Relativism under Fire: The Psychoanalytic Challenge

Critical discussion of cultural relativism in 20th century anthropology, from the vantage of psychoanalytic universalism. Relativism teaches that cultures are endlessly varied, with no common universal features, & each incomparable to any other. By implication each culture is morally equivalent. Psychoanalytic universalism argues a common universal human nature that applies to all human beings, all cultures, all of human time, explored by psychoanalysis. Such universalists have demonstrated this common human psychology in cultures all over the world, negating the ideology of cultural relativism. That universalism is now embraced by a growing band of dissidents in anthropology & related sciences. From anti-ethnocentric & anti-racialist beginnings, relativism developed into a view romanticizing the primitive, derogating & demonizing the modern, & otherwise distorting social & psychological reality, including its service to political correctness. We explore the conversion of ex-relativists Mead & Spiro to psychoanalytic universalism, the "reverse conversion" of psychoanalyst Alan Roland to relativism, & the intense anti-relativism of Edgarton's SICK SOCIETIES. Order from: Psyche Press, P.O. Box 780, New York, N.Y. 10024. 212-721-4466.Endleman, Robert is the author of 'Relativism under Fire: The Psychoanalytic Challenge' with ISBN 9781885809056 and ISBN 1885809050.