A brief account of some vicissitudes of psychoanalysis in the United States after the expulsion from mainland Europe, caused by the advent of Nazism, is outlined. The influence of the social-historical context in North America on changes in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis is examined, focusing on several factors such as the uncertainty of immigrant analysts, the professionalzation and medicalization of psychoanalysis, and the hostility against politicized analysts. After the description of the historical background, the impact exerted on psychoanalysis by the cultural, economic, political, and social changes caused by neoliberal post-modernity are discussed.
Keywords: History of psychoanalysis, American Dream, North American ego psychology, neo-Freudians, neoliberalism