Attitudes towards tradition and criticism in psychoanalytically oriented professionals

Abstract

The following article describes the attitudes towards psychoanalysis in professionals who practice this discipline. The study sampled 199 professionals from Argentina, Peru, and Mexico. The aim is to explore how positive or negative theory, practice, training, and the psychoanalytic guild are valued. After the statistical analysis, the survey determined two dimensions: attitudes towards tradition and criticism. The first is the evaluation of the most classic aspects of psychoanalysis; in the second, drastic reforms and disagreement with the discipline are valued. The general results report a positive tendency towards attitudes towards criticism. However, scores vary depending on sociodemographic variables. Younger professionals are more critical, while those with more clinical experience tend to stick with tradition. Professionals with independent training are more critical than those trained in an institution such as IPA or Lacanian School. Participants who value tradition will tend to refer to Freud. Finally, it is possible to identify attitudes that elude cognitive censorship, being counterintuitive or politically questionable. Perhaps, there are such unconscious attitudes that they are acting in practice without being very aware of their existence.

Keywords: Psychoanalysis, tradition, implicit attitudes, psychoanalytic professionals