That quote you included seems a little funny. It’s not making any direct or compelling argument in favor of psychoanalysis being science, it’s just saying well if psychoanalysis isn’t science then other disciplines aren’t science either, and since that’s sometimes not true, then Popper is wrong. It’s a slippery argument with some assumptions and big holes, and perhaps most glaringly it is intentionally ignoring the magnitude or degree of scientific experimentation, and attempting to frame the issue as only binary: science or not science.
I’m sure there is some modern psychoanalysis that is scientific, but OTOH it seems like the foundations of psychoanalysis, especially Freud, are certainly problematic from the perspective of science, right? Psychoanalysis has a valid, earned reputation that may take a very long time to fix, even if today’s practitioners are being careful and scientific. This could be compared to chiropractic medicine - some of it is valid medicine today, but it definitely came from non-medical, non-scientific origins.
There appear to be at least 2 separate arguments going. One is whether psychoanalysis can be a science, and the other is whether it actually was a science historically. This is why both sides are somewhat right: proponents of psychoanalysis argue that it can be scientific, which is true, and opponents argue that it wasn’t scientific in origin and has a troubled past, which is also true.
The issue for me is that the popular claim against psychoanalysis seems to be exactly that, binary.
Thanks for bringing nuance and providing quotes!
I’ve personally benefited tremendously from work with the ego structure and from realizing I can strenghen my will/ego capacities and learn to more and more discern and deny excessive power from my superego - from past learnt protective and restrictive impulses that no longer serve a purpose. This understanding alone seems like a treasure trove that keeps on giving year after year while doing introspective work and self inquiry with others interested in the work.
However I have little understanding how this fits in a modern understanding of psychoanalysis or psychodynamic psychotherapy.
What I do know is that CBT I did younger didn’t seem to have nearly sufficient explanatory powers to help me personally. Most of the skills I was offered seemed more or less trivial or perhaps were taught ineffectively.
Another thing that I would have needed was tapping into the resources of my body in the context of therapy and how that links to having capacity to work with myself. CBT seemed obsessed with, umh, overly just cognition.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5459228/
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/research/psychoanaly...
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-...
https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2021/07/psychoanalysis-science-or...
https://philarchive.org/archive/FERIPA-6
That quote you included seems a little funny. It’s not making any direct or compelling argument in favor of psychoanalysis being science, it’s just saying well if psychoanalysis isn’t science then other disciplines aren’t science either, and since that’s sometimes not true, then Popper is wrong. It’s a slippery argument with some assumptions and big holes, and perhaps most glaringly it is intentionally ignoring the magnitude or degree of scientific experimentation, and attempting to frame the issue as only binary: science or not science.
I’m sure there is some modern psychoanalysis that is scientific, but OTOH it seems like the foundations of psychoanalysis, especially Freud, are certainly problematic from the perspective of science, right? Psychoanalysis has a valid, earned reputation that may take a very long time to fix, even if today’s practitioners are being careful and scientific. This could be compared to chiropractic medicine - some of it is valid medicine today, but it definitely came from non-medical, non-scientific origins.
There appear to be at least 2 separate arguments going. One is whether psychoanalysis can be a science, and the other is whether it actually was a science historically. This is why both sides are somewhat right: proponents of psychoanalysis argue that it can be scientific, which is true, and opponents argue that it wasn’t scientific in origin and has a troubled past, which is also true.