[From inside to outside? Blind alleys in the discussion of psychoanalysis and society]

The attempt first instituted by Freud to use the instruments of psychoanalysis to improve understanding not only of the individual but also of society as a whole has a long tradition, particularly in Germany. Reviewing the last thirty years of discourse on the range of the applicability of psychoanalysis in this context, the author comes to the conclusion that the fruits of this discussion are negligible. Reiche distinguishes five major lines of discourse to illustrate this failure to establish the relevance of a psychoanalytic approach to illuminating the "out-side" world: the first is one of assimilation and desiccation, reference here being to psychoanalytic culture critique; the second a pathological reaction of collective grieving bound up with the Critical Theory; the third the aggressive rebuffs levelled at psychoanalytic insights by systems theory; the fourth a line of devaluation and usurpation as represented by post-structuralism and deconstructionism. In the fifth and final strand of psychoanalytic application discourse discernible in the theory of communicative action, the author discerns a tentative new rapprochement between sociology and psychoanalysis. The author's final conclusion is that psychoanalysis is suitable for the perspective on the inside world, while the outside world is beyond the scope of psychoanalytic theory.