Evolution of the Neurotic Present from the Traumatic Past^†

THE course of scientific development, as with all human endeavor, is distinguished by two constantly interacting and interrelated movements; the collection of facts and the creation of theories to explain these facts is the process of relating them to one another and of provoking the search for new ones. The collection of facts without recourse to theory, the spinning of theories that contradict facts, is not science. Inevitably the advance of each is dependent upon the other, and in this growth facts remain constant but cumulative, while theories like old cells, having served their function, are replaced by new ones. When, however, such old theories are accepted as facts and worshipped as immutable images, then not merely the old theory but the science also dies. Psychoanalysis and the firmly established Libido Theory exemplify this statement; the latter may be preserved intact, but only at the expense of the former. The price is too high for those who utilize both science and psychoanalysis.