The silence of Socrates

This paper emphasizes the humanistic and phenomenologic approach to the mind (soul, self) and contrasts it to the 'era of the brain' that is so idealized by psychiatry today. It describes the debate between those who expect science to explain everything sooner or later and those who believe there are certain essential aspects of the world, such as the qualia of consciousness, that cannot be reduced to material factors. Plato's dialogue Timaeus is taken as the historically first example of this debate. The connection between it and what has been labeled 'neuroism' in contemporary psychiatry is established and the relevance of this debate to the practice of psychoanalysis and dynamic psychiatry is discussed. Finally the wider consequences of the scientistic or materialistic approach to the world as forecast already by Nietzsche are indicated.