psychoanalysis
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Does psychoanalysis reveal the causes of human action or does it provide insights into why we do what we do?
As a scientist, Freud’s aim was to identify the causes of mental illness and, more broadly, the causal processes underlying all mental phenomena. The evidence he gathered came primarily from what his patients told him, but also from his own experiences and from myth and literature. This is not the sort of material from which Continue reading
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The Mad World of Melanie Klein (Part 2)
Klein started with the traditional idea of Subject meets Object, but she developed this idea very differently from philosophers, ending up making many strange, mad-sounding claims. Post-Kleinians used the flexibility of her framework to develop all sorts of new ideas, some of which seem at least as mad, if not madder. One of Klein’s early Continue reading
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Does it make sense to attribute complex thoughts and feelings to babies?
Psychoanalysts often attribute complex thoughts and feelings to babies, but since babies cannot speak and have a limited behavioural repertoire (compared to children and adults), this seems ridiculous. This objection resonates strongly with Wittgensteinians, who emphasise that inner processes stand in need of outward criteria. They may also note that Wittgenstein himself called into question Continue reading
Wittgenstein and Freud 