On the possibility of establishing a metascientific foundation for psychoanalysis
pp. 59-98
in: Leendert Mos (ed), Annals of theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1986Abstract
Psychoanalysis cannot fulfill the demands of testability as required by the natural sciences. Nevertheless one should not dismiss it as a pseudoscience. In this essay a metascientific basis is established which will do justice to psychoanalysis. In support of Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, an explication of hermeneutical science and a presentation of psychoanalysis as a practical-hermeneutical science are attempted. Psychoanalysis is thereby designated as a method of interpretation and integration of human spontaneous behavior. As a scientific theory, it elucidates an inner dialogue between the conscious ideations and the unconscious impulses or behavior tendencies in the human being. Its hypotheses are hermeneutical rules which are to be used by a metainterpreter, the therapist.
