Psychoanalysis, Science and Clinical Practice

Abstract

The question of the relationship between psychoanalysis and science, and the place of psychoanalysis in clinical practice is reviewed. A commonly held view that the central question is whether or not psychoanalysis is scientific is challenged. It is argued instead that psychoanalysis, science and clinical practice are epistemologically independent fields and attempts to subsume one within the other are unproductive. Psychoanalysis may have as much to say concerning the epistemological basis of science as science has to say concerning the epistemological basis of psychoanalysis. Only a proper appreciation of this enables the question of the relationship between psychoanalysis and clinical practice to be adequately examined.