Ethics in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

In the beginning, the author puts forward the question of absence of the analysis of ethical dilemmas in psychoanalysis. He seeks the answers in its beginnings and finds it in Freuds commitment to “scientific worldview”. Furthermore he comes to a conclusion that for Freud “ethical stance was a given and therefore Freud believed there is no need to spill ink over it”.—He finds endogenic ethics of psychoanalysis (Caruso) in the psychoanalytic analysis of feelings of guilt, especially in the goals of psychoanalytic therapy. He acknowledges the primacy of Erich Fromm in the midsts of authors who were the first to explicate ethical dilemmas, but he nevertheless believes, that some of the dilemmas can be successfully resolved on the level of psychoanalytic theory. He finds the lowest common denominator of ethical reflexions in categorical imperative: Man, be, what you are!