Testing Freudian Concepts. An Experimental Social Approach: By Irving Sarnoff. New York: Springer Publishing Co., Inc., 1971. 276 pp.

The thesis of this book is that freudian concepts (psychoanalytic theory) are essentially a collection of scientifically unproven hypotheses. For this author hypotheses can be considered valid only if successfully subjected to the ultimate empirical proof—the experiment—in which predictions about phenomena are shown to come true as the result of carefully controlled manipulations made upon phenomena said to represent the original concept. In addition, other experimenters following the same protocol should be able to repeat the results. Sarnoff's view is that Freud's ideas were primarily arrived at by an inductive approach and, to a great extent, derive their popularity and acceptance as the result of his exceptional writing ability and the emotional power of his concepts. He disputes Freud's contention that only those who have experienced a psychoanalysis are in a position to judge its truth. Furthermore, by contrast with the experimental approach, the author considers the clinical situation as a series of uncontrolled experiments.

The book is devoted to a description and analysis of the methodological difficulties in applying the experimental method to psychoanalytic concepts. The author proposes various solutions to these problems. He proposes a particular experimental model—the interactive design—in which a fixed personality trait (nonmanipulated independent variable) said to reflect a particular concept is placed in a situation presumed, by inference from the