The work of Victor Wolfenstein has set new standards in integrating psychobiography with history. Standards in psychobiography and psychohistory need considerable attention and rigour before the scepticism with which they have justifiably been met should be relaxed. Wolfenstein is my own best example, while the recent writings of Peter Gay seem to me to be worth critical examination. There is a need to broaden and deepen the meaning of the human spirit for both psychoanalysis and Marxism. Both have a tendency to reify - to reach for laws when solidarity and will stop.
Liberation theology is an area which is challenging both psychoanalytic and Marxist limitations.
Having done notable work in criticising facile tendencies in psychotherapy and in writing about racism, Joel Kovel is now at work on the bearing of liberation theology on psychoanalysis and Marxism. I agree with him that this is a profound movement in theory and practice. My last growth point offers a chance to bring together the perspectives of Darwin, Marx and Freud. As I see it, all these matters come together in the problematic Marxist notion of 'second nature'. But without pushing those boundaries between the voluntary and involuntary nervous system and between mere inheritance and manipulated inheritance, we have a large scope for deep reflection and serious practice.