Description
Book SynopsisPresents a philosophical critique of the foundations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. This book takes cognizance of his claim that psychoanalysis has the credentials of a natural science.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Critique of the Hermeneutic Conception of Psychoanalytic Theory and Therapy
Chapter 1. The Exegetical Legend of "Scientistic Self-Misunderstanding"
Chapter 2. Critique of Habermas's Philosophy of Psychoanalysis
A. Does the Dynamics of Psychoanalytic Therapy Exhibit the "Causality of Fate"?
B. Are Nomological Explanations in the Natural Sciences Generically Non-Historical, While Causal Accounts in Psychoanalysis are Historically-Contextual?
C. Does the Patient Have Privileged Cognitive Access to the Validation or Discreditation of Psychoanalytic Hypotheses?
Chapter 3. Critique of Ricoeur's Philosophy of Psychoanalysis
A. Ricoeur's Truncation of the Purview of Freudian Theory
B. Are Natural Science Modes of Explanation and Validation Gainsaid in Psychoanalysis By the Pathogenicity of Seduction Fantasies, Or By the Explanatory Role of "Meaning"?
C. Does the Theory of Repression Furnish a "Semantics of Desire"?
D. Ricoeur's Disposal of "The Question of Proof in Freud's Theory"
Chapter 4. Are Repressed Motives Reasons But Not Causes of Human Thought and Conduct?
Chapter 5. Critique of GeorgeS. Klein's Version of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis
Chapter 6. The Collapse of the Scientophobic Reconstruction of Freud's Theory
Part I. The Clinical Method of Psychoanalytic Investigation: Pathfinder or Pitfall?
Chapter 1. Is Freud's Theory Empirically Testable?
A. Clinical versus Experimental Testability:Statement of the Controversy
B. The Purported Untestability of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality
Chapter 2. Did Freud Vindicate His Method of Clinical Investigation?
A. Are Clinical Confirmations an Artifact of the Patient's Positive "Transference" Feelings Toward the Analyst?
B. Freud's Reliance on the Hypothesized Dynamics of Therapy as a Vindication of his Theory of Unconscious Motivation
C. Was Freud's Attempted Therapeutic Vindication of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Successful?
Part II. The Cornerstone of the Psychoanalytic Edifice: Is the Freudian Theory of Repression Well Founded?
Chapter 3. Appraisal of Freud's Arguments for the Repression Etiology of the Psychoneuroses
Chapter 4. Examination of the Psychoanalytic Theory of Slips-of Memory, the Tongue, Ear, and Pen
Chapter 5. Repressed Infantile Wishes as Instigators of All Dreams: Critical Scrutiny of the Compromise Model of Manifest Dream Content
Chapter 6. Appraisal of Freud's Further Arguments for the Emergence of Unadulterated Repressions Under "Free" Association
Chapter 7. Remarks on Post-Freudian Defenses of the Fundamental Tenets of Psychoanalysis
Chapter 8. Can the Repression Etiology of Psychoneurosis Be Tested Retrospectively?
Part III. Epilogue
Chapter 9. The Method of Free Association and the Future Appraisal of Psychoanalysis
Chapter 10. Critique of Freud's Final Defense of the Probative Value of Data from the Couch: The Pseudo-Convergence of Clinical Findings
Chapter 11. Coda on Exegetical Myth-Making in Karl Popper's Indictment of the Clinical Validation of Psychoanalysis
Bibliography
Indexes
Name Index
Subject Index
