Robert Waelder and the application of psychoanalytic principles to social and political phenomena

J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 1986;34(4):835-62. doi: 10.1177/000306518603400404.

Abstract

This presentation reveals a little-known area of Robert Waelder's work. As his literary executor, I have been privileged with access to his unpublished material, notes, and correspondence. And, of course, I am familiar with his mode of thinking. I wish to pass on some of this knowledge. What cannot be passed on, however, in some abstract intellectual way, are psychoanalytic principles themselves. Therefore, while this paper sheds light on a very particular aspect of Robert Waelder's work, it is also in some ways a cautionary tale, a plea that the reader understand what is behind the psychoanalytic point of view and its basic concepts--namely, clinical experience.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Politics*
  • Psychoanalytic Theory*
  • Social Conditions*
  • Social Control, Formal
  • Social Problems