ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is the first psychology to preoccupy itself with the symbolic content and purpose, as opposed to the mere modalities and processes, of thinking. A shrewd analyst of the human animal, Weston LaBarre has done much to keep psychoanalytically oriented anthropology alive at a time when the dry winds of behaviorism and various forms of reductionism threaten discourse concerned with human beings. The Peyote Cult, LaBarre’s doctoral dissertation, which explored the use of alcoholic drinks and peyote, made a major contribution to the literature on altered states of consciousness. LaBarre’s independence of spirit is reflected also in the variety of stances he takes on various fundamental questions with respect to individual psychodynamics, cultural systems, science, and social values. An independent and courageous thinker, LaBarre also wrote in defense of the counterculture by warning psychiatrists to attend to their own countertransference, a warning increasingly heeded.
