Earlier discussions of psychoanalysis have attempted to defend its scientific status while acknowledging its attempt to deal with the irrational elements of

human behavior. Now Viderman drops all claim of rationality and, in particular, the postulate that the transference involves a repetition of the past. Shentoub views Viderman's approach as pessimistic and skeptical. Viderman seems to suggest that psychic reality is inaccessible and, like Kant's noumenal world, cannot be known in itself.