Freud's Methodology

This examination of Freud's thoughts about methodology makes it clear that what he evolved in the course of his struggles with the unconscious was not only a new understanding of the human psyche, but a distinctive methodological approach to it. From his years of training and research in basic science and later in neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, he brought a singular dedication to clinical data. His thinking remained anchored to its empirical moorings and he continued to return to the clinical setting to validate and re-examine his hypotheses.

The most significant methodological development was his inclusion of the subjective aspect of his clinical experience as part of the empirical basis of psychoanalysis. Not only was his own self-analysis of crucial importance in the development of his theoretical views, but, even more significantly, his awareness of the subtle interplay between the analyst's observations and the introspective data provided by the patient through free association on one hand and the analyst's subjective experience and awareness on the other, was a most crucial and distinctive contribution. In developing a method which embraced both objective and subjective data, Freud made of psychoanalysis a scientific hybrid—a scientific approach to human subjectivity.