The History and Future of Psychotherapy and Alternative Health-Related Practices: Lessons from the Past and from the Present

Lees, John; Cleminson, Richard

doi:10.1002/ppi.1304

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As the Norwegian radical psychoanalyst Gunnar Leistikow pointed out, the working class was now creating a new sexual morality in the light of Freud's ideas. Indeed, a recent theme of psychoanalysis has been how it has become paralyzed in regard to the transformation of social life (Lees & Cleminson, ).…”

Section: Steiner and Martí Ibáñezmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieving the Past for a Usable Present: Anarchism, Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Transformation in the Early 20th Century

Lees

Cleminson

2015

Psychotherapy and Politics International

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This article examines the relationship between different expressions of psychological therapy, alternative movements such as anarchism, and the potential for revolutionary social and personal transformation. By drawing on the history of socio-political movements in different European countries in the early 20th century, we suggest that approaches to healthcare and to social and individual transformation have much to learn from what is generally a forgotten or underestimated past. While the circumstances that engendered radical movements dedicated to psychoanalysis, therapy, and social change were the product of specific contexts, the current precariousness of European health systems and the increasing incidence of psychological damage invite a critical look to the past for inspiration for our embattled present. Germany in the 1890s and Spain in the 1930s are focused upon in particular with these aims in mind. All translations from the original Spanish in this article are our own unless otherwise stated. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Key words: Rudolf Steiner; Félix Martí Ibáñez; Sigmund Freud; Germany; Spain; anarchism; psychoanalysis In this article we examine the relationship between psychological therapy, anarchism, and revolutionary transformation, in particular, how early 20th-century thought about human development can help us to understand this relationship. Following the suggestion made by Arthur Mitzman (1977) in relation to the anarchist dissident psychoanalyst Otto Gross, we aim to recover the usable past in order to inform us about the present or, at least, to make some suggestions about the kind of alternative present in which we could be living. Following this, we develop the basis for examining the connection between psychotherapy, what we term "spiritual anarchism", and revolutionary transformation as expressed at the beginning of the 20th century and its relevance to the psychotherapy profession in Western liberal democracies. Our primary focus is on Spain in the 1930s and Germany in the 1890s. Alongside interest in non-religious schools and Pestalozzi education (Kerschensteiner, 1931), Darwinian and other theories of evolution (Girón Sierra, 1996), radical authors such as Ibsen (Gustavo, 1935), and preparation for the revolutionary general strike that would overturn and replace capitalism and the state, anarchists in Spain engaged with new trends in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis as part of their emancipatory repertoire. SPAIN AND THE WORK OF MARTÍ IBÁÑEZA minority current within Spanish anarchism in the 1930s engaged with contemporary psychoanalytic theory as another element in the emancipatory repertoire, for instance, the influential anarchist medical doctor, Félix Martí Ibáñez . Martí Ibáñez was a member of the anarcho-syndicalist union organisation, the National Confederation of Labour (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT)), and attained the position of Director of the Catalan Health Services Directorate (Sanitat i Assistència Social (SIAS)) in the revolutionary up...

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Section: Steiner and Martí Ibáñezmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retrieving the Past for a Usable Present: Anarchism, Psychoanalysis and Revolutionary Transformation in the Early 20th Century

Lees

Cleminson

2015

Psychotherapy and Politics International

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…The historical focus of the last article is also the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In it, John Lees and Richard Cleminson, also previous contributors to the journal (Lees & Cleminson, ), examine anarchism, psychoanalysis and revolutionary transformation in Germany in the 1890s and in Spain in the 1930s and, specifically, the work of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), the German philosopher and educationalist, and of Félix Martí Ibáñez (1911–1972), the Spanish/American psychiatrist. The contributors’ retrieval of this past – or these pasts – invite us to consider what is usable of these ideas in the present.…”

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confidence: 99%