Hermeneutics versus science in psychoanalysis: A rigorous humanistic view.

Abstract

Many scholars who are interested in psychoanalytic theory would agree that for a number of reasons psychoanalysis is currently a "theory in crisis," as Edelson (1988) recently noted. One aspect of this crisis centers around the clash of opinions as to whether as a body of theory and practice psychoanalysis is amenable to scientific validation in the traditional sense or whether it is primarily a hermeneutic enterprise and hence more akin to such humanities disciplines as literary criticism and history. If the latter were so, psychoanalysis would presumably be outside the domain of natural-science inquiry. I believe that this controversy stems in part from a lack of clarity about some underlying philosophical issues which are not sufficiently articulated in this disagreement. Illuminating these issues might help to bring closer what seem to be quite disparate positions. In this article I propose that one broadly conceived humanistic approach to psychology (Rychlak, 1988) provides a set of conceptual tools for such a resolution.Requests for reprints should be sent to Adelbert H. Jenkins,