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The Crisis in Psychology
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important to follow the dynamics of the spontaneous, blind reaction of a scientific
body to a foreign, inserted object. It is important for us to trace the forms of sci-
entific inflammation relative to the kind of infection in order to proceed from pa-
thology to the norm and to clarify the normal functions of the different composite
parts—the organs of science. This is the purpose and meaning of our analyses,
which seemingly sidetrack us, but although we make no mention of it we continually
hold to the comparison (prompted by Spinoza) of the psychology of our days to a
severely diseased person. If we wish to formulate the aim of our last digression
from this viewpoint, the positive conclusion which we have reached, the result of
the analysis, we must determine it as follows: previously—on the basis of the analy-
sis of the unconscious—we studied the nature, the action, the manner of the spread-
ing of the infection, the penetration of the foreign idea after the facts, its lording
over the organism, the disturbance of the organism’s functions; now—on the basis
of the analysis of the biogenesis—we were able to study the counter-action of the
organism, its struggle with the infection, the dynamic tendency to resolve,, throw
out, neutralize, assimilate, degenerate the foreign body, to mobilize forces against
the contagion. We studied—to stick to medical terms—the elaboration of antibodies
and the development of immunity. What remains is the third and final step: to
distinguish the phenomena of the disease from the reactions, the healthy from the
diseased, the processes of the infection from the recovery. This we will do in the
analysis of scientific terminology in the third and final digression. After that we
will directly proceed to the statement of a diagnosis and prognosis for our patient—
to the nature, meaning and outcome of the present crisis.

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