Psychoanalysis as functionalist social science: the legacy of Freud's 'Project for a scientific psychology'.

Full Abstract

The paper links Freud's early work in the 'Project for a scientific psychology' with the psychoanalytic psychology of Kleinian object relations theory now current. Freud is often accused of introducing mechanism into his psychology and installing at its core an irreconcilable dichotomy of two disparate ways of explaining human behaviour. I suggest that Freud's early mechanistic thinking is an attempt at what he only partly achieves, a functional account of the 'mental apparatus'. I consider whether this way of conceptualising the mind in functional terms is methodologically relevant to psychoanalytic investigation or whether it is at best heuristically useful. From a brief consideration of Kleinian object relations theory, illustrated by case material, I conclude that there are grounds for accepting the first of these alternatives.

Author information

Author/s: Braddock, L E (LE);

Affiliation: Girton College, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0JG, UK. leb41(-atsign-)cam.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Biography; Case Reports; Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences (Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Sep; vol 37 (issue 3) : pp 394-413

Dates: Created 2006/09/18; Completed 2007/02/01;

PMID: 16980185, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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