On diverse understandings of the notion of tolerance : behaviorism versus psychoanalysis

What is presented in this "theoretical impression" is a kind of a glance at a very specific, if not iconoclastic usage of the idea of tolerance (toleration). Tolerance, including its correlated acts, is a (culturally) seminal, and a semantically complex idea, and one that historically has had many various meanings. Today toleration is a readiness to allow others to believe or act as they judge best, even when we do not approve of their motives, the mechanisms of their behavior or the basis of such beliefs. Apart from the biological connotation (the ability of an organism to survive in difficult conditions) or the technological one (the permissible error in size of a machine part or manufactured article) and finally a medical connotation (the ability to take a drug without suffering harmful effects) the term tolerance is generally identified with philosophy, culture, politics or religious discourse. In this short essay we will focus on the term "tolerance" in its connection with two of the most influential philosophical-psychological traditions, namely, Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism. We will consider how the term tolerance has been formed and understood within these two highly influential currents of Western thought