Why Psychoanalysis Must not Discard Science and Human Nature

Abstract

This paper's main thesis is that Irwin Z. Hoffman's thesis that psychoanalysis must choose between its worldview and quantitative scientific research creates a misleading dichotomy. First, because scientific research is not in itself a worldview but a means to ascertain empirical claims, and to the extent that psychoanalysis has such claims, they need to be ascertained scientifically. Second, the dichotomy is misleading, because there is nothing in science per se that contradicts the psychoanalytic ethos of exploring the self's complexity and helping patients to become more autonomous and lead fuller and richer lives. Finally, the paper calls for a deepening of the dialogue between psychoanalysis and the evolving paradigm of the cognitive neurosciences that has, in many ways, inherited Freud's original program of an evolutionary science of human nature. Such dialogue will enrich both psychoanalysis and this paradigm, and taking into account the findings of biologically based investigation of the human psyche will not dilute the psychoanalytic ethos.