Eric,
        I'm going to give you a straight answer, although I would have
preferred to let silence be my reply.
        It is, of course, flattering to have someone express interest and
common views. As you know too well, being a writer is a lonely business,
and it's hard t find people to test one's ideas on and with. However, I
have to admit that over the months since I have been on the net, I have
come to the conclusion that it would be risky and tedious to engage with
you. My reason is that you seem to me (and, I surmise from some postings,
to others, as well) to be too self-preoccupied and a bit of a limpet. My
experience of what you do is to enter into debates but to do so primarily
to draw people to your point of view. Of course, we all do that, but you
seem to be awfully one-sided, as if to say, 'That's a good idea, because it
is something like mine. Why don't you agree fully with me? if tou don't, I
will hector you until you do agree or until you break off contact.' That's
a crude and hurtful way of putting it, but it is my considered opinion.
Another way of saying this is that you are so self-preoccupied that you
cannot enter into a true give-and-take dialogue and don't grasp that people
just aren't that interested in what you are saying.
        So, I eventually only glanced at your postings. More recently I
have not been opening them at all. I do not think this is because you are
purveying truths which are too painful for me to think about. I think it's
because you are too self-preoccupied, and I don't think that you will
engage in a properly balanced exchange.
        I am sorry to write this, because I bear you no ill will, and it is
obvious to me that you are a serious person. I do not normally fail to
respond to people who write to me, but I have become wary of you, just as I
am of Robert White (but for different reasons, ecxcept for the common
element of a certain intemperateness). I wish you well and am grateful for
your attention to my work, but I do not want to engage with you.
Best wishes, Bob Young
 
>Dear Robert,
>     If I have understood you correctly, your message suggests that we share
>some common concerns.  I have been studying your book "Mental Space" and
>considered commenting on it.  But I post so many messages that it will be some
>time before I can do this.  It seems to me that a major task for psychoanalysis
>is to construct a "scientific conscience," a project which should capture your
>interest. I read your paper'The Psychodynamics of Psychoanalytic
>Organizations,'and sent you some comments.  Since you didn't answer,
>perhaps you
>never received them.  From my perspective, your picture of psychoanalytic
>organizations supports my thesis on "the fear of retaliation" as a factor
>in the
>inhibition of free speech in psychoanalysis.  From a casual glance at available
>e-mail discussion forums,it must be obvious to you that relatively few analysts
>are willing to engage in open debate, perhaps because there is nobody
>immediately available to tell them what it is safe to say.  I don't criticize
>those "lurkers" who don't contribute because they believe they have nothing to
>say.  For many years I never tried to publish anything because I was
>convinced I
>had nothing to say.  Perhaps my "message" is worthless and I should return
>to my
>former silence, but I need the help of listmembers (publicly or privately) to
>point out my errors. Even then I may fail to see them, but I promise to try.
>Cordially,  Eric   [log in to unmask]
>
 
 
__________________________________________
Robert Maxwell Young:  [log in to unmask]  26 Freegrove Rd., London N7
9RQ, Eng. tel.+44 171 607 8306  fax.+44 171 609 4837 Professor of
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic
Studies, University of  Sheffield. Home page and writings:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/
Process Press publications:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/process_press/index.html
 'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus