Because of his limited brief, I find Grünbaum's arguments attacking the validity of clinical data for the purpose of testing theory to be superficial, a more interesting question being why his pieces have had the impact they have had. I suggest that a widespread uncritical acceptance of the ideology of science, a set of social representations of scientific practice, known in these debates as positivism, has placed psychoanalysis on the defensive, making it difficult to assert the independence, interest, and value of clinical experience.