Old dilemma yields to closer analysis

22.11.43: IS IT an art or a science?

Since Sigmund Freud first posited the precepts of the unconscious 150 years ago, there has been passionate disagreement over the extent to which psychoanalysis can be said to be a bona fide medical discipline and the extent to which it might be better practised intuitively, as an art.

Now, with the opening of the New Institute of Psychological Arts and Sciences in New York, students will be taught that it is best practised as a science and an art. The idea is explained by a sign over the door. It reads: 'Art finds; science explains.' According to its director, Justin Salamanca, its aim will be 'to move beyond Plastic Man to a deeper understanding of the part played by humans within the complex workings of culture'.

His own area of interest is 'exo-intelligence', also know as EIQ. It follows from the proposition that human intelligence does not reside solely in the brain. To understand how cultures work, channels of communication between people need to be mapped. 'Of course I won't be happy until I can come up with some hard proof,' he admitted. MF