessary with more disturbed patients. The scepticism within the psychoanalytic community towards the Enlightenment belief that self-knowledge and learning truths about oneself are liberating was but one expression of larger cultural-philosophical trends. One of the most influential philosophical critics of the “Enlightenment Vision” has been Rorty who has attacked the idea that theories possess truth value, that they constitute “mirrors of nature”.
