Dewey and Freud.

John Dewey is known as the greatest and the most representative of U.S. philosophers. His philosophy, influenced by and developed during a period of great expansion in U.S. history, and great upheaval in U.S. social life, is characterized by a common sense, extroverted pragmatism. Sigmund Freud, in a ironic twist of fate, has been an important source for a reaffirmation of the inner life, of the importance of personal selfhood in a mass society. The philosophical bases of Freudian psychology, along with a variety of psychoanalytic therapies, have provided the extroverted with just what is missing in Dewey himself, namely a substitute for religious conceptions of the person, or in the case of religious humanism, a comfortably pragmatic approach to mainstream religion. Dewey and Freud, along with B. F. Skinner, in fact represent the three major bases or preconceptions of U.S. social thought today. They are enduring influential figures collectively known as humanists among their admirers and secular humanists among their severe critics. Dewey and Freud also represent a severe schism in Western thought. Dewey's modern human is a pragmatic and sociable optimist whose activist attitude toward problem solving remains highly attractive in all nations and cultures undergoing industrialization and technological advancement. Freud's human, in contrast, knows there is a severe psychic price to pay for uprooting the human being from traditional patterns of family and community life. This paper considers the major differences that divided Freud and Dewey. Contains 10 references. (Author/DK)