YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–The international conference on problems of psychoanalysis devoted to the 100th anniversary of Jack Lakan–the successor of Sigmund Freud–opened on Friday in Yerevan. The conference was organized by the "Foundation of the Freud Field," the Yerevan group of the "Development" European psychoanalytical school and the French Embassy in Armenia. Psychoanalysts from France–Great Britain–Belgium–Russia and Ukraine attended the conference.
The goal of the conference is to discuss the Christian commandment "Love your neighbor as you would love yourself" from the viewpoint of psychoanalysis. According to French psychologist Jean-Pierre Clotse–Freud condemned this commandment. Stating that his condemnation was the result of his discontent with civilization–Lekan put the question in the basis of the ethics of psychoanalysis. According to Clotse–psychoanalysis–as any other science–unlike religion needs specifications constant with the changes observed in the world.
Leader of the Yerevan group of the "Development" European School of Psychoanalysis Knarik Aidinian said the group was created by the "Mirror" psychoanalytical center rendering psychoanalytical assistance after the Spitak earthquake in 1988. The "Mirror" center is a clinical base that trains psychoanalysts. Besides–scientific researches and professional improvement–the specialists of the center are also engaged in practical work.
Aidinian pointed out that in spite of the difficult psychological atmosphere–psychoanalysis is not popular in Armenia. He accounted for this fact by the social-economic state of the people and absence of corresponding traditions.