Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry

The talking therapy is a science focused on qualitative, rather than quantitative results, as is the Socratic philosophy which teaches that we should look within for answers. Freudian therapy involves treatment of the analyst as a love-object in the same way that Socratic dialogue, as handed down to us by Plato, is erotic, and it is chaste in the same way. Socrates notably advises those who love young men to improve them morally, rather than to touch them, and the improvement of the patient is likewise a function of a force operating at a distance, namely a love that touches with the intelligence, rather than taking what must be allowed to go its own way.

Psychiatry measures the healing of the patient it handles in terms of adjustment to objective norms that are known in advance, without any investigative work required. Conformity to norms is a precondition of healing of the kind that can take place with the analyst, who requires that the patient follow certain rules. One must be able to perform certain basic social functions without claiming exemption on the grounds of genius. Such claims are fraudulent on their face, to be dismissed when made by a guest at a dinner party, let alone a hospital patient.