Message text written by Psychoanalysis
>E=mc2 has been dangerous insofar psychoanalysts failed with their service
to collective psychology<

        I agree. Psychoanalysis must turn to the study of the shared
psychological processes that give rise to social institutions, and the
manner in which unconscious fantasy is played out on the stage of reality.
Below is my conceptualization of how one might begin to accomplish this.

        To psychoanalyze society is to identify the unconscious sources of
its cultural formations. For any ideology or institution we may pose the
question: "Why does it exist?" To understand an element of culture one
seeks to uncover the psychic function it provides or performs. An ideology
or institution comes into being and is embraced and perpetuated insofar as
it does something (psychologically) for individuals within that society. 
Culture is a social construction. However, it also performs a psychic
function. Questions posed by a psychoanalytic approach to the study of
culture revolve around the source of, or motivation underlying, the
creation and perpetuation of specific cultural forms. For each structure
within a society we pose the question: What is its meaning, the
psychological work it performs for members of that society?

        Our analysis begins with the human being. The fundamental
resistance governing social and historical inquiry is the fantasy of the
existence of an independent world "out there" separate from the human mind.
When we speak of "hegemony," what does this mean? That some idea entering
into the mind from the external world has been internal-ized to the extent
that it controls the mind and body. Howard Stein has posed the ques-tion:
"Why can't we walk away from it?" What he is suggesting is that culture
oppresses only to the extent that we cannot abandon it.  Thus,  to speak of
"hegemony" is simulta-neously to speak of attachment. The  "dream" of
culture (Stein) is the fantasy of forces outside the self that are other
than a human creation. We experience "society" as if it is hovering above
us and cannot be resisted. The psychological question is: why are hu-manly
constructed entities invested with such power.
        
        Freud's idea of "psychic determinism" permits one to analyze
dreams, slips of the tongue, and psychosomatic symptoms by virtue of the
assumption that there are no accidents in the life of the mind. Our
unconscious mental life is the source of the images we dream at night, the
mistakes and blunders of our everyday life, and the pains in our bodies. To
psychoanalyze culture, we extend the principle of psychic determinism. This
is the crucial step that permits us to interpret the structures of society.
We assume that cultural formations do not arise and historical events do
not happen by chance. There is a psychological source underlying everything
that occurs in society. Culture is the ex-ternalization of our deepest
unconscious fears and desires, providing the framework for expressing,
articulating, and coming to terms with these fears and desires. To
psycho-analyze culture is to seek to uncover, lay bear the meaning and
psychic function of specific elements of society.

R. K.