Shrinking the Stereotype of Psychoanalysis

This paper explores the damaging stereotype of psychoanalysis which prevails in caricatures, jokes and the media. This stereotype is of a profession that is elitist, exclusive, exploitative and self-proving. Tracing the negative public perception of psychoanalysis to its poor outreach, exclusive practices, and careful protectiveness of its own members’ interests, this paper argues that the public image would be greatly improved if some of its institutions (most notably the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London) were to relinquish some of their medieval guild- like practices, and be more open to other psychoanalytic-psychotherapeutic modalities. It proposes by way of conclusion that psychoanalysis needs to become more accountable to external enquiry and more integrated with the wider world.