Psychoanalysis and Sociology: Uneasy Bedfellows?

All the way back to Freud, psychoanalytic authors have repeatedly published work discussing societal topics from a psychoanalytic viewpoint, thus influencing scientific and public discourse. Vice versa, many sociologists have enriched and im-proved their studies with psychoanalytic theories. All this goes to show that cooperation between psychoanalysis and sociology is both feasible and pro-ductive. However, relations between psychoanalysis and sociology have al-ways been subject to sea changes characteristic of the respective epoch and scientific culture. The author investigates and discusses the newest devel-opments in what has not always been a smooth relationship. He argues that in order to remedy the discrepancy between the two disciplines' potential for cooperation and the unsatisfactory status quo, then we need to know the reasons for that discrepancy.