Without reprieve, we hear of the agony of psychoanalysis. On one hand, neuroscience and the cognitive sciences reduce the psyche to a sum of 'natural' phenomenon. On the other hand, the social sciences see it as an ensemble of 'cultural' process. In this point-by-point discussion of the issues in this debate, and drawing upon his extensive clinical experience as his main resource, André Green shows that the human psyche is the result of a double determinism, both natural and cultural. It emerges as an original and autonomous creation, and that is exactly what forms the specificity of psychoanalysis.

Andre Green is a psychoanalyst and the President of the Psychoanalytic Society of Paris.