The Psychotechnic Institute And The Psychotechnicians

We must always distinguish between people and an organization. Thus, on British television, a young person confronting a Government Minister and advocating "Communism" was immediately taken by the Minister to be speaking for the Communist Party although he was clearly completely independent of that organization - but he had to use some word for what he meant.

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnc History, we must distinguish between psychotechnicians and the Psychotechnic Institute. The reasons for the overthrow of the Institute are summarized here. However, when the Institute had been outlawed:

"'Tame' Psychotechnicians could not be dispensed with, but their powers were rigidly limited."
-Poul Anderson, The Snows Of Ganymede (New York, 1958), Chapter 5, p. 51.

This explains how the Planetary Engineers continued to receive psychotechnic training. Their Order, based on the Moon, and armed and prepared for foreseeable times of trouble, would survive the Second Dark Ages on Earth and is one reason why there were still psychotechnicians in the much later Galactic civilization.