Loewenstein (1992) employs Lacan's rereading of the Dora case to argue that psychoanalytic life histories are multivocal, dialectical, and nonpositivistic. However, she neither acknowledges the problematic, but persistent, ties of psychoanalysis to positivism nor makes explicit important philosophical differences between Freud's and her own hermeneutical view. These deficiencies weaken her argument which thus does not provide sufficient grounds for rejecting Spence's view that Freud's case-reporting style is consistent with the Sherlock Holmes detective story genre.