Frontline: the liberal arts of psychoanalysis.

Abstract

In terms of process, psychoanalysis is more closely related to the disciplines of the arts and humanities than those of the sciences, however much the latter have contributed to our knowledge of the mind and our discussions of technique. Will we, accordingly, assert our support for liberal arts education, at a time when it is under unprecedented attack? Neuroscience has made remarkable strides in establishing the importance of artistic and humanist training to the plasticity and connectedness of mental functioning. But these discoveries have sadly done nothing to protect the academic disciplines of the arts and humanities from budget cuts and closings. It is as if contemporary boosters of technical and scientific education had no interest in, or knew nothing about, the new knowledge of the brain that scientists are actually producing. Will psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, for the sake of the arts and the sciences, support liberal arts education, or will we distance ourselves from it, and thus abandon the well-being of the very minds we will later be trying to tend in our offices? Is it not our responsibility to speak for the importance of thriving, since surviving depends on it?