ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis and anthropology, interdependent by virtue of their shared common objects could consequently offer us a complementary understanding of the unity, diversity, and complexity of this human reality. The conflict crystallised by the problem of the universality of the Œdipus complex, the object of multiple interpretations and manipulations, was the product of a displacement. The Œdipus complex acts to link the unconscious and culture, founder of the "human identity and community", as well as of subjectivity. In an exemplary fashion, the notion of Kulturarbeit accounts for complex dialectic reality represented by the interrelations between the unconscious psyche and culture. A first principle for collaboration between psychoanalysts and anthropologists would be the recognition, on the one hand; and on the other hand of the extent and complexity of the reality upon which each party works. A second principle would consist of an indispensable presentation of their respective psychoanalytical and anthropological language and thought, though this is always something difficult and time-consuming.
