| Abstract: | The most common error in debating psychoanalysis is confusion between method and theory. From the perspective of operationalism, the touchstone of science, any science should be defined by its method first and theories second. This is the thrust of the author's response to R. F. Bornstein's (2001) condemnation of psychoanalysis as nonscientific. Empirically, psychoanalysis is a method and a technique of observation--of the analysand and analyst's interactions, both verbal and nonverbal, in the psychoanalytic situation; of reciprocal free association; of the dynamics of dream psychology and unconscious intrapsychic and interpersonal processes; of transference--and this results in the special nature of psychoanalytic interpretation. A further source of confusion is the politics of the psychoanalytic movement and its component organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
