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THE DETERMINISTIC POINT OF VIEW is central to the psychoanalytic method but despite its abstract character and general acceptance the issue must occupy our attention further.
Rado has studied in depth the cultural-historical development of the concept of "determinism" (1922). While he points out that strict determinism has been abandoned by modern physics (Schrodinger, 1932), he still is convinced that psychoanalysis, so young a science, will have to utilize such a concept for some time to come. A closer view of the facts demands, in my opinion, that Rado's conclusions be formulated differently.
What does determinism in physics imply? It refers strictly speaking to the predictability of the future (Bridgman, 1932) ; (Frank, 1932). Does psychoanalytic determinism imply the same? Not so! No analyst would think of predicting the content of a patient's dreams. Physics has had to accept something similar: Statistical physics predicts not single microcosmic events but only results of multitudes of events. Single events do not run a specific, lawfully predictable course but take place within a "limited range" (Kries, 1916). The concept of psychoanalytic determinism is much closer to this idea of "limited range" than to that of an unequivocal stringent law. This range of field is entirely specific to psychological processes leaving no possibility for the admixture of other