title: Psychoanalysis and the United States research university: current trends.
abstract: In this essay the author describes the status of the humanities within United States research universities, and notes that there is a place in the research university for clinical analysts with non-quantitative research interests, who are seen as humanities scholars by other humanities specialists. He discusses the current trend in psychoanalytic research in the United States, which perpetuates an historically well-known divide between quantitative and non-quantitative investigators, and causes non-quantitative clinician-researcher analysts to seek a workplace outside organized analysis, as it exists within the American Psychoanalytic Association. He goes on to describe the way a clinical analyst with a strong non-quantitative research commitment has found a supportive home for his investigations in a humanities institute in a research university. That analyst has been welcomed as a colleague by university-based humanities scholars, and has found that those collegial relationships offer creative freedom and interdisciplinary stimulation. The author notes that a cadre of analysts, enriched by such experiences, will be better equipped to bridge the divide which exists between non-quantitative and quantitative analytic researchers, for the benefit of psychoanalytic research in the future. The author also illustrates the benefits experienced by university-based humanities scholars when they collaborate with clinical analysts, and suggests this makes stronger ties between psychoanalysis and research universities more likely in the future.
authors.affiliation: ssonnenberg@austin.rr.com
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sonnenberg
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000639:trends*; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000639:trends; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities / Q000639:trends*