CV:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist; Psychoanalyst, member of PSIKE Istanbul and IPA. He was graduated from the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine and completed his specialty training there. He worked at Bakırköy Mental and Neurological Diseases Hospital. Later, he worked as a professor and head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. He left the faculty in 2017 and still works in his own office.
His articles have been published in a variety of journals. He is the author of three books. Since 2014, he has been a column writer in the T24 internet newspaper.
Can Psychoanalysis Be Imported (or Exported)?
Originating in Central Europe, psychoanalysis has sometimes been questioned as to whether it has limited validity as a Judeo-Christian thought. The response of established psychoanalysis has generally been that psychoanalytic theory emphasizes the universal features of the human psyche and that religious or national differences do not undermine the theory’s validity. Nevertheless, psychoanalysis was mainly established and entrenched in Europe and North-South America for many years and had a minimal influence in Islamic or Eastern societies. However, this situation tends to show a rapid and significant change in the new century. This tendency makes it possible and necessary to rethink the question of how psychoanalytic theory and practice will be affected by such an encounter.
Unlike previous weak movements, psychoanalysis in Turkey has made a great leap forward in the last thirty years and has attracted a palpable interest. Apart from Turkey, the interest in psychoanalysis is increasing rapidly in countries such as China, Russia, and India. Although the general findings of psychoanalytic theory are not suggested for a specific socio-cultural situation, it can be predicted that Euro-American psychoanalysis and Islamic and Eastern psychoanalysis will similarly be both the same and quite different, just as psychoanalysis in the last century and psychoanalysis today are both the same and quite different.
As a rule, psychoanalysis was introduced and brought to the countries where it spread by people who were educated in Western societies or close to Western civilization in terms of lifestyle. However, when psychoanalytic work begins to emerge from a narrow circle and comes into contact with wider circles in the countries from which it is imported, it must cease to be a mere copy or a kind of translation and find its unique way. This necessity leads us to the question in the title: Can psychoanalysis be imported?
Turkey is now in fifth place in the world in tea production, which grew widely only a hundred years ago. As for consumption, it ranks first over its closest followers, the UK and Ireland. Tea production was first tried unsuccessfully in Bursa, but when it started to be produced in Rize, one of the most delicious teas in the world was obtained. Sometimes, an object thought to belong somewhere else for millennia can surprisingly adjust to its new place.
In this presentation, as someone who loves tea, psychoanalysis, and sociological thought, I will try to consider the subject in the title and express what I have found.
