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I. Read and translate the text.


You Can’t import Psychoanalysis
Recently the field of psychoanalysis has got a big boost in Russia. But
Russia hasn’t enough trained psychoanalysis, those who were trained under
another psychoanalyst and who were recognized as professionals by the International
Society of Psychoanalysis. There are only a few of them.
But you cannot import psychoanalysis like any consumer goods. It is tied
to ideology, psychology, and the society’s cultural patterns. It’s no accident
that psychoanalysis has yet to emerge in Islamic countries.
Psychoanalysis is unique in its versatility. Practically everyone who works
with it finds some way of modifying it. Why did Freud’s favourite disciples
separate from him? Because they began to expand his discipline in all directions. Carl
Jung took on the collective unconscious; Alfred Adler concentrated
on the striving for power, Erich Fromm and Erik Erikson moved to sociology.
Psychoanalysis stimulates the mind. It spurs diversity.
When a person learns new things about himself, he becomes freer, stronger.
Psychoanalysis can bring benefit to anybody and to the people around
him. Psychoanalysis may be sometimes called a «therapy». In those cases where a person
senses that something isn’t quite right, but can’t dig through to the
heart of the matter on his own. Consider this. A patient is suffering from high
blood pressure, is taking strong medicines, they work for a week or so, but then
the pressure is there again. We tried psychoanalytical therapy, and it turns out
this person has been gifted verbally from childhood. He becomes intoxicated
on his own words. He has period diction, a total command of rhetoric. He is talking all
the time and can almost never stop to listen. It’s practically impossible
for him to empathize with other people. Studies have shown that continuous
talking causes the body to release certain hormones which raise blood pressure. Such
disbalancing of hormonal equilibrium can lead to diabetes, stomach
ulcers, or in his case, high blood pressure. I had a devil of a time teaching him
to listen to other people. But after treatment, as he himself said, «at least I’m
back down to Earth».
Sometimes people come to me asking how they can break into politics.
In talking with them I can say whether they are suited for that. That reminds
me of the time I asked one of our statesmen why he entered politics. He said,
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«Well how else? The country is in such a sorry state – it needs help». And he
wasn’t being hypocritical. But in the course of psychoanalysis it turned out
that he had pimples in childhood. He was endlessly teased in class. At a subconscious
level, he wanted to show his peers that he was stronger and better
than they, that he was an outstanding person. He carried this complex for
many years until finally he won election to the State Duma. Learning the true
motives for one’s actions makes a person wiser.
by Aron Belkin, Chairman of the Russian
Psychoanalytical Society
II. Answer the following questions.
1. Does Russia have enough trained psychoanalysis?
2. What fields of knowledge is psychoanalysis tied to?
3. Where did psychoanalysis originate?
4. What scientists were greatly interested in psychoanalysis?
5. Why is psychoanalysis so important?
6. Why is it called a therapy?
7. What cases of psychoanalytical therapy are described in the article?
8. Would you like to be a psychoanalyst? Why? Why not?
III. Give your own definition of psychoanalysis.
IV. Speak about pros and cons of psychoanalysis.
V. Express your own viewpoint of psychoanalysis (in writing).
VI. Remember the following words and word-combinations:
To have a boost; a psychoanalyst; training requirements; to emerge; to expand a
discipline; to stimulate the mind; to bring benefit; to be suited for; in
the course of psychoanalysis; at a subconscious level; to feel disillusionment.
Think of all possible situations where you can use these words5**

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