[Hesnard and the psychological ideas of the post-war period]

Hesnard was interested in all psychological theories. His goal was to develop his own theory which he conceived of as a concept of mental illness as well as all psychic life that was "at once biological and psychological, called structural-ethical". To this end, he sought to retain from various theories whatever seemed to him "useable". With behaviorism as a starting point, he conceived "Activism", which he defined as broadened behaviorism. He accepted phenomenology, but limited it to a "method of knowledge". As for "concrete psychology" as presented by Politzer, it fascinated him to the point that he was pushed to abandon a certain number of psychoanalytical concepts. He wished to put some distance between himself and Freud. He considered him a brilliant colleague, but did not identify Freudian ideas with psychoanalysis. He criticized many of his ideas, and in particular, his metapsychological approach. He wished to build a synthetic theory which would always merit the qualifier psychoanalytical, but which would retain only a part of the Freudian work and which would include many elements from other theories.