The Facts of Observation in Psychoanalysis

The discussion as to whether psychoanalysis is a scientific method or an 'amateurish vagary', has somewhat calmed down. Neither the elaborate and influential rejections nor the passionate and summary apologies carried the day, Now, neither do the friends agree how far psychoanalysis can be trusted, nor do the sceptics know where precisely the error begins. The present writer thinks that this uncertainty should be overcome. To this end he wishes to contribute this examination of some of those features of the psychoanalytic method, which most repel the outsider and which the analysts have least carefully considered.

Until only a few years ago a theory was accepted as scientific, if it presented its object in terms of atoms, cells, and brain-parts, between which physical forces carried on their trade. This criterion has recently become obsolete. The theories lost their splendour and their attraction; their terms have become rather a matter of taste and mood, barely tolerated in science. Today our concern is with the procedure of the investigation. To start off with the observation of facts, to draw from them predictions which are verifiable by other facts—that is the modest endeavour of the