[On the use and abuse of the history of psychoanalysis for psychoanalysis]

This paper intends to stimulate reflection about the history and historiography of psychoanalysis. Starting from Nietzsche's distinction of "monumental", "antiquarian" and "critical" historiography, the author discusses typical approaches to the history of psychoanalysis and recommends taking the historian's subjective motivations into account. He discriminates between analysts engaging in historical research alongside their clinical work, and historians of psychoanalysis coming from other disciplines. None of the parties involved can do without self-reflection: Psychoanalysis and its institutions need their history as an agent of self-critical reference; analysts working historically need the disidentification from their clinical convictions; and "external" scholars need an enabling self-confidence that allows for a critical interpretation of the history of psychoanalysis.