In fairness to Freud: A critical notice of The Foundations of Psychoanalysis, by Adolf Grünbaum

Abstract

A dolf Grhnbaum's provocative book, The Foundations of Psychoanalysis,' was quickly accorded an impressive reception. His earlier critical pieces on the subject caused a stir among their audiences, audiences which included philosophers, psychoanalysts, and other interested persons. As was expected, some of the pieces were incorporated in the book; indeed, because of them, its appearance had been anticipated with feelings that ranged from glee to dismay. Neither of those extreme feelings, however, has obtruded on the respectful tone of most of the book's wide notice. There are several reasons for that tone. Among them is Grtinbaum's familiarity with important phases of Freud's work, especially those leading up to the public inception of psychoanalysis at the beginning of the century. Grunbaum's book also displays an acquaintance with a variety of Freud's later writings and with postFreudian psychoanalytic developments. In addition it furnishes a compendium of the criticisms Freud's thought has evoked. Also, for interesting but disproportionate measure, a third of the book indicts hermeneutic construals of Freud, notably those of Habermas and Ricoeur. Finally, but surely not least, Grunbaum brings to those topics and related ones a rare discursive and polemical tirelessness. The visible signs of the impact of Grunbaum's writings about psychoanalysis include the following. In 1984, when his book appeared, there also came out, as if to accompany it, a volume by a well-known psychiatrist (see note 16 below) which answers some of the charges against analytic therapy that Grunbaum stated in his earlier pieces and again in his book. In 1985 Grunbaum gave the Gifford Lectures; they were advertised as an outgrowth of The Foundations of Psychoanalysis. The June 1986 issue of The Behavioral