Prologue

This issue of psychoanalytic inquiry is devoted to the methodology of psychoanalytic research. Together the papers illuminate some of the most vital issues confronting contemporary psychoanalysis: the relationship of psychoanalysis to modern science, the efficacy of psychoanalytic practice, and the continued development of psychoanalysis as a viable theory and treatment modality.

Three-quarters of a century ago Freud set forth the relationship between treatment and research as an inseparable bond. “In psycho-analysis there has existed from the very first an inseparable bond between cure and research. Knowledge brought therapeutic success. It was impossible to treat a patient without learning something new; it was impossible to gain fresh insight without perceiving its beneficial results. Our analytic procedure is the only one in which this precious conjunction is assured. It is only by carrying on our analytic pastoral work that we can deepen our dawning comprehension on the human mind. This prospect of scientific gain has been the proudest and happiest feature of analytic work (1927, p. 256).

Freud argued that the methodology of psychoanalytic research is identical to that of the physical sciences. At that time the canons of science were based upon logical positivism—the investigation of a fixed external reality devoid of subjective experience that could be completely understood. Because of the narrowness of logical positivism, it was impossible to develop a methodology for psychoanalytic research compatible with the physical sciences.