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Although there frequently seems to be little conscious awareness of the fact, most psychoanalytic papers are presentations of research materials. They consist largely of (a) a hypothesis that a certain viewpoint is or is not true; (b) evidence from the author's analytic practice which tends to sustain or deny the hypothesis; and (c) conclusions based on the observed evidence. In broad outline, therefore, analytic papers are somewhat analogous to the papers of physicists, biologists, experimental psychologists, and other researchers who, on the basis of observed evidence, draw deductions in favor of or against a stipulated hypothesis.
There are, however, at least two important ways in which analytic research tends to differ significantly from most other scientific research. In the first place, the analyst's hypothesis frequently arises after his investigation is already under way: after, that is to say, he has already had a good many analytic sessions with the subjects of his research. In the second place, the analyst rarely controls the variables or the conditions of his research experiment. His subjects are generally his own clients; he uses one method of approach to all of them; and he presents his data largely in the form of verbatim or summarized case histories. Neither of these usual conditions of analytic research are, however, inevitable. Analytic researchers are increasingly beginning with distinctive hypotheses, and using a controlled experimental approach in the testing of these hypotheses. Moreover, the case history technique is sometimes supplemented by all kinds of objective tests and physical apparatus.
If, then, there is no necessary difference between analytic and other scientific research; and if many analysts—as well they might—are increasingly applying the techniques of controlled experimentation to their researches; it would seem important to inquire just what is the present status of psychoanalytic research publication, and how it may possibly be