What does conceptual research have to offer?1

One aim of this panel was to deepen the understanding of the tasks of the new Research Subcommittee for Clinical, Conceptual, Epistemological and Historical Research which was appointed in Nice. The papers of the panel should help to characterise conceptual research more precisely pointing out the differences between clinical, conceptual and empirical research—a prerequisite for supporting and strengthening conceptual research within the IPA. These tasks are connected with sophisticated epistemological and methodological questions of psychoanalytic research.

Daniel Widlöcher underlined the fact that ‘clinical’ and ‘empirical’ research define methods, whereas ‘conceptual’ research does not. It is not research by concepts but on concepts. Conceptual research is not concerned with the usefulness of the concept in the clinical situation. It examines the role of the concept in the clinician's conceptual field, and especially in the clinical community. The purpose of conceptual research is to observe clinical research which means that it is in a ‘second position’ which often irritates clinicians. Therefore, in Widlöcher's view, clinical and conceptual research do not coincide. He states that conceptual research—through its methods—is alongside research known as empirical; by its purpose it is close to clinician research. Clinicians can take advantage of the challenge of doctrinal evidence which is brought up by creative conceptual research. On the other hand, conceptual researchers should not forget that, for the use that is made of them, analytical concepts do not fall within a precise coding but remain uncertain and vague intellectual tools. This is the price of their creative value in the very progress of psychoanalysis.

Rachel Blass opened up the horizon of discussion with elementary and essential questions like: ‘What is the common aim of research?’ She then covered three main points discussing her conviction in an impressing way that not only conceptual research is so