ABSTRACT
Looking at the landscape of psychoanalysis today, there are few signs remaining of the battles that swept across it until recently: the bitter schisms that rent many institutes. Freud, a self-identified conquistador in his youth, became in adulthood a good hater, surrounding himself with a band of paladins. After World War II, schisms occurred in Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, and Norway. Now, we are in a relatively tranquil domestic era. Institutes that split apart in the past are negotiating mergers. To be sure, we are also in a period of contraction, as fewer patients seek psychoanalytic treatment, with many analysts subsisting on reduced practices and slender reimbursements from insurance companies. The numbers of those seeking psychoanalytic treatment as well as training in psychoanalysis are in decline, at a time when the demand for psychotherapy is rising and the need for mental health services is increasingly recognized.
