The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical CritiqueThis study is a philosophical critique of the foundations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. As such, it also takes cognizance of his claim that psychoanalysis has the credentials of a natural science. It shows that the reasoning on which Freud rested the major hypotheses of his edifice was fundamentally flawed, even if the probity of the clinical observations he adduced were not in question. Moreover, far from deserving to be taken at face value, clinical data from the psychoanalytic treatment setting are themselves epistemically quite suspect. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
2 Critique of Habermass Philosophy of Psychoanalysis | 9 |
3 Critique of Ricoeurs Philosophy of Psychoanalysis | 43 |
4 Are Repressed Motives Reasons But Not Causes of Human Thought and Conduct? | 69 |
5 Critique of George S Kleins Version of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis | 83 |
6 The Collapse of the Scientophobic Reconstruction of Freuds Theory | 93 |
Pathfinder or Pitfall? | 95 |
Is the Freudian Theory of Repression Well Founded? | 173 |
Part III Epilogue | 267 |
Bibliography | 287 |
Indexes | 297 |
| 299 | |
| 303 | |
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Common terms and phrases
actually adduced aliquis analysand analyst anxiety neurosis attributed avowed avowedly behavior Breuer and Freud cathartic causal relevance causally necessary cause chapter childhood claim clinical data clinical theory cognitive confirmation conscious consilience criterion deemed dream theory empirical epistemic evidence example experience explanatory extraclinical fact falsifiability free association Freud Freud's theory Freudian theory Glymour Grünbaum Habermas Habermas's Hence hermeneutic hermeneuticians homosexual hypnosis hypotheses hysteria ideation inductivism inductivist infantile inference inquiry interpretations intraclinical investigation Irma dream Klein logical manifest dream content means memory mental metapsychology methodological motives natural sciences neurasthenia neurotic symptoms occasioning trauma paranoia parapraxes particular pathogens patient penis envy philosophy placebo effect Popper postulated presumed probative psychic psycho psychoanalytic explanation psychoanalytic method psychoanalytic theory psychological psychoneuroses purported reason repression etiology retrodicted Ricoeur role scientific seduction sexual slips specific etiology suggestion Tally Argument testability testing thematic theoretical theory of repression therapeutic therapy tion uncon unconscious validation Wilhelm Fliess